Mongalajodi - Birds' Own Country

After a hectic one day outing at vetnai, we were fully exhausted and tired. But the tour was not ended. We had to reach Mongalajodi by evening for our next day outing. So, we started the journey towards Mongalajodi by noon.

 

Actually it was a pre-planned, Subhamoy da and me left Kolkata by Friday evening and next morning reached Berhampur for our Vetnai visit. Subhankar, our 3^rd group member hired a car from Puri and  joined us at rail station. We completed a successful trip at Vetnai grassland.

We reached Mongalajodi Eco Tourist Lodge before the Sun went into horizon. Mr.Shasank, the person in charge of the tourist lodge, was waiting for us and we got a warmed welcome. The tourist lodge was beautiful and eco friendly.

Mongalajodi is a vast wet land, surrounded by small villages and stack water, located North Eastern part of Chilka, under the Tangi district, Orissa. From Balugaon this place is 35 km away and from Khurda road it is 70km away. We traveled 110km from Vetnai village to reach Mongalajodi. The highway was pretty good and journey was comfortable.

“Mongalajodi is Birds’ Own Country now a days”. Full credit goes to Mr. Nanda Kishore Bhujwal. In early days, around in ‘80s, Mongalajodi was a land of fishermen. But in winter, their job was killing the migratory birds. The villagers used to poach the birds and sold them in market and it was their major earning throughout the season. Mr.Bhujwal took first step against this cruelty and built his own team to make understand villagers, that this could not be a way to earn money, this unkindness would finish them all. If poaching would not stop, after some years, the birds would not come and then there would be nothing to poach or sale. It would be better to protect the birds, so that, birds could feel more homely to that place and one day Mongalajodi would turn into a home land of birds. Tourists would come throughout the years and that would be a perfect way to earn money for the villagers.

Today, every body of Mongalajodi care about their their winter guests. The place became famous amongst the bird watchers and photographers. Tourists gather in Mongalajodi throughout the year, especially in winter. To Mr.Bhujwal, it is a “Dream comes True”. Now a days, the place Mongalajodi has been known as “The Birds’ Own Country”.

On the next day, we wake up as early as possible and took our first boat ride to the shallow water. The boat was like a perfect fishermen boat, in Bengali called “DingiNouka”. In our 3hrs ride we watched millions of migratory birds, they were flying, playing and calling.  Some of them were busy to protect their own territory. That was our first bird watching from boat and that was my first tour with my brand new lens. Till then I could not handle it perfectly. Subhamoy da and Subhankar helped me to take some snaps of flying birds. But seriously, all of us found that it was very difficult to catch them in our camera frame from a moving boat. But the ride was not in vain fully. Bronze Winged Jacana was jumping around; Black Winged Stilt showed its poses and proved that why its name was “Stilt”, Black Tailed Godwit and Sand Pipers were playing around. Purple Herons, Asian Open Billed Storks and Northern Pintals were flying around under the blue sky. Over all the beauty was amazing.

 Black Winged Stilt

 Black Winged Stilt in Flight and Godwit

 Asian Open Billed Stork

 Asian Open Billed Stork

 Asian Open Billed Stork and Cormorant in flight

 Purple Swamphen

Godwit

Purple Heron

Northern Pintail

After our first ride, that was not too successful ‘cause off we failed to locate the Golden Duck i.e. Ruddy Shelduck. We requested to  Mr.Shasank for another ride at late afternoon.

After having a delicious lunch at our tourist lodge we walked around the wetlands and managed to catch in our lens some behaviour of Whiskered Tern, catchy poses of Asian Open Billed Stork, unique looks of Purple Swamphen. Suddenly a “parinda” sent by God, a Warbler spent a valuable time from its busy schedule and allowed us to take some images.

 Whiskered Tern: Who the hell are you in my territory.

 Purple Swamphen in flight

 Whistered Tern in flight

Warbler

That was already 14.30 hrs and we were getting late for our second boat ride. We rushed to the start point, Mr.Shasank was waiting. We took a Dingi and our “Maji” sailed it in search of Ruddy Shelduck. This time we were more comfortable and tried to take some snaps around. A grey Heron helped us to frame a tourist boat. The Black Headed Ibis was busy in search of its dinner. Godwits and Stilts allowed us to take some photographs in golden light. Then suddenly Subhankar pointed towards the amazing beauty, the Ruddy Shelduck. The happy pairs were playing and moving around. We slowly moved towards them to shoot them for framing. But we were in vain, the shy ducks went away. The drama continued for 4/5 times.  Again we located them in far around. We moved on and this time they showed some kindness to us, allowing us to take some images.

