" Aap Calcutta se Chakraborty
hai" - In reply of this sudden
question , dumbstruck, I just nodded positively , instruction came -- " Chaliye,
hume Bhaiji ne bheja" . Before I could realise , who was this "
Bhaiji”, why he had sent them for me, a stout broad shouldered young man picked up
my camera bag and his assistant almost grabbed
my heavy rucksack and in a wink of my eyes, he walked forward with large hasty
footsteps. As my life clinged to my camera bag, I had no other option but to
follow him with a great pace and get into the Innova parked on the other side
of the road . Immediate instruction was uttered afterwards to the driver,
" Circuit house" . Within 10 mn, the vehicle entered into the huge
compound of the circuit house. I was told to wait in the lobby , and the "
Boss" started to examine the rooms. A quick look of one room and discarding it with an irritated face
to check the other, the sequence continued for a while . After cancelling 4/5
such rooms, finally my luggage had been dropped in a huge literally a suite that could accommodate one
entire badminton court easily. Along with the electrical ceiling fan hanging
from a two story high ceiling, a big handmade decorative " Pankha"
was also there, the rope of which vanished in the Varanda, probably to the
hands of an invisible ghostly " Pankhapuller" . It may be that the authority earnestly tried
to maintain the flavour of British era till date.
With
an surging intention to photograph
Gharial and Indian Skimmer in Chambal National Park , when left Bharatpur just
after sunrise , the intangible veil of fog was so dense that even my own
wristwatch vanished in the white darkness. With passing time , the fog though lightened a bit, yet the weather was still
very dull and drowsy. Apart from the weather , there were lots of other
confusions against my trip. Chambal could not wipe its notorious past totally
out , so the security and safety of both the photographer and his equipments
were really doubtful--- well-wishers continuously gave evidences of so many
scary news. At last I dialed the number
of a long known senior forest official who once operated there in Chambal , and told me that in spite of this countrywide severe water pollution phase all over our
country, Chambal river is still clean enough. Anyway he assured me of my safety and I decided to set out for Dholpur , the
Rajasthan base for Chambal.
 |
| Dholpur Circuit House |
Lying
on the king sized bed of the circuit house, I was wondering about the incident
happened in the morning at bus stand ,
whether the entire phenomenon was blissful or fearful. And coincidentally as I looked outside just
like that, I found my two " abductors" peeping from the door. After
eye contact, they hesitantly entered into the room. I asked their identity and
whereabouts in the most possible polite manner. After initial uneasiness was
over, the extract of our conversation was - that senior forester requested one of his old acquaintance
to help me in my trip , that person is the " Bhaiyaji" of these two
" innocent kids" !!
After an early lunch , left the circuit
house with a very light mood. Now the only companion is Amit, the sole
controller of every single thing since our first meet at Dholpur bus
stand. While driving , he started to
open up slowly , told about Dholpur , about himself. At an age of mere 26 years
, he supervises the administration of three polytechnic colleges, one
engineering collage and five schools ,
as a part of his family business. Besides this he has stepped into active
politics as well. He couldn't suppress his frustration about the neglected
position of Dholpur in the state's tourisms map. He opined that, inspite of
having rich historical heritages, Rajput architectural marvels, spiritual
sites, it had not been highlighted properly.
In the meantime , our vehicle has
crossed the Chambal river and entered into the Morena district of Madhya
Pradesh part of the national park. Descending from the bridge we turned left,
driving carefully on a sandy path Amit parked the car in front of the forest
camp. Some miniature versions of circus tents , surrounded by ropes served the
purpose. After collecting the permit for the boat safari moved towards the
river bed ; to my utter surprise found a gigantic crocodile basking just
outside the rope boundary of the camp. Taking few snaps moved towards the
floating jetty, made from bright coloured plastic blocks which tosses at every
footstep. As all the boats were in the river , I had to wait for my turn to
come , so started to enjoy the fun of swinging jetty with continuous walk on
that. Boat came within fifteen minutes
and my Chambal safari started.
 |
| Boat safari on River Chambal |
Siyaram , the guide cum boatman of four
seat speed boat hailed from Morena. He informed that there was no skimmer
sighting in the entire area in last 3-4 days. Near the jetty gigantic pipeline
was withdrawing river water to supply in the Dholpur town. Few ruddyshel ducks
were swimming here and there. Though some local boys reached very close to them
with the help of air filled tube, they didn't get scared , neither flew away.
