Bheemashankar

Bheemashankar (24-26 Jan)

The giant squirrel looked at us with as much interest as we did at her. Her body poised on a slender branch like a model, she held on to it with a certain grace and air of an animal that has spent its whole life on trees and knows that nothing can shake its hold. Our first sight of this beautiful creature was what all we had been waiting for. Taking advantage of an extended weekend me, gaurav, anand, ruchi, jasmine and our little photographers 11 year old Ishan and Mishal visited Bheemashankar.

The Giant Squirrel had eluded us the first 2 days only letting us know of its presence with its loud chak-chak-chak call. But now watching this beautiful animal her russet fur glinting in the morning sun and her golden eyes looking straight into ours, took away all the disappointment we felt earlier.

Bheemashankar is popular among Shankar devotees and wildlife enthusiast alike. SPROUTS decided to celebrate republic day in style and we all joined in for the ride. We stayed at the Blue Mormon Eco-resort, situated on a plateau from where we could see on all four directions and look at the mountains peaks eye to eye. Even more breath taking were the gaudy shows of sunrise and sunsets, firing up the sky in brilliant colour’s of orange, pink, purple which turned to inky black in a matter of minutes.

Though disappointed with the bird life and repetitive species, we were happy with sightings of sulphur bellied warbler, brown cheeked fulvetta (10-15 in a mixed hunting flock), black bulbuls, crested lark, oriental turtle dove, grey jungle fowl, changeable hawk eagle, shikra and calls of Eurasian thicknee. We also saw white bellied mouse, Indian Palm Civet, Jungle cat and a male sambar deer. The serpent gods also seemed to be shining on us as we caught a Beddome’s cat snake in the unlikeliest of places, the roof of one of the shops lining the gates and a wolf snake crossing the road exposed momentarily due to our car lights and then lost into the dark.

The fate of this beautiful place lies in the hands of the thousands of devotees who throng this place on religious days. There is high level of noise pollution, high volume of vehicles and lots of trash and plastic all of which threaten to turn this plateau into a trash mound. In some places huge grounds have been cleared to make parking lots, the resultant loss of tree cover forces the squirrels to take to the ground to cross roads leading to road kill.

We need to create awareness among the devotees and residents of bheemashankar and open their eyes to the wealth of flora and fauna that this spiritual place offers.