This wasn't a forest I had been planning on visiting for a long time. But when I started digging about Pilibhit Tiger Reserve, I also came across the fact that this was 50-60 km from Pilibhit in Nepal. This had some rare species which are not available in Pilibhit. So, I figured it would probably be a good day tour for me after having had my fill of Pilibhit. One of the guides in Pilibhit had already made some arrangements and taken necessary permissions from the forest department for the visit. Moreover, I was already in touch with another person regarding the sightings in the forest. So, that was that and I was good to go on the 4th of April while I was still at Chuka Forest Lodge in Pilibhit Tiger Reserve.
ABOUT SHUKLPHANTA NATIONAL PARK
It was a Royal Hunting Reserve in Nepal for the ruling class in 1969. It has been identified as a UNESCO World Heritage site for its terrific biodiversity boasting several species of flora and fauna and is a National Park since 2017. It has around 550-600 square kilometers of forest area with 305 square kilometers as the core area. It consists of of open grasslands, forests, riverbeds and tropical wetlands at an elevation of 571 to 4, 547 ft. The main grassland called Sukla Phanta is the largest patch of continuous grassland in Nepal covering an area of about 16 square kilometers. The forest has linkage to Pilibhit Tiger Reserve on one side. On the other side, surrounding it are Himalayan mountains in Nepal.
The forest also boasts of the biggest congregation of Western / Northern Swamp Deer with more than 2300 individuals. Once upon a time, Shuklaphanta was known as one of the major habitats of tigers in Asia. In 2002, there were 26 adult tigers in the park. But it gradually decreased due to human encroachment and then bounced back up again rising from 8 in 2008 to 19 currently. Similarly, there are probably around 20 odd each of rhinoceros and leopards here as well to go with 24 elephants. So, the rare species here are really rare. It also has several intriguing species of birds, reptiles and other mammals. The prey base here is still incredibly good.
I was also further intrigued to find this was the birthplace of the
"Champawat Man-Eating Tigress" whom Jim Corbett finally shot down in 1907. The tigress had turned man-eater owing to broken canines from a bullet wound and her subsequent inability to hunt normal prey had made her turn on humans. She had become so bold in her exploits that she had started killing humans in broad daylight. As a child, I was very fascinated by the tigress's exploits in the book "Man-Eaters of Kumaon" who claimed 200 victims in Nepal alone. Where hunters failed, the royal Nepalese army were called on, to drive her away. She then entered India where she claimed a further 236 victims before finally being killed by Jim Corbett in his prime after several specialists, bounty hunters and army people had failed. Her total tally of 436 victims is still a Guinness book world record.
MY EXPERIENCE
It gave me a very epic kind of feeling to be visiting the same forest that engendered the "Champawat Man-Eater". I got ready by around 4 a.m. on 4th April at the lodge at Pilibhit. The guide here was going to be the acting driver to Shuklaphanta. We set out at 4.45 a.m. on a sparsely crowded road on our way to Nepal. The entry to Nepal is through Banbasa in Champawat district in Uttarakhand. At the border, one has to cross a bridge after completing some paperwork at 1-2 places. After crossing the bridge also, we had to complete paperwork at a couple of places. My ID and Covid vaccination certificate were also required. Even though we had reached the Nepal border by around 7 a.m. (before sunrise), we could enter the park only at around 8.15 A.M. after packing some lunch. A full day safari is the only way to do one here. It also costs Rs. 12-12.5k in an open gypsy which is quite high for single safari, compared to safaris at other places.
So, we finally did enter the park, not knowing what to expect. There are a lot of rare species here, but their numbers are not that high for me to have had some super expectations. I just wanted to see why it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and hopefully see some rare species not seen in Pilibhit Tiger Reserve. Of course, another encounter with the tiger was always welcome. One never tires of those, but with relatively low numbers one doesn't know what to expect. That wasn't my main expectation, even though tiger sightings had increased in the last couple of weeks.
I must say I was quite encouraged by the start to our safari. The villagers at the forest outskirts had incidentally just caught a big python which had entered the village. They had then let it loose at the entrance of the safari gate. But for some reason, it was fooling around in one green patch by first coiling around a set of broken car remains and then wandering here and there. So, every now and then a villager was trying to guide it back to the right path so that it could return to the forest. We took this opportunity for some good shots. A huge python was my last expectation for the start of a safari.
