Murti Part-4 - Dooars - Beautiful Colours of West Bengal - Destination East - Incredible India

  Murti Part-4

It is a fine morning at Murti. We are not very early to get up today. Argha and Soumya still enjoying the winter morning under the blanket while closing their eyes. Sun has risen in the horizon already. Fog is getting clear. The morning tea is already served in our room. I am now standing outside the room with Soumendu. We are slowly sipping the tea and relishing the morning.

We are now having a leisurely stroll inside the resort compound. The morning seems very fresh and shiny. Soumendu is carrying his camera and so taking some snaps of the place. There is a dog enjoying the morning sun peacefully. I have come near the dog and expressing my solidarity with it. Soumendu is afraid of dogs. So he is standing at a distance from the dog. He is now taking a picture of me with the dog. 

A pathway inside the resort compound

We have now come out of the resort area. Now we are walking towards the bridge on the river Murti. We can see some people are commuting by bicycle or walking. Yesterday night it was a different experience.

We have now reached at the river bank. The river looks splendid in the daylight. After spending some time on the bridge we are now planning to walk on the river bed.

We are now walking on the river bed. We are wearing Hawai Chappals (slippers made of rubber). So we are walking inside the water putting them on. The water is very cold. After spending some time walking inside the water, my feet are getting frozen. Hence I am now standing on dry pebbles.

The river Murti in the shiny morning

Soumendu is taking photographs of the river and its surroundings. I am wondering how we were thrilled last night looking at the jungle on the other side of the river. It was an adventure on yesterday night. It is a leisure walk and relaxation in today morning.

Soumendu is taking a photo of me keeping the bridge in the backdrop. Now its my turn to be the photographer. So we have interchanged our positions and I am clicking the shutter. I am feeling happy with the click and so clicking for one more time but from different angle. ;)

Soumendu enjoying the flowing water

We have now walked through the riverbed quite some distance from the bridge. We have walked upstream of the river. Here we can see a metaled road on our left side (Murti villlage side) along the river. Here it is difficult to get up from the river bed as the guard wall is high and steep. So we are now going back towards the bridge.

We are now back on the road and returning to the resort. There are some dogs quarreling among themselves making high volume barks. This time Soumendu is not the only one who is afraid of the dogs.

We are now back into the resort. Other tourist groups are returning after jungle safaris in the morning. Probably most of them are coming from Gorumara National Park. We are quite saturated with the jungle safaris that we did on yesterday. So, we have skipped it for today. We have kept today's morning for relaxation. But it will not be a lazy day after all. We will move to another place after visiting few more places on this tourist circuit.

We are now inside our cottage. Soumya and Argha have got up now. We are taking bath one by one. The bathroom is quite big, probably of size 10 feet by 10 feet. The floor is made of white tiles and the walls are also white. So are the objects inside the bathroom. They are seemed newly installed and looks nice. While someone is taking bath the other persons are packing their bags. The walls of the bedroom are also white. We are standing in front of a clear wall one by one and taking photographs. We are in the making of white background passport sized photos. ;)

We have completed our breakfast and we all are ready for the next part of the trip. 
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Murti Part-3 - Dooars - Beautiful Colours of West Bengal - Destination East - Incredible India

Murti Part-3

In this winter evening we are sitting inside the room at Resort Murti. Our general conversations are going on. We are very happy to be in this gigantic (comparing to general cottages) and nice room. Soumya is telling us about a brilliant idea that has come to his mind (thanks to the egg pakoras! If you are wondering why, please read the first post on Murti). The idea is on some kind of utilization of this long open space inside this big room. Seeing Soumendu's expression about this idea on his face, Soumya quickly has changed his words to give the idea a new meaning. ;)

Our dinner is ready. We have come out of the room. There are three rooms in a row under the same shade. We are staying in the room in the middle. In front of our cottage some distance away is the dinning place. The dining place looks very nice. Its a place under a big shade with knee height boundary walls. That means all sides are open. Its a winter night and you can feel the chill sitting here. But we are getting accustomed with the chill. Our dinner is being served.

