setting off for lakh bahosi was true adventure.

today, adventure is a commodity; you buy and sell a climb to everest or a lion hunt in texas. adventure must be in some remote faraway place, well-explored by others. individual imagination and enterprise plays only a small part - the decision that one should go.

our lakh-bahosi trip, in retrospect, was a more primitive form of adventure - an exploration into the unknown, more magellan than jon krakauer. while the terrain may not be as spectacular, and the risks not quite as high, it's a simple personal adventure - an attempt at something new, something not quite known.

we knew that the bird sanctuary of lakh bahosi near Kannauj, lay on the lower ganga canal which flows right behind IITK. around here, the canal bank was at least a kacchA path. everyone we talked to, however, kept saying that in between, there were no paths along the canal.

 
this was a more original form of adventure - truly a venture into the unknown
 
we knew that both lakh-bahosi and iitk were on the lower ganga canal
 
we were certain that the path along the canal did not go all the way


route: the canal road doesn't show up on maps; the path shown here is traced on the satellite image showing the canal. however, for several parts, there is no path following the canal, and we had to make detours, getting quite lost at one point. we added 6-10 km to the route shown here, which measures 84km. [Postscript: since 2010, the canal shows up on google maps.]


in my explorations along the canal, i had noticed a particular tendency. villagers in one segment of the canal would tell me, "the path is OK till the next bridge, but then there's no road." You press them further about the nature of road-less-ness, and they'll say, a bit vaguely - "it's full of babool, bicycling is impossible - prime puncture territory." and then you go beyond the bridge, and the next villagers tell you the same story.

so i reckoned that a canal pathway to lakh bahosi might not be that impossible. at least it was worth a try. suhail rizvi, an avid birder, and prabhat mudgal, who had started bicycling with us, joined me for the 85 to 90km ride. we were to leave early in the morning of feb 27, two days before Holi,

there was no map, so we pored over google earth satellite images, marking every bridge.

an even more serious problem was that most likely, there were no dhAbas or food joints in any of the villages we crossed.

so we started off.

[skip the adventure... take me to the birds]
[2011 visit to lakh-bahosi]: updates on the sanctuary from 2011. this time we went by some proper roads. minimalist, no car support, both ways by bicycle.

People and Places

we left iit a bit after seven. around 15km down, we took a snack break at the canal weir before the biroh bridge. lots of bananas (courtesy prabhat)...

i5501b_prabhat-suhail_weir-hanspur i5504b_prabhat-suhail_canal i5505b_am-suhail-at-weir1
prabhat and suhail (top row). amit and suhail.

i5597b_goddess-in-the-fields i5619b_n-purwa-maybe
beyond the Chaubepur-Siuli road, an eight-armed goddess presiding over the fields (in a few years there might be a temple here). right: a branch canal going into the village of naya purwa has silted up.

i5627b_canal-office-ruins-near-mushta-pool
a deserted building of the canal authority, near the mushta bridge (about 21km, 09:40)

i5649b_bhausana-pool_24km_1002 i5651b_prabhat-suhail_puncture_bhausana-pool
approaching the village of bhausana, prabhat discovered a puncture. view from the bridge at bhasana. (24km, 10:05)

i5743b_bhausana-village-kids-on-devrani-temple-steps i5744b_bhausana-village-kids-on-devrani-temple-steps_crp i5747b_suhail-prabhat-am_bhausana_1038
kids gathered in droves wherever we went. here they've accompanied us to the suorani-deorani temples of bhausana.

bhausana village has a pair of old temples (late 18th c., perhaps). legend has it that these were built by two competing sisters-in-law - suorani, deorani. they saved every morsel to trade them for bricks. the present temple priest is from the family.

after bhausana, the canal path was too overgrown and dense. we took a detour via the nearby village of gauri abhaypur along a bambi to takhtauli. but maybe these roads were just as bad...

i5751b_suhail-prabhat_approaching-takhtauli-maybe_1116
approaching the village of takhtauli after several km of kacchA roads. at takhtauli, prabhat found his air low again. another stop.

i5752b_takhtauli-sakhrej-pool_29km_1136
takhtauli-sakhrej bridge, 31km, 11:15

i5772b_kakwan_crp_1248
after a sandwich break, approaching the town of kakawan, 43km 12:48

after kakwan, the path switches to the left bank, but after crossing the manawan-bilhaur bridge the path veers left into the fields, and you are forced off the canal. we got a bit lost here, before making our way back to the udaibhanpur bridge (~53km, 14:00).

