Unique UK – Umred Karhandla

Good morning lovely reader, I hope you are enjoying blogs on unknown forest so please clap for yet another fantastic forest which is known as UK  I mean Umred Karhandla. Let me provide double fun that is of a wonderful experience with stunning reality on the emergence of this lovely place. Do share your feedback so as I can serve you with better stories.

Chahe Koi Mujhe Junglee Kahe

Yes, I don’t mind if people call Junglee😅 like Mogli I too love to stay in the forest and now I will make all of you a Junglee with my Umred experience😆.  As usual, the journey started with Saurabh and Vishnu with other fifteen forest loving people. This time place got finalize without any discussion as we all wanted to visit an upcoming place which was in news because of world’s most handsome Tiger Jay, with a lot of expectation we reached CST station where we experienced the memorable drama, see what happened next.

The journey started with the memorable moment as Vishnu missed the train by 5 minutes he saw train taking off but no Simran gave him a hand to catch a train 😆Jugadu Baba finally did some adjustment and reached Umred by next train, this was an indication of upcoming magical time for next few days. After a lot of leg pulling, it was a time to enter the forest, we entered with hope to see Jay (read next section for details on Jay) instead we got royal walk of T6 Tigress one of the queens of Karhandla zone, she walked ahead of around 10 jeeps for around 5 minutes without any fear. She was bold enough to walk across these cars; she marked her territory with urine and then walked away. Our other group was lucky to see two charming prince of hunk known as Bahu and Bali. During the search of a king, we experience wonderful flora and fauna of the forest, even though the forest was new it was up to the mark. We did five safaris and tried our best to see Jay but luck this time was not in our favor but nevertheless, the visit was rewarded with a lot of unique sightings. To end the experience story let me take you to the next section to provide you information on world's most handsome Tiger. 

Tribute to JAY 

I know you are curious to know about Jay so let me give a short story of the Hunk. Jay a bold tiger who walked around 130 KM from Nazgira to reach Umred and brought Umred to the limelight. Jay was born in Nagzira with sibling Viru through A-Mark tigress and Dendu Tiger. Viru was shy but Jay used to be bold, handsome and biggest amongst others, with its bold behavior Jay reached Umred to have a larger territory where he ruled the whole forest with three tigresses and around six cubs. Jay was the only tiger who ruled forest single handedly because other tigers were not capable to win territory fight with him. 

Jay got a lot of name and fame across the country but it went against him and turned into a life-threatening event. He got missing since 2016 without any trail even though he was radio collared and now people believe that he is no more. I am unfortunate that could not see such beautiful animal and feel sad because of such worst end of our pride. We are intruding into the territory of wild and instead of taking care we are becoming a threat to them. The time has come that we open our mind and take step towards conserving such unique animals. Save Wildlife. Save our Soul

Location information

Umred-Pauni-Karhandla Wildlife Sanctuary is located at Bhandara district 60 KM from Nagpur. The sanctuary provides connectivity between key tiger reserves like Tadoba, Pench, Bor, and Nagzira. It thus also serves to reduce the pressure of tourists and tourist-related activities from those protected areas because they are more Eco-sensitive. The UK is home to 5 to 6 Tigers, 90 species of birds, 19 species of reptiles with countless trees and plants. 

Lucky list

T6 Tigress, Wild dogs, paradise flycatcher, oriental honey Buzzard, white-eyed buzzard, grey hornbill, wild boars, spotted deer, blue bulls, thick knee, owl, mongoose, Monkey, woodpecker, Bison, Rufous Treepie, Peacock, Indian Roller and many more.

A message of the Day: Save Forest, Save Life 

Abundant Tress All Around Make Mother Earth’s Health Sound

Author:BT Wild Art – Bhavesh Thakkar photographyLife is Safari. Enjoy it.