We are staying in the room in the middle

We have finished our dinner. We are now having a nice slow walk inside the resort compound. Some men from the other tourist groups are also doing so. We have joined them and have started conversations. We are planning to go outside the resort and have a stroll there. 

We are walking on the road outside the resort. There is no street light here. I am feeling an urge to go to the bridge on the river Murti. I am placing the proposal to others and Soumya got very much interested. Other people are also interested. The road is dark so somebody from us has gone into the resort to take a torch. I am feeling excited to go to the river in the night.

We are now walking towards the bridge. In the resort, we have heard that two wild elephants were present under the bridge last night. So we are thrilled. Argha probably is a bit nervous and hesitating to go there. I am trying to convince him. Seeing the eagerness and excitement in me, he is now following us. I am walking with Soumya in front. Argha and Soumendu is just behind us. The rest of the team is also coming with us.

We are walking towards the bridge on river Murti

We have now reached on the bank of the river. A vast open space is in front of us - the river bed. It is a moonlit night. We can see the riverbed - the pebbles and flowing water in the moonlight. Soumendu is trying to capture the riverbed in his camera only using the moonlight. But the camera is nothing if compared to the human eyes. Now the person having the torch switched on it and Soumendu clicked a picture of the riverbed.

The river Murti in the torchlight

We are now standing on the bridge on the river Murti. The water is flowing under the bridge and making a nice sound. Standing here, in the moonlight we can see the river coming from a distant place and going far away. We all are watching silently. The sweet sound of the flowing shallow river is making the experience mystical. We can see the jungle on the other side of the river. I am thinking if a leopard comes running from the other side of the bridge then what will happen. I am thrilled. We are depending on our faith that elephants do not board on bridges. It feels so much adventurous standing here while enjoying the enormous beauty of nature through our eyes and ears  and feeling the cool bridge through our skins. I am thanking the mother nature for providing the opportunity to have this great experience of my life.
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Murti Part-2 - Dooars - Beautiful Colours of West Bengal - Destination East - Incredible India

Murti Part-2

It is a winter evening. We are sitting inside the cottage at Resort Murti. We four people have finished two plates of the egg pakoras as the evening snack (If you are interested about the pakora distribution plan and how much it deviated during execution, please read my previous post). We have given order for the dinner. We have ordered rice, dal (dish made from lentils), mixed vegetables and fish.

We have come out of the cottage to look around the resort. Its a big resort and there are many cottages all around. Pathways covered with small sand stones are connecting them. The resort looks neat and clean. Many decorative dustbins are placed at strategical positions. We are noticing many tourists are present in the resort. Almost all of them are family groups. At the center of the resort, there is an open ground covered with grasses. Here we can see a preparation is going on for a barbecue. Families are chit-chatting here and there. Their kids are playing nearby them. 

We can see some local men and women are present here wearing their traditional dresses. They also have some traditional musical instruments with them. So they have come to entertain the tourists. Since many tourists are present in the resort today, the resort probably has organized an traditional dance event to entertain the guests.

Now the dance event has started. Women are dancing and singing together. The men are playing the musical instruments. The rhythm is mild. The song is a traditional one to be sung by a choir. 

Next dance is going on now with chorus song. The rhythm is intense now. The men are also dancing while playing the musical instruments. The barbecue is also started. In the light of the barbecue the musical event has become mystic. Soumendu has fetched his camera from the room. He is capturing a video of this event by placing his camera on a chair.

The musical event

Now a lady from a family among the tourist groups has joined the dance. She is trying to follow the footsteps and match the rhythm. Seeing this some other ladies from the guests are also joining the dance group. Soumendu has captured clips of some dances performed so far. A whole chicken is nearly cooked in the barbecue. I am feeling a bit disheartened because we will not get any serving of the chicken.

After watching the dance performance we have returned to our room. We all four are sitting together and having some drinks. We are having some chit-chats. Soumya is now playing some songs in his mobile phone. These songs are the hits from the recent. We all are enjoying the songs played in light volume while continuing our discussions. Nope, we all are not enjoying the songs. Soumendu is making strong objection about the song selections. He is saying that this type of song should not be played in this kind of evening. He is now going to play some songs from his mobile phone, so Soumya has stopped playing songs from his mobile.

