Travel through Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary

A continuation of travel to Munnar…

Following Anamalai Tiger Reserve, we entered the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary as well as the state of Kerala crossing the border check posts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary is facilitated with ecotourism where tourist can stay and enjoy wildlife from their rest houses and take safaris and hiking through forest. The Chinnar got its name from the river Chinnar, meaning small river, which travels long the northern edge of the sanctuary defining the state boundary of Tamil Nadu/Kerala by East-West.

(the monkey leaped on our car bonnet and we're force to roll up the windows)

It continues to be cloudy and slightly drizzle to keep environment wet as we travel for about 13km through the sanctuary and few kms from check post the Pambar River joins for company along the left side of the road and as we continue to elevate through hills the river travelled against us as gorge. We stopped at few places to watch the river flowing amid the wild forest and hills and at some places making beautiful waterfalls. Near the check post of the Sanctuary we are attracted to the handing bridges made for monkeys to cross the road, and we find couple of monkeys using the bridges, which remind me Valparai, where I saw the bridges made for same to the endangered Lion tailed macaques.  

With Eravikulam National Park to the south and Indira Gandhi Wildlife Sanctuary (Anamalai Tiger Reserve) to north and Kodaikanal Wildlife Sanctuary to east, Chinnar forms an integral part of 1187 sq. km of protected forests. The road from Udumalpet-Munnar passes though the sanctuary, divides it into nearly equal portions and the Chinnar and Pambar rivers being a perennial of the sanctuary leads to Amaravati Dam after merging at the interstate boundary. The Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary is home to 34 species of mammals including Tigers, Panthers, Elephants and Nilgiri Tahr and Indian star tortoise and mugger crocodiles live largely in the sanctuary.

A forest camp site is down the valley and close to the Pambar river

The Ecoregion of the sanctuary comprises mostly grassland and wet grasslands vegetation with 965 species of flowering plants and some South Western Ghats montane rain forest and moist deciduous forest and high sholas. The Maraoor sandalwood forest or reserve is located close to the sanctuary and Thoovanam waterfalls is a must watch for anyone on this route. More on later…

Pambar river creating little falls like flow

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Yellow Gate

Captured the gate during a detour around Vellore and the yellow gate, radiate through sunlight, caught my attention at glance, as I shot (using iphone) from moving car. The  gate lookalike belong to a residential or farm house since the road we took take us through hills and villages, flourished by farm lands.

The bush of orange flowers bloomed beside the gate is an additional attraction to the scene, enriched by coconut palms and banana trees proves the wealth of fertile soil, and being a hilly terrain is pulse to the environment.

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Summer Poem

P.s. The background image was shot around Nemeli in ECR (east coast road) during an evening.  

Pancha Pandava Hill Cave, Vilapakkam

Click all pics for enlargement

Following Delhi Gate, our next halt was at Pancha Pandava Hill Cave and Rock Sculptures at a small town called Vilapakkam, about 6 km travel on state highway 129 from Arcot towards Kannamangalam. About 25 km from Vellore, the hilly area was a flourishing Jain centre between 9^th and 11^th centuries which is evident from the inscriptions and Jain figures found on the caves here.

The name Pancha Pandava Hill is associated with Pandavas from Mahabharath, although the hill is locally called as Tiruppanmalai meaning scared milk hill. The rock cut cave temple is a large excavation, carved on the eastern side of the huge hillock. We couldn’t get close to the rock cut cave due to the development work and pavement building, but my mom managed to capture few shots on the face of cave from a distance.

There's a Jaina tirthankara figure on the top of the rock face (click pic) to see him seated in yogasana. And it suggest how strong the Jaina influenced this part of  Vellore

Built in Pallava style, the cave has a large mukhamandapa or hall supported by twelve pillars in two rows, but in picture above only the front pillars is visible. The pillars are uniformly square from top to bottom and have curved corbels above the pillars and pilasters, which is another style mostly seen in Mahendra caves. Except seven niches carved on the back wall of the cave is empty cells with square uncarved blocks as side walls.

A beautiful lily pond next to the rock cave 

Situated right beside the road, the hill and cave is hard to miss and the site is protected by fence on roadside with two small gate entrances. Apart the cave, there’s a natural cavern atop the hill which is converted into a tarn by the construction of a retaining wall and rest is turned into mosque that seem to attract local people for worship.  The staircase to the mosque is carved on rocks and at some places arranged with rocks.

