Wildlife Everywhere

Its here, its there, its everywhere. Such is the abundance of wildlife in Parambikulam Tiger Reserve. We have been to Chinnar wildlife sanctuary near Munnar before, in search of wildlife. We tracked animals on foot with the help of a trekking guide to spot deers and bison up close. It was all because of luck, we got to see them and that was a totally different experience. But this time we are in Parambikulam Tiger Reserve. Things are different here, I could see wildlife everywhere. I have never seen such a high concentration of animals in any other jungle.

Parambikulam is a small village in the Palakkad district of Kerala, but Pollachi is the nearest town which is in Tamil Nadu. The town of Pollachi is where you'll get the bus towards Parambikulam and it leaves at 6:15 a.m. Being weekend, the bus was crowded. Private vehicles are not allowed inside the reserve, unless you book a treetop stay in the jungle in advance or you are participating in any nature camp. So, the Tamil Nadu road transport bus is the only option for the local people and the tourists. It takes one and half hour to reach Parambikulam. All three of us somehow managed to get seats. Being cold outside we fall asleep quickly. When we arrived, it was 7:30 a.m., and we woke up to see a bus stop, a teashop, local people and in the background a vast green landscape with deers, monkeys, wild boars and peacocks. Yes, these are common sightings in most jungles, but we were surprised to see these animals all around us. This is one of the few places on earth, where you can see so many different wildlife forms in a single picture.

The wildlife reserve authorities allow you to spend three hours in the jungle on a mini bus which they provide. We got our tickets to go watch the wildlife. But this time, it wasn't the way we expected. We felt this a bit boring being in a mini van with strangers who never wanted to stop talking to each other. And it was turning out to be like picnic. So here I am not going to talk anything about the uninteresting mini van part.

As soon as we entered the jungle route, we could see spotted deers and wild boars in plenty. Every five minutes you will get to see peacocks wandering and constantly searching for food and some trying to attract its mate. Next was the Indian bisons or the wild Indian gaur who were busy feeding. It looks like they were never really bothered by our presence. Then, came out a pack of wild dogs (aka dholes) from the bushes, but disappeared before we could get a shot. Probably the animals were on a hunt. But we had to wait too long to get the sight of an elephant. A few hundred meters away we saw a herd of elephants strolling through the bushes. 

Here are some of the pictures we got:

Spotted deer grazing

Wild boars

Peacock walking around

Peahens

A monitor lizard well camouflaged.

Indian Bison(Gaur)

Gaur

Parambikulam Wildlife Santuary

So many different varieties of wildlife in a day was really amazing. What was missing was a tiger. The thriving population of deers, bisons and other ruminating animals says the tigers and other predators find it hard to live here. Despite the inflow of tourists, the life of the wild animals here doesn't seem to be affected by them. One of the locals we met on the road shared a story of his first tiger sighting. He got the chance to see one crossing the road, when he was on his way back home on a truck. But that was the only time he ever saw one.