The Shipra  river formed by the mingling of the waters of two smaller streams, meanders along the outline of the temple town, which was the capital of Raja Vikramaditya.

Later, it became the capital of Gwaliyore state, before it (cap[tal)  was shifted to the famous fort, which is very near to the railway station.

Ujjain lies at the lat. 23.5 % north, in Madhya Pradesh state; there are direct trains to Delhi, Calcutta, Bangalore, Bombay and Madras. I found only single story houses, except for government buildings and temples, which number more than five hundred, a modest estimate!

Mahakal temple is one of the twelve jyotirlingas and lies at the heart of the city. Near by, is the Gopal temple. All other ancient temples lie on the other bank of the Shipra river. Provide yourselves with fruits and eatables,which are not available there, on the outer side of the town.

First we went to Shanidev temple. The beautiful river you see from there, is the confluence of two minor streams.

 All the planets listed below are housed there:

Shani (saturn) embodies depressed and pessimistic nature.

Guru (vyazham in Malayalam-jupitor) shows mental powers.

Budhan (mercury) embodies knowledge, vidya.

Venus (shukran) for prosperity, love (in the West).

Chandran (moon) governs the psychic powers; born on or before full moon are famous: Guru Nanak, Ambedkar (waterfriend too).

Mangal (chovva in Malayalam, mars)  governs martial qualities.    

Rahu, Kethu (neptune and pluto?)

Surya (sun), whom Brahman worships in the morning.

In the south, sun is located in the centre; here he is by the side of shukra. I had to enquire where it is, as it was not noticeable.

A temple of Ganesh was overcrowded with monkeys.They took prasad from our hands!

Ramgarh is the centre stage of Kumbh mela. People que up for miles for a

 Lord Shiva’s Senapaty  Bhairon’s pet is a dog. Something unbelievable. Bhairon is offered liquor. The moment it touches his mouth, the vessel is emptied. Some say, there is invisible pipe through which it is collected and resold!

There are cave temples where Bharthruhary did tapasya. Lord Indra tried to break open the roof of the cave. You can see a crack.

The Vishnu temple is where people do shradh. It is believed that Ram and Lakshman did shradh of their father here, during their journey through the forests.

The whole area is full of greenery. During Kumbha mela, the area is covered by pilgrims who want to take a dip in the river. The water level in the river, maintained by a check dam, rises by several inches, according to eye witnesses, so great is the volume of bodies of people dipping in the water!

Kumbha mela will attract the greatest congregation of Hindus in the North.

There is nothing comparable to it in the South.

December 7th, 2009

Day started off as usual – I had done 3 safaris, saw tigers on one of them. The rest of the group was fairly lucky – most of them had great photographs of tigers. I was beginning to feel unlucky.

We decided to rotate safari jeeps, and this day, I would be riding with Jayanth. Mohammed and Prakash went in the vehicle that I was sharing with Prakash. During the safari, Jayanth gave me some valuable tips and suggestions to help improve my photographs.

Saw a lot of Spotted Deers, Sambars, and other herbivores. We saw and tracked a few pug marks, but all tigers seemed to have gone into hiding. When the morning safari went dry (by dry, I only mean no tiger sightings) – I guess my disappointment was quite hard to hide. We caught up for lunch and Prakash mentioned that they saw a tiger. I guess it was hard for me to hide my disappointment at that time, and everyone was quite sympathetic and kept urging me not to give up so soon. Well, come evening, and it did go pretty much the same way.

Towards the end, as we were returning to the gates, heard the alarm call of Sambar Deer. Excitement set in, and we were all game to seek the elusive beast. A couple of other drivers mentioned that a tiger was on the prowl and might exit at the route we were on. Hurried and waited at a vantage point. Waited for a while, and there was no movement. As we took the route back to exit, wonder of all wonders – a massive male was curling his tail up and walking towards a small hill. The sun had already set, and I realized there would be no point even attempting to get a photograph. Instead, chose to leave the camera and enjoy the moment. Goodness, he was a piece of work. Disappeared into the trees and with the light going out rapidly, it was becoming increasingly hard to see where he was. Just then, Prakash’s vehicle driver and guide waved us over, and said there’s a female who’d just finished drinking water at a small stream right ahead. Rushed again, and saw a massive female walk away into the bushes. Had just about enough time to see her walking away. Incidentally, the female was at the same place where we turned around after we heard the Sambar’s call. Had we been there, may have got a good view. But having seen tigers in bushes later, I realized that it may have been literally impossible to spot one sitting even 10 feet away from the road.

So that’s December 7th – two tigers spotted, no photographs.