Grey Heron

 

Black Headed Ibis

 Black Winged Stilt

Asian Open Billed Stork

 The Ruddy Shelduck

 The Ruddy Shelduck

 Godwit

Wetland in Golden light

As a one day trip, Mongalajodi was successful. We were getting late; we had to catch our Howrah bounding Yasbantpur Express. Subhankar dropped us at Balugaon Rail Station and left for his destination, Puri. The tour was at its end. Office was calling and Concrete City was waiting for us. But we will never forget Mongalajodi and will come back again in search of Lifers.

The Ruddy Shelduck :: Going Home

Vetnai: The Undiscovered Heaven

“I will tell you the story of Vetnai. Many years ago there was grassland surrounded by a small village. Due to lack of rain, villagers were disabled to fertile the land and they had to depend on the other villages for their survival. One day, some of my family members, by losing their natural habitat, visited this beautiful grassland and chose this as their new habitat. And fortunately, that year, The God blissed and fixed a rendezvous point on the sky of Vetnai for the clouds. Rain… Rain and it was raining. Villagers were truly happy and looked at us as their God of Rain. They fertilized the grassland, turned that in to a good agricultural land and that was up to their satisfaction. We also found our own land. From that day, the villagers and we stay together peacefully, they protect us, they care about us and above all, they love us and so do we….The Black-Bucks.”

If you want to pronounce “Orissa” and “Black-Bucks” together, the only word is “Vetnai”. It is a small village in Ganjam district, near Berhampur town. To us it was a pre-planned tour. Subhamoy da and I reached Howrah station to catch the Yasbantpur Express on a Friday evening. We had reserved our berth up to Berhampur. It was planned that Subhankar will hire a car from Puri and will peak up us from Berhampur station.

         

So, Saturday morning, we got down from train and Subhankar was waiting with car just outside the station. Finally the three members were together. We freshen up in a small hotel and started our journey towards Aska village, which was 50 km from Berhampur.

We informed Mr. Nanda Kishore Upadhaye, the Secretary of Black Buck Protection Committee, that we will reach Aska by 9.00 hrs. and got the bad news, his father was hospitalized and for that he had to leave Vetnai. But he arranged a nice guy, named Manoj, to help us. We reached Aska, had our breakfast (typical Orian breakfast, do not ask for the name) and travelled 15 km to reach Vetnai village. Manoj was waiting for us on the road, we peaked him up and he leaded us to the field. We parked our car nearby.

We had to cross a Nullah (not much deep) and reached at the edge of a vast grassland, partly cultivated and partly barren field. Just walked for five to seven minutes and we located the Black-Beauties, a herd of Black-Backs. Suddenly we lost our mind and ran towards them to take snaps, and they vanished into the horizon in no time. Again and again we chased, they ran into the deep and deepest. We forgot that, it is impossible to chase world’s fastest mammal. We learned that over enthusiasm will spoil everything. Manoj told us that if we move, everything would go in vain and we would not be able to click a single snap.

So, we spread out and took cover behind some large and dense grass/ bush. The black beauties were vanished. Tough it was a weekend in early January, The Sun had no sign to the kindness, we were waiting under the bold and hot Sun to be accepted by them, so that they can allow us to explore their Kingdom. We dried up and tired and fully exhausted. After a long time, they came back, not one or two or three… hundreds of them gathered together, roamed freely around us, kids were playing and jumping around. Males were watching the area for the safety of its family. Sometimes we were so spellbound that we forgot to release the shutter and missed some unique pose. Okay, we took photographs and observed the beauties almost from 100/120 ft. Manoj helped us a lot to take snaps of their beloved God. After 2 to 2 and half hrs. we were seriously tired due to scorching heat of sun and we had to leave that place, also we had to reach Mongalajodi by evening. We spent around 3 / 4 hrs in the middle of the field and enjoyed the outing with Black Bucks, we leaved Vetnai around 2.30 hrs and started our journey towards Mongalajodi.

In Vetnai village, there are no place where you can take your lunch or any type of food. So, carry your food and water to remain alive under the kindles sun.

If you do not have your own transport, you have to depend on local transport system. There are public buses from Berhampur to Aska, and then you have to take Auto to reach Vetnai village.

Recently some outsiders disturbed the Black-Bucks in the name of photography, so if you want to visit Vetnai, it is better, inform Mr.Upadhaye, so that he or his boys can assist you in the field, otherwise you may face some problems.

We learned a new thing in photography while we taking photos of bucks. Due to heavy and burning sunlight and yellow coloured field, camera sensor could not focus the golden coloured females and the kids, subject were too low contrasting to the camera sensor. Methinks, if we changed the “K” value and used grey filter, we could manage much better images.

"If you want to see us, come with patience, love and care."