The white building on  the left image is the mosque, shot from the rear side of the hill and rock cut stairs on  left images.

The rock cave and sculptures is protected by archaeological survey of India. And the development process right now hopes to attract more people to the site and make access easily, which perhaps get me closer if checked later.

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RGB Monday

One of the neighbour’s colourful Kolam drawn for the Pongal festival. I really liked the way they created a Pongal pot boiling over the firewood stove aside their colorful Kolam and I took this shot  in evening while  coming around our street and the Kolam should have perhaps drawn in the morning to look little  distorted.

Delhi Gate, Arcot

I wanted to check some places around Vellore and was planning from December to do the same but for some reasons it kept postponed. Finally on Sunday we made a trip.  Vellore is usually known for hot weather, due of the rocky terrain and hills surrounding the city, I don’t want to be burned visiting it rather than in winter or rainy (beginning from Oct to Jan) though the summer haven’t  kick started yet, we could feel the hot enough.

Our first stop was at Delhi Gate, near Arcot on the bank of river Palar. Delhi Gate is part of the fortification of Arcot, a region that has been battle ground for number of times, which result in construction of the fortress around Arcot. There were prolonged disputes between different dynasties fighting for the control of Arcot, also inspired the British and the French, however their battle was only for control of south India, the battle fought by the British using handful troops and Indian solders under the leadership of Robert Clive (to capture the Arcot) was claimed to be a remarkable battle in Indian history.

The side view of the delhi gate and the stairs lead to the room atop gate, shot from road

What’s really amazing about this battle was, Robet Clive, a clerk, who did not have any military experience and along with 8 inexperienced officers, won the battle against enormous forces using the strategies rather than his strength. The Siege of Arcot lasted fifty days beginning from Sep. 23, 1751 CE become a turning point in his life and later rise to become the Governor General of India. And he laid the foundation of the British Empire in India and ruled most of the country as the governor general.

You could see the inside of the arched gate, with a storeroom gate and boying playing cricket. Click the image to see the fortified ruins behind the fielding boys. 

Now, except the Delhi Gate, a gateway structure with a room atop and some ruined fortified walls and basement shattered around, there isn’t a trace for fort, or perhaps some other ruined parts may visible around the Arcot. The fort originally built by Mughal governor, Daud Khan Panni, in early 18^th century was destroyed by Tippu Sultan in 1783. And one of the remaining gates of the fort, called Delhi Gate, was named after to signify the beginning of the capture of Delhi by the British and the room atop the ached gate was the room of Robert Clive.

It was about 11 am when reached the Delhi Gate, but I didn’t get into the fort, which was fenced on the road side and have huge steps to climb in out. During the time of visit many youngsters were playing cricket between the gate and ruined fort walls, against the warning board place by the ASI   instructing that misusing the monument shall be punishable with imprisonment.   The Delhi gate has two storerooms inside the archway and two staircases, from outside leads to the room atop the gate. Locals believe there’s a tunnel from here goes up to Delhi and thus named after it, but it’s unproven.

Pongal Pot Light

During the Pongal festival I was thinking to do something different and got the idea of putting led lights on an old Pongal pot. It was the same serial light I used on the Christmas tree, and I put the rice led around the pot and cut pasted cello tapes here and there to keep the wire on place. For the overflowing part of the pot, I blocked the mouth of the pot with a bunch of white paper and stick lights around it.

First I placed it on the windowsill outside the home and then shifted it to the brick stove, that we used to make Pongal in morning with firewood at the courtyard. And it looked really good lighting from the shutdown brick stove and we left it that way for the four days of Pongal festival and people passing by the road too would have got a glimpse.

Linking this post for  Good Fences by Gosia... and you could see our sitout fence/rai in picture above

Super Blue Blood Moon and the Lunar Eclipse

Since I know that lunar eclipse is happening at the evening of Jan 31^st I decided not to miss the event and go to the beach to watch the moon across the vast sky and capture the best I could.  Likewise we checked the shoreline by 6pm and there wasn’t a sign of rising moon and the sudden clouds were covered up as well. Thinking that we aren’t chanced to witness the spectacle, went on a short ride on ECR and even checked the Uthandi beach but still couldn’t seen the moon.  At last taking a U-turn before the tollgate, received a call from cousin have we watching the super blue blood moon swallowed by the shadow of earth? We rushed to the Palavakkam beach and the moon was almost up in the sky and masked in red shade.