Our boat were also at an handshaking distance, but they allowed that proximity,
I got some descent frames. We moved forward and found a baby gharial basking on
its mother's back in a small islet. At another area ,saw a mixed flock of
innumerable spoonbill, river tern, lapwings and ruddyshel ducks to enjoy their
lunch. Gangetic dolphin sprung out of water several times with a flurry of
water drops , both in front and behind the boat, but for so small duration of time that couldn't get the chance to even
point the camera.
 |
| Ruddyshel Duck |
On moving some more distance found some apparition
type figure running and jumping on a small island. A very patient look through
the tele lens revealed a tall man playing football with some kids. My
observation made Amit highly excited , he told me that man was a highly
powerful " Baba", apart from few local boys, he used to avoid human
contact. Amit wanted to give a try to meet him, Siyaramji took the boat as
close as possible to the bank. Amit removed his shoe, folded trouser and jumped
into the water. Though the water was shallow, due to thick loose mud , water reached
his waistline. No sooner he touched the solid hard ground on the bank , those
boys ran towards him. It was just a silent movie to me, but faced no difficulty
to realise that they are sending him back. Amit offered his " Pranam"
there on the ground and came back . Later he told, as soon as he jumped into
the water , Babaji had sent his battalion to send him back to the boat again.
 |
| Garial mother and baby |
On our way back to the jetty , Siyaramji
drove the boat in a jig jag pattern to create turbulence in the river water. Surprisingly
got glimpses of jumping dolphin at least 10 times , sometimes head, or back
part or tail view, but never got the whole body, neither could get even a
record shot. Crossed the bridge again to
reenter the Dholpur part. Amit drove the car to a hilltop ancient fort,
surrounded by a wall. A panoramic view of entire Chambal valley could be seen
from the hilltop. The mesmerising undulated topography made of red
barren soil and stone hillocks, and labyrinth type road under setting
sun made me busy in taking shot after shot. At every moment I imagined that a
group of horse riders with giant spring like mustache, red " teeka"
on forehead and bullet garlands will come out from those alleys with a sea of
dust behind. Spend few more minutes even after sun set and came to the circuit
house again. As the entire day was extremely tiring and exhaustive , took a hot shower and dinner and just threw my
empty body to the inviting bed.
Next
morning was not an exception from the visibility point of view. Yet found 4-5
peacocks, ashy prinia, Indian robin, oriental white eye and some other very common birds within the
circuit house periphery. As we had to start the safari very late and bird
activities decreases dramatically with rising sun, the morning safari was not
at all productive.
 |
| River Lapwing |
After lunch we reached to the Gharial breeding
centre of Morena. Babies of various ages to adult gharial were kept there.
Spending few hours there helped me to understand the life cycle of gharial, at
least partly. Then again we reached to the jetty. This time Amit's brother
Naveen and few of his college mates accompanied me. So we booked a 12 seats
speed boat for the safari. This had to be my last safari in Chambal National
Park in this lap, but had no luck to get even a single skimmer till then. To
console my unsatisfied mind Siyaramji proclaimed " aaj dikhayenge sir aapko Skimmer"
and informed a flock of around 20 skimmer had been noticed to hover few min
back.
 |
| River tern |
Within 10 min , just after leaving the
camp , got cardfull shots of river lapwing, Egyptian vulture , 3 different
varieties of kingfishers , Asian soft shell turtle, black winged stilt etc and
after 15- 20 more minutes of journey noticed that flock of illusive Indian
Skimmer at last , consisting of 26 individuals. Every bird was in a perfect
mood of afternoon power nap, deliberately avoiding all sort of movement.
Siyaramji switched off the engine and took the boat as close as possible ,
without creating any disturbance to the flock. My wait began with a hope to
record some bird activity.
 |
| Asian soft shell turtle |
As soon as the Sun started to soften
it's luminosity , they became active. Creating a huge gap between uniquely unsymmetrical beaks , they started to "
Skim" , a species specific habit of touching the river water while
flying. In next 30 minutes , I could
photograph lots of bird activities which made my last safari perfect.
 |
| Skimming of Indian Skimmer |
 |
| Indian Skimmer pair |
Direction:
From both Bharatpur and Agra, Dholpur is
roughly 50 KM and are well connected by regular bus service. So one can have
glimpses of this beautiful National park if just one extra day could be added
to the Agra or Bharatpur trip itinerary.
There are lots of accommodation of
different budget around Dholpur Bus stand. Car can be booked from Agra,
Bharatpur or Dholpur to visit the Morena Camp.
