Trek+BambooRafting@Thekkady
05–09–2019
From the moment a voice called out “All of you ready? Let’s go” till the end when the ambulance door was banged closed and a voice signalled “Go, go”, the trek-cum-rafting was an experience to remember.
We[#] reported to the Forest office at Kumili by 08:00 hrs and were transported to the boating point in a mini-bus by the Forest Department. We signed some papers, collected the anti-leech socks and a backpack containing breakfast-cum-lunch. As I was wearing the anti-leech socks I could see 2 leeches trying to make their way through the finely knitted fabric from which my shoe is crafted. A forest guard was quick to pull them out.
[# 14 of us. Myself, Lalitha (my wife), Suraj (my son), Sole (Suraj’s wife) and 10 of Sole’s close relatives]
The words “All of you ready? Let’s go” rose above the din of our excited voices and we fell silent and obeyed. We were transported by bamboo rafts (5 at a time) to the opposite side of the water body.
Soon all 14 of us were on the other side and forest guards sprinkled our footwear with tobacco powder, a leech repellent.
There were six guards. Five temporary, daily wagers picked from the local community and one government employee of the Forest Division who was carrying a gun. We set off on a 5 km trek. Two guards made up the front and two the rear and the remaining two walked up & down to keep us informed of everything that we walked past.
The guards were knowledgeable and great conversationalists. We got to know about the flora (wild sandal that yields no oil but only lends itself for making furniture, banyan trees that have flourished by suffocating the mother tree, etc. etc. ) and the fauna that surrounded us. Guards narrated stories of their encounters with wildlife and some spectacular sightings by tourists in the past. I was instantly impressed by the genuineness of the guards.
We crossed tiny streams by carefully walking, one at a time, on loose logs that formed bridges. “Don’t step on that log on the left. It is rotten and can snap”, one guard shouted intermittently. Some heard it, some didn’t; some assumed ‘their left’ and rest assumed ‘guard’s left’. So, the instruction was of not much use; but all crossed safe and continued the trek.
“It has been raining for many days and there is water everywhere in this vast expanse and animals need not come here for their daily needs. So, we may not sight any wildlife”, guards informed us. The absence of wildlife did not hamper our enthusiasm; nor did the slippery, slushy track. We were enjoying the trek.
As we trudged along the slushy, narrow trekking trails, guards pointed out,
“see this fresh pug mark of a tiger. The tiger must have leapt and landed here on its front paws”,
“here is a burrow. A bear was here to dig out a termite ball for its meal”,
“see these gashes on the bark of this tree; these are inflicted by a tiger with its sharp claws”,
“an elephant died at this very spot a year ago. It was so tragic. A herd of 7 to 8 elephants gathered around and stood guard for 2 days. Our Vet had to wait that long to perform the customary post-mortem. These are parts of that elephant’s skeleton”,
“We found a dead tiger at this very spot one day. A bison had gored it to death”,
so went stories from the guards. They flashed pictures on their mobiles as they narrated the stories from the past.
We had trekked 4 km. 1 km more remained to complete the up-leg of the trek and the resting spot. We were all marching in single file along a narrow, slushy, slippery track, covered by a layer of rotting leaves. Lalitha (my wife) was walking a couple of steps ahead of me when all of a sudden she tumbled and fell facedown. A tree root running across the path had tripped her. There were no stone or other hard objects where she fell. There were no injuries on her face or body. She sprang back and complained only of pain in her ankle. She walked the remaining 1 km to the resting spot. Guards took an elastic bandage from the first-aid kit and wound it around Lalitha’s foot, which was now aching slightly. We then set off on bamboo rafting.
After 30–45 minutes of rafting, the guards declared 15 minutes of rest. People innovated to find ways to relax and even manage a power nap. Some got busy flying a kite.
The return journey to the resting spot witnessed some racing between three rafts. People still had the energy to expend!!
