I was fortunate enough to hear about the Great Himalayan Bird Count 2009 from a friend of mine. Since I had heard almost a month in advance, we set about planning and re-planning the entire trip. Thanks to the internet, I got all the information regarding our train journey.
Our train journey was going to start from Pune, halt at Delhi and then, to Dehradun. So, this means, we switched trains in Delhi. We quickly got our train booking done, partly online and partly through a friend’s uncle who works in Indian Railways. (Bless him!) With our tickets booked, we got down to some planning of our own, as to what all we would be doing and what all we could do in addition to the count.
I have rarely trekked with big groups. I have always preferred trekking in the company of a selected few friends. But this Bird Count had people from all over India coming in. So, this was definitely going to be a new experience. We reached Dehradun on 7th November, early morning. On our way, we had halted at Delhi, where a college friend was kind enough to host us at his place for the day. He, even, took us around Delhi, showed us the Delhi University where we spotted some nice butterflies and, also, to Janpath and the Natural History Museum. We caught the Dehradun AC Express from Nizammuddin at 11:30 (or so). The night journey was peaceful in the train and so we overslept, only to be woken up by fellow trekkers who had joined us from Mumbai. Quickly, we packed up our bags and took off. We reached the meeting after overspending 500/- due to our own stupid mistake. Thankfully, that was the only occasion where we wasted money on this trip. Touchwood. Money was an important factor in this trip as this was my first self financed trip.
At the briefing, the groups were decided. There were around 10 to 12 groups covering the Garhwal Himalaya. The trek route of the group I had opted for was Barkot-Jankichatti-Yamunotri. The briefing had taken half the day and, finally, we set out at lunch time for Barkot Forest Rest House. Barkot is a small town in Uttarkashi district in Uttarakhand. On the way there, we stopped at Mussourie around 3 pm, for some lovely aloo parathas and to take in the breathtaking view. The place we stopped at was called Mahak Bhojanalay and, was pretty reasonable. Next stop was a couple of hours later, when another group’s car broke down. After spending some time there, we moved on only to get down an hour later at Dhamta for tea and some snacks. This place was called Chauhan Restaurant and Lodge and was pretty decent plus it had a good toilet. (A very important point to be noted) And then finally, we made it to our destination for the day, Barkot, at 7.45 pm. We made it just in time because it seems that the police put road blocks after sundown to stop vehicles from travelling at night, since it is so dangerous with the deep valley on one side.
Barkot Forest Rest House was, simply put, homely. We freshened up and left for dinner. Most of our meals on this trip comprised of Aloo Paratha. The place where we ate was Avantika Bhojnalaya and Mr Uttam Rawat’s parathas reminded me of home. I can still feel their taste and my mouth still waters. If you ever find yourself in Barkot, that’s the place you should eat at. Then, we went back to the rest house to be greeted by a jackal who it turned out had his whole gang in the area. The next morning, he or one of his fellows was spotted again. Anyway, we turned in for the night and got some much needed rest. Before finally turning to bed, we decided to make some changes in the plan and head directly for Jankichatti and finish the trek to Yamunotri on the same day, in case, the weather played truant. And luckily for us, the decision favoured us.
Next day, early morning (5 am to be precise) we decided to do some birding. But it turned out to be a bad choice since we saw no birds. And then at 6, we find the Asian Barred Owlet perched right outside the rest house and being troubled by a Blue Whistling Thrush. With that we began our bird checklist which by the end of the trip consisted of 35 species. In the vicinity of the Rest House, we spotted Grey Headed Woodpecker, Brown Fronted Woodpecker, a group of Red Billed Blue Magpie, Black Lored Tit, and Great Tit. After a wholesome breakfast of mouth-watering parathas we set off for Jankichatti around 8 am. On the way we spotted the Red Billed Blue Magpie again, Himalyan Treepie, White capped Water Redstart, White Rumped Vulture hovering too far away, and Himalayan Bulbul. We stopped for tea on the way and there on the river bank we found a Crested Kingfisher on a rock. My list of lifers was increasing with each bird spotting. There we also found a lizard with its baby on a rock completely camouflaged. Beautiful sight! Soon after our tea break we chanced upon a flock of lorikeets.