We are now listening to the songs that Soumendu is playing from his cell phone. These are the songs from sixty or seventy years back. Soumendu is saying that we should listen to this type of song in the current context that we are at present (in this tour). The inherent message to us like all good boys should listen to these kind of good songs only. He seems enjoying the song and singing with it. The rest of us are trying hard to be good boys. ;)
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Murti - Dooars - Beautiful Colours of West Bengal - Destination East - Incredible India

Murti

We have done with our Chilapata safari. Now we are heading to Murti. We have said goodbye to our Chilapata guide. Its a winter evening. Hasanur is driving fast. Old Hindi songs are getting played on the music system. We all are singing with it on familiar lines. Specially Argha is not stopping singing at all. He is enjoying the trip. We all are enjoying the trip.

Its a moonlit night. Otherwise it would be dark everywhere. There are some lights wherever markets or human habitations are present. Probably we are now taking a shortcut. This path is going through a dry river bed. The journey seems a bit long to me. 

 Road map from Chilapata to Murti

( I left the scale in geometry box long time back )

The place Murti is situated at the bank of river Murti. This place is located close to the Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuary and Gorumara National Park. We are currently going through the forest. Its dark inside. Hasanur has stopped the car on a small bridge. He is telling that elephants avoid bridges. So we have stopped on the bridge. All lights are turned off. We are sitting inside the car and all the windows are opened. We all are enjoying the beauty of jungle in the night. And we are enjoying it silently. 

Now we have crossed the jungle and moving on a bridge. The river Murti is flowing under the bridge making a nice sound. Our destination for tonight is on the other side of the river. I am feeling tired after this long car journey. 

We have reached at Resort Murti. We have booked a cottage here. I went with Soumya on a weekend to book all the accomodations from Kolkata. We first went to the office of West Bengal Forest Development Corporation Limited (WBFDC). There we could not get booking in the WBFDC cottages. All the WBFDC accommodations to our desired destinations were already booked. We were thinking about what to do. Then one employee of WBFDC informed us about a private travel agency who can make arrangements for our accommodation. We then walked for some time and reached at that travel agency. From there we have done the bookings.

At Murti, the resort we are staying is not far from the river Murti. The resort is spacious and nice. It seems newly built. The cottage we are staying is very big. The room has two big sized double beds. In between there is comfortable sitting arrangements with a nice center table. The bathroom is also very big. The floor and walls all are white and looks clean. We are very happy to see our accommodation.

There is a badminton court in front of our cottage. Soumendu is playing badminton there with some other tourists who are staying in the same resort. The rest of us are relaxing inside the room. We have ordered two plates of Egg Pakora and it has just reached. There are eight peaces of pakora in every plate. We are total four people. So there are four peaces per head. Its a winter evening and the pakora is hot. So no point of waiting to turn them cold. I am sharing a plate with Argha and we are having equal number of peaces. Soumya is goint to share his plate equally with Soumendu. But since Soumendu is playing badminton, Soumya is hitting a ton with the pakoras. And ultimately just one peace is left for Soumendu.

Now Soumendu has returned after playing badminton. He has attempted to catch fish from the badminton court. Thanks to his Woodland shoes. Now we all are sitting inside the room and having chats. Soumendu is eating that single peace of egg pakora after making a very soft complaint. 
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Chilapata - Dooars - Beautiful Colours of West Bengal - Destination East - Incredible India

Chilapata

We are now going to the Chilapata forest. It is located near Hasimara town. Chilapata means where little sunlight enters. So we can assume it is a dense forest. Geographically the Chilapata forest is the same part of forest that the Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary belongs to. The river Torsa has divided the forest into two parts. One side of the river is the Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary and the other side is known as the Chilapata forest. 

We have taken a guide with us. We are informed that taking a guide is mandatory to enter the forest. Our driver Hasanur seems very familiar to this area. I suppose he has given his service to numerous tourist groups to show the different Dooars forests. His home is also located in the Dooars area.

 Road map from Jaldapara to Chilapata

( Please don't judge by scale ;) )

The road condition is good. There are few local transports we have seen on the way. But they are very few in numbers. So the road is almost empty and our car is running fast and smooth.

