Ivory woods of Dudhwa...

by - March 03, 2017

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“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
(Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening | 1923 | Robert Frost)

But no Mr Frost, I didn’t recall my promises when I got soaked and stilled in the ivory woods of Dudhwa

  

Been there, done that… is such a cliché and pretentious thing to say, and my wildlife enthusiast friends would agree, … been to many a jungles, many a times, yet you encounter something new each time… our recent trip to Dudhwa Wildlife Reserve was another such distinctive experience… the first time I heard this name being proposed for one of our extended weekend holidays, that too with a responsibility to make all the trip arrangements, I was not even sure where to start… as a standard operating procedure, I ‘googled’ for this place and travel packages to begin with… to my surprise, Google hadn’t much to churn out… so you actually know how less frequented this place must be… with such little options, it took barely any time to find the nearest city, travel routes and stay alternatives… The forest rest house, situated right at the foyer of the forest was the natural choice, and road travel from Lucknow to reach there, the only feasible travel option…

Dudhwa Wildlife is located in the north-eastern part of Uttar Pradesh, about 220 kms from Lucknow in India… the best way to reach this place is by road, a typical 5-6 hours drive, bumpy in patches, but mostly comfortable… I would say, quite respectable, considering this is in the state of UP and my earlier not-so-good experiences with other parts of UP… As you drive past the mustard plantations along Sitapur and the sugarcane fields along Lakhimpur, there is no sign of approaching any forests or even grasslands for that matter… and then just as you recover from the sweet whiff coming off sugar factories, you find yourself knocking at the Forest Rest House of Dudhwa. This is a no-frills, no-flair accommodation, with very basic essentials being catered to… spacious, clean cottages (by India standards), functional bathrooms, hot water (when there is no electricity failure!), fresh made-to-order meals within their limited means… [warning: people with allergies or travelling from glitzy countries or those who have an OCD for cleanliness may carry their own bedsheets, blankets and other sanitary stuff]. Nonetheless, the highlight of the stay is not the living space, but the wandering space and its nearness to the forest, so much so that you are likely to face wild boars, jackals and few smaller wild animals within the rest house compound itself… Over the dinner table you hear those perturbing stories from the locals about how a tiger makes a round of the place every once in a while, how a large herd of wild elephants has parked itself near the neighboring sugarcane fields, so you walk back vigilantly to your cottage, holding your partner’s hands firmly, looking all around scarily in the darkness… and then, when you are out to shoot the midnight sky, you find yourself almost trembling, searching for two shiny stars (eyes) on the ground, rather than up in the sky… 

While Tigers remain the main attraction in most sanctuaries here in India, Dudhwa has much more to offer… It has fenced out a large area for preservation and breeding of One-horned Rhinos, another endangered specie… The area is cordoned off for vehicles, but they do provide elephant rides to peek into the Rhino area and see them up and close… Besides, the Sloth Bears and Swamp Deer, are other special treats that Dudhwa offers, rather Dudhwa forest was established in 1958 as a “Wild-life Reserve for Swamp Deer” and today boasts of largest number of Swamp Deer in Asia. We had managed four safaris across two days that we stayed there… and those two days were in the coldest part of the year… wearing 4-5 layers of clothes, we would set out in the jungles, in the freezing temperatures… the forest had adorned a milky white fabric, so true to its name ‘Dudhwa’… it was my first experience of ‘fog in the forest’… with barely 200 meters of visibility ahead, we were looking to spot animals some 2000 meters away, how optimistic ! This is a completely natural forest, and very dense at that… also the fact that it is less frequented by tourists, have made the animals pretty human-shy… so one has to be really patient and timely to be spotting THE CAT here.. we were not so lucky, though we were very close to one… but what we experienced was exceptional… truly.. there was a Tiger in the woods right next to our jeep, we shuddered hearing him roar loud, continuously, for a few standstill minutes, as if wanting to bring the whole forest down… and he apparently had the reason too.. he was with a tigress, when the jeep ahead of us had invaded their privacy…. This would have annoyed him (or so we thought from the roar!).. 
We could not spot the tigress either!  My asking the guide about the tigress got me the answer “voh chali gayi hogi ma’am, tiger ka kaam hai sirf dahadna, tigress ko aur kaam hote hai… apne cubs dekhne hote hai, voh tiger nahi karta… inki duniya ka yehi niyam hai”… (“she must have gone away ma’am, the tiger does little but roars, but the tigress has a lot more to do, she has to rear her cubs, the tiger does not do it… this is the rule of their world”)… I smiled back at him, acknowledging the genuineness in his answer… and reading his mind which said ‘wish this was the rule of our world too’… it pointed to the fact that women have now started working as forest guides, a profession so far run only by men, and how he disapproved it… but to me, this ‘diversity’ is a welcome change by the forest officials here at Dudhwa… something other Reserves can do this too.. 

Dudhwa is an unblemished heaven for the nature lovers and wildlife enthusiasts… the teaks rising high, almost emerging from the thick fog, the sun beams invading through the nearly impenetrable green cover and diffusing the morning haze, the lakes and the grasslands adding different colors and textures to the canvas, the ceaseless chirp that fills the forest and then an occasional squeak that pierces it, animals grazing blissfully and soaking in the sun, all make for a perfect habitat to wander into… so go on, take a ride through the not-so-tampered, dusty trails, inside the dark and deep woods, and you for sure will forget the promises you kept and the miles you planned to go… they all will eventually wind-up here, in this pristine forest of Dudhwa…

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