The Bollywood actor Salman Khan is once again in trouble because Rajasthan High Court revised the black buck killing case.

You wait endlessly by the luggage belt as the IA handlers properly mis-handle your luggage and you cannot do anything as a pane of glass separates you. You could definitely go back through the entry but you may be easily mistaken for a terrorist.

You go out into the heat and find the pleasantness of the car you rented for the day. As you go towards the hotel you pass by various parts of the city. The new city, grand hotels, stone quarries, old city, barracks and then you finally reach your hotel, an oasis of green in the midst of a stone city, the majestic Bal Samand Lake Palace.

You feel almost royal; knowing that you would be the only guests during your entire stay. Yay to proper royal treatment, heck you can even treat it like your own palace. After a short afternoon siesta you head out to the gardens to absorb the abundant greenery surrounding the place. Peacocks roam around a few feet away from you, unperturbed.

Then you climb a steep set of stairs to the porch (If you can call it that. Seems more like a roof.) and the glistening reflection of the setting sun catches your eye. You’re face to face with a beautiful lake. Hills all around, not a single soul in sight, almost like your own personal lake. You order a pot of masala tea and sit down to look at the beauty whilst a flock of pigeons coo on the parapets.

Slowly the sun sets and you feel a little distant, you feel isolated from the world. The thought of being the only people in a huge castle is kind of haunting but you always find ways to cope. A little running on the treadmill and video games never hurt anyone.

The next day you head out to explore the surroundings, Mehrangarh Fort is your first stop. It almost looms over you like figurative image of mount Olympus the home of the Greek gods. You climb up all the way and through its various museums. You pick up a lot of garbled knowledge from the guide, a few overpriced souvenirs and get out of there. The next item on your itinerary is a long drive to Khimsar Fort amidst the bloody heat.

While at Khimsar you have a quiet and peaceful lunch and afterwards you head out to see deer in open jeeps, your absolutely messy long hair slapping your face. You finally reach the areas of the deer and see Neelgai, Black Bucks and the odd Chinkara. You begin to wonder how people could ever kill such wonderful animals. The camera goes click-clickkity-click-click faster than you can see them. Suddenly you look up and realize that the sun is quite low and if you don’t hurry you would miss the sunset over the Khimsar Sand Dunes.

You reach just in time but the climb to the top is akin to climbing a high peak; contribution of the horrible diet you have and your amazingly high centre of gravity. Yet you finally are up and click a beautiful sunset over a few cups of tea. Today was Diwali and you miss not being around your girlfriend, She’s back in your town and you’re in no town. Just to cheer your brother up though, you buy a few local fire crackers and explode them back at the hotel. Diwali seems joyful again, the gloomy feeling is gone.

The next morning you’re up and ready to go back home. This time around you get a better aircraft from Indian Airlines and as you land in Delhi you can see the pollution from miles high in the sky. What a wonderful way the city welcomes you back.

Flemish Giants:

• 1 Blue Buck
• 1 Self Black Buck
• 2 Blue Does
• 1 ANY COLOR Doe ( I have fawn & REW  Bucks so any other color would be nice)

Endangered Breeds ( I would like 1 buck and 2 Does of each to help keep the Breed going):

• American
• American Chinchilla
• Silver Fox

Textile Rabbits:

• 1 Angora Buck
• 2 Jersey Wolly Does

I think that’s about it for what I’m looking for.

Navigation in India is never easy and far from an exact since. We’d left Bikaner and travelled 100km dead east before we came to an official road sign which stated “Bikaner 180km” and a arrow pointing straight ahead (further east). We were so used to the Indian’s spatial kookiness by now that we didn’t even stop, we just ignored the sign stating that we still had 180km to get to where we had started and kept riding.

At one of our frequent chai stops to “chase the brown dragon” (like Heroin, you never find a cup of chai as good as your first one, though you spend your life searching) I noticed my chain was very loose, as was Joel’s. I tightened mine though Joel wasn’t all that keen on laying down in the dust and the sun and said he’d sort it tonight… mistake one

We found Chapper easily and even managed to find the lodge attached to the forest headquarters despite it not having a sign. The complex was immense and recently built with no expense spared. The lodge had green roofs, covered walkways, a massive kitchen, multiple outdoor dining areas and even a small amphitheatre. Though, this is India so the place was utterly deserted and looked like it had been abandoned the day of completion. It took us 30min to find the guy with the keys who could unlock the door and show us the room.