 Direct Dil se

The Royal Walk

Watchful

Lovely View

Lovely Evening

White-eyed Buzzard

Oriental Honey Buzzard

Speechless for this

Wild boars

Blue Bull

Wild Dog

The Alfa

Lizard

Paradise Flycatcher

Woodpecker

Natural Nagzira

Welcome lovely readers, I hope you liked blog on the unknown forest; once again I am bringing you hidden beauty of India to the platter. Forest is crucial for our survival and maintaining a balance of environment and hence it is important for us to know and conserve our jewels. How do we conserve if we are not aware of many forests hence I will try to update you all on various forests over the period. Today I will take you to one of the lovely place located in the center of the country and center of my heart, the place is lovely “Nagzira.” Let us enter the forest in the next section and understand why it is in the center of my heart.

My heart Nagzira 💖💓

Yes, Nagzira is my heart because my journey to the wild started from Nagzira, the beauty of the forest mesmerized me so much that forest has become my second home and in the future hope it will become my first home😂. I had no clue of forest and hence I opted for available location at that point in time but it became a life-changing event.

The journey started from CST with Jogi, Aslam and other 3 co-travelers and housewarming for us happened with the evening safari, it was green all around with different plants and trees with a variety of birds and animals. The first evening was more fruitful than we expected as we ended the day with gimps of Leopard with high hope for next three visits. We entered the temple again in the morning where rain spoiled our time and sighting as well, but still, the view of the forest was wonderful giving us the pure air with green land that I had never seen in my life.

The dramatic time had yet to come, the more you wait the better will be the results, with the third safari we started feeling hungry to see Tiger or Leopard for which Jogi the expert was on a search. Now with only one hour left for checkout, we started power play hunt, which was successful with the sighting of Sloth Bear. but then the clock ordered us to move out where a sighting of the hero was still a mystery so with no choice left we had to call it a day with the happiness of sightings had and our jeep took a road towards an exit. But there was a surprise Mother Nature had planned for us, the exit proved entry to the world of nature for me. Do you want to see how the surprise knocked on the door?

You will think we already had sloth bear sighting, now what will be more surprising during the last 5 minute. Yes, the best time was last five minutes, see the sequence, dark clouds, complete silence, only headlights of the jeep were on, last five minutes left and sudden sound we heard, Sirji yeh Dekho jaldi, (see quickly) and here it comes the royal walk of Leopard towards the jeep. In yellow lights the Leopard was shining with its natural golden color, this was the first and close encounter with the golden animal with which I fall in love. Leopard walked from front and went to the right side of the jeep, the sighting of almost 3 minutes which was enough for making all of us mad. We will never forget about the golden skin, mesmerizing eyes, and the royal walk, to experience such wonderful moments you should visit the forest at least once with your family. Let me tell you the details of the forest and its location in the next section. 

The Reality 

Nagzira wildlife sanctuary is located between Bhandara district and Gondia district of Maharashtra. It is an important corridor linking southern and central forested areas, such as the Tadoba Andhari and Kanha tiger reserves

It offers awesome landscape, luxuriant vegetation and serves as a living outdoor museum to explore and appreciate nature 

The animal kingdom was once ruled by the Gond kings, and it got its name from a Nag (snake) temple situated in the heart of the sanctuary. On the other hand, ‘Zira’ (zara) in Marathi means a perennial source of water

Nagzira Wildlife Sanctuary is a miraculously preserved green oasis covering 152sq km in the northeastern corner of Maharashtra. This small reserve has a great importance from a biodiversity and conservation point of view.

Nagzira is home for tiger, Indian gaur, sambar, nilgai, chital, wild boar, sloth bear, barking deer, wild dogs, 166 types of birds, 36 reptiles, 45 species of amphibian thrive and many more

Conservation importance

This sanctuary serves as a living repository of various economic, medicinal, aromatic, ornamental plant species. Nearly 200 species of medicinal and economic importance are seen in this sanctuary.