So the biggest meeting to discuss the challenges mother earth faces has ended as a no show. Of course Mr Obama and his team of publicists will over the course of next week continue to hammer inside the people what all the deal will do. But for countries like India and China and Brazil the outcome is nothing but a candy handed by the developed countries.

It is really strange that India should follow other countries even on issues like environment. Our needs and requirements are different from countries like China. But why should we follow China is something I have not yet understood.

It really is a matter of shame that even when it comes to policy decision India looks upto or follows other countries. Instead of announcing voluntary cuts India should have waited to gauge the mood of other countries before making its stand public.

And just how can people turn blind eye to the problems the country has been facing due to global warming?  How and what will we tell a farmer in a remote village in Madhya Pradesh that his problems are all due to US not agreeing to emission cuts. It is good game – pointing fingers at each other. But the blame game will not provide any solution that we desperately want.

But the same farmer will not be aware of the danger that awaits the developing countries like India. Maybe the unseasonal rainfall/hailstorm/drought affected him but he failed to understand why.

With Earth Summit over it is very unlikely the same people will worry about the environment again and continue doing their business as before.

December 6, 2009

Last day’s sighting of cubs was still fresh on my mind, and I was still fairly excited. Previous night, Jayanth informed us that we would have to be ready and leave by 5:15 AM. The gates open at 6:15 AM and we wanted to be on top of things. Exchanged stories with others over dinner, and crashed by 9:30 PM the other day. We were at the gate as per plan on the morning. Bandhavgarh has a route system which is allocated to each vehicle by lottery. Each vehicle is given two routes – one to go and another one to come back. So off we went!

The ‘To’ route will take you to a place called “Center Point”, where a range officer signs the ticket, and then we take the ‘Return’ route to the gates. Prakash had already informed our driver and guide that we like birds as well, but our priority was tigers. So if there was an opportunity to see some birds, we were game for it. They were enthusiastic, and showed us quite a variety of wildlife – On the way to Center Point, we saw Collared Scops Owl sleeping in a hole in the tree, Sambar Deers, Wild Boars, Peafowls, many Comomon Langurs, Alexandrine Parakeets which were rather loud, and Plum header Parakeets.

Here’s the sleeping owl

We also saw a Crested Serpent Eagle. At around 8 in the morning, we reached Center Point. While the driver and guide went to see the range officer, we had some hot pakoras and tea. At Center Point, you get everything – hot pakoras, tea, biscuits, chips. Having hot pakoras on a cold morning is something that can’t be explained On the way back, we saw a Jackal running around. We stopped to see a Common Flameback perched high up on a tree, and a few Plum Headed Parakeets. Couldn’t get any photographs of the Flameback as it was perched quite high up on the tree.

Female Plum headed parakeet taking off:

And a perched male Plum headed parakeet:

There was also an entire family of Sambar Deers crossing the track. Waited patiently to see all of them, one by one, stand on the track and stare at us.

At a waterhole, there was a rather large bird foraging – Prakash helped me with the ID mentioning it was the Lesser Adjutant Stork. On the way back, we heard a few spotted deer alarm calls, and went back a few KMs. Saw the pug mark of a rather large male tiger over the tire tracks – waited for sometime trying to figure out where it may have been and returned to the gates.

On the way back to the resort, there was a rather friendly Indian Roller that was perched on a tree stump. Jayanth and Mohammed were already there shooting it from arond a 2 meters distance. Our driver quickly pulled over close to them and we got a few photographs of the bird looking around in every possible direction.

Reached the resort, reviewed the images, cleaned the gear, took a nap, lunch and then back at the gates by 1:45 PM. We saw a family of Wild Boars crossing the tracks

A little one running across:

Our driver took us to a watering hole where a few hundred langurs were drinking water. It was quite interesting to see them in action – Whilst most of the langurs stayed near trees, a group of three or four langurs would approach the watering hole, drink water, and run back. Then the next batch does the same.

Just a few KMs before center point, we saw a Wild Cat hidden in the bushes, and also a Crested Serpent Eagle. A few minutes, and we were off to Center Point. Hot tea, and after that, we went to Rampur area in the park, which is well known for it’s high vantage point and secret caves made during the times of Kings and Queens. Saw a few caves, and then off on our way to the exit.

To summarize, came close to spotting a rather large male, missed it because of bad luck and lack of alarm calls from animals around. The Roller photos kept me pretty happy for the next couple of days though.

 According to legend,when the Gangetic plains went dry on account of some curse, Bhageeratha did tapasya and brought the heavenly Ganga to the dry plains.