We moved on and it seemed business as usual, with a wild boar, some monkeys, lapwings and peacocks along the way. I saw a group of parakeets flying to my right and a drongo in the distance. A serpent eagle suddenly flew away to my left. Clearly, this forest was not lacking in wildlife. Even though this is also part of the Terai landscape, there were a lot of open areas in this forest with some trees interspersed in between as opposed to Pilibhit where open spaces were far and few to come by. Because of the lack of tree density, mornings were also much hotter here, like they should be, in the middle of summer.
As we were casually glancing around and moving ahead, out of the blue, we saw a leopard appear in the distance who crossed the road in a not too brisk manner. But by the time we reached the place where it had crossed, it had disappeared into the undergrowth on the right. Imagine the odds of seeing one, when there are probably less than 20 in the whole forest. We decided we would wait a while to see if it re-emerged from the right. We were also imagining it would be a good scene if it did so, considering the beautiful landscape. However, the leopard had other ideas. The Nepal guide felt he had moved on and the Indian guide (acting driver) felt he might still be hiding in the undergrowth. So, we waited for a while. But ultimately moving on felt like a better option as if the leopard were still around, it wasn't coming out and if it had moved on, like 1 guide mentioned, then that was that. We did move on at the behest of the Nepal guide, as he probably knew his forest best.
Going further, it had become late morning and we came across several birds and wild boar. A stork billed Kingfisher and a Great Slaty Woodpecker were also among those spotted. Not very common sightings at all. We stopped at a pond. This was one of the known sites for crocodiles and rhinos. But there were none here today. A black jackaw and a cormorant greeted us. We could also see a white egret or a heron in the distance. After waiting awhile, we moved on.
On the way, we saw pug marks of a rhino, a leopard, deer and human footprints, all in close proximity to each other. Partly overlapping. I hadn't seen so many different species footprints together in any other forest thus far. We moved on to another waterhole and it was almost afternoon. This had some wild boars which quickly rushed away upon seeing us. We next visited another waterhole and went up the nearby machaan and waited. It was quite sunny now, so no animals in sight. A wild boar ran across in front of us with great urgency. All these waterholes were close to the main river, which we were building up towards. We decided we'll climb up the machaan, have lunch and wait there for a while. I got to know most rhino sightings happened at this waterhole, as per camera trappings stats. We could see a few spotted deer closing in on the waterhole from a distance.
1 important thing we realised is that there were no monkeys / langurs in the jungle. So, the relay warning calls that were somewhat reliable indicators in other jungles between various deer-peacock-monkey teams was not present here. There were no arboreal animals who'd sound the calls. Just some on land occasionally. That was a major detriment in tracking the big cats. After a while, when nothing seemed to give, we decided we'd move on.
We came to another waterhole. This one had some shady patches and seemed like a better option for visiting animals. Just as we were waiting on a machaan, the guide warned of an approaching rhino. It quietly came through the tall grasses, barely visible munching grass all the while, like we chew bubble gum. It eventually entered the water and the stage was set for us to click several pictures. We eventually approached the rhino closer on foot, as it seemed quite calm and there appeared to be no apparent sign of any other predator. The rhino seemed to be ok with it. It was 20-25 feet away from us in the water. Eventually, however, it turned and got back up on the land. It just stood munching amidst the grasses.