I actually wanted to watch the entire show (from the moon rising above the sea) but wondered what happened in middle, we could only watch the unveiling show of the moon. I captured the moon from inside the car, through the windshield I couldn’t get enough detail but I was content with the night mode I used on the moon. Though I wasn’t comfort on the position of shoot, as I captured from the sedan (car) seat that had little access for me to use the camera, I was happy with the angle of moon which only made way for shoot. Being a SUV guy, for last 9 years, with high seating position, shooting with camera was somehow comfort but the sedan’s low seat wasn’t favourable to shoot.

My brother has bought a Volkswagen Vento and he wants to take us out and with a natural event ahead we decided to give a shot. The car gives pleasant ride and soothes even on rough roads, but the only problem was, being a low seating position the ingress and egress was very difficult and taking photos too become trouble. We still have the SUV and were seriously looking for a MPV to turn it into a wheelchair accessible where I could travel without transfer into the car seat. Hope you liked the photos on the moon.

Pongal Kolams for RGB Monday

Here is mom’s Pongal Kolams that she drew for the Pongal festival. As I told in my previous post mom took enough diligence to make all the 4 kolams, two at night and another two in morning along our courtyard and gateway. I know I was pretty slow with blogging these days but hope to be active in coming days and for RGB  Monday, I think this post had more  than enough colors to keep  away the Monday blue, but I know Monday is gonna end in  less than an hour. lol

The rose flowers kolam was put on the ramp in front of the house

The Pongal pot along  with sugarcanes and turmeric plants upon which we made pongal using firewood stove.

Peacock drawing/kolam at the upstairs door front

Pongal pot and flower Kolam at our doorstep

The same Pongal pot and flower Kolam (as seen above)  before added colors

Pongal Post

(Click pics for enlarge)

I don’t think it’s too late to post on Pongal, held last week. As always it was three of us (me, mom and dad) celebrated the harvesting and thanksgiving festival by making Pongal (boiling of rice and milk) at the courtyard using firewood on bricks stove. My brother was out of town, though he isn’t interested in festivals general, I love the tradition of making Pongal esp. in mud pot in open space as a sign of thanking the foremost nature source sun. I always feel festivals are to celebrate and it’s an occasion to be happy, at least for a while keeping away things that put us down or race life. Pongal isn’t a religious festival to celebrate independently at home and some are so reserved to come out to  show up cheers while sending greetings and I believe it’s celebration of nature and thanksgiving the farmers and cattle’s in supporting the production of food crop.

From night to morning mom drew 4 kolam along the courtyard and gateway, two before went to sleep and two at early morning. I will make a post of it later and here you could see the Pongal boiling/overflowing out of the pot. The days of Pongal passed by watch few movies and TV shows, and alike last year I went around our streets to check neighbours Kolam, but couldn’t see many unlike previous Pongal. The first photo here was the Kolam of my nearby neighbour, though it’s not a colourful kolam, I like the beautiful pattern and neat finishing from this young lady. The backstreet boys conducted Pongal festival contest, just like last year on Mattu Pongal day instead on Pongal and being a weekend along with festival many were out of town and it wasn’t interesting though and contests also went on untimed for people to participate. 

Kolam Critters

Kolam is a south Indian tradition and Tamils made it an everyday custom to draw patterns in front of the houses and Margazhi is a Tamil month (between Dec-Jan) where Kolam takes special attention and ends with Pongal, the harvesting and thanksgiving festival of Tamil. Pongal Kolam is popular during this time and many put great efforts to make it look wonderful and colourful including drawing something relevant to the festival. Today marks the first day of the Pongal, called Bogi Pongal, and it’s a favourite festival among kids till late 90s where people light fire in front of the house and kids sit around and enjoy beating little skin drums, heating up from the fire.

Usually it’s the worn-out things (from home) that put into fire, like rush mats, winnows and broomsticks the most. It’s a festival adapts nature way of celebration and what we fire is all natural elements, that carries less evil to nature. But it wasn’t same in later years, when people started to fire anything from plastic to tyres it becomes a cause for concern. Apart that, Pongal is an auspicious festival that bring hope to life and being a harvesting festival, nothing could bring hope and cheer to life when farming is the base of food and we couldn’t stop thanking the farmers and natural sources that help us living, healthily.