The geographic history is that during the last ice age, the whole Himalayan region was covered with thick ice and snow. In summer a little water produced by melting snow may flow as a small channel to be dried up soon. Slowly, the warming process melted the glacier lakes (it must have taken a few thound years; we can only guess) creating great thrust, along the lake walls which, at some point, will give way, causing great floods. This is the genesis of the holy river.

Today with the help of advanced technology, we can make any number tunnels, cutting through the glacier lake walls. At the bottom, glacier will be watery because of very high pressure ; the water will flow through the tunnel. This way,we can have abundant water, pure as dew, sufficient to supply water, enough for towns and fields,  not only along the Gangetic plains but down southwards in Rajastan, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Orissa . The quantity of water, in the form of ice, in the whole Himalayan region may well be more than a small sea which will be replenished each year, whether it rains or not, the clouds being forced to rain while trying to cross the high mountain ranges!

December 4, 2009

Departure from Bangalore. All frantic last minute shopping for essentials and left-over stuff completed the night before, packed my bags, and was all set. Had booked a cab through Meru Cabs and the driver promptly showed up at 7:15 AM (I could write a whole article about their efficiency of service, we’ll leave that for another day). Left for the airport at 7:30 AM, fought the regular Bangalore morning traffic and arrived well before time. My flight was to depart from BIAL at 10:50 AM. Travel was smooth, had surprisingly good sandwiches on the flight. Landed in New Delhi, and it was a mad rush to the Nizamuddin Railway Station. Thanks to Comesum restaurant that was present just beside the Railway Station, had a good lunch, and then off to board the train.

Had a pleasant journey to Katni junction, exchanging stories and getting to know fellow travelers (Jayanth Sharma, Prasad Subbanna, Amit Sharma, V.P.Nurdeen, and Mohammed Hussain) some of whom I’d known through Flickr, INW and BPC.

December 5, 2009

Reached Katni Railway Station, where two Toyota Innova cars were waiting for us. Dumped our luggage, and headed for Bandavgarh, which was a few hours drive from there. On the way, we stopped for breakfast at a dhaba. The folks there made some heavenly parathas and egg bhurji. Here’s a pic of us that Nurdeen shot with my mobile phone :

From L to R, that’s Amit, me, Jayanth, Prakash and Mohammed.

Jayanth had arranged for us to be put up at Mapple Resort where we reached by 11 AM. The rooms were excellent. Got ready, had a quick lunch (good food, I must say), and we were off for the safari at 2 PM. I was extremely excited, this being my very first safari. I shared the room and safari jeep with Prakash, who had visited Bandavgarh before. He was familiar with the rules and regulations of the park, and filled me up with details of what was going on. During the first one and a half hour of the safari, there were plenty of sightings of pug marks, and calls from spotted deers and langurs, indicating the tiger activity was quite good over there. Eventually, our guide and driver ended up spotting a four month old tiger cub running around in the bushes quite far away. I was very excited, and could hardly hold on to my seat, let alone the camera. And then, there was another cub. And then, another! Imagine – first safari, three cubs spotted. As they were quite far away in the bushes, and with the sun going down, I couldn’t manage a decent photograph. Eventually, after a lot of running around, the cubs came down to rest behind a rather large rock. Standing up on the seat of the vehicle gave us a good view, and I managed to get a picture of two of the cubs.

This picture was done after the sun had set – there was practically very little light for us to see the cubs.

I am told that these cubs can not be more than four months of age.

It was time to exit the park, and we had to rush to the gates to make it on time. Evening, I found out that everyone of our group (all of us were on different tracks) had spotted tigers that day.

Pretty eventful for a first safari

“We are not going to compromise ecological security in the name of development……The Ministry of Environment and Forests is going to be quite fundamentalist on these issues” - Jairam Ramesh, environment minister

India’s energetic and enthusiastic environment minister has many critics, which is not surprising given his appetite for wading into controversies. As if his battles over India’s climate change policy (see my blog post two days ago) are not enough, he is now building up an assault on environmental approvals and wildlife conservation that will bring him up against tough and often rough political and business opponents who are accustomed to flouting regulations.

As I wrote in that post, Jairam Ramesh is India’s first non-corrupt, policy-oriented and knowledgeable environment minister for a decade. He is determined to clean up a ministry that has been allowing India’s environment and wildlife to be plundered and to decay in the ten years it has been headed by nominees from a regional Tamil Nadu-based party, the Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK). And he is backed by Sonia Gandhi, president of the ruling Congress Party, and Manmohan Singh, the prime minister.

“Not since Indira Gandhi have we seen so much positive focus on wildlife issues,” says Belinda Wright of the Wildlife Protection Society of India, referring to the country’s former prime minister.