Thanks, Jogi, Aslam, other co-travelers, hotel owner, and staff and forest department of Nagzira for such a lovely trip. 

Message of the Day: Save Forest, Save Life.

Plant a tree, plant a tree so that next generation can get air for free

Author:

BT Wild Art – Bhavesh Thakkar photography

Life is Safari. Enjoy it.

Direct Dil se:

The First sighting of Leopard

The Royal Style

Mesmerizing Eyes

Jungle Hare

NightJar

The View

Indian Roller

Serpent Eagle

India Gaur

Woodpecker

Do you need the introduction?

Owlet

Nilgai

Hidden Jewel Jhalana

Hello friends, its Sunday again that means time to give you information on Mother Nature, a different world altogether. Our country is gifted with so many forests and some of them are the best in the world. The unfortunate is that we are not aware of small forests that are highly rich with resources and nearby as well. Hence I decided to write about the forest which is hardly known, I describe the same as the hidden jewel of India and the name is “JHALANA” Let’s go through the experience in the next section I am sure after reading you will agree that it is a Jewel.

Experience with the wild

With this section, I will provide you the feel of Jhalana, the experience was such that each moment in words here will give you feel of the forest. To begin with, let me tell you how we finalize the place. Since the trip was to meet NRI Amol we wanted a special place which was the responsibility of Saurabh, as usual, the expert came out with something unique I mean Jhalana. Even I was not aware of the place but we all prefer to explore new places we finalized the same without any debate. The place is located in pink city Jaipur, isn’t it surprising! Yes, it is part of the wonderful pink city but still not known to many. Now let us enter the forest to meet wonderful species.

We entered the forest for the evening safari on day one where we saw dramatic atmosphere, which will remain as the best sighting ever. It was dramatic because of an amazing scene between two animals. During the late evening when it was almost time to come out of the forest we saw sub adult Leopard teasing big Blue bull, I know it is unbelievable but it’s true. The Leopard was of growing age but not yet reached the level where it can attack such a huge big bull but see the courage of small Lepo, proving the brave DNA. It was just amazing the way it was challenging Blue bull. 

This was a real treat and rare sighting, the small Lepo was running behind Blue Bull with mock charge, it was like 5-year kid challenging fully-grown young man. The game between both came as surprise and one of the best moments of life, unfortunately, the same could not be captured due to late and dark evening but the same is already registered in our heart.

Apart from the Lepo-Bull drama, we had a super sighting of Striped Hyena in back to back visits. Jhalana being a small forest the opportunity of sighting is always remains on a higher side. Hyena is nocturnal animal normally remains active during the night but we were lucky enough to saw it on two occasions with head on walk on the road. Sighting Leopard and Hyena on number occasion is very rare and difficult but the beauty of Jhlana is that it offers such unique stuff with ease; this is the reason why I called Jhalana a JEWEL. Now its time to know details of the forest in the next section.

The Hidden Jewel

The reason I said it is hidden jewel because no one is aware that there is a forest called Jhalana, many people think it is Jalana (part of Maharashtra) but such Jewel is located in the heart of Rajasthan that is in Jaipur city. It is hardly about 15 KM from station/airport, the total area of the forest is approximately 20 sq KM because of such small area it offers a great sighting. Here the apex predator of the forest is Leopard because the habitat is not suitable for tigers, but even without the tigers the forest rocks with Leopards and other wild animals.

Along with wild animals, the outskirts of Jaipur city offers twin lakes of Chandlai and Barkheda, which host amazing water birds such as Bar-headed goose, cormorants, Crakes Egrets, Flamingos and many more. Because of a mix of birds and wild animals within such a small area justifies being the Jewel. 

This is my home

The forest is home of Leopard, Hyena, Jackal, Sambar, Deer, Blue bull, Peacock, Langurs, squeal, Eurasian Sparrow Hawk, Shikra, White-throated Kingfisher, Scoops Owl, Mongoose, Black-shouldered Kite and many more. Now you all are aware of Jhalana's beauty so you have all the more reason to plan your visit and get connected to the Mother Nature. Please visit "My Sweet Memory" section for pictures of some of the listed birds/animals.

