Night by Sami Eri lake
Darkness in jungle gives endless imaginations mostly unwanted and less enjoyable ones. Sitting on a safe hideout that I presumed in day light started turning to an unsafe feel with every minute passing slowly. I was anxiously waiting for the moon to come out of the sky above me that was totally dark and making it a less interesting ambience around me. Time passed from seconds to minutes and then to hours, but there was no sign of moon or even stars in the sky. The fireflies moving around were the only ones that gave me good feel of some thing i could trust upon. Such was the uncomfortable anxious moments set by the darkness in jungle and not even in my wild imagination, I expected to rely on a light from fireflies to see the things around.
Sami Eri lake is in Aiyur reserve forest region which has a forest department watch tower to its north by few hundred metres. The lake originally called swami yeri (god on bund), over period of time must have got the simplified name as Sami Eri as an adjustment to the local dialect. I could not get the name of God that was in stone form with kumkum, oil rubbed on it and kept inside simple three stones support and the local population believes that god is safeguarding them against possible wildlife damages and ghat section road accidents. The bus and other commutation vehicle that belong to the local population stop here and perform Pooja before crossing this section for the first time on that day. Beautiful forest guest house built in the year 1907 still stands strong completing century of its existence in the midst of forest department developed tourism facilities along with a range forest office and other quarters. The old forest bungalow has lost its charm due to disturbance by newly constructed neighbouring buildings and has witnessed the changes to the forest habitat from last century.
Kenneth Anderson stories was the main reason for me to explore this place few years back, since then I fell in love with the beauty of the forest around and have been a regular visitor of this place. Kenneth Anderson has written extensively on this region and some of his stories such as 'Sher Khan and Bettamugalam Maneater' , 'The Novice of Manchi', 'A night in Spider Valley' and 'Ghooming at dawn' brought me to the edge of the seat while reading them.
Now coming back to the night out planned on lake bed of Sami Eri along with my friends Mallikarjun and Niranjan, we had tents pitched on top of forest watch tower and two guards namely Muniraju, good cook and Senthil, forest department anti poaching watcher who hails from Kempekere village accompanied us. The senior forest guard warned us on parking my Mahindra silver color vehicle close to Sami Eri north bed as elephants and bison may damage it looking at the bright colour of it, despite the warning I took the risk and parked there instead of walking 4 kms from forest bungalow to Sami Eri and running the risk of meeting a solitary bull or bear. Rest of the story goes as described below.
Kenneth Anderson stories was the main reason for me to explore this place few years back, since then I fell in love with the beauty of the forest around and have been a regular visitor of this place. Kenneth Anderson has written extensively on this region and some of his stories such as 'Sher Khan and Bettamugalam Maneater' , 'The Novice of Manchi', 'A night in Spider Valley' and 'Ghooming at dawn' brought me to the edge of the seat while reading them.
Now coming back to the night out planned on lake bed of Sami Eri along with my friends Mallikarjun and Niranjan, we had tents pitched on top of forest watch tower and two guards namely Muniraju, good cook and Senthil, forest department anti poaching watcher who hails from Kempekere village accompanied us. The senior forest guard warned us on parking my Mahindra silver color vehicle close to Sami Eri north bed as elephants and bison may damage it looking at the bright colour of it, despite the warning I took the risk and parked there instead of walking 4 kms from forest bungalow to Sami Eri and running the risk of meeting a solitary bull or bear. Rest of the story goes as described below.
Finally moon raised out of Bettamugullam hill clad above the lake bed and changed the ambience of it into a different place which for a moment made me feel as if the moon gave life to every object in the vicinity. Silhouette of the surrounding hills, trees and every object around added new meaning to the place giving wide space for creatures that may be present in them. Even in my dreams, I never felt I could use binoculars to view forest at night, but the full moon light was so bright that I could see everything so clearly as if it was dawn or dusk and made me feel the power of light that comes on a full moon day!!
Sadly I belong to the generation which do not consider animals other than the elephants, tigers, Bison, deers, leopards and bears belong to the Jungle which they live in. Very difficult to make one understand the lovely thrill that every living creature sets in the Jungle ambience at night or broad daylight. The Jungle rat for example would climb the tree and the night jar or a fish owl that would be patiencly waiting for such a prey from a distance would catch and fly away with it which is no lesser thrill compared to bigger predators hunting its prey.
The same forest that did not contain any fear factor during day would change one's perspective at night and think twice even to get out of the place and answer nature's call at a few feet distance away, such is the thrill jungle provides at night or to some extent even at dawn and dusk.