The resting spot is actually the camping site for the Tiger Trail 3D-2N Trek. The 10-meter square plot with a deep & wide trench along its periphery to keep wild elephants away had 2–3 tents. “Come for a Tiger Trail Trek in Feb-March time; you can see elephants line up just outside of the trench”, said one of the guards.
Lalitha decided to relax her ankle. I removed the bandage. The ankle had swollen considerably and the pain had increased and she began to limp. There was no way she could walk back with any reasonable speed, and get back before the sunset. After some discussion, it was agreed to raise a distress call and ask for evacuation. Soon all others left. Lalitha the person to be evacuated, me as a supporting person and one forest guard stayed back. “If they can spare a speed boat it will be here in 45–60 minutes; if they send an ordinary boat it could take 3 hrs”, we were told.
There was no mobile connectivity, and we were left with a small bottle of drinking water and no food. We were deep inside the forest — 5 km by walk and 10–15 km by boat from the forest entry. We strained our ears for the noise from a speed boat. There was none. 40 minutes passed!
“There is no mobile signal here. The next hilltop usually has signal. Let me go up there and make a call. Stay here and do not cross the trench”, said the guard and vanished into the thick forest. 15 minutes passed and he re-appeared, “I can hear the boat. Get ready and let us go down to the water”. We supported Lalitha from both sides and she hopped on one leg to the spot where the boat was expected.
The boat docked. The driver and the guard lifted Lalitha and helped her into a seat. I hopped on and we were on our way back. The boat tore through the waters and we arrived at the starting point of the trek in 30 minutes. The place was yet to close down. I could spot many people. As we came closer I could spot a posse of forest guards, and soon it was clear that those security guards in uniform were directing the boat to a particular spot. The boat halted, four guards rushed to the boat with a stretcher, another two hopped onto the boat and transferred Lalitha onto the stretcher; the bearers hastened; I spotted an ambulance parked at the end of the approach road. The patient was inside the ambulance, Suraj my son hopped in. One guard banged the door shut and shouted, “Go, go”.
Our trek had ended. The time was 17:00 hrs.
We had witnessed a live evacuation drill by the forest employees. They had done the transfer of the injured person from inside the forest in the minimum time possible given the infrastructure in their control.
The guards who accompanied us on the trek, members of the evacuation party that waited for us at the landing point, the ambulance staff; each and everyone was the epitome of service mindedness. These people have poor equipment and must have got much less training when compared to people doing similar duties in other countries. But they compensated all that with their deep personal touch.
It was late in the evening when Lalitha returned to the hotel after treatment at a local hospital. Cardamom County gave us a ground floor room, did everything to make us comfortable.
We thought all was over and ordered some hot coffee. It was then that Syam Krishnan, Eco Forest Officer of Periyar Tiger Reserve paid us a visit to inquire if all was well with Lalitha. We were touched by his gesture.
None of us had logged our trekking track. I have reconstructed it as follows. The boating point is easy to locate on google map. Spent some time on satellite view and located the Tiger Trail Camping Site (9°32'48.2" N 77°11'38.3" E; i.e. 9.546729, 77.193974). That is the spot where we ate lunch and from where Lalitha and I were picked by the rescue team. If you zoom on Googlemap you can see the camping site. The forest guard who brought the rescue boat told me that we have to head towards Mullaperiyar and then turn and head for the boating point. That has helped me indicate (in black) the nominal path the rescue boat would have taken. The white line shows the scale — 1 km on the map.
September 9, 2019. Today as I write this, Lalitha’s foot is still in a bandage. An X-ray has ruled out a fracture. “Ligament tear mostly, wait for 3 days and if the pain does not subside we may have to put a cast”, said the Ortho.
September 14, 2019. Ortho has ruled out ligament tear. Lalitha will be back on her feet and maybe we will plan the Tiger Trail Trek in Thekkady.
October 7, 2019. Swelling of ankle had persisted till today and that prompted a visit to another Ortho in Wayanad. A new x-ray has revealed a hair-line fracture!!!! It will require another fortnight of rest to heal completely.