We decided we'd head towards the river, which could be a potential site for rhinos, elephants or tigers. On the way, we caught sight of an emerald dove. Not very common. On the right, we suddenly came across 2 footprints of an adult elephant in a depression like area. The elephant had maybe slipped momentarily, before lifting its legs up from the ditch. That would explain only 2 footprints in the wet ditch and no footprints on the relatively harder soil above it (which might've been where it was walking). These thoughts were running through my mind. We eventually came to a place close to the river shores, where we were asked to disembark. How things worked here, is we were supposed to go to quiet place along the river and sit there silently observing here and there for approaching animals. On the banks, across the river there were tall grasslands. Elephants or tigers could materialize from there or the sandy shores on either side, I was told. The river looked shallow, but there could be crocodiles along the edges, I learnt. We did get down and descend towards the river for while. Before doing so, we could see some tiger scratch marks between leaves close to where we were standing. A tiger had been here. The Nepal guide had taken up a stick in case of any emergency and we descended towards the river banks. We were supposed to get up on a machaan to survey the environs. But this machaan was broken. So, we waited beneath a tree. The Nepal guide still cilmbed up the tree to do his own survey. I and the Indian guide waited below. I also picked up a stick, just in case. Waiting for a tiger on foot is something I'd not done before. The views from the river banks were quite beautiful. All of a sudden, a jungle fowl started sounding some alarm calls. The Indian guide listened intently for a while. He concluded it was either an eagle or a tiger, although they were not really known to sound calls for the tigers. Maybe here, in absence of more reliable warners. The monkeys were mostly concentrated around the villages in this forest. Not deep in the forests. Eventually, we headed towards the grasslands. On the way, we saw a huge pile of tiger scat, not very old, indicating the tiger which had visited the river earlier, was pretty big.
The humongous stretch of grasslands are the main attraction here. If we had entered the forest earlier in the morning, we may have made an earlier visit. But considering our late entry, we had left this for the last. We noticed several birds and deer along the way. No sign of the swamp deer yet. Upon reaching the grasslands, we understood why it is so famous. It is indeed a sight to behold! It is so vast that it is difficult to make out the boundaries of the grasslands as you enter it. We saw several rare birds in the grasslands and occasionally some spotted deer. Upon reaching a waterhole, we climbed a machaan. We sighted several birds on trees in the distance and a large group of swamp deer, marching ahead. After waiting at the waterhole for a while, we understood the tiger may not be around. We moved on ahead to a seemingly never-ending route. We again came across a certain point on the way where we saw tracks of rhinos, elephants and tigers. All of them fairly fresh! Again a case of overlapping pug marks of multiple rare species at one spot. Hopeful, we moved ahead. Elephant dung greeted us next. These were fresh. The tiger tracks were also visible. The Indian guide suspected that we would see an elephant soon. Upon continuing, we came across more deer, birds and other herds of swamp deer. There were no close sightings of the swamp deer.
We were about to exit the grasslands when a person at the checkpost mentioned about elephants in the distance. At a fair distance, I took some zoomed shots upon spotting them. Only 1 male elephant was visible. Now, we had some close sightings of spotted deer. It was 4.50 p.m. We hadn't moved much further when there were warning calls from the deer. Probably a tiger had been spotted by a group of deer close by. We waited and then moved on. There were some irregular tiger tracks on our path. The road was not that smooth now. On moving ahead, the driver found fresh pug marks of the tiger in our path. We sped ahead to hopefully catch sight of it while keeping a lookout at the sides. At one point, to the left of us, there were continuous warning calls by the spotted deer, as they moved gradually towards our left. We stopped the car and waited. This went on for some time and we thought something may materialize. We moved on, our aim being to exit the park by 5.30 p.m. as we would then have to cross the Nepal border by 6.30 p.m. The safari eventually came to a close with no other significant sighting and we reached Chuka lodge in Pilibhit again after going through Uttarakhand.
I felt quite tired and retired to bed early. I had been up since 3 a.m. that day. I woke up in no hurry the next day and packed up. After completing formalities, I bid farewell to the people and was off to Bareilley Airport. I reached Bangalore later that day.
UNIQUE TAKEAWAYS
-> Animals here are a bit wary of humans as the forest although beautiful, doesn't have too many visitors.
->The dearth of monkeys reduces the number of quality warning calls for predators, deep in the forest. One mostly has to rely on spots, deer and peacocks for the same.
->There are residential cottages here too, if one should choose that way to make this trip.
->Even though the rare species animal numbers are low, it is a happening place and not lacking in action.
->Both the variety of flora and fauna here are quite respectable.
All in all, a great day outing where I sighted quite a few rare species even though their numbers weren't really super favourable in that forest. 1 python, 1 elephant, 1 rhino and 1 leopard made for a decent reading in a forest where I had no specific objective other than checking it out as it was a UNESCO World Heritage Site. So, this is what the Champawat Man-Eater's home looked like! Hmmm, I would probably rate it almost a 4 / 5. #myopinion