Coming to Kolam, I always admire the art made on the floor and apart my mom, aunt and grandma also make lovely designs and the critters (cat and peacock) here was drawn by grandma. Though these are simple ones it bears a cuteness I loved. Every year mom draw one or two colour Kolams for Pongal and I have no idea what she planned to draw this year and I would post that after the festival. I wish people a Happy Pongal!  

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Anamalai Tiger Reserve, Amaravathi division

Back on my travel experience to Munnar, and like I told in my earlier post on same it was drizzling or slowly showering as we moved out of the Udumalapet guest house. As we loved the taste of the dinner from Hotel Ariya Bhavan there, we hadn’t anything to choose for breakfast and as I want to be around the Tiger Reserve as early possible we took parcel from the hotel and ate before we enter the forest area. The Anamalai Tiger Reserve here comes under Amaravathi division, which is a part of the Anamalai Hills, a range of mountains in the southern part of Western Ghats.

I have been to the other parts of Anamalai Tiger Reserve, including the tourist attracts Topslip and Valparai and I have even went to Amaravathi Dam and Crocodile park adjoining the Tiger Reserve. A ranger whom we met here took us on a brief ride into the forest when checking Amaravathi Nagar in 2008, but since I know the road from here goes to Munnar, I wanted to take this road when I travel to same. Actually it become a dream for me to take this road, as it passes through two wildlife sanctuaries, it would be a great opportunity to see wild animals at their abode.

Herd of deer staring at us through bushes (all pics can be enlarged)

I want to be there early in morning so that more animals could be sighted, but we couldn’t make up before 9 am, the time we reached the forest check post. While dad went to sign the register, the guard who came checking the car protested for taking our pet dog into the tiger reserve and he insist for veterinary certificate to give permit. We are told that allowing outside animals have a risk of spreading disease to other wild animals, if the one have any and the veterinary certificate is must to ensure the dog is healthy. But his higher officer just instructed to not let down the dog anywhere until moved out of the tiger reserve.

The traffic free forest road though Anamalai Tiger Reserve, and the border check post near Chinnar wildlife sanctuary

We could understand why they are strict with outside animals but we haven’t faced anything like this earlier even though we have stayed in Topslip (one of the core area), Valparai and Cloud Mountain with high fauna. We aren’t complaining anyway but rather happy that forest department is conscious in preserving the wild animals and this would help us be cautious in future travels with dog. The entire stretch of tiger reserve was wet and drizzling with haze, though the weather was pleasant it don’t give hand in spotting wild animals, perhaps they too don’t like dampness or hideaway in absence  of sunlight.

They told only in evening animals come into sight mostly or should be early in morning, but this unusual weather of showering and fog kept away the little opportunities. We encountered only couple of vehicles in opposite and few overtaking us, as we drove slowly, the road was far empty. The Anamalai Tiger Reserve is a blend of wet evergreen forest, marshes and grass lands covering a total area of 1479 sq. km includes a core area of 958. Sq. km and Amaravathi cover 172.5 sq. km.

Within few kms into the forest we saw a herd of Chital, aka spotted deer, staying and staring from the thicket. My cousin has keen eyes for deer, and alike many a time; he spotted the deer which could be easily missed. It looked like a family of deer, from fawns to well gown with big antlers. They stared at us for few seconds before turn their attention somewhere and marched forward. Where there’s lot of deer means a favourable circumstance for tigers, while deer’s are there favourite prey and according to the census the tiger reserve is home to 32-36 tigers. 

Few kms from there the backwaters of Amaravathi reservoir come to sight. Perhaps due to less water, it looked like swamp and guess animals would come visiting this place to drink water or feed on vegetation.

Vultures on prey

Our next stop was an encounter of vultures prey on some flesh at distance. First thought it was peahens but they haven’t look alike and this is the first time seeing vultures in wild. As we near the border check post (between Tamil Nadu and Kerala) found some peahens around grazing buffaloes, which we though was wild ones but realized soon it should belong to the people around check post. The Chinnar River that crosses here marks the border between the two states, from where the Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary begins – which could be my later post. 

RGB Monday

Festival Flags

Picture shot at neighbourhood. And these kinds of flags are tied during social events and festivals to create a celebration mood and to  mark the event.

RGB Monday is a meme created to keep away your Monday Blues and make feel colourful and yet cheerful! 

