Travel Feature

Exploring the North-East Frontier

This November 2012, me, my wife Uma, brother Kanak and friend Falguni set out to explore the north-eastern states, a region in India rarely attempted by most Indian travelers. This feature attempts to share the cultural heritage rarely observed, the beauty of our land and the wilderness that is fast denuding. Happy reading! 

Guwahati & Shillong

Guwahati, the Capital of Assam on the banks of the mighty Brahmaputra river, is as crowded a city as any other in India. But it is a base station if one wants to explore States like Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh. It is the awesomeness of Brahmaputra that takes the breath away. The cruise post-sunset with hot tea and onion pakoras, and seeing the moon rising over the river, the tone for our 13-day exploration journey was all set.

The Brahmaputra river after sunset

A Beautiful Moonrise over the River

On the Cruise Boat El Frescoe

The 3-hr drive to Shillong in Meghalaya also took away our breath – quite literally – as this only link to Shillong was under repairs! The relief was provided by local Pineapples on the road – yes, never before so sweet and juicy! 

Ward's Lake

The city itself is beautiful, green with Ward’s Lake providing the charm and serenity. As we drove onwards and higher towards Cherapunjee (remember the lessons in our schools?), it was sightseeing - the Shyllong Hill, and Tiger Falls and lastly, the stupendous valley scene at the Hanging Bridge point near Cherapunjee. On our return journey to Guwahati the next day, we explored the Lake Borapani en route and the resort nearby that we would recommend to friends later

Hanging bridge Point near Cherapunjee

Lake Borapani

Hornbill Festival 2012 

 Opulence of Colour, Sound and Pageantry

The tour itinerary was planned so as to include this internationally acclaimed festival in Kohima, Nagaland. We could be there for the grand opening ceremony on first day, and folk dances from representative tribes of all the states of the north-east on the second day. It was, as expected, a spellbinding experience for us. What was most magical were the nagamese choirs singing with perfection in between the tribal dances – the sounds, the multitude of colours, the throbbing beats of local percussion.  The beautiful venue on a hillside heritage village Kisama, which is about 12 km from Kohima, completed what was surely an emotionally charged experience.

The Festival is named after the Indian Hornbill, the large and colourful forest bird which is displayed in folklore in most of the state’s tribes. Highlights include the Traditional Naga Morungs Exhibition and sale of Arts and Crafts, Food Stalls, Herbal Medicine Stalls, Flower shows and sales, Cultural Medley - songs and dances, Fashion shows, Beauty Contest, Traditional Archery, Naga wrestling, Indigenous Games, and Musical concerts.

Organized by the Nagaland State Tourism and Art & Culture Department,Hornbill Festival showcases a mélange of cultural displays under one roof. This festival takes place between the 1st and the 7th of December every year. All the 16 tribes of Nagaland take part in this festival.The aim of the festival is to revive and protect the rich culture of Nagaland and display its extravaganza and traditions. For visitors, it means a closer understanding of the people and culture of Nagaland, and an opportunity to experience the food, songs, dances and customs of Nagaland.

The Hornbill Festival provides a colourful mixture of dances, performances, crafts, parades, games, sports, food fairs and religious ceremonies. The festival both exposes the culture and tradition of tribal peoples, and reinforces Nagaland’s identity as a unique state in India’s. Naga troupes sing folk songs, perform traditional dances and play indigenous games and sports. In the evenings, a programme of music concerts, catering for all tastes, ensure that the festive spirit continues through the night.

Heads, Feathers & Spears!

..and Innocence &Charm

International Sand Art Festival 
@ Konark Dance Festival - 2012

From the Hornbill Festival at Kohima, the ladies left for the Konark Dance Festival which, this time of the year (December), is another major international tourist attraction in Odisha. Side by side, there is this Sand Art Festival organised on the Chandrabhagha beach on the Bay of Bengal. Later, we all met at Kolkata for what was to be the grand finale to our exploratory tour of the frontier states of India.

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 Oh! Sunderbans

The Sundarbans is the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site covering parts of Bangladesh (81%) and the Indian state of West Bengal (19%). The Sundarbans National Park is a Biosphere Reserve located in the delta in the Indian state of West Bengal. The mangrove-dominated Ganges Delta is a complex ecosystem comprising one of the three largest single tracts of mangrove forests of the world. The Sundarban forest lies in the vast delta on the Bay of Bengal formed by the super confluence of the Padma, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers across southern Bangladesh. It is estimated to be about 4,110 km², of which about 1,700 km² is occupied by water bodies in the forms of rivers, canals and creeks of width varying from a few meters to several kilometers.

The Sundarbans is intersected by a complex network of tidal waterways, mudflats and small islands of salt-tolerant mangrove forests. The interconnected network of waterways makes almost every corner of the forest accessible by boat. The area is known for the  Royal Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris), as well as numerous fauna including species of birds, spotted deer, wild boars, salt-water crocodiles and snakes. The fertile soils of the delta have been subject to intensive human use for centuries, and the eco-region has been mostly converted to intensive agriculture, with few enclaves of forest remaining. Additionally, the Sundarbans serves a crucial function as a protective barrier for the millions of inhabitants in and around Khulna and Mongla against the floods that result from the cyclones. The Sundarbans has also been enlisted among the finalists in the New 7 Wonders of Nature.

