A short visit
to Rajaji National Park – Chilla range
A Golden backed woodpecker inside the TRH Chilla
We were struck up and could not
undertake any short trips due to certain difficulties in my home front. However, we got a short window of about a few
days and I had to plan for a destination that could be reached overnight or
across a day and after visiting the destination for a day, return back the next
day. After much research, I zeroed in on
Chilla range of Rajaji National Park. It
is situated in Haridwar District of Uttarakhand and is about 220 odd kilometres from Delhi and
further lies about 8 Kms. from the Hardwar Railway Station. The distance was doable within about five
hours and in case of any exigency I could rush back at home quickly. Being a reserve forest, it was an ideal
location for us, to be away from the hustle and bustle of city life for some
time. For the trip to fructify, the
foremost requirement was to identify a suitable place to stay at the location
and also to find out if any accommodation was still available. There are only two good boarding &
lodging arrangement within the precincts as well as periphery of the Park
vicinity i.e. the Forest Rest House and the other one is the Tourist Rest House
run by Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam Ltd. (GMVN for short). By luck I could source a family room in the
GMVN run facility, as the Forest Rest house was fully booked.
A map showing location of Rajaji National Park, Chilla (sourced from net)
The outer gate of TRH, Chilla
Inside wide-angle view of TRH, Chilla
View of water canal formed by the barrage behind TRH, Chilla
A Cormorant looking for fish in the canal behind TRH, Chilla
We
started in the morning at around 7.30 A.M, which was quite late by our
standards, considering the fact that whenever I visit my summer pad in
Ranikhet, we usually start at around 6.00 A.M sharp.But as the distance was about more than a 100
Kms. less and coupled with the fact that the present drive did not require any
hill driving, we were quite comfortably placed.The road from Delhi to Meerut was excellent, being newly constructed, by
using the bye-pass we were able to make quick progress upto Meerut.Thereafter, the road was again congested and
the journey, time consuming.Around
10.00 A.M we reached Muzzafar Nagar and had our first break for B’fast at
Bikanerwala, which is very conveniently placed, right on the highway, with
ample parking space.The restaurant
offers great food and there is a wide variety to choose from and the public
utilities are well maintained and is a most suitable spot to drop in for a
short break.Having, had our fill we
proceeded further and reached Haridwar after negotiating another bottleneck at
Roorkee.Having reached Haridwar, we
overshot the cut which led to the destination and instead manoeuvred our car
towards the barrage entry and were rightly guided back to take the cut from
road that leads towards Chandi Devi temple and we finally reached Chilla at
around 3.00 P.M.Thereafter, having made
ourselves comfortable in our rooms, we ordered some snacks and really enjoyed
them, the food per se was quite delicious in the GMVN run Tourist Rest
House.Having had our tea and snacks, it
was time to call up Viru Negi to check out about the next day’s safari booking
for visiting Rajaji National Park.Late
in the evening he turned up in his Jeep and after dropping his guests for the
day, we had tete a’ tete and I sought the afternoon safari for the next
day.During the period that I waited for
Viru Negi ji to make an appearance, I strolled along the canal formed due to
barrage across the Ganga River and could spot quite a few birds around the TRH
complex itself and shot photographs using my camera and am sharing with you all
in my blog.
A Buzzard flying by at the birding spot near Chilla
Some Cormorants flying across in the sky avboe
Bahminy Shelduck in Ganga in the birding spot near Chilla
A Common Kingfisher in the birding spot near Chilla
New day morning
while I was strolling with my camera along the side of TRH, another local bird
enthusiast approached me and gave me some information about another birding
spot in the locality and we drove up to the destination and shot a few birds
with my camera, accompanied by my Son and daughter. Thereafter, we returned back to have lunch
around 1.30 P.M and were thereafter, picked up by Viru Negi ji for our
afternoon safari at around 2.30 P.M, since the safari began at 3.00 P.M. The Rajaji National Park is situated along the hills
and foothills of Shiwalik ranges in the Himalayan foothills within the Shivalik
biosphere. Historically speaking, there used to be
three separate wildlife sanctuaries namely – Rajaji Wildlife Sanctuary
established in 1948; Moticur Wildlife Sanctuary established in 1964; and Chilla
Wildlife Sanctuary established in 1977.