After un-burdening the Enfields (which included leaving the tools… mistake two) I got my daily argument fix from the warden about the form we had to fill out to enter the park. He was guiding me through the Hindi script when we got to the box for ‘caste’. “Caste? CASTE? I thought you guys abolished the cast system, why’s it on the damn form for a wildlife sanctuary? I’m not putting anything”. Neither of us would back down, he wanted me to put my country for caste but I’d written “England” three times already and wasn’t having a bar of it. Our discussion ended in laughter when I informed the warden that I wasn’t writing anything down because I was “casteless”. Minutes later I realised that he had interpreted my saying I was casteless as me saying I was an “untouchable”, sub-human, doomed to a casteless existence by some horrible crimes in a past life.

After paying the entry fee that, unbeknown to us, the warden had miscalculated in our favour (though he realised his mistake and came knocking late that night), we thundered into the park on the Enfields. The sanctuary opened up into a golden savannah of tall grass and sporadic acacia trees, stretching out to the green hills barely visible in the distance. Much easier than spotting tigers, the Black Buck Tal were all over the place and an amazing site. Some had massive antlers(/horns?) that were higher than the Tal was tall and they’d lean them back, dead horizontal when they ran.

Royal Enfield – alpha predator of the serengeti 

We’d got to the fenced tree-line at the far end of the park when Joel’s chain (that hadn’t got tightened at lunch) popped off. Joel managed to get the chain back on without any tools (which were back at the lodge) but, within a few hundred meters of the restart the chain was off again and now broken. Luckily, the two Enfields generally seem to time their major stoppages to not-quite coincide so I headed back to the lodge and returned with the tow-rope to pull Joel home as the sun sank into the scrub behind us. Bromantic!

On the way out to collect a stricken Joel and an his incapacitated Enfield, my own mount developed an alarmingly loud knocking sound from the engine. One of “those sounds” that are so loud you can’t ignore them. So, once we got back to the lodge, I donned my head torch to investigate. There was a long-standing oil-leak from the pushrod inspection cover that I’d been ignoring because, with an Enfield, the oil has to leak from somewhere. I thought this leak was getting worse and starving the head of oil, hence the knocking. I took the plate off, inspected it (in the dark) and put it back on. The plates leaking yeah? So, I should put it on tight (mistake three). It took only a little bit of pressure before I heard a sickening sound as the hairline crack that was causing the leak turned into a big crack. What a douche. I could picture my Dad standing behind me shaking his head. Fears of how big a problem this would be were quickly confirmed when I started the bike and she started to haemorrhage engine oil from the artery I had just severed. Chapper was a small town so there was no hope of finding an Enfield mechanic. I commandeered the local metal-smiths shop and, working between power outages, managed to fashion a replacement plate out of sheet steel. The patch I constructed resulted in the bike leaking even more oil so, I returned to the only mechanic in town and he put the old plate back on with a whole tube of gasket cement. It didn’t leak when first started so, for India, this was a raging success.

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Summarising the motorcycle problems for the day; Joel’s was due to his inaction and mine was due to my mis-action. Despite the local populace trying to rip us off or run us off the road at every chance, we remain our own worst enemies.

Jodhpur: The Rajasthan High Court on Friday deferred till August 8 the black buck case hearing involving Bollywood actors Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Tabu after defence lawyers sought time.

Counsel RL Jhangid and Mahipal Bishnoyi appeared before the court of Justice RS Chauhan from government’s side. Advocate Hastimal Saraswat represented Salman Khan and other actors.

Superstar Salman Khan alongwith other co-stars had allegedly hunted two black bucks on September 27, 1998 while shooting for the movie titled “Hum Saath Saath Hain”.

On 17 February, 2006, the court of the chief judicial magistrate sentenced Salman Khan to one-year imprisonment. Salman appealed against the verdict in the Sessions Court. The state government had filed an appeal in the High Court stating the sentence was inadequate.

(source: daily.bhaskar.com)

Bare expanses of desert are present but rare in the Thar

Noun

• a waterless, desolate area of land with little or no vegetation, typically one covered with sand

Verb

• abandon
• leave (a place), causing it to appear empty

Adjective

• uninhabited and desolate

 

Eagles

Conditions are extreme, with intense summer heat, failing monsoons and a rapidly dwindling water table, but flora and fauna are still thriving here.  Agriculture not only sustains the local population but makes reliable profits at markets as far away as New Delhi.  In most villages there are new stone buildings popping up in amongst the huts, and in some cases dramatically out-numbering them.  Where biodiversity is concerned, neither time nor patience are required to sight exciting and rare wildlife, like black bucks, blue bulls and gazelles, eagles, vultures and kites, to name just a few.

