Happy Easter

Dear Grandma:

I hope that all is well with you. I know that winter seem long for you. We have just come back from an experience of late spring in the foothills of the Himalayas at Jim Corbett National Park of India. The park, named after a hunter turned naturalist/author, is billed as a tiger sanctuary with 135 of supposedly 5000 world-wide tigers living in it.

The part where we were was on the Ramganga River. It has a dam like the Thames by Innerkip where we used to walk when I came to visit. Like the Thames the headwaters dry up as the season progresses. When this happens a grassland emerges, and when the pre-monsoon rains arrive it turns an impossibly bright green. The grassland is full of birds, many storks Ibis and King Fishers. I don’t know if there are cormorants on the Thames yet, but there are lots of them on Lake Ontario and also on the part of the Ramganga reservoir that was still under water. There are also herds of wild elephants and Chital, a spotted dear. Trotting after the Chital (presumably downwind) we saw a Jackal. As well as very bright green grass there were bright green and some flowered balsam shrubs. There were also purple flowered woody plants that smelled and looked a lot like sage.

Leaving the reservoir bottom we came to forests of large trees called Sal. These forests grow on the hillsides like maple/beech forests in Ontario. In the undergrowth of the forest was lots of beautiful smelling white jasmine, growing very much like flowering crabs in the forests at home. These are the kind of forests that Rudyard Kipling, and Jim Corbett told stories of taking back from the settlers that tried to clear them.

We stayed in these forest rest houses which were quite basic accommodation with hard Indian style beds and a bathroom with European style toilets. There was a low wall all around the guest houses, on which monkeys perched. People perched there too when a tigress and cubs was seen just outside the wall on the afternoon we arrived. Inside the wall in the morning a large spread antlered Sambar stood, apparently unafraid of people. He was still standing there on the way back from a breakfast of eggs and toast in the canteen. The food there was vegetarian and quite good. My favorite were the vegetable pakoras, deep fried battered onions, green pepper, potato … Just be very careful not to mistake the long thin ones for beans. They are extremely hot deep fried and battered chilies. It’s also not a good idea to touch eyes or nose with your hands if you are brave enough to try one.

In the center of the walled area was a platform with stairs for mounting the elephants. We got up for a 6:30 am elephant ride. Ben, Joel, Dianne, a Mahout and I all shared the same elephant that walked like we weighed nothing up and down steep slopes. Sometimes the slopes were so steep that we felt like we would fall off. While walking along he would grab any foliage that struck his fancy with his trunk and fold it into his mouth. When he carried us across the river, he got a drink with his trunk and poured it into his mouth. It was drizzling for our trip, but not uncomfortably. We talked a bit, but mostly just looked at the flora and fauna, still not morning people, and the colors were so bright even in the drizzle.

There seem to be a lot more raptors in India then at home. There are hawks soaring everywhere. From the back of the elephant we also saw vultures, and an enormous fish eagle. In the afternoon on a jeep ride that we went on, we saw a fish owl sleeping in a tree. The vultures, and the hawks fly quite close, someone said that the vultures do that to see if your eyes are glazing over. Their wingtip feathers are sometimes all that move when they soar on enormous wings. I couldn’t hear the wind in their wingtip feathers the way that I could when I saw condors in the Grand Canyon though. We slept away the rest of the drizzle, and by 3:00 pm had a jeep ride in the bright sun. It took us on roads through the forest, and out on to the grasslands covering the monsoon season riverbed. Just like the marks on the rocks up north, etched by the spring run-off the hills rising from the river bed bear the marks of the high water.

Joel said that we could have seen many of the animals that we saw in Delhi. He is correct, as it seems that all you need for a bird sanctuary in Delhi are some trees with blossoms or berries on them. We have seen peacocks on the road to the boy’s school, and I have seen parrots while drinking my morning tea in the break-room with Srinivas. Monkeys are everywhere in Delhi, and domesticated elephants and camels are part of almost everyday traffic on the roads. What is missing form Delhi are the forested hills, the lack of garbage and the fast flowing clean looking river. We are grateful to have enjoyed another beautiful part of India.

Love

Rich, Dianne, Ben and Joel