Off beaten track

Tranquility Swirling fog, reflections of bare trees in the water, the cry of birds in the distance, placid Nilgai and Chital feeding in the swamp, a lonely Indian Rock Python by the side of the road; all haunting images of a beautiful bird sanctuary.  This placid and almost utopian image was shattered by gunfire in the past and today by loud music, groups of people drowning out the jabber of jungle babblers with human cacophony; the careless flick of a tourist wrist throwing a plastic wrapper destined to choke an unwary bird to a very unpleasant death.  Jungle Babblers and Indian Magpie beg the passerby for a morsel, having lost the art of foraging as they've grown used to eating 'fast food' thrown at them by visitors. On a holiday it is obvious that most people come here to see and do everything except watch the birds or enjoy the placidity of nature. I saw couples and groups, most here just for the sake of being here, "Bharatpur dekha".  Jungle Babbler begging t...

A view of  Table Mountain from the Lower Cable Car Station. This is the start of the climb. Table Mountain is an iconic landmark towering in grandeur above Cape Town, the southernmost tip of South Africa, exudes a powerful but inviting presence.   Its slopes have wildlife, an exquisite range of flora and the homes of the rich and famous. Even today, despite human habitation creeping up its slopes, it is an imposing sight, particularly from the suburbs of Cape Town.   Huge blocks of stone, almost artificially cuboid, make up the steep cliffs crowning the summit.    Presiding majestically over the city of Cape Town, adventurers will feel compelled to conquer the giant by walking to its summit. Take the cable car back to the bottom if your legs are too tired to descend on foot, which is what I did. After a short while looking down at the  lower cable car station. The view of Table Mountain is an ever changing kaleidoscope of vistas, sometimes clear and stark s...

The Indian One Horned Rhino   Kaziranga   National Park  is synonymous with the great Indian one-horned rhinoceros, the only place in the world where you can see such large numbers of this battle tank like behemoth.    The park is in  Assam  and covers an area of 430 Sq kms along the river  Brahmaputra  on the North and the Karbi Anglong hills on the South. The best way to get there would be via Guwahati and Tezpur.    The many places to stay around the park would suit most budgets and levels of luxury. I recommend staying as close to the park as possible to get in an early morning elephant safari.   There is a view point on the highway approaching the park from where one gets a magnificent preview of the wildlife one is about to experience. From here one sees an enormous expanse of wetland with myriad birds and varieties of animals peacefully coexisting; we saw rhino, wild buffalo, a variety of deer and even a fox all at the s...

An elephant feeds in a villu in Wilpattu, for me a timeless image of what once was and can be if we do everything we can to protect our natural heritage for future generations.

Came across an interesting Tumblr site geared towards documenting the excesses in our parks and wild places, click here to see photos and also submit. There's been a lot of issues recently with idiotic jeep drivers in Yala injuring passengers and killing animals including leopards while speeding. You can visit Sri Lankan Wildlife on facebook to see some interesting discussions. The bottom line is that we who visit are those who are responsible for this. I personally was guilty and will be posting about this shortly as well. What can YOU do? 1) Ask your jeep driver to switch of their phone and not to speed. 2) Keep in mind the closing time for the park and ask your driver to make sure he is near the exit as the safari ends so he does not have to speed to get out of the park. 3) Keep in mind that a photograph is just a photograph and a leopard does not sum up Yala National Park, 4) Ask your friends to the same. 5) Take photographs of anything that is not being done correctly in the...

Shards of living glass Dive any reef or wreck in Colombo and you will see them. Small shoals of shining glass fish, shining that is when the light hits them. They blink in and out of existence as the light hits them for a kaleidoscopic experience that is sometimes unreal, especially when they congregate in a huge shoal that engulfs you and surrounds you in small shards of sunlight. Glass fish on a reef Glass fish and cardinal fish on the Cargo wreck Usually the glass fish aren�t so spectacular, they hang around in a group of about a dozen close to any sort of crevasse on the reef or �caves� formed on wrecks by the structure of the sunken ship. Presumably they do this for shelter with a place to retreat to if a predator attacks. What they don�t seem to realize is that their shelter is most often where the attack is launched from. You don�t have to look too closely at the crevacess and cracks to see them. The groupers lie there innocuously, seemingly somnambulant. Blue line groupers are ...