Pilgrims travelling over 300km on foot to pray for a child after 15 years of marriage

Survival in the Thar Desert requires toughness in order to cope with the relentless and unforgiving climate.  Even the majority of plants and shrubs have evolved deadly looking thorns.  Similarly, the people who live there are robust and sturdy, with weather-beaten faces and surprising physical strength even at old age.  Over thousands of years, life-preserving knowledge has been passed through the generations, enabling each community to adapt and flourish.  Communities are still segregated by caste, such as Bishnoi, Jat or Rajput, but whichever the group family always reigns supreme.  Families live collectively with many generations under the same roof, working together to generate income, care for the dwelling and raise children.

On our first day in the desert we stumbled upon a farm near Sika where the farmer was very happy to answer some questions and show us around.  For generations his family had owned and worked 16.5 hectares, or about 41 acres of agricultural land.  Having just harvested a yield of ground nut, he was in the process of sewing the winter wheat. 

Unripened Ber fruits

One thing that was immediately impressive was the efficiency of this desert farm; it was almost entirely self-contained, requiring little from the outside world and putting nothing to waste.  In addition to the agricultural produce, many uncultivated shrubs and plants were also used in some capacity, whether for firewood, animal fodder, roofing, pillow stuffing, medicine or food, like the sweet, red fruits of the Ber shrub.  Water was collected using 3 tube wells and electricity was the only fixed cost, on which 10,000 rupees, or £150, was spent per month.

Two cows and four buffalo, fed on shrubs and leftovers from crop production, produced about 40 litres of milk per day, 5 for family use and 35 sold at market.  Sold at 20 rupees per litre, this meant the farm generated 700 rupees (£10) in income per day or an equivalent 255,500 rupees (£3650) per year, providing that none of the cows were in calf.  Another valuable commodity, the farm played host to around 30 Khejri trees, which, as well as providing highly nutritious loong for animals, also provide Sangri fruits consumed by people.  According to our friendly farmer, one tree could generate as much as 80kg of Sangri and selling for 180 rupees per kg at market.  Across 30 trees, that is a potential 432,000 rupees or £6171 income per annum.  With few costs and high efficiency, I came to the conclusion that this farm was a highly profitable business.  Certainly, the numbers above would be enough to make my family, who are small-holding sheep farmers in rural Warwickshire, incredibly jealous.

The future of the Thar Desert and its current agricultural prosperity is not at all promising and clear-cut.  Unchecked mining and deforestation means that the water table is unstably diminishing and that the desert is expanding.  Over utilisation of resources and rising agricultural mechanisation also puts strain on the whole ecosystem, causing new problems to arise. 

How can we secure the future of the Indian gazelle?

Wild animals are illegally poached and the spiraling dog population is causing particular problems for animals like gazelles and black buck.  Education in India is free and only on the brink of becoming compulsory, so many farmers’ children choose not to attend and stay at home to help on the farm instead.  Resultant illiteracy makes it difficult to promote awareness of threats to the desert ecology and sustainable agricultural techniques.  At the governmental level there are also many problems, such as the necessary rapid growth for combating famine and poverty clashing with the need to protect the natural environment.

The problems of the Thar Desert highlight the need for protection of the plentiful wildlife and unique, culturally rich communities that live within it.  One community standing at the forefront of desert protection is the Bishnois, indigenous followers of a religion sworn to safeguard its flora and fauna.  Over coming articles, the Bishnoi religion and their valuable involvement in the future of the desert will be explained as per my experiences of living in their community.  With regards to the Thar, it may fit the technical label of a desert but other associations do not apply, deserted it most certainly is not.

Video posted to YouTube by CharlieQH.

“I flit. I flee. I fly. Oh, my. Wish that were true of me too. Although, give me a good wind under my tail and I do pretty well.”

Gypsy photograph courtesy of Karen Fayeth.

Yup! And we know it’s all about Gypsy. . .

Video poster, CharlieHQ, writes that the antelopes in this stunning video include:

• Thomson Gazell – Africa
• Impala – Africa
• Black Buck – Asia
• Springbok – Africa
• Grant’s Gazelle – Africa

The cat is a cheetah.

I hadn’t realized there were so many different species of antelope. “Antelope is a term referring to many even-toed ungulate species found in the Bovidae. The term refers to a ‘miscellaneous’ group within the family encompassing the old-world species which are not cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison, or goats. A group of antelope is called a herd^[1]MORE

The thought of visiting the Black buck (Antilope cervicapra) reserve in Maidenahalli was lingering in my mind for nearly a year. Shreeram floated the idea and a Sunday (21 June ’09) was well spent.