We are now going through the Chilapata forest and we are moving a bit slower now. Our eyes are searching for the sight of wild animals. We are now taking a diversion from the main road and entering the jungle on our left side. 

We have covered a lot of distance in this forest. There are many places where we have seen signs of elephant movement. We have seen the guide to guess the timing of elephant movement judging the freshness of the signs. Our driver Hasanur is also seems very expert of understanding the forest. 

We have now come back to the main road and going to other part of the forest that is on the other side of this road. We are moving ahead silently. The condition of this car is very good. We can see Hasanur maintains it well. We reached to a place where a stream divides the road. A bridge is under construction so we cant cross the stream. We have stopped the car and have started a stroll. We are now crossing the bridge and going to the other side of the stream. This side is so dense that light is not reaching the ground. We are standing on the road and watching around. We can see the glowing sunlight on top of the trees but nothing can be seen near the ground. Its so much dark inside. And now we can feel why its called Chilapata. 

The under-construction bridge

We are spending some time here and clicking snaps of the jungle. Now we are going back to our car to take another road.

  

The stream disappears in the dense forest

Now we have taken a road which goes by the forest periphery. At the jungle side, we can see two peacocks are eating something from ground. We are a bit happy to see a wild animal at last. We have already covered many kilometers of distance inside the jungle. 

Now we have reached at the bank of the river Torsa. We have seen a cottage nearby. Sun is about to set and we are having a stroll on the road parallel to the river. Soumya is taking pictures of the orange sun. We are facing the river and the sun is hiding behind the jungle on the other side of the river. That is the Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary. And on our backside, its the dense Chilapata forest. It feels beautiful standing here at this time.

After sunset

We are having a stroll. Hey look! What is that coming from the river? It seems like a rhino! Yes it is indeed. Its covered with mud all over. The mud is dried completely and the rhino is looking whitish. It is approaching towards us! Oh it wants to go back in the jungle after a playful day on the river bank. We are standing right on its way to jungle. We are thrilled. We have come some distance away from our car. If the rhino charges we can not jump into our car. What we are gonna do then?

The rhino looking at the visitors who are standing on their own feet

We are standing still and watching the rhino silently with lot of excitement. The rhino is coming near to us. It has now stopped and watching us. Probably it has not seen us before. Now after seeing us it has stopped moving. After some time we are slowly moving to our car. 

We are now going inside of our car. By this time another car with full of tourists has arrived. Our guide is trying to communicate with the other car's guide about the presence of the rhino. But after being informed about the rhino, the other tourists has began making noise due to the excitement. Now Hasanur has started our car and we are beginning our return journey.
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Khairbari - Dooars - Beautiful Colours of West Bengal - Destination East - Incredible India

 Khairbari Tiger Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre

We are taking rest in the lodge at Madarihat which is located near the Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary entry gate. We have returned back to the lodge after a nice jungle safari with an amazing elephant riding experience. We have now completed our breakfast phase. Right! we have done the long jungle safari with empty stomach.

We have booked a car for the rest of the trip. Soumya has done the arrangement from Kolkata. The driver's name is Hasanur. He has drived from his home which is far from here. He was waiting outside the lodge with his car when we were returning from Jaldapara jungle safari.

We are now ready for the next journey. We are getting into the car. It is a Maruti Omni. Soumya is now sitting in the front seat. We are going towards South Khairbari. We are going to visit the animal rescue center there. 

We have taken a diversion from the main road after a half an hour drive. This path is narrow and going through a jungle. I am playing songs on my mobile phone. Its a Micromax X235 model. I am playing it on loudspeaker mode and the sound is nice. Now it playing the song "Labon ko Labon pe sajao". We all are having a nice time.

 Road Map from Jaldapara to Khairbari

( Please don't judge by scale ;) )

We have now reached at the Khairbari Tiger Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre. There are many people who has come to visit the centre. Probably they have come from nearby places for an outing. We are now going inside of the rehabilitation centre.

The animals which are rescued from nearby places or from other places in the North East India are kept here to rehabilitate. There are mainly leopards and tigers are kept here. Some of the animals are rescued from tea gardens or some from circuses. It is a nice initiative taken.