i5779b_canal-office-kharpatpur_1430
a "canal inspection office" at kharpatpur

at kharpatpur, we came across a large compound of offices belonging to the ganga canal authority, near a large weir. once upon a time these were bustling hives of activity. most of these offices were abandoned in the 1970s, and you see many such crumbling buildings along the canal.

i5784b_nets_kharpatpur_1430_48km
at the weir at kharpatpur, the water dropped down some five feet or so. there are many fish that jump desperately in order to go upstream, and some ingenious locals were catching the fish on nets that didn't quite touch the water. a crowd had gathered in the late morning sun to watch the fun.

i5807b_bhunna-ajyora-pool-maybe_57km_1602_crp
the bridge on the bhunna to ajyora road (62km, 16:00)

i5821b_approaching-mahu-pool-maybe_78km_1744_lakhbahosi-bldg
finally, approaching the mahu bridge just outside lakh-bahosi. this is 84km along the canal but including all our detours, we must have pedalled 5-10km more...

there is no accommodation at lakh-bahosi that you can book, though there is a forest-bungalow, but it is not operational. we were hoping to stay at the bungalow if possible; in any event, we were also prepared to go on to kannauj which is 40km away. but our plan was to reach by 3PM or so, and we were three hours behind schedule...

amazingly, as we were approaching the lakh-bahosi entrance at 6pm, we saw a group of people standing around at the canal bridge, watching us from afar. one of them turned out to be karan singh, known far and wide as the most knowledgeable and helpful person in lakh-bahosi.

singh was then heading home at 6pm, but he immediately headed back, and after some conversations with his superiors, he took us to the center, got the registration etc. done. he told us that the bahosi forest bungalow was closed (more or less on a permanent basis), so there was no accommodation. in our tired state, we were dreading the 40km ride to kannauj, but eventually, karan singh arranged some rustic accommodation with the help of some bahosi villagers, with beddings provided from a local tent house.

karan singh is an amazingly dedicated worker, by far the most effective forest department employee i've seen at any of the UP parks.

over two decades now, he has been a "temporary" worker, earning a meager pittance...

there are no dhabas or food places near lakhbahosi, but there was a visitor who was going to cook a meal, and he was kind enough to offer us some of his hand made rotis... and soon enough, we crashed out.

i5822b_prabhat-karansingh-suhail_lakh-bahosi-entrance_1755 i5823b_am-prabhat-suhail_lakh-bahosi-pakshi-vihar_crp
prabhat and karansingh and suhail entering the lakh-bahosi gate at 1755. the three of us, happy to have made it, in the lakh-bahosi complex.

morning at lakh bahosi

in the morning, a complete round of the bahosi lake took us about two hours... and then we were fortunate to be able to share some breakfast brought by karan singh from his home.

karan singh is also very knowledgeable on the species that visit the region, well respected by naturalists from all over the country. so after breakfast, we went along with karan singh to one of the observation gazebos, where he showed us some of the less common visitors. we couldn't spot any ruddy shelducks. several species were in short supply this year; and also, some species had started to leave.

karan singh is an amazingly dedicated worker who has been here for two decades, and is by far the most effective forest department employee i've met at any of the UP parks.

but in the government bureaucracy, he is still a "temporary" employee, earning a pittance of Rs 100 per working day (which also often fails to arrive). Meanwhile others who have become forest guards hardly bother to show up, while enjoying several times his salary, and perks such as government quarters etc.

i6068b_prabhat-suhail i6086b_prabhat-suhail

shivrajpur ghat on the way back

the plan was for us to go back by car, since the Holi fires (holika would be starting that evening. we had a car meet us at indergarh, and on the way back, we took a detour to the ganga at shivrajpur, just curious to see the ghat. as it happens, we could see a lot of birds settled on the water near the far bank, and we managed to hail a passing boat and get there.

here at last, we were able to see the ruddy shelduck!!

i6373b_boat-that-we-hailed i6382b_temple i6442b_shiv-temple-shmashan-ghat i6447b_nandi-shivling-inside-temple_crp i6449b_suhail-am-prabhat-temple-premises i6462b_shiv-temple_shivrajpur_south-facade i6469b_ghat-shivrajpur i6473b_prabhat-suhail_shivrajpur-ghat-ruins i6475b_shiva-temple-spire_crp

Birds

When we started at 0700, we encountered this painted stork, roosting on a treetop on the canal next to the IITK boundary wall.