There was the group of wild boars that where hiding on the bush at some feet from the edge of lake bed, anxiously waiting to drink water and at the same time keeping an eye on possible predators around. I was wondering what would be number of wild boars in the group and surprised to see pack consisting of more than ten and size varying from young ones to very big ones. Suddenly one of the pack members noticed me watching at them and both of us became alert in split second to safeguard against eachother. Next thing I did was to locate my hiking pole that could be used as a defence but wild boars pack made it easy by running away in opposite direction. I kept on wondering what could have made this tough creatures in pack unnerve so fast and accept defeat in front of a helpless human like me. After sometime I felt, it was an easy decision for them to move away from unwanted thing like me rather than getting into action, that's a surviving strategy of jungle which could very well apply to the humans in maintaining peace and harmony in the society we live.
There was a jackal that crossed from game path on one side of road to the other side around one or two kms away from the forest rest house towards lake during evening hours. Now a jackal cry was heard from Bettamugullam hill slopes on the east side and I wonder whether it was the same jackal that I encountered in the evening or a different one. Shortly, the silence broke when I heard another jackal cry from opposite side on toluva betta hill slopes, they must be a pair enjoying the full moon light and making a scream to express the eagerness to meet eachother.
The time was endless at night and imagination ranged from tigers narrated in KA stories around this place in the history to small creatures like ants, spiders, chameleon which i had seen during daylight. Forest guards mentioned there are no more tigers in this place and leopards are the main predators around, but I always wondered how they can be so sure as this place forms the continuous range to the tiger reserves on south side of Cauvery river and this place has decent population of bison, deer and semi forest cattle around. Imagination of encountering a possible tiger always crossed in my mind, but the feel never brought fear compared to encountering an elephant.
The bamboo clumps around were very high and made a strange sound resembling the door opening in a horror movie was a problematic at night. It always made me feel that a pachyderm must be breaking it and proceeding in my direction. There were no rogues declared in this area as told by forest staff, but still facing an elephant in the dark would be serious affair considering the variations in temperaments these gaints possess.
There were some ants around in the evening but I could not see them anymore now. I was thinking, what would they do at night, how would they sleep etc. It may sound childish at daylight, but in reality that was the variety of things flowing in mind when it's a long wait to see the early morning day light.
Senior forest officer who moves frequently at night to ensure anti poaching measures, came across a bear with cub at very close distance to the lake few days back. Forest guard had filled my mind with possible encounter of it in the night and asked us to be careful as they tend to get better vision and attack on a full moon night. There was continuous movement in a lantena bush to the left and my mind got fixed that it was a bear as it was too much disturbance observed. I tried to remain absolute motionless so that bear might not feel unwanted presence of mine. Suddenly the movement stopped and there was long suspense when it might show up. The thrill receded as the time went on and I hoped whatever it was must have long gone back. Later in the morning, when I inspected that spot, I found fallen porcupine quills around and I feel this must be the reason for whole drama in the lantena bush which I could not notice in semi shadow of night.
Senthil, the forest watcher mentioned that bison was recently shot on valley floor bed, same place which is mentioned as spider valley by KA in his books. Then on, I had a feel that it must be same bison which was seen during our previous visit to this place was shot dead. I wonder what on earth would make someone kill these harmless creatures as their meat is not consumed by humans nor there is any thrill in chasing them to kill. Poaching is a serious issue to the wildlife in this region as sambar and Chital deer dried meat would fetch Rs 1500 to Rs 2000 once sold at Pennagaram, Dharmapuri and other places.
Once the sunrise filled horizon, we walked around the Sami Eri lake to witness the whole story of the night written on forest floor in the form of pug marks, scat and other leftovers. The game path that led to the lake bed from forest cover still provided thrill to cross the as we had seen movement through it at night. Died and fallen bamboo posed difficulty to circumvent lake but could not stop our enthusiasm to move around.
We reached back Aiyur forest rest house with warm welcome by peocock moans and greetings from ever friendly similing faces of staff. Now it's a nice and unforgettable feeling to sit on the cane chair put in front of Dorai bungalow of Aiyur to remember the whole episode of night, putting it to words while sipping the tasty 'suttu coffee' consisting of decoction and jaggery.
Sadly I belong to the generation which do not consider animals other than the elephants, tigers, Bison, deers, leopards and bears belong to the Jungle which they live in. Very difficult to make one understand the lovely thrill that every living creature sets in the Jungle ambience at night or broad daylight. The Jungle rat for example would climb the tree and the night jar or a fish owl that would be patiencly waiting for such a prey from a distance would catch and fly away with it which is no lesser thrill compared to bigger predators hunting its prey.