It takes about three hours drive from Kolkata to reach the last land point from where terraced boats with cabins become your mode of transport for next three nights. Just relax on the chairs or mattresses and view the spectacle of mangrove ecosystem go by leisurely even as you munch on freshly cooked breakfast, nibble at the chocolates or...just snooze!

Our abode at the Eco Village

By lunch time, 15 of us including 8 foreigners, were at the Eco-village, our abode. Later, we walked through the village that has no roads, no electricity and only a few bicycles as individual possessions; we understood (contextually) the simple lifestyles of the communities not having any healthcare system and barely having some primary ‘schools’; we observed the rolling rice fields as we stumbled through the marvelous landscape.. It was the boating in flat dinghies around sunset that was full of excitement and thrill. One gets a unique sensation as one quietly skims the surface of water, silently and deep, very deep into the mangrove lined estuaries, the silence broken only by chirping mynnahs with an occasional Blue-capped Kingfisher swooping down for one last meal! In a way, this too is God’s own country!

Walk through the Village

The 2-hr dinghy ride at sunset time

While a sumptuous lunch with desserts was cooked on the boat, dinner at our abode was always accompanied by live folk music and folk dances lighted only by the kerosene lanterns; the starry nights were cold.

The day-long cruise on the second day was leisure at its best as the boat slowly chug-chugs along the meandering mud flats inside the Sunderbans sanctuary. All of us were scanning the shores on either side for the elusive 10-ft long Royal Bengal Tiger; some of us also watched the waters as this specie of tiger criss-crosses the channels, island to island, often swimming 6 km at a stretch! At one stop at a watch-tower on an island, one can amble about 600 meters on a raised, fenced walk right inside the sanctuary; however, our thrill was limited to seeing the tiger pug marks and some spotted deers.

Past Sunrise on the day-long delta cruise

The raised walk  500 mtrs into the sanctuary

At the water-hole

Pug marks..but no Tiger!

Great Food! Great Service..with a loving smile!

But one just can’t be disappointed, cannot afford to be a tiger-centric tourist at the cost of missing the opportunity for appreciation of God’s gift – the wilderness. The real charm of Sunderbans is in enjoying vast stretches of unending mangrove forests, its morphological beauty and, the eco-system itself that includes the simple human habitat and other flora and fauna.

For me, the real thrill was in visualizing - in a fast-forward, real time capsule in 3D with Dolby stereo surround sound - the rich, silt-laden, swirling flood waters of the mighty Indian rivers, clashing with the onslaught of the waves from the Bay of Bengal in the south, and then, the silt slowly settling down to form tiny islets and much later, large, forested islands – visualizing the miracle of how the huge delta must have evolved over millennia to create Sunderbans, one of the wonders of the world!

Beyt Dwarka - Drama in My Real Life!

Lost at Sea!

For its unique, residential Training Programme in Environment Education (TEE) at the Centre for Environment Education, Ahmedabad, and as its Programme Coordinator, I regularly organized varying ecosystem camps for our trainees; the objective was to learn outside a classroom, and through exposure to natural habitats with its human population, the ecology and socio-economics in such habitats – all of this towards what is known as experiential learning.

My favourite ‘laboratory’ was the marine camp on a sand bar, popularly known as Dhunny Point, situated at the end of an inverted coma shaped island of Beyt Dwarka, off the port of Okha on the western coast of Gujarat.

The sand bar gives one, a ring side view of the Marine National Park in the Gulf of Kachchh that is so richly endowed with a diversity of marine flora and fauna. To all of us nature lovers, there is no place on earth that can match this under-the-open-sky, and in-the-midst-of-nowhere, ‘multi-star’ camp site - with majestic views of both, sunrise and sunset. One never forgets the gentle sound of waves, often rolling into our jute-bag tents from both the beach fronts at midnight during full moon tides. There is a certain awe in exploring live corals during low tides, sighting dolphins, studying the stars and the planets, and experience some real peace and solitude - that indescribable feeling of being so close to Nature God.

Except that, one wintry night in December 1992, I came too perilously close!

I was at Dhunny leading a group of 13 post-graduates representing a cross-section of Indian states and the Commonwealth. I was being assisted by Natubha, my colleague and an experienced marine camper.

During low tide at Dhunny, one can just barely see with naked eye, the exposed tiny, sandy white top of Pagar islet on the eastern horizon. One afternoon post-lunch, and as was routine for the trainees each year, we boarded a hired fishing trawler rigged with a sail. Natubha was at the rudder with a few kharvas (local fishermen) as his helpers. With a collective whoop of excitement, we set sail for Pagar. For a decade that I continued to visit Pagar islet in winter, the opportunity of re-visiting Pagar never failed to fascinate me! I counted each visit as a blessing!

It was to be a routine one-hour trip to the islet, and at the next high tide due early evening that day, we were to start back for the base camp. All of us boys and girls were down to shorts and T-shirts. There was a jerry can of drinking water but no food, no life jackets, not even a boat engine for emergency. After all, this was always the routine. We shall be back by nightfall as usual – or so I thought!