Jairam Ramesh at Sariska tiger reserve, July 2009

Two announcements made by Ramesh on Wednesday (December 9) at a Wildlife Institute of India conference in Delhi underline how meticulous and tough he is hoping to be.

First, he said that he would not allow two coal-mining projects linked to an Adani Group 2000MW power project, and located 10-12kms from near Maharashtra’s Tadoba Andhari tiger reserve, to go ahead. Initial environmental approval (terms of reference or TOR) was granted last year, but the mines would be within a proposed buffer zone of the reserve. Sonia Gandhi took up the cause in August and Ramesh said on Wednesday they could not go ahead.

This pits him against powerful business and political forces. The Gujarat-based Adani trading and infrastructure group has notoriously strong government links (especially on coal imports where it dominates). Its power project is located in Gondia, the home town of Praful Patel, India’s business-oriented aviation minister, who has complained to Ramesh about the decision.

According to reports, Patel has said that while protection of environment is important, industrial development too was equally important.

Ramesh challenged that when he said on Wednesday, while referring to this project, “We are not going to compromise ecological security in the name of development……..The Ministry of Environment and Forests is going to be quite fundamentalist on these issues”.

He also intends to stop a 231km river-linking canal project between Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. “I was shocked to find that Panna Tiger Reserve is involved in the Ken-Betwa river link which is the only project (on inter-linking India’s rivers) that has progressed so far,” he said.

When Ramesh was appointed in May, many observers assumed that his job was to speed up big project approvals, which have for years been hampered by often mischievous and corrupt environmental blockages. That speed-up has been an unfulfilled aim of the prime minister’s office (PMO) for most of this decade.

But Ramesh’s pro-environment approach is stalling or stopping several projects, not speeding them up  – so I asked him how he could explain this apparent dichotomy.

“No dichotomy,” he said in a quick e-mail reply. “Both the Congress president and the prime minister deeply concerned with environment and forest issues as well. Balance is crucial – sometimes it is a NO and sometimes it has to be a YES, BUT”.

That brief answer is packed with messages. He acknowledges the need to speed up project approvals, but is striking a balance between that and protecting the environment – as he showed in the remark about “not going to compromise ecological security in the name of development”. And, as I said, he has the backing of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh.

On Wednesday, he outlined some of his other plans:

-      Amending 1972 wildlife legislation early next year, which would include “steeply increasing penalties which are laughable” so that they match those in, for example, foreign e change and money laundering legislation. Also protecting biologists and other academics from the ire of “bad” wildlife officials.
-      Making wildlife management a more attractive civil service career, maybe by creating a formal specialisation within the Indian Administrative Service (an issue, he said, first raised by Indira Gandhi in 1972).
-      Providing state government’s with a direct stake in tiger conservation and the government’s 26-year old, but ailing, Project Tiger. Maybe by providing them with funds to boost the occupations and livelihoods of local people who are moved out of sanctuaries to nearby areas - possibly with the help of the World Bank.
-      Improve the handling of human-animal conflict, which currently often turns local people against wildlife conservation.

He also had some dire statistics to hand out. Of Project Tiger’s 38 areas, only 12 are in “relatively good condition” while nine are “satisfactory but could be better” and 17 are in a “very very precarious state”. Last year the government said the total number of tigers in India was down to 1,400, and that was probably an over-estimate.

World Bank project “institutionalised corruption”

Ramesh’s initiatives are welcomed by wildlife experts, apart from the possible involvement of the World Bank, which is condemned by many environmentalists in India. 

Belinda Wright  blames it for “financing the devastation of huge swathes of tiger habitat without any accountability or comment,” and adds: “Along with its fossil fuel projects, dams and highways, the Bank is not – and never has been – good news for the tiger”.

It does seem odd that India is bending to pressures to allow the World Bank to become involved in wildlife conservation. The Bank has no expertise that is not already available in the country, or that could be brought in from specialist conservation organisations abroad, and its record in forest management is dismal.

“The Bank’s forestry programmes in India single-handedly institutionalised corruption in the Forest Department, and took it took its eye off the ball as far as protection and forest management is concerned,” says one environmentalist.

As I mentioned in my post two days ago, Ramesh is sometimes criticised for being too prone to fall into line with the wishes of the US government. It would be a pity if that leads him to allow the World Bank into an area where it arguably is not needed – unless he can put together a cogent argument about why the bank’s involvement would be good for India.

Just saying, as some observers are doing, that Robert Zoellick, the World Bank president, is pushing for a role in India because he is personally interested in tigers,  is surely not enough.

Despite that controversy however, Ramesh has to be regarded as one of the main stars of the current government – and just what India’s environment needs.