Fan of Visiri

The release of Visiri, a single video song from Tamil film Enai Noki Paayum Thota, has quite mesmerised me and to say I was addicted to this song or fell in love from the first time listening, it keeps going still. Already two songs from the film were released at various dates last year, but Visiri was simply breezy and has beautiful lyrics to be murmured. The music director of the film was kept secret until the Visiri released. Darbuka Siva has been a new comer composed these awesome songs. Moreover one of my favourite singers Shashaa has lent her voice to top notch…

Though GauthamMenon decided to give chance to a new comer rather following his usual Harish and ARR formula, the songs carries a similar scent or accent (which seems to ever wither) bearing the stamp of formers. More than watching the video I love listening from home theatre. 

Maruvaarthai is another beautiful, excellent foot tapping song and gives a feel of classic touched by stylish rhythm. Megha Akash, paired with Dhanush, is very pretty and admirable to watch ;) 

On New Year Occasion

A year has end and begin peacefully with great joy spread across, though nothing turned significantly different, a refreshing feel enters the vein as we accelerate into a new year, wishes and hopes bring new cheers into the life. The New Year eve was spent as usual in front of television; apart checking my cousins in next-street to greet on the occasion and receiving calls from other dear ones as we were awake till 1 am. News channels were live from different places on the sprite of New Year, and the beaches in neighbourhood (Marina and Elliot) was thronged by people and being a resident of Adyar, we could clearly hear the resound of rushing vehicles, blasting fireworks and aloud greetings   of New Year.

The colourful peacock Kolam in the picture above was drawn by my aunt in front of their house (and also our native home in next-street) which I shot at the New Year night. Due to very low light I couldn’t get clearer picture and I also used flash which went over exposed I feel. My mom also drew Kolam in front of our house but it was a simple one and uncoloured. For those unknown, Kolam is a pattern drawn in front of the houses, a traditional custom followed by the people of India and Kolam is a cultural identity of Tamil people and drawing colorful Kolam in front of the home is considered as auspicious and a sign of welcome during the festival seasons and events.

On January 1^st I went for a short ride on ECR (east coast road) and checked the Kovalam beach in evening. ECR being a scenic stretch of entertainment, there was heavy traffic on the road because of New Year and all entertainment hubs were crowded includes the toll gate with longstanding queues.  While parked at the beach, I find the sky beautiful and took some photos using the iPhone and I tried panorama and was really amazed by the light and colors of the sky. The setting of sunlight caused a great effect on the image, to only find a glowing sun as we moved out of the beach area and it continued for some time on the ECR before we took turn to The Great Salt Lake area, off the ECR.

It was such wonderful to see sun setting on the west and moon rising on east at same time. Being a full moon day, the moon was also at its full glory just like the reddish sun. Though I was taking photos on iPhone, I couldn’t get great details on both and the mild hazy winter weather took control even though the twilight sky was interesting watch throughout. Hope you enjoy the photos above and below on full moon.

Greetings for a new beginning

Let us begin with joy, peace and prosperous to prevail and to be grateful to what follow as shadow, as we put forth into a hopefully bright brand New Year, let splash with smiles and colors to paint a beautiful canvas called 2018.  Happy New Year

Nature Glow

Nature speaks its language
through swish swash trees,
write notes on leaves
through rays of light -
relayed its natural shade, green.

Reading is a pleasure
when books come from nature,
the lecture of birds
from the electric wires
teaches how to survive in wild.

Sunlight warms and warns
escapism is impossible,
in the glory of nature
rising up and down is eternal
where we can’t find fault.

Like half mowed beard
the mountain slopes,
cutting off trees, man-made tea
the refreshing brew
that treats different taste buds.

Mountain breeze take breath
through many curves 'n' bends,
the corridor of animals
turned roads, to complain
animals crossed the path!

Ps. The picture shot on a blissful morning in Cloud Mountain in march  2015 and  the poem was inspired on  same... and what you see was partially tea estates

Home Décor

Christmas is here and I wish you all Merry Christmas and advance Happy New Year. I generally like festivals and the happiness it provides. Decorating a Christmas tree is always fun and for last few years I started to put led lights to keep up the festival spirit and star to bight up the night. It’s my mom decorated the tree really but I enjoyed watching and telling her what to hang where. Here I share few photos from my simple home décor. Hope you all enjoy the holidays. Cheers! 

Collage on lighting and start

 

Mom's simple kolam