Bhigwan Trip Report

Dear friends hope all is well at your end, I am good as well. I know this time took a long to publish a story, my sincere apology for the same, but due to some personal and professional commitments unable to publish. But let me tell you today’s visit will compensate for a waiting time

Somehow got the opportunity to travel after a gap of 6 months, this is my favorite now because it offers something unique every time. Let me begin the story in the next section and take you to the world of grassland to understand why nature is so beautiful

The starter

As I said no trips planned and had no idea what I am going to do in the coming few months, suddenly got a message from Vishnu regarding Bhigwan. I was in double mind because I had done it a couple of times but I finally decided to join the group because I wanted a short break 

With no plans and expectations, I got ready to travel with another five people because we all are MT buddies (Mumbai Traveler), and trip arrangements as always done by MTs.  I had a fair idea that even without a sighting the trip will surely be memorable. This is how the unplanned trip started and was high on rewards and low on expectations

We started on Friday evening, reached Bhigwan around 10.30 pm, and got ready for the next day's early wake-up call. The target set to get Wolves which is the main attraction in Bhigwan, it is very difficult to get wolves compared to Tigers because places are rare where you get wolves so we wanted to catch up with The Bhediays” of the world at any cost.

The expectation suddenly went high when we started at around 5am but the session went completely blank, with no clicks at all, and evening scope is very rare so the day went without the wolf. However, we got some wonderful birds in the evening, which was a bit of relief for all of us. 

Now we only had the last chance on Sunday morning because we had to go back to Mumbai. Here the problem was either birds or wolf, if you do not get a wolf the scope of birding also go away due to the long distance between places. Meanwhile, our expectations increased as we got a surprise from Saurabh, who joined us on Saturday evening for a Sunday visit. Now the confidence level went further up because of the expert joining us at the right time.

Now the last visit started with fingers crossed, we had to search for 30 minutes initially but finally, the wolves arrived in a style, around six were there and four were very close to us giving all kinds of poses, playing and running around, this went on for an hour compensating for Saturday and made our trip into a huge success. In addition to this, we also enjoyed food, our trip will not end till the time we add food to it, we had a lovely homemade Maharashtrian flavor like Misal, Bhakri, Shevbhaji, etc and on the way Kathi roll (suggested by Esmail Sir) and Mastani (connect with Vishnu for recipe and details of Mastani) J. Now before we move to the DSLR section let me give you a snapshot of Wolf so that you understand why it is so special. 

The Bhediya

The Wolf in Hindi is known as Bhediya and Varu in Gujarati 

The Indian wolf is a subspecies of grey wolf that ranges from Southwest Asia to the Indian Subcontinent

Wolves are found on the open lands of India and they are able to survive in areas that are considered desert-like in nature, hence it is not easy to find them in every region and forest

It is believed that only about 3,000 Indian Wolves remain in the wild today, due to the bad reputation that these wolves have and the poor economic area where they live, it is hard to get effective practices in place for conservation

An Indian wolf pack will spread themselves out when hunting Indian hares and various rodents, in contrast to coordinating when their target is the swift blackbuck antelope

lucky list

So the list stands like this – Montagu's harrier, Marsh harrier, Pallid harrier, Common Kestrel, Indian Roller, Bonelli's eagle, Grey francolin, Drongo, Yellow-wattled lapwing, Hoopoes, Shrike, Chinkara, Red avadavat

I hope you liked this blog, keep blessing and keep motivating me to deliver unique stuff, do let me know your feedback at btwildart@gmail.om

Vote of Thanks

Mumbai Travellers and Team – Many thanks to Saurabh, Jogi and Pathamesh, Mayuresh for managing the tour so smoothly, you guys are rocking, keep it up.

Co-Travelers  - Esmail Sir, Dhruv, Gayatri, Vivek, Vishnu, Saurabh

Drivers/guides – Kundan your effort in finding Wolves is highly appreciated.

Home Stay  - Sandeep Nagre (Agni Pankh Flamingo Point), lovely food, and super arrangements for finding so many species 

BT Wild Art

                          DSLR  

Wolf

Peacock

Montagu's harrier

Common Kestrel

Montagu's harrier

Shrike

Yellow-wattled lapwing

Chinkara

Indian Roller 

Hoopoes

Red avadavat