A leopard rescued from tea garden

There are many visitors for the animals. We can see many families with there kids. So this tiger rescue and rehabilitation centre is serving as local zoo for this people. Its a nice place for the kids.

Some Tigers are kept in cages. I was expecting them in bigger enclosures like the leopard in the above picture is enjoying. Probably there is reason behind this accommodation. The animals are seemed quite accustomed with the visitors.

A tiger in the rehabilitation centre

We are now returning from the Tiger Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre. Our car has reached to the main road now. We are feeling hungry. Now our immediate goal is to satisfy our hunger.

Hasanur has stopped the car at a roadside Dhaba. We have ordered Thali (a combo meal) for us. Here a Thali comes with rice by default. Not sure Roti (chapati) is available or not here. We are not interested either. Hasanur is sitting separately and ordered his meal. As per our contract we need not to bother about our driver's fooding and lodging. It is included in the overall fare for the hired vehicle.

We have completed our lunch and now returning to Madarihat. We know that there is a place called Totopara at some distance away from Jaldapara. Usually people who come to visit Jaldapara Wildlife Sanctuary also visit Totopara. It is a village which is home to the Toto tribe which is unique in the world. But we do not have the time to visit Totopara. So we are skipping this sightseeing.

We have now returned to the lodge. We are taking some rest now. After some time we will check out and start for our next part of the tour - Chilapata jungle safari. 
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Jaldapara Part-3 - Dooars - Beautiful Colours of West Bengal - Destination East - Incredible India

Jaldapara Part-3

We are now going deep inside the jungle. Here the trees are standing closer to each other. The mahaut is driving the elephant navigating through the jungle. He is being careful to choose the route not to hurt the passengers. He is moving away the tree branches so that we do not hit them. But still we are struggling to keep ourselves safe from the tree branches. There may be ant or other insects on these branches and may land on our bodies. I am watching my legs so that they don't get break or cut and moving them quickly as per the situation.

We are busy to keep the twigs away from our bodies

After a dense patch we can see a sparse patch. Again a dense patch in no time. After moving some time we have found the other elephant. We could not see it after crossing the stream. We are following it now. But again we are moving away in our own direction.

We have now reached to a grassland. Here we may have chance to have sight of rhino. After some time our mahaut has found a rhino and we are moving towards it. Yes we all can see it now. A big rhino is standing inside the long grasses. We have now reached near the rhino. The rhino is watching us. We are making a circle around it. The rhino has its horn broken. It is bleeding from some places at the backside too. The mahaut is informing us that this rhino was in a fight with another rhino. So it has got injured in that fight.

The wounded rhino

We all are excited to see the rhino. We are taking photos of it. We are making big circles around it. The elephant carrying the other tourist group has now come out of the jungle into the grassland. Our mahaut is informing the other mahaut about the presence of the rhino by some gestures. Now they are coming towards this rhino.

We are now moving away from the wounded rhino. After moving for some time we can see another big rhino standing still inside the grassland. Our mahaut is telling us that this is the rhino with whom the previous rhino was in fight. We are again making a circle around it. The rhino is watching us and it is getting angry. We are thrilled and afraid too. What if the rhino attacks us! This rhino is bigger and seems stronger too. It is healthier and it's horn is intact. There are some birds sitting on its back. The rhino is making a gesture like its going to attack our elephant but it restrained itself from doing so. But we are now moving away from it.

 The winner rhino

We have now come inside another patch of jungle. Our elephant is moving silently and so do we. There is a big Sambar deer in front of us! We have appeared suddenly in front of it. It is standing still. We are having an eye contact with it. It paused for some moment and then ran away somewhere.

We are now returning towards the starting point of our elephant ride. We are very happy for the animal sightings.

We have now come down from the elephant back. I am now standing in front of the elephant with Soumya. We both are touching the elephant's head. This is a female elephant. Her name is Madhumala. She is very gentle. We are now giving tips to the mahaut before parting. Madhumala is taking the note from Soumya's hand by her trunk and giving it to the mahaut.

Madhumala seems very gentle and kind to us

We are now returning to the Lodge at Madarihat by the same gypsy. We are very happy for this eventful and exciting morning.
Next part:  Khairbari Tiger Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre


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