South India Trip, October, 2005
Week long trip covering Bandipur, Nilgiris and Anamalais. Good friend (and philosopher and guide!) Sumit Sen (who runs the extremely popular and informative Kolkata Birds) finally accepted an offer to come down to south India. The goal of the trip was to cover some key south Indian habitats and key bird & mammal species including some popular endemics like frogmouth and laughing thrush(es).
Vijay Cavale, Swarna and I accompanied Sumit for this trip that covered 2-days each in Bandipur (Jungle Lodges), Kurumba Village (in the Nilgiris near Coonoor) and Top Slip (Anamalais). On the way to Bandipur we stopped at Karanji lake in Mysore. INP (now INW) members Harsha and Suraj joined the group in Bandipur and Top Slip respectively.
The entire trip (of over 1000 kms) was done in Vijay’s Terracan. This was the entire itinerary: Bangalore – Karanji Lake, Mysore – Bandipur – Ooty (via Mudumalai / Sigur ghat road) – Dodabetta – Conoor – Burliar Shola – Mettupalayam – Pollachi – Anamalais (Top Slip) – Pollachi – Salem – Hosur – Bangalore.
Cheers, — ramki