Route: Bangalore -> Nelamangala -> Tumkur -> Koratagere -> Madhugiri -> Puravara village -> Maidenahalli reserve

Distance: 145km

The drive on Hindupura road, after taking deviation from NH-4 provides excellent opportunity for bird watching. At our first stop, we saw a pair of Egyptian vultures roosting on a rock. On to our left was a pond with lots of common birds such as Prinias and Bulbuls. Failed to get closed to the vultures, which sensed us early and flew away.

There are no shops or restaurants at Maidenahalli. Madhugiri, a small town before you reach the reserve, is the place where one needs to stop for food/water. We had breakfast at Madhugiri. In India, you don’t need a GPS. Just ask the villagers for direction and you’ll get to your destination.

A forest guard accompanied us. We saw herds of up to 15 black bucks, and they wouldn’t let us get close!

The avian life is incredible at the grassland. The parachuting display of Indian Bushlark, Collared Doves, flocks of Grey Francolins running for cover, cries of Large-Grey Babblers, Southern Grey Shrike, White headed Babbler feeding a caterpillar to its chick, Yellow-wattled Lapwing and her chicks feeding were all a treat to watch. Search for Sandgrouse ended in vain.

After lunch and brief siesta, we headed towards a water body. A herd of about 25 black bucks, which were heading toward the pond, saw us and receded. There goes our chance for getting a decent photograph! I almost stepped on a Black-Naped Hare, which disappeared in a moment before i could even point my camera. We moved towards the pond to see a heard of sheep quenching their thirst. No wonder Black bucks are dwindling.

Forest guard told us there was a burrow of a Fox nearby and we might get lucky if we stay till dusk, but we thought maybe another day. As we drove out of the reserve, we could see many black bucks, closer to the road. Couple of males were stood their ground and we could get few good images.

We sighted close to 50 species of birds, and  here is the list.

Directions to reach the place, and other information on the reserve is best on web page maintained by Ameen Ahmed of WANC: http://maidenahalli.googlepages.com/

Also check Ameen’s post on Maidenahalli on his blog.

Maidenahalli reserve has many villages adjacent to it and there are lot of farms on the peripheral boundary of the reserve. Cattle grazing is rampant inside the reserve, and it was disheartening to see herds of cattle grazing inside the reserve. One can clearly witness the how habitat destruction happens at this place. Open grasslands were once widespread across Deccan Plateau, and it supported many animals which are extinct today. Indian Cheetah is the epitome. Encroachment and farming has reduced these grasslands to few tens of square kilometers from few hundreds. I wish Foxes and Black bucks live few more decades, if not few centuries.

Eurassian Collared Dove peeping out of a cultivated farm

The Black Buck, himself

P.S.: I am yet to have a good look at images from Bandipur, will have to clean up my system. Also, have to recover few images i deleted by mistake from the SD card. Will post the tales from Bandipur soon.

Also, considering a fund raiser for buying an expensive lens, any donors? :P

A male black buck enjoying the shade

Here is a black buck enjoying some shade on a muggy sunner day…. Black bucks are one of the rarest antelopes of India… I remember Kanha national park a few years back had only 16 of them…. Not sure about the cenus yet but Hope they have made a comeback.

So we happily started off on our final drive arnd the reserve. Near the gate, the Arien spotted a cute lil fox. The moment we stopped the car, it went underground. The Arien spent an amazing amt of time hoping it wud show up and I managed to remain patient. The Arien realized tht the wait was a waste of time and came bk to the car. We chose the same route hoping we would catch sight of the herd once again. We did. Suddenly, the entire herd started running. The entire herd crossed from the vast space on our right to the vast space on our left – a few paces ahead of us. I think we scared them. I was not too sure if we wanted to continue with going after them when they seemed so frightened. So, we dropped the idea of going any further and turned around. The  route was filled with thorns and brambles and the Arien was worried that we wud get stuck here in case we had a puncture. Surprisingly, I had not thought of that! Looks like I was well and truly in the buck-watching moment and had forgotten all sundry concerns

On our return, we kept an eye out for the fox. I had given up hope of catching sight of any more bucks when the Arien spotted a buck standing under the shade of a tree.  It had blended in so well with the surroundings that it was kinda difficult to initially make out that a buck was even standing there. To our surprise, we realized tht the buck was observing us.

