The real netherworld

‘Zhili bili’, as SJ Gould substituted for the dull phrase ‘Once upon a time’, the grandmother of the lord Thunder wanted to change the course of the Someshwari river, now called the Simsang river and she picked up a huge boulder from an area notified now as the Balpakram National Park. She wanted to block the river and divert the waters to make the land fertile for agriculture. Tired as she was, she went on slowly when suddenly a cock crowed at an odd time and Thunder was awakened. In fear she deposited the boulder in what forms now the Chutmang peak and hurried away. Now the Garos say that the Chutmang peak is the exact shape of the valley upturned and have kept the story alive for many generations. The Garos believe that the spirits of the deceased pass by here. Both the pictures below are at the same scale on Google Earth. Does seem like a good fit!

Chutmang peak forms the north-western part of the Balpakram National Park which is spread over an area of about 300 sq. km. About three months earlier when I visited the peak, we found tiger pug marks close to the peak near a cave. The park is unique because the land was actually purchased from the communities by the Forest Department in an effort to protect the wildlife of the region. I had been working with the group ‘Samrakshan’ for about five months and was waiting for an opportunity to get to the park. Such a fortune knocked at my door when Dr. Kashmira, Dr. Christy Williams and Nandini Rajamani came by to Baghmara to do just the same. Christy had earlier done a study on elephants in the region a decade ago and was very excited to be there.

Nimesh from Samrakshan and the rest of us reached the Mahadeo guest house by 2 pm and later we went to the famous helipad within the national park, yes a helipad inaugurated by none other than the late Shri Rajiv Gandhi. From there we saw a mini grand canyon.

Christy told us that no one had explored the depths of the valley and I thought that for once I did see virgin forests in my life, so that’s a life not wasted! We returned to the Mahadeo camp and took a walk into the park in the evening and the first sighting that excited us was of a tusker that Christy claims he had seen earlier during his study. Here he is.

Later in the night we took another walk in the forest looking for nocturnal mammals and Nandini had promised us she would show us flying squirrels. But we walked for almost an hour and didn’t see any and we got back to the camp and dozed off into a pleasant sleep. Morning me and Nandini started our walk at 530 am and in the next 15 minutes spotted two Himalayan yellow-throated martens. It was a misty morning and photography was not an option. By the time I ran back to the camp and called Christy and Kashmira, the martens had scurried away, and we carried on our walk ahead looking for other mammals and birds.


Later in the day, Kashmira told us about hoolock gibbons, whom she had studied for her PhD. She told us that gibbons start calling late in the morning after they have fed for a while and she imitated the calls to perfection as well. Later in the day we saw a Malayan giant squirrel, up close since the guy was habituated to people and lived close to the forest department quarters.

In the evening we decided to get back since Kashmira and others had to leave the next day. But on the way we got off the vehicles and walked in the Baghmara Reserve Forest which is dominated by Sal trees. After walking for more than an hour looking for squirrels, we sighted a Slow Loris, it was my first sighting of the slow loris, so I was ecstatic.

So, for a trip that lasted only two days we had quite a few sightings! In fact it seems that the land where souls of people and not people per se reside does support a lot of wildlife!

The trip to zuko, zuko...

‘Have cool, will travel’, the Megadeth song title, was the motto of that trip in the year 2005. I will let images speak louder than words, but here is the general sequence of things…

Me and a friend from Manipur, Bobby and his friends met at Kohima in July 2005, to get to Dzukou valley. We spent an evening buying supplies, with the adventurous thought of living up in a cave in the valley. Apart from that, more importantly, we wanted to see the valley submerged in pink with the mass-flowering of the endemic lily, Lilium chitrangadae.



The trek begins from Jakhama (12 km away from Kohima). The walk to the valley took us through a gradient of disturbed evergreen forests; initially up heavily human-modified forests and later into rhododendron patches and then down to the valley that was relatively less disturbed. 'Bro', our friend who likes to be called so, told us we need to keep shouting "Juko juko" along the trek so we don't feel as tired!

Amateur trekkers that we were; the walk was indeed tiring and took us six hours, I think the valley is about 10 km, not counting the slope-effort from Jakhama. We reached, and lo the valley was breathtaking, take a look...Mount Iso from Manipur is hidden behind the clouds.

Once we saw the valley, everything was relaxed and it was as if we just switched into a zone where time stands still! We walked on and on looking for caves to stay. The ones nearby were all taken since July is the prime season when local young folks visit the valley too. Here and there small shrubs were in bloom some white, some yellow and most pink, for the lily was in bloom. Everybody we met seemed happy; it was as if in the tranquility of the valley everyone was at peace. We moved on and found a small cave, enough for the four of us and we parked. Here is the cave, more of a cavern, we booked for two days!

Next, we needed a bath, enough to override the fact that the water was chilling. We braved in and bliss drowned us. Thats bro and me, literally chilling out.

The night sky was decorated with a million stars and we saw three satellites moving together in a triangular shape, and we could hardly believe it was happening. Bro had taken some smoke before and we were wondering if we were affected too! We cooked noodles and in the small fire we made, bro dumped in the corn we bought. It was only then I realized that corn, when put into fire without peeling gets boiled and not roasted. We had forgotten chillies, but in the cave somebody had left behind salt, masala and chilles in a cover; serendipity. After the corn was ready, with the dao our local friend ‘Pashchata’ carried we cut in strips of corn into the maggi and it was a sumptuous meal.

Morning was full of walks along gentle meandering slopes around the valley. We did see the lily up close and it looks elegantly beautiful, check it out.

And in the undulated grassy slopes, Bobby was occasionally meditating; best place in the world for meditating.

We spent another two days in the valley, meeting and greeting people and occasionally grabbing a bath from the nearby dzukou river. The river freezes in winter and me and bobby promised ourselves we would be back some winter of our lives; that hasn’t happened yet. Whatever food and ingredients we could not finish, we left behind for the next set of people who would live in the cave, paying it forward.

On another note, here are some of the issues in the valley. 

• Most folks who visit the valley write their names on the rocks (see the cave picture). If there was a way to prevent this, the valley can retain its natural state.
• People dump plastic all over the valley which should be definitely prevented.
• The locals burn the rhododendrons and once the trees are leafless, call it dead wood and use the same for fuel wood. There must be something the local governing council or the Forest Department can do about this. Afterall there could be an alternative of less conservation value for fuelwood than rhododendrons.

Bobby and I realised we have something to give back to the valley, a campaign to follow up the above; hasn’t happened yet and these thoughts are indeed cached in our head and hearts somewhere and we will return to follow up on the cause.