In the year 1983 all these three reserves were all combined to create
one body named as the Rajaji National Park and in the year 2015 it received the
status of a Tiger Reserve. It is named
after Sri C Rajagopalachari – the first Governor General of free India. Spread across more than 800 Sq. Km., with
altitude spanning from 330 to 1350 meters, it is a fairly large park that is
adjacent to the holy cities of Hardwar, Rishikesh and Dehradun in Uttarakhand. Chilla Reserve is situated next to the
hydropower plant. So one can see a
branch of Ganga flowing here, with many seasonal rivers merging into it. In fact, the GMVN guest house is located on a
narrow strip of land where one such seasonal stream meets the Ganga.
A Golden backed woodpecker inside Chilla range
Terai like grasslands inside the Chilla range
Huge Sal trees and other trees inside the forest in Chilla range
A Back shouldered Kite inside the Chilla range
A Siberian stonechat inside Chilla range
A male Chital or Spotted deer inside Chilla range
A small portion of the holy River Ganga flows for about 24 km
within the park precincts. Other small seasonal rivers or rivulets join it at
various places within the reserve forest. However, we could only see some dry River beds
across the reserve, through which our jeeps drove through during the
safari. The
area is covered with diverse forest types ranging from semi-evergreen to
deciduous and from mixed broad-leaved to terai like grassland and has been
classified as Indus-Ganges Monsoon Forest type. Lofty strands of Sal dominate
in many parts of this forest range giving it a surreal feeling, as the evenings
set in.
Pug mark of both Elephant and a leopard inside Chilla range
A watch tower inside the Chilla range
A Mountain Hawk Eagle inside the Chilla range
A juvenile Sambar male inside the Chilla range
A Sambar female inside Chilla range
Rajaji
is home to a plethora of avian species, which are found in forested foothills
and in open grassland. The location of
this reserve forest being in a transition zone between temperate western
Himalaya and central Himalaya enhances the species diversity and consequently
the viewing prospects of a large number of birds that inhabit this broad
spectrum. As per the official website, the Rajaji's checklist has about 400
bird species and includes good birds like Greater Scaup, White-naped
Woodpecker, Great Hornbill, Black-bellied Tern, Pallas's Fish Eagle, Northern
Goshawk, Black-necked Stork, Yellow-billed Blue Magpie, Scaly Thrush,
Snowy-browed Flycatcher, Rusty-flanked Tree-creepers, Pale-footed Bush Warbler,
Tytler's Leaf Warbler, Green Avadavat and Reed Bunting. Apart from this, the National park is
best known for is its elephants. I had always heard about herds of elephants
roaming freely in the region that one can come across while driving through the
forest, but it was not to be in our case. In fact, this is the identified North
Western end of Elephant corridor in India. If you travel further North or West
from here, you would not find any wild elephants.
A male Peacock inside Chilla range
A female Red Jungle fowl inside Chilla range
A White breasted Kingfisher inside Chilla range
A Woolly necked Stork inside Chilla range
Sambhar deer - both male & female inside Chilla range
The safari charges are quite
reasonable with a Jeep Safari of two and half hours duration costing around
Rs.3,500/- with guide, but may vary from season to season.As the winters had yet to pass and the
weather was not very clear and being quite cold early in the morning, I
preferred an afternoon safari.The
afternoon safari starts at about 3.00 P.M and ends at about 5.30 P.M and one
can book it in advance or get one at the entry gate itself, if the rush is
less.I, on the other hand, was able to
establish contact with one of the well-known guides operating in the Rajaji
National Park and is quite well acquainted with all the portions of the
park.I had contacted him over phone and
he was courteous enough to arrange for the entire safari for us and his name is
Viru Negi (Mobile No.+91-9917606031).He is a very nice person and anyone interested can contact him directly
on this mobile.The safari itself is
better than that of Corbett in respect of time and distance covered, albeit
there are fewer Tiger sightings in the region.We got to see a lots of deer, birds including Jungle fowls and by the
time as the evening set in, we could hear alarm calls of Langurs and Sambars,
but could not sight any Tiger nor any Elephants to speak of.By the time we were returning back, it had
become literally cold and we were also famished, as the Park authorities do not
allow any packed food items inside the park and rightly so.The photographs shall speak for themselves
about the trip and a short video of the safari inside the park for my viewers –