The same forest that did not contain any fear factor during day would change one's perspective at night and think twice even to get out of the place and answer nature's call at a few feet distance away, such is the thrill jungle provides at night or to some extent even at dawn and dusk.
There was the group of wild boars that where hiding on the bush at some feet from the edge of lake bed, anxiously waiting to drink water and at the same time keeping an eye on possible predators around. I was wondering what would be number of wild boars in the group and surprised to see pack consisting of more than ten and size varying from young ones to very big ones. Suddenly one of the pack members noticed me watching at them and both of us became alert in split second to safeguard against eachother. Next thing I did was to locate my hiking pole that could be used as a defence but wild boars pack made it easy by running away in opposite direction. I kept on wondering what could have made this tough creatures in pack unnerve so fast and accept defeat in front of a helpless human like me. After sometime I felt, it was an easy decision for them to move away from unwanted thing like me rather than getting into action, that's a surviving strategy of jungle which could very well apply to the humans in maintaining peace and harmony in the society we live.
There was a jackal that crossed from game path on one side of road to the other side around one or two kms away from the forest rest house towards lake during evening hours. Now a jackal cry was heard from Bettamugullam hill slopes on the east side and I wonder whether it was the same jackal that I encountered in the evening or a different one. Shortly, the silence broke when I heard another jackal cry from opposite side on toluva betta hill slopes, they must be a pair enjoying the full moon light and making a scream to express the eagerness to meet eachother.
The time was endless at night and imagination ranged from tigers narrated in KA stories around this place in the history to small creatures like ants, spiders, chameleon which i had seen during daylight. Forest guards mentioned there are no more tigers in this place and leopards are the main predators around, but I always wondered how they can be so sure as this place forms the continuous range to the tiger reserves on south side of Cauvery river and this place has decent population of bison, deer and semi forest cattle around. Imagination of encountering a possible tiger always crossed in my mind, but the feel never brought fear compared to encountering an elephant.
The bamboo clumps around were very high and made a strange sound resembling the door opening in a horror movie was a problematic at night. It always made me feel that a pachyderm must be breaking it and proceeding in my direction. There were no rogues declared in this area as told by forest staff, but still facing an elephant in the dark would be serious affair considering the variations in temperaments these gaints possess.
There were some ants around in the evening but I could not see them anymore now. I was thinking, what would they do at night, how would they sleep etc. It may sound childish at daylight, but in reality that was the variety of things flowing in mind when it's a long wait to see the early morning day light.
Senior forest officer who moves frequently at night to ensure anti poaching measures, came across a bear with cub at very close distance to the lake few days back. Forest guard had filled my mind with possible encounter of it in the night and asked us to be careful as they tend to get better vision and attack on a full moon night. There was continuous movement in a lantena bush to the left and my mind got fixed that it was a bear as it was too much disturbance observed. I tried to remain absolute motionless so that bear might not feel unwanted presence of mine. Suddenly the movement stopped and there was long suspense when it might show up. The thrill receded as the time went on and I hoped whatever it was must have long gone back. Later in the morning, when I inspected that spot, I found fallen porcupine quills around and I feel this must be the reason for whole drama in the lantena bush which I could not notice in semi shadow of night.
Senthil, the forest watcher mentioned that bison was recently shot on valley floor bed, same place which is mentioned as spider valley by KA in his books. Then on, I had a feel that it must be same bison which was seen during our previous visit to this place was shot dead. I wonder what on earth would make someone kill these harmless creatures as their meat is not consumed by humans nor there is any thrill in chasing them to kill. Poaching is a serious issue to the wildlife in this region as sambar and Chital deer dried meat would fetch Rs 1500 to Rs 2000 once sold at Pennagaram, Dharmapuri and other places.
Once the sunrise filled horizon, we walked around the Sami Eri lake to witness the whole story of the night written on forest floor in the form of pug marks, scat and other leftovers. The game path that led to the lake bed from forest cover still provided thrill to cross the as we had seen movement through it at night. Died and fallen bamboo posed difficulty to circumvent lake but could not stop our enthusiasm to move around.
We reached back Aiyur forest rest house with warm welcome by peocock moans and greetings from ever friendly similing faces of staff. Now it's a nice and unforgettable feeling to sit on the cane chair put in front of Dorai bungalow of Aiyur to remember the whole episode of night, putting it to words while sipping the tasty 'suttu coffee' consisting of decoction and jaggery.
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