Thanks, Saurabh, Vishnu, Amol, other co-travelers and Sumit Juneja for such a lovely memory. 

Message of the Day: Save Forest, Save Life.

Global warming is a warning; Only forests can stop this harming.

Author:BT Wild Art – Bhavesh Thakkar photographyLife is Safari. Enjoy it.

My Sweet Memory

Hyena walking on the road

Hyena once again

Leopard in its apex zone

Shikra with a Kill

White Throated Kingfisher

Squirrel

Peacock

Blue Bulls

Langurs on high-level meet

Pallid scops owl

Eurasian Sparrow Hawk

Hyena on the road

Black-shouldered Kite

Fantastic Flycatcher

Lovely readers hope you all are doing great, I am sure you enjoyed the last blog on Tiger, after topic on Tiger now it is difficult for me to finalize the topic but no problem I have one of the most beautiful bird in my kitty for you which is none other than Indian Paradise Flycatcher. The reason for introducing birds from time to time is because normally people ignore birds and run behind wild animals which I feel is nothing but a lovely gift from nature. Let me update you with a different perspective of this beautiful bird so as you can get closure to nature while enjoying the article.  

The dream catch

IPF is a beautiful bird with a long tail adding stars to its beauty, it is commonly found in the forest area majorly near water land. I have been tracking it for the past three years and saw it at almost all the places I visited. The name itself suggests that it is a specialist for catching the flies, it is really fun to see IPF catching the flies, butterflies or any such kind of insects but due to its flying nature it is difficult to capture it on exact time with flies/butterflies. Flycatcher requires flying continuously because of the nature of its food which is flying species, it keeps moving here and there making difficult for the photographers to click and hence it becomes challenging to have best shot with it but it gives winner types of feeling when you are lucky to have sharp shot.

The journey with IPF started from Ranthambore where I captured female IPF which turned super lucky and since then all most all visits got it in a photogenic manner, please check out pictures to understand the same. Tadoba visit was dream come true, I was absolutely lucky to get flycatchers with butterfly at one place and with flies at another place, it was like God is listening to you and fulfilling all your wishes on the spot, this why I always repeat my statement “If you love nature, nature will love you more”. Now let me provide you the facts of IPF so as you can capture it on your trip. 

The Flying Fact

The Asian Paradise-flycatcher, also known as the Common Paradise-flycatcher, is a medium-sized passerine bird. It was previously classified with the Old World flycatcher family Muscicapidae, but the paradise-flycatchers and monarch flycatchers are now placed in the family Monarchidae, and most members of this family are found in Australasia and tropical southern Asia

A graceful looking flycatcher, the adult male sport a long ribbonlike tail. The males that occur in two colors morph cinnamon and white. Both color morphs sport a glossy black head with a blue ring around the eye, but white morph is entirely white below while the cinnamon morph has cinnamon upperparts and tail, and dirty white underparts

The females are cinnamon above with a grayish throat, a shorter tail, and they lack the male’s blue eyering

They make short aerial sallies after insects, usually returning to the same perch. Occasionally descends to ground to pull apart insects. Chiefly found in wooded habitats

Indian paradise flycatchers feed on insects, which they capture in the air often below a densely canopied tree.

The Indian paradise flycatcher is a migratory bird and spends the winter season in tropical Asia

The Indian paradise flycatcher is a noisy bird uttering sharp skreek calls. It sits very upright whilst perched prominently, like a shrike. It is insectivorous and hunts in flight in the understorey. In the afternoons, it dives from perches to bathe in small pools of water

Learning of the day

State Bird of GOA
Flame-throated bulbul (also known specifically as Ruby-throated yellow bulbul)

BT WILD ART

DSLR Section