A Monsoon in Corbett

Place: Jim's Jungle Retreat

Quarterly Update: Imran Khan

The sweltering summer months of May & June will soon give way to dramatically different weather. The rains, when they arrive with torrential force in the hilly terrain of Corbett, will play havoc with the road networks within the park, providing much-needed respite from human intrusion.

The first few showers also trigger breeding patterns of the area's herbivore and avian species. A new green envelops the trees, while the undergrowth turns lush with sprightly shoots and new food resources. Dry riverbeds and channels now course with tumbling, muddy waters, deep pools and dark necklace-shaped cloisters of fish fingerling.

DANGEROUS TIME

However, this period is of major concern for park authorities. With the collapse of its internal road network, the rains also bring a most vulnerable time for the park, when anti-social elements are bent upon damaging nature in several ways. Indeed, tourism forms an important conservation tool at this time of the year, the safari-goers keeping check on illegal activities.

Closing the park has ecological significance, no doubt, as it provides significant time of undisturbed peace for wildlife. However, a limited presence of visitors actually acts as a deterrent to anti-social elements. A raging debate over the pros and cons of human interference has finally given way to a controlled visitor presence in the park during the rainy months. This could be of vital importance in providing tourist and forest guard patrolling in some areas of the park.

The Jhirna tourism zone, about 2km from Jim's Jungle Retreat, is open the entire year. We also await a decision on whether night safaris will be allowed in the park. The authorities seem to have concluded that limited night drives with forest guards in every vehicle would be beneficial to the park's dwellers, providing much-needed patrolling at a dangerous time for wildlife.

OF DEER HAREMS AND BIRD NESTS

As the village folk get busy with their seasonal planting, either paddy or soybean crops, the determinant being the extent of rains, rutting calls of stags can be heard with increasing frequency within the forest depths. Rains also bring with them squads of insects, their presence in the dense vegetation forcing animals to take refuge in open areas, especially in the teak plantations and on highways.

Animal sightings are therefore great in open areas during safaris. Corbett’s ungulates such as deer, boars and antelopes, get busy with their breeding, a cycle triggered with the first few showers of rain. Male deer like the cheetal and sambhar make fabulous displays of their antlers, to seduce and entice, by garlanding them with the profuse vegetation of the monsoon. Except for the kakar, or the barking deer, most deer species are now forming their harems. (The kakar pairs with one partner each season.) For the rest, fighting males make big displays of their dominance, locking antlers with any challenger, making this one of the most common sights.

Many of the smaller birds are also breeding at this time and in a few weeks from now mother and chicks will be a common sight. The profuseness in ground vegetation and a rising insect population provide ample feeding opportunity to insectivorous birds at this crucial breeding time. Quails, patridges, pheasants, raptors, owls, parakeets, barbets, etc. are seen with their chicks in the beginning of the season while many of the cuckoos are busy finding other bird-nests to lay their eggs.

This also is the time to look for new nests on the ground. The Eurasian thick-knee, one of the most conspicuous birds on the ground, gets busy distracting the attention of jackals approaching towards its nest by putting a wing under one of its feet as if it is injured.

TIGERS & TUSKERS

With the nullahs and other water courses cutting forest roads and highways across, flash floods are increasingly common.

Solitary elephant tuskers begin their courting rituals now, determined to fight to protect its harem. During the monsoon, elephants herds, their dominant male at the centre, move together in search of fodder. The Jhirna tourism zone produces excellent elephant sightings during this time. The excitement builds when loner makhanas – giant but tusk-less males - try and join a herd but are strongly rebuffed.

Tigers have no fixed breeding time and they may breed anytime of the year depending upon the availability of prey and water. Plenty of water keeps them cool during this sultry weather. But due to the vegetation’s denseness and excess water availability, tiger sightings begin to slow down. However, our walking safaris in the forest alongside Jim’s Jungle Retreat have fetched excellent tiger sightings in the past.

Meantime, as the rains fill up snake burrows, forcing them out, there are plenty of young frogs to feast on as they too begin to emerge from newly-created monsoon ponds. King Cobra and python sightings increase at this time. A recent sighting of a King Cobra killing and swallowing a Monitor lizard happened just about a week ago and was witnessed and photographed by one our guests, Manik Kaur Harika. Thanks much for your photographs! A rare sight indeed.

Summertime in Corbett

Photo: Majid Hussain

Place: Jim's Jungle Retreat

Quarterly Update: Imran Khan

The onset of summer not only brings rising temperatures but a certain degree of distress for Corbett Tiger Reserve’s wildlife and intricate ecological changes of our flora and fauna. A severe lack of water this year – in part thanks to the lagging monsoon and near neglible winter rains – has played havoc with human and wildlife.