We managed to take the camera out and shoot some pics when we noticed that the buck was looking away – at the road ahead of us. We initially thot tht the buck considered itself a celebrity and was busy giving us the best angles to work with and get the photo shoot over with. I was telling this to the Arien as I was shooting the second snap when we heard the unmistakable sound of a cycle chain going “Scrunch Crunch Clank Clank” on the untarred road. We turned to see two village folks appear on a cycle. We wondered at the sharp hearing of the buck. I wanted one more shot – u kinda get pretty greedy when you see them so close. Well, the Arien wanted to shoot a video of the Buck and so I am not the only greedy one  

That was when we both got the shock of our life – the buck turned tail (pun unintended) and ran. Till then, it looked like the buck was having the time of its life, watching us watching it, giving us sm amazing angles and then suddenly it jes ran. There was no sudden movement frm our end and so we were at a loss as to why the buck ran away from us. We had not even got out of the car. We were both a lil puzzled by that. This had actually happened earlier as well. I tried reasoning it out - the bucks were afraid of cylists i.e the villagers. Thts when it hit me. I shared my theory with the Arien. I feel that the villagers kill the bucks for meat. So ob. the buck is frightened of the villagers. There is no other way I cud explain why the buck feared a cycle but not a car. The Arien was not too impressed

We headed past the Observation tower and started on our return journey. The journey was again broken multiple times and this time I was not so patient. We stopped at the same location where the Arien had spotted an owl, parrot, n what not all on one single tree.

We stopped there once again. This time the Arien decided to try out the Digital Zoom option and lo and behold! we had these amazing close-up shots of the birds that almost looked too good to be true. We now wished we cud go back n take snaps of the Bucks all over again I was pretty upset but the Arien took it all in his stride. I guess he was pretty happy to get the snaps of the birds sitting on tht tree tht missing the buck had not hit him, yet.

After the Digital Zoom episode, the Arien went mad, to be honest. He stopped the car at every opportunity so he could take more snaps of teeny birds that would fly away the instant they found out that he was taking a snap. After 2 more such stops, I lost my patience. Some of the snaps  were truly fantastic. However, we had made too many stops. I was looking forward to reaching home and blogging ’bout the trip As we stopped at places where we had lost our way, I took snaps so when we made the next trip, we would not have such a hard time. Soon, I was the one who was delaying us Having made so many stops on our way back, we got stuck at Neelamangala at peak traffic time – 6 p.m.  It took us 2 hours to reach Bangalore and familiar landmarks nearer home. We picked up dinner on our way back which added to the journey time. When we stepped into our home, it was past 10 pm. We were tired but we were also very happy that we had such an amazing day trip. So how do you get here?? Directions coming up in the next post!

About two weeks before, me and a few friends made a weekend trip to a nearby sanctuary called Tal Chappar. The place was just awesome, but the road journey was horribly long because we took a few wrong buses to wrong places . None of us had ever gone to that place before, so we basically depended on localites to guide us in reaching the place. And how dearly we paid for it. We added 4 hours of extra travel.

The sanctuary is famous for birds of prey, black bucks, chinkaras, migratory storks, russel’s viper and spiny tail lizards. We saw a lot of birds, luckily one of friends was a bird enthusiast and I learned to differentiate between eagles, falcons and vultures and sparrows and larks etc.

Here are a few pictures we took there. I really can’t identify half of the birds. If you can, please comment.

A migratory Stork

A (very rare) falcon.

Nilgai

Some Lark

Chinkaras and black bucks

Another Lark(?)

Demoiselle cranes(migratory)

A wasp

Black buck ahead

Male Black bucks fight for sexual favors from females. We saw nearly a dozen fights.

A falcon, I think

The plain of Taal Chappar

Just inside the sanctuary.

About 5 hours later. We were dehydrated and could barely walk.

On the way to the place, we took the bus ride on top of a bus. And then it rained…

Thats all folks. This is the website of Tal Chappar sanctuary.

Well atleast thats how it seem so far.

But like most good stories, there will soon be a twist. It will soon appear that the tiger didnt actually kill the black buck, but it just so happened that he was cleaning his gun in the middle of the forest and this poor endangered black buck jumped in front. The tiger had repeatedly warned the black buck not to stray his course, ‘ma kasam, kuthe ki aulath, agar thu mere paas aya tho, thuje mai… ‘. Again the tiger was not angry, but was just play acting his favourite actor of yesteryears. And so, the tiger goes scott free, because the tiger didnt commit a crime as he was only cleaning his gun in the middle of the forest. And any Indian born, Nawab (albeit ex-Nawab), has the constitutional right to clean his gun, where ever he so pleases.

This the second, if not third case in recent times, where an hero from Bollywood or otherwise has turned villain. Its time to teach some of these people a lesson. In some ways, the Tiger must have already learnt his lesson. Sure we lost one more Black Buck, just so that this elite Nawab can understand that when we mean endangered and protected, we really mean endangered and protected.

Or did he ?