Daroji, Sanctuary for Sloth Bears

Daroji? I have never heard of it. That was the first comment made by my friend Balakrishnan when I read the article from The Hindu aloud. At first we were not much impressed by Sloth Bears as any other amateur wildlife enthusiasts. I continued reading the article. The presence of birds and the fact that not many are aware of Daroji infused a good amount of interest in us. We decided to go as I read Daroji is just a stone's throw away from the famous World Heritage site Hampi. Arranged tickets in Hampi Express, starting from Bangalore. Our destination was Hospet, the nearest railway station to Daroji and Hampi. We started on 5th April 2008 night from Bangalore.
Waking up next morning I noticed the changed landscape. A lot of mining activities, which was always been a threat to the habitat of the bears in this mineral rich area. The number of bears has reduced alarmingly till the sanctuary is formed.

It took almost 10 Hrs to reach Hospet railway station. Just outside the station there was a board showing the direction to the sanctuary.

P1080301, originally uploaded by retheeshkr.

After decided to look for a hotel near by, we started walking towards the bus station. At this moment two men came across holding two tamed bears in their harness. We were seeing yet another threat they face; poaching. These tamed bears locally known as “Dancing bears” were abducted from the wild when they were young, often killing the mother bear. We got shocked and saddened seeing the Government's neglect on wildlife conservation.

We walked about half a kilometer crossing a main canal coming from Thungabhadra dam to reach our hotel. Had a heavy breakfast, took lunch as parcel and we went directly to the bus station. Very soon it became obvious that waiting for a bus to Daroji may not be a good idea. We hired an auto rickshaw for Rs 600/day. Our plan was to reach the sanctuary in the afternoon, when the bears become active.

It was surprising for us to see endless expanse of sugar cane and plantain fields on both sides of the road in such a dry area. Water from the river Thungabhadra created these lush green fields. But I really wonder whether this approach of growing water guzzling crops like sugar cane or plantain in such a dry place is a sustainable way of doing cultivation.

En route, we stopped near a 500 years old man made lake. We spotted plenty of water birds, Little Grebe, Common coot, Pond heron and few magnificent Pheasant-Tailed Jacana

We passed near the entrance of the much famed Hampi, which we will be visiting next day. It was around 30 km from Hospet to Daroji. We never felt the distance as we stopped every time we saw birds. A huge Banyan tree by the road provided shelter and food to a large variety of birds. Spotted owlet, Coppersmith barbet and Red-vented Bulbul, to name a few.

Going further, we crossed a narrow canal, cut deeply through the rock. This canal, made in the fifties, carries the Thungabhadra water to Andrapradesh. The triangular shaped stone structures on the banks were used as a ramp to pull out the stones from the canal during its construction. We just wished to follow this deep narrow canal to the point where it goes underground for many kilometers before reappearing again.

We left the main road and got into a small rough road. I asked our driver to stop, seeing something by a large pond. I grabbed my binocular and watched. Yes, birds, almost as big as a painted stork but black in color (yet to be identified). I took the cover of a small hillock, overlooking the pond and started crawling up. Balan walked leisurely through the bush only to see a hare dashing across. I crawled further up signaling Balan to keep a low profile. A Red-wattled lapwing saw us and started alerting every living creature in that area. I reached at the top, saw the nervous storks but still staying where they were.

Hiding myself behind the bush, I moved down further, but then spotting the movement, they suddenly flew away. Disappointed, I came back cursing the noisy lapwing which was still circling above me.

By around 2 pm we reached at the entrance of the sanctuary. The watch tower was 4 km inside.

The sanctuary also boasts a lot of bird species. A strange stone colored bird ran across the road. However after going for another one km we got a chance to see it clearly, a Stone curlew.

It took half an hour to reach the base of the watch tower. We climbed up after paying the entry fee. A few other impatient visitors were sitting on the rocks. Around fifteen minutes after we settled on a rock, there was an uproar and then whispers. I jumped up and looked down holding the hand rail. Far, I saw a black shaggy figure slowly coming out of the shadows of a huge rock. I was watching Sloth bear (Melursus ursinus) in the wild for the first time. I scanned the area through my binocular. After a few minutes the first one was joined by three others. They started coming down and licking on Jaggery, a kind of sweet thick liquid made of sugarcane, pasted every morning by the forest guards. While this serves only as a supplementary diet for the bears, almost 60% of Sloth bears' daily intake consists of termites and ants. With powerful sharp claws, they rip open termite mounds and then suck their favorite food like a vacuum cleaner.

We watched the bears from the watch tower. After some time the bears were joined with a few peafowls. At this time the guard on duty told us Mr. Swamy, honorary warden of the park has arrived. We met him, along with his friend Kiran Marathe, at the entrance of the watch tower. We presented our desire to go to the core area of the park to have a closer look of the bears. He thought for a moment and then accepted our request. He lead us through the bushes to a spot behind few large rocks where we could watch bears without getting noticed. We waited for sometime before we were joined by two armed guards. We were told that these bears are highly unpredictable and their attacks with their claws could be fatal. One of the bears looked towards us for a moment, then continued feasting. I really felt nervous at that point.

However the presence of the guns made us a bit bolder. In half an hour we could saw no less than 10 bears including 2 last years cub, around 100 m away from us. It was getting 5 in the evening. The two cubs initially busy licking on the rocks with their parents, started fighting each other. For every few minutes of tussle one gets toppled and rolled down the rock. In no time those playful cubs came uncomfortably closer to us.

Swamy gently got up and suggested to move back to the safety of the watch tower. I felt relieved hearing that. We climbed back on the watch tower and looked back to see the bears wrestling at the spot we were sitting just 15 minutes before. We spent another half an hour there watching the bears, all full of energy, running down the hillock till the road and climbing on the trees to grab bananas placed by the guards. Swamy suggested us to call him if we come again and promised us good stay at a forest guest house in Kamalapur. It was time to say bye to our new friends. We came back directly to the hotel without any halt, carrying wonderful memories and a plan to visit the famous Hampi next day.