For the farmer, the Rabi crop yield was a reduction from previous years, while profuse forest fires have taken a serious toll inside the national park. It seems a certain lack of preparedness – with non-clearance of fire lines on time, was the major reason for the uncontrollable spread of fire.

GLOBAL WARMING TURNS UP THE HEAT

Meantime, the effects of global warming were seen in December-January when Tendu (Diospyros melanoxylon or Indian Ebony tree or bidi patta) started fruiting while sloth bears (Melursus urcinus) were still in hibernation. Similarly Sal (Shorea robusta or the Reliable timber tree), the area’s dominant tree, did not begin flowering until the first week of May, when it should have been in flower by late March!

Importantly, the above changes do have a bearing on the population density as well as sighting of animals in Corbett’s tourism zones.

Tiger sightings in the Dhikala zone have drastically gone down owing to the untimely and mysterious deaths of four young tigers during the December-January period. Sightings in Jhirna are erratic owing to water shortage issues, while sightings in Bijrani have suffered because of similar reasons. Young and powerful tigers occupy the main water sources while the weaker ones move out to look for water or become opportunistic while taking their share of water from others territory.

LATE BLOOMERS

The delayed flowering of Sal might result in late seed dispersal. But there are other dry and moist decidous trees, associates of the Sal, that also flower at this time. Amaltas (Cassia fistula or Indian Laburnum) flower along with Shisham (Dalbergia sissoo or North Indian Rose Wood), Kusum (Schleichera oleosa or Indian Lac), Haldu (Adina cordifolia or Indian Turmeric) besides Dhak (Butea monsperma or Flame of the Forest).

The Dhak or Pallas’s tree are striking to look at, their red fire flowers visible from a distance. As you approach a Dhak-infested area, the forest appears to have caught fire. Bakuli (Anogeissus latifolia or Indian Axle Wood Tree), one of the associates of Sal also flower along with Semal (Salmalia malabarica or Indian Kappock tree) whose pods burst with flying “Budhias” (a child’s moniker for the floating cotton balls!) The Rohini (Mallotus phillippensis or mark of the Indian married woman tree) has started fruiting and offers excellent relief to the male elephant about to attain its state of ‘Musth’.

TIGER'S TALE

A part of the tiger’s summer routine is to find and secure a water source. Despite the low availability of water, tiger sighting in this period is regular as tigers follow marked routes when reaching water bodies, as is the case with the Patharwa Nulla water source, a stone’s throw from Jim’s Jungle Retreat. A beautiful male leopard near the retreat has also become resident because of water availability near the property.

A similar schedule has also been observed at the high bank or Gorkha Sot while on the way to Dhikala. In Bijrani, waterhole No. 6 and Garjia Sot are the most sought after vantage points for visitors and in Jhirna, a patient wait at the waterhole in Jarh Paharh as well as Kothirao watch tower have yielded good tiger sightings.

Photo: Majid Hussain

ELEPHANT BEAT

With harvesting done, agricultural fields on the park’s peripheries are now barren. But the elephant population continues to try its luck for bamboo outside the forests towards Dhela and Laldhang. Most elephant sightings in the last 20 days or so have occurred outside Jhirna and Bijrani tourism zones. Wild elephant populations, in small and medium-sized herds are seen frequently in the Dhikala zone.

An occasional big tusker can often be sighted in the vicinity of the largely female herds, giving an indication that the first pre-monsoon showers might well induce a fight among the males for their right over a elephant harem.

Serpent Eagle, Photo: Daleep Akoi

BIRDING PARADISE

On the birding front, some of the peninsular migrants such as paradise flycatcher, Indian pitta, brain fever bird or Common Hawk cuckoo, etc. have already arrived. The length of paradise flycatcher tails can be seen increasing as eclipsed males begin to change their colours. The Indian cuckoo or ‘kaphal pako’ bird have brought down the message from the hills that the Indian black current has ripened and its time to return to the hills!

Meantime, the Yellow-footed Green Pigeon and Emerald Dove species have begun their courtship rituals.

The bursting flowering of trees in the forest has kept the insectivorous birds busy, while this is the time for our resident raptor population to breed. One can hear the territorial calls and abrupt flights of the Changeable Hawk Eagle, Crested Serpent Eagle, Indian Honey Buzzard and the Pallas’s Fishing Eagle. The smallest raptor of Corbett, the Collared Falconet, also breeds at this time.

The Great Indian Hornbill and the Oriental Pied Hornbill are also seen on the top canopies of semi-evergreen trees. The Great Hornbills are very vocal in these months, looking out for a possible mate. Their call is similar to that of a Langur’s alarm on seeing a tiger!

Despite a lazy and often distressing summertime for the park’s wildlife, there is plenty of animal and bird behaviour to witness, discover and rejoice.

We hope to see you here soon! Thanks and happy sighting!