And then, we drove on to Jankichatti, the base village of Yamunotri. And there we found a bird of prey that I have never seen- Lammergier. It was a sight to behold. The ease with which it glided over us left us gaping. It was gliding with a couple of Himalayan Griffons. Turns out, he hangs around in their company in order to pick on the left over’s after the Griffons are done. We quickly stashed our bags at the FRH over there, in order to start our trek. It was almost one in the afternoon when we started our ascent against the strong advice of the forest guard who said that this was not the right time and that we were too late. As it turned out, he was right but our team leader persisted. As things turned out, we trekked Yamunotri without food or water! Now, that I would say was an achievement in itself. The climb was difficult but wonderful. Up and up we went, through the winding stairway. How I wish we could have taken the forest route as I had really wanted to see the Himalayan Monal, their state bird. But it was not to be. So, up we climbed and spotted some Himalayan Langoors, Fantail Flycatcher, Himalayan Woodpecker and a few others. At around 4.30, we finally reached the temple on top and settled for some well earned rest. Thankfully, on our trip down we had the Forest guard to accompany us. We were too tired to go back and, hence, decided to stay back a bit. My friends decided to take a dip in the hot springs. Unfortunately, I couldn’t. But I did enjoy dipping my feet in there. It was so refreshing to feel such hot water in such freezing cold weather. Hats off to Mother Nature and geothermal energy!
By the time we started descending, it was dusk and our forest guard was way more than just apprehensive. With the light rapidly fading, we tried to walk as fast as our legs could take us. The apprehension was growing on all of us. And soon it was pitch dark. My Samsung Marine had a good light and that was the only light we had for a long way when I realised we had another torch. But it wasn’t much good. Nonetheless, we now had two torches among four of us. That was a fair number. So, down we went making as much sound as possible to keep the predator at bay. And the predator that I am referring to is the Common Leopard who did pay us a visit, ultimately. My friend had this feeling that we were being followed and I trust his instinct. We were almost at the foothill when I spotted a pair of eyes and he spotted a silhouette slinking away into the woods. The forest guard didn’t utter a word. He knew what it was, he had dreaded it and, now, all he could think of was getting away from this place as fast as we could. So, that is what we did. We were back safely in our FRH at around 7. I can still picture those eyes vividly.
After a hot dinner we discussed our trip so far and then hit the bed. It was a freezing night. I had hoped to start off early morning but that was not to be. We went to pay a visit to the Devi who usually resides at Yamunotri but in winter is brought down to Kharsi village, which was next door. We went around the entire village because our guide wasn’t sure where the Devi was as it is installed on rotational basis in various locations. Thanks to that, we got a good view of the village life there which seemed pretty nice. After the devout had paid their respects, we began our return journey. We had decided that we would do our 10 km trek from Barkot to Yamunotri on our way back but that was not to be. The weather changed and by the time we left, it had started drizzling and, later, we heard that it snowed there. We missed the snow due to our change in plan but if we had stuck to the earlier plan we would have missed our trek to Yamunotri as well. So, things turned out alright I guess. We were back in Barkot by 2 o’clock. And we whiled away our time as it was drizzling outside and we couldn’t do much. Our team leader was very apprehensive about any of us falling sick due to this change in weather, so we stayed put. Dinner as usual was at Mr. Rawat’s. And then we sat up till late night, compiling our checklist.
Next day, we were scheduled to meet the Forest officer, Mr G. Sonar. We discussed our trip with him and he shared some valuable information with us. It was nice talking to him. Breakfast at Rawat’s, and then we were off to Dehradun. We decided to stop intermittently to see if we could add to our checklist but in the end we gave up on the idea since we were seriously running late. We spotted Plumbeous water Redstart, Spotted Forktail Long Tailed Minivet, and Blue Throated Barbet. We had to be back in Dehradun for the final meeting. There we got a pleasant surprise, as it turned out that Tom Alter had graced the occasion with his brother. Turns out they are both nature enthusiasts. Each team’s leader presented his or her team’s experience on their respective treks. With that, concluded the Great Himalayan Bird Count 2009.