i5385w_painted-stork_crp i5388w_painted-stork_crp i5395w_bee-eater i5407w_morning-canal-view-w-openbills i5410w_openbill-crp i5432w_bicyclists-and-sarus-trio-across-canal i5439w_sarus-trio-crp i5448w_sarus-flight i5452w_bee-eater-on-ground i5454w_bee-eater-on-ground_crp i5477w_wire-tailed-swallow i5478w_lark-crested_crp i5489w_lark-calling-crp i5497w_wagtail-white-browed

i5560w_canal-landscape_eagle-spotted_pair i5562w_eagle-spotted_crp
two spotted eagles on a barren tree

i5531w_eagle_immature-maybe i5571w_eagle-spotted_immature_calling
what looked like an immature spotted eagle kept calling from a tree across the canal

i5586w_openbill
this openbill flew up to the top of a tree, carrying a clamshell

i5600w_lark-ashy-crowned i5610w_lark-ashy-crowned
an ashy-crowned lark. these are common in the region, and have a spectacular mating display, where they plunge down from a height.

i5636w_sarus-feeding_crp i5645w_kingfisher-white-breasted i5675w_lesser-whistling-teals_crp
lesser whistling-teals at bhausana. not too common around here

i5707w_darter i5708w_darter i5716w_darter
ran into this darter at a pond in bhausana. a Anhinga melanogaster, of course, but i have not seen the neck so prominently white. possibly a female.

i5766w_great-cormorant_beaks-open_g i5770w_great-cormorant_crp2
a group of five greater cormorants settled on a tree above our path

i5776w_sarus-pair i5783w_coucal
sarus pair. coucal at canal edge.

i5791w_lark-maybe_crp
some kind of lark, i feel. please help with id.

i5810w_quail_crp i5813w_quail_10sec-later-it-flew-off
we could hear them off and on, but i still don't know how suhail managed to spot this quail which was sitting in a hole beyond a ridge, about 30 meters from our bicycling path. i am sorry to say that in our urge to see it (my first spotting), we chased it from its roost - it flew off ten seconds after the second image was taken. is it a common quail? please help ID!!

Birds of the Lakh Bahosi bird sanctuary

delayed by three hours from our planned time due to detours and punctures, we got to the lakh-bahosi entrance at 6pm. as we were approaching the bridge on the canal, we saw a group of people standing around, watching us from afar. amazingly, one of them turned out to be karan singh, known far and wide as the most knowledgeable and helpful person in lakh-bahosi.

karan singh is an amazingly dedicated worker, by far the most effective forest department employee i've seen at any of the UP parks.

over two decades now, he has been a "temporary" worker, earning a meager pittance...

singh was then heading home at 6pm, but he immediately turned back, and after some phone conversations with his superiors, he took us to the center and got us registered. it turns out that the bahosi forest bungalow is closed, more or less on a permanent basis. no one is expected to come, it seems (the forest dept does little to publicize it). in our tired state, we were dreading the 40km ride to kannauj but eventually, karan singh arranged some rustic accommodation with the help of the Bahosi villagers, with beddings provided from a local tent house.

i5851w_greylag-flight_g
as we entered the park, flocks of greylag geese were flying out overhead. they will spend the night in some fields, apparently.

morning at lakh bahosi

next morning we woke up early, to the insistent calls of the sarus -- hundreds of sarus couples roost for the night on waters of the lake, flying off to their foraging fields in the morning.

during our morning round of the lake we encountered lots of species... even stumbling upon a spotted eagle that was sitting on the road a few meters from us. it looked at us imperiously and kept sitting for about ten minutes, before flying away.

it took us about two hours to circumnavigate the bahosi lake. after breakfast, karan singh showed us some species from the gazebo.

i5885w_wagtail-yellow i5888w_wagtail-yellow_big
yellow wagtail - but which variety??

i5894w_sparrow-like i5943w_lark-unknown_pair i5946w_lark-unknown
a lark of some sort?? pls help id!

i5966w_ibis-flight
many black-headed ibis could be seen. you also find them in agricultural fields in the region.

i5974w_wagtail i6003w_greylag i6001w_greylag-pair
a group of greylag geese.

i6014w_greylag_flight
greylag flight.

i6018w_eagle i6022w_eagle-spotted i6026w_eagle-spotted i6038w_eagle-spotted
we stumbled upon this spotted eagle sitting on the path just a few meters from us. it looked at us imperiously and kept sitting for nearly ten minutes, (hoping we would fly away).

i6040w_eagle-spotted_flight
eventually, it took off over the lake, a gentle ripple of dark feathers in the sky.

i6044w_hoopoe i6062w_roller
eurasian hoopoe and the indian roller - both quite common in the area. however, i feel that hoopoe is far less commonly seen than a decade ago.

i6066w_kingfisher i6089w_ibis-black-headed

i6110w_stilts
black-winged stilts were dominating the shallows.

i6123w_kite-