The Crocodiles and Horn bills in Dandeli

Dandeli has a big Paper manufacturing unit of the West Coast Paper Mill. This Mill produces paper for stationary, print and packaging to. A lot of people are employed here.

So as any factory /manufacturing set up would, this factory also lets out so many effluents in the Kali river. While i will come to the environment aspect later, i will talk about what we were excited about.
Since there is a  lot of paper pulp released in this river. And there is one plot owned by one Mr Patil, which neighbours the spot where there is a  small place in which the paper pulp waste gets accumulated.
Over the years the crocodiles in the river have developed a  taste for this pulp and love to chew on it.

We went to this place and saw huge crocodiles lying around some swimming in and some just basking.

As i was reading up more about this peculiar taste of wild crocodiles, I have realised the negative impact of this practice to the nature. Rules on paper manufacturing are very strict  in countries like UK , US and Australia . The laws for paper mills in UK are so stringent regarding the effluents released and the wood used. 

The strong stench as you enter Dandeli tells you of the scale of pollution that has been caused. A study done has revealed that the ground water in a one kilometer stretch of the Kali river is contaminated. Some effluents are also known carcinogens.

Moving on, since this is an isolated stretch , a tree just above this spot is full of birds, we saw the Baya weaver nests. Below is one artist with its creation

This is a new and old nest

Anshi -Dandeli is also known for Horn bills. The Malabar grey horn bill and the great horn bills. So Mr Patil, from the Crocodile Hunk told us that many many hornbills will come at 6;00 pm and precisely, the Great hornbills started flying in...phew there were so many, that we were lost on which one to focus. we had an army of people telling us....Sir yahan..uncle yahan...mumma here look ,,there.. here , there! Despite the odds of poor lighting and not a very big lens and shaky hands, we managed to take a few good shots and loads of memories of this sight.

This pic is the Brahaminy Kite crown

Spinning its Web like i spin my world with words:)

PS: Our next destination was Goa. And this trip had the beach ,but a lot more too..

Anshi Dandeli / Kali Tiger Reserve

While Ankush has visited Dandeli before on a  trip with Vijay his friend, and let me tell you all a 9 day only boys trip, this was my first visit.

Did you all notice I wrote 9 days? well yes..9! While i get 2 or a maximum of  3 nights to go for my girls trip! Anyway, moving on, Kali tiger reserve gets its name from the river Kali that flows through it. This one is a  sight to behold its huge! I could just spend the whole day clicking pictures of the river from different places and angles- its beautiful.

The more time you spend with Nature the more you want to be with it. The fresh clean air, lush green trees, peaceful rustling . The treks we did are so memorable. The first morning in KTR, we took a guide and went for a short trek. I was way too sleepy to wake up but Anuva's enthusiasm was too contagious and compelling. So off went mummy rolling with everyone.



This tree is called the crocodile tree because of the texture of the bark

 The troopers

Type of Fungus

Left left left right left....

 Natures stencil

 This is a  fruit that is extremely poisonous to humans. Even a  lick causes death . However, monkeys love eating this and nothing happens to them.

Parasitic existence

LOVE...

So here we are walking in the woods hoping to see wild animals, maintaining silence and talking in whispers...and then we reach a point where we see a pool of papers from firecrackers and an immersed idol!

 Walking back the two kilometre trek... Famished!

After some scrumptious breakfast, we went in for some water fun to another  resort which has water sports.

While Ansh Ankush and a very keen Anuva went for the water activities..i decided to stay back and click

 Kali river..looks a beautiful green

Ores for Kayaking

 One enthusiastic young bunch of guys from Kerala..requested me to take their pics and i gladly obliged

Can you spot Ansh and Ankush

 YAY!

My little butterfly patiently waited for bhiya and appa to get back

The water level rises when the water is relesed in the SUPA dam. the water level rose a few inches even while we were there.

After finishing with the sports..we decided to just drive around in the area..and we went into the Dam colony. It is here , the shopkeeper from whom we were purchasing something curtly asked ,'TN vehicle? kaise aaya?" it was his tone which worried us...later in the evening all messages about the incidents spread and reached us like wild fire .

My next blog talks about an interesting thing of crocodiles we saw in the wild . Don't miss reading it

Jyothi Raj Aka the Spiderman of Karnataka Aka Kothi Raja (Monkey King)

Jyothi Raj is now fondly known as Kothi raja or Monkey king. Born in TamilNadu, Jyothi Raj's family moved to Chitradurg when he was about 6 yrs old. He took to climbing walls and fort naturally and says he learnt that looking at the monkeys.

He climbs up vertical walls without any harness and has climbed Karnataka's highest falls the jog falls in the opposite direction . He has climbed many tall buildings and was also a  participant of India's got Talent in 2010.

Dont miss these small clippings of him climbing up a  fort wall in ten seconds without any harness.

Here is the talent - more power to him.