The one-hour sail boat ride gave us several sightings of dolphins gamboling in the rising tide even as we watched out for the endangered Dugong. The salty but fresh air, the turbulence of the quickly rising waters in the narrowing Gulf, the excitement of seeing marine species and the anticipation of just being on Pagar always gave us the goose bumps – a critical indicator for sensitizing the youngsters about their natural surroundings, the marine environment in this case. This was certainly no time for any misgivings!

Marine Algae 

Pagar is a dot on the wide mouth of the Gulf of Kachchh that narrows eastwards, merging into the Little Rann of Kachchh. The power of quick flowing tides rolling  into the narrow Gulf of Kachchh and out back to the Arabian Sea, could be actually felt here. Jumping out of the trawler onto the cap of Pagar, is a rare, exhilarating experience that no one can forget. Just take a moment and imagine yourself standing on a white sandy top, not more than 100 sq ft, in the middle of ocean with curling waves washing your feet; and then, as the tide recedes, and within about 40 minutes, imagine the fast expanding visual of the vast island exposing the hidden treasure of corals and rare marine life! It is nature’s own theatre! Unknowingly however, the real drama was yet to unfold!!

Our boat was already anchored far away in deep waters to avoid grounding in a receding tide; soon it became a speckle, at the edge of the exposed two square kilometers of Pagar. We explored the island, observed different species of live corals, collected the algae (for making greeting cards), and noted the sea anemones, sea cucumbers, star fishes and crabs.

Brain Coral

Sea Anemone

Around 5 pm, the tired lot climbed into our tilted sail boat even as it creakingly started straightening upwards with the tide rolling in fast. There was just the hint of an unusually strong wind which Natubha assured me, was always associated with rising tide.

Of course, I know that, stupid! But isn’t the direction of wind against the sail for our return journey? And worse, it is changing all the time. What was not realized then was that it was a sign of an impending freak wind storm! And if Natubha knew, he didn’t tell us - either in his earthy wisdom or more likely, because of his usual over-confidence.

It was dusk when we managed to float out of Pagar, bound for the base camp at Dhunny Point, just an hour away! The expected arrival time was 7 pm; dusk gave way to darkness under a beautiful, star-embroidered charcoal sky but strong winds and buffeting of the boat kept our minds elsewhere. The crew kept changing the direction of the sail. I was looking for the reassuring beam of the lighthouse at Okha port on the western horizon but even at 9 pm, it was nowhere to be seen. Despite the whoosh of wind and the thrash of the waves, it was odd that I sensed an eerie silence on board.

We were wet, very cold and very, very hungry…and decidedly, lost at sea!

Both Natubha and I started telling anecdotes, cracking silly jokes to keep the trainees in good humour. He also started singing, trying to exude confidence but in the most unconvincing, clumsy manner; it was a brave effort to reassure us that all was well. The silence gave way to signs of panic among some girls who started praying; some were mumbling ‘Oh Ma’ or ‘Oh my God’; the group huddled together for warmth; one kharva brought out a smelly, salt eaten blanket, wrapping it around the entire group – well, almost! The tall gentleman from Zambia stood up and wobbled around looking for a non-existent shelter; he tried vainly to stuff himself under the narrow wooden seat ringing the boat, mumbling incoherently that he had phobia for seas. I was worried sick that he might actually jump into the sea out of sheer panic!

It was well past midnight and we were still in a stormy dark, probably heading out of the Gulf to the open Arabian Sea; if true, nothing would be worse than that, I thought. No one slept that night!

It was 2 am when the winds died down suddenly; the sail went limp for an hour or so before picking up once again. The ever-ebullient Natubha whispered to me that we were now in the right direction. Should I believe him? But then at 5 am, we saw the beam of the Okha port lighthouse in the west. To say that we were relieved is to make an understatement; if we were, it did not show - given the awe and shock of what we had just gone through, the excitement of exploring virgin seabed, followed by the freak of nature!

24 hours had gone by in the boat and it was breakfast time when I saw the most wonderful sight of my life – our jute tents on the sand bar! ‘Home sweet home’ may be a cliché but at that moment of our collective destiny, it made so much sense! As the sail boat glided silently towards the shore, a gentleman from Malta and me, out of sheer excitement of being alive, jumped from the boat and swam 100 yards to the shore.

Despite being a strict disciplinarian as a team leader, I had just broken a rule!

And who cares for the breakfast! We all disappeared into our tents and slept off the entire morning. At late lunch, the usual ho-hum of a clamour was missing; not a spoken word as heads down, we absentmindedly ate the food without really relishing it. I guess most of us were trying to understand what hit us, the statistical probability of some such thing happening to just a chosen few!

That evening, we silently departed from the island. The trainees were fighting emotions; some were crying unabashedly. It was once-in-a-lifetime experience, an adventure, a date with Nature that cannot, will ever be, replicated in our lifetime! And they knew.

And if this is Environment Education through the fiery process of learning through experience, so be it!