12 June 2008

Trekking through the Hills


In May, I took two final trips during my current tour in India: first, a three-day trip to parts of Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park, in the hilly wooded areas along the Kerala/Tamil Nadu border, just south of Coimbatore. And second, a six-day trip into the Himalayan foothills in the region of West Bengal around Darjeeling. A search of Google maps of either of these places yields little information about any roads or towns, indicating how remote each place was, which was exactly my reason for going: despite long train rides or non-discount flights, three-hour hikes through nothing but forests and fields were a welcome reprieve from the crowded cities of creaking coastal infrastructure, and a balance against some of the stark impressions I've gotten of urban India.

At the risk of creating poor knock-offs of National Geographic articles, I will resist the temptation of describing every last detail of these trips, and try instead to give you highlights. As usual, the pictures usually speak for themselves.

Grasshills and Topslip



Although I just wanted get out of town to go hiking, my host (the serious photographer in the pictures, click here) and the local guides made sure that I learned a lot about a national park like those I used to read about in National Geographic. For me, it was also great to see that buzz words from those old articles--ecotourism, sustainability, anti-poaching--can be implemented without a lot of fanfare.

The first day was spent walking and driving past the tea plantations edging the park and going into and throughout the Grasshills, a windy plateau of grasslands, much cooler than the searing summer heat of the plains below. A wooded dell sometimes becomes large enough to be called a "shola", which can support its own entire ecosystems, including a wide range of large mammals.

The remaining two days were spent down in the thicker forested areas, high- and low-altitude rain forests and deciduous forests. Though my Tamil knowledge is poor, it was enough to kid around with my local trail guides, usually local guys who have lived up here all their lives and can effortlessly point out every bird, rodent, and animal dangling from the treetops. My success rate of photographing animals was very low, but click here for the wildlife photos that turned out. We saw several species of monkeys, birds, and deer, as well as large mammals such as Asian elephants (domestic and wild), snakes, dhol/whistling dogs, giant squirrels, gaur/bison, and a leopard lounging calmly by the side of the road at twilight. Even without seeing them, the cicadas were a constant presence, whirring loudly with varying songs from valley to valley.

Top of the World


Living in India for two years, even near the southern tip, I wanted to see the Himalayas up close before moving on. This third and final attempt to do so was very similar to my trip to Anamalais--mostly hikes lasting 3-4 hours and having a cottage or farmhouse as base camp--but markedly different in that much of the land isn't protected wildlife or forest reserve, so it's sprinkled with isolated villages and terraced farmland. Click here for the pictures. Because the area--outside Kalimpong, on and around the Samthar Plateau--is accessible mostly on cobblestone footpaths, the guides had to show me what was a field and what was not. For example, most farms are worked by hand and consist of only a few acres of tilled soil, but might include cultivation of other cash crops along wooded paths, such the spice cardamom and the scrubby bushes used to make brooms. Even if we hadn't seen a structure for miles, suddenly very small children in school uniforms would emerge from the side of the road, ready for classes.

Most villagers are Buddhists, and most homes had prayer flags, fluttering from the rooftops of the home or the separate kitchen huts. They also have the flag of the newest incarnation of the separatist movement for Gorkhaland. While it didn't affect my trip, they have been known to shut off the roads, and scare off the tourists.

I was visiting just before the rainy season, so unfortunately these pictures include no crystal clear images of Kanchenjunga or other snow-covered peaks, but when you're from Nebraska, just about every hill made out of rock counts as a mountain.

"Road" is also a broadly defined term in those parts, ranging from stone stair-step trails up the steep hillsides to wider cobblestone or gravel jeep trails. I preferred walking, but I can see why locals transporting manufactured goods in and crops out of the villages might prefer more roadbuilding by the state and central government authorities, as well as other local projects.

I rounded off the trip with a visit to the city of Darjeeling, where there are several pedestrian-only roads just for sitting and watching the mist roll over the hills in the evening. Since I hadn't spotted much animal wildlife (click here for the pictures of plants and animals) on the trail, the local zoo covered the gaps in my experience, and I spent a lot of time sipping tea and enjoying the cool weather.