Encounters with Animals on Treks

A couple of days back I found myself reminiscing about all the ‘encounters’ on my treks with animals.

Reading back into my travelogues, I found I had almost always either intentionally left out describing these encounters or had underplayed the events.

So here are my chance meetings with animals on my treks, arranged in the order of scariest to silliest.

Rajhansa island, Chilika, Orissa (December 2012): 

This is a lovely island in the backwaters of Chilika. We had just made a boat journey from land’s end at Arkhakuda to Rambhartia, a beach on Rajhansa island which is a long strip of land between the backwaters and the Bay of Bengal. We had a couple of hours trek to the Rajhansa forest rest house from where we were to take a boat to Satpada through Irawadi dolphin territory. Our trek took a path touching the edge of the island from where we could see water and then away from the edge through the foliage. It was a lovely flat walk in an idyllic setting with cattle grazing every here and there. It was almost like a walk in the park till a bull in rage came charging towards the serpentine line of trekkers. The bull was definitely not aiming at us but his path would have cut across our ‘line’ for sure, the only question was where. The trek leader yelled, a few of us stood rooted to the spot and a few of us ran but for all the yelling and running I doubt the bull would have bypassed anyone in his line of rampage without some serious damage. Luckily the bull’s path cut across the line where there was a gap, a gap of less than 10 feet. We were a lucky lot to come out of that unhurt.

Juda Taloa (9,100 feet ASL), 4 KMS from village Saud (6,500 feet ASL),Uttrakhand (May 2008): 

We were trekking to Kedarkantha peak, a cool 12,500 feet ASL. We had reached the first camp after a day’s uphill trek from Saud village near Sankri. It was the month of May and it was lush green all around. I had reconnoitered the camp site earlier with a couple of trek mates, it was a lovely meadow, with a pond on one end with stagnate, greenish water with two tiny islands in the pond. A short way off was another meadow with a huge stone in the middle, then another meadow and then yet another, from where we could see the mountains of Swarga Rohini, Bandar Poonch and Kala Nag  and in this heavenly setting was a herd of cattle and horses grazing. At around 730 in the night, it wasn’t dark yet and we were having dinner near the pond when out of nowhere about 20 horses came charging our way. The camp leader yelled (all camp leaders yell well) and again for all the yelling we neither had time nor space to react. The horses were almost upon us as the yelling started and directly behind us was a vertical wall of the mountain, it was a typical between the rock and hard place situation. That day we were saved by a female dog, Bonny who barked, chased the horses and channeled them into a narrower space leaving us some space where we stood mutely watching her put her life in danger while she subdued the horses. The entire drama was played out in 10 seconds but there was no doubt in any of our minds that the advancing horses could have easily knocked us down and strode over us and that would still have been the least of the damage. Bonny saved us and miraculously she was unhurt too and completed the trek with us. Either she knew what she was doing or she got lucky as well. I would like to believe it was the former.

To round off this episode, the next day morning, the horses and trekkers had breakfast peacefully standing next to each other, the horses acted like nothing had happened the earlier day and we followed their example.

Some where in the Himalayas: 

I am beating myself up but am unable to recollect which trek this happened on. I remember the camp site clearly but just can’t recollect which trek or who my trek mates were. By a process of elimination I have zeroed down on Talouti in the Kedarkantha trek route. But I could be wrong. It was another picturesque camp, a small clearing in the middle of a high altitude forest. We had dined at 7PM while it was still bright and retired into the tents as darkness fell around us. We were having a wonderful time talking while awaiting hot chai before bed. That’s when the dog(s) started barking and within minutes…..guess what happened…..the camp leader started yelling. In another 5 minutes, the camp leader made his way to our tent asking us to stay put as there was a leopard close by, the dogs were apparently barking at the leopard. If it wasn’t for the fact that it was scary, it would have been funny. Why would dogs bark at a leopard? How would anyone realise what had set them off on a barking spree and if indeed there was a leopard so close what was the trek lead doing running between tents? And the all clear after about 20 minutes, did the leopard shake paws with the dog(s) and bid us good night? We never got to the truth of what happened that day, but those 20 minutes I got pretty close to experiencing the jungle in my head.

Bali Harchandi, Orissa (December 2012):

This is a Goddess Harchandi (Durga) temple on the coast line between Puri and Chilika. The nearest village is less than half a KM away but this place which is a bustling picnic spot during day transforms into a scene from horror movie at night. There is this lovely temple built on a higher ground, a couple of rest houses at its side, a pond a little way off, a few rest rooms in a building beside the pond and a couple of shops selling pooja material and other religious tidbits. A little way off on lower ground is a stream meandering into the ocean and there is a clearing from the temple to this stream offering a beautiful view. Add to this a heap load of rubbish that the picnickers generate and that completes the picture. During day, it felt like we were still in the midst of civilization, we were sleeping in a brick house as opposed to a tent, we had well constructed rest rooms, a short stroll brought us to farms and a nice village which even had a huge cyclone relief shelter. As night fell, things started to confound us.

First it was the unnatural friendship between cats and dogs there. There were lots of dogs and cats and they all seemed comfortable. A little too comfortable.

Then, there were these night time rituals in the temple, arthi with loud brass instruments which in itself is not out of the normal but what was strange was it happened within closed doors, then after the arthi, the cats were fed something, the dogs stood a little way off and waited for their turn. This temple is known for its tantric practices. 

When we headed to the rest rooms which were on the other side of the temple, we saw a dog right on the temple premises with a particularly bushy tail. We had company. As we walked the distance of 100 metres to the rest rooms, a couple of dogs accompanied us and so did the camp leader. Less than 200 metres away a pack of foxes waited, kept away only by the presence of dogs which were with us. That and rest of the night felt like a scene right out of ‘I am Legend’. The whole night the foxes kept howling, the dogs kept replying. It felt surreal, not even in a jungle, would the inhabitants create such a ruckus and draw so much attention towards themselves. This ‘encounter’ should have ranked higher but for the fact that at no point were we in real physical danger. I wonder if the foxes hound this place because of all the post-picnic leftovers. 

As day dawned, the orchestra ceased but the foxes were still around, taking their time to retract into the forest. As one drama was ending, there was another unfolding, there was a gorgeous sun, rising from the waters of the stream directly opposite to the temple. While rest of the folks watched from higher ground, another trekker and I made our way down to the stream about 300 metres away for better photographs. We spent a good 5 minutes facing the rising sun, least aware that we were being watched. As I turned to see my trek mates watching the sun, saw a fox sitting in the path and watching us less than 100 metres away. As we looked at each other, we sized each other up. In a matter of about 10 seconds both of us had worked out the possible escape routes. My fellow trekker was still photographing unaware of the fox’s presence. It was interesting how nobody from the higher ground made much of the drama being played in their line of sight. Were they still watching the ‘mundane’ sunrise? I was so intent on not being distracted I didn’t even think of clicking a photograph though the camera was in my hand. As the sun climbed and got stronger (it hardly takes a few minutes for that to happen) and we started walking back, the fox retreated into the foliage. As I neared the spot where the fox had been earlier, I looked into the foliage and saw the fox looking back at me. It was our goodbye to each other. Our paths had crossed and we chose to each respect the other and that was that. This is the only time I came face to face with a wild animal and a moment I will carry close to my heart. This episode should have ranked higher as well but for sake of continuity it’s here with the ‘I am legend’ affair.

Thandi Beri, Kumbhalgarh National Forest Reserve, Aravalis, Rajasthan (November 2012):

We were trekking in the Aravalis, the greener part of Rajasthan. We had started our trek from the famous Jain temple of Ranakpur through Maharana Pratap’s Kumbalgarh fort and had reached the last camp on the trek of Thandi Beri. There was a forest rest house where we were staying for the night. It was a well constructed building barricaded by grill all around as it was close to the forest. Just behind the building was a lovely pond with birds and even baby crocs. Especially beautiful was a nest constructed at a height on a stump rising from the water by a Woolly necked Stork couple. When we had to go back to the rest house for the night, I think I left a part of my heart there by the pond.

At dinner, the camp leader told us stories about how a leopard walked that way through the rest house every night at around 1130PM for a drink in the pond. When everyone had slept, a few of us ladies made plans to say hello to the leopard. We gathered our blankets and quietly made our way out to where the watchman was sleeping. We woke up the watchman and told him we would wait there for the leopard. He asked us to wake him up at 12AM. It was a chilly December night, we huddled together for warmth and started our vigil. There was a clear sky with a zillion stars, I watched the stars for a while, listened to the silence for a while, fought off the chill for a while, woke the watchman a few times to check if the leopard was still coming and giggled at the standard reply of ‘He’s coming’. Then around mid night, as fatigue caught up with us, we concluded it was a fruitless wait, cursed the watchman and went back to the safety of the rest house to sleep off the heartbreak from the missed rendezvous. The only new thing I saw that night was a shooting star. If indeed the story of the leopard was true, the leopard would have had more sense than to venture close to a place with the scent of about 30 humans, 7 of whom were waiting directly in his path. Leopard’s decision to not to turn up notwithstanding, what a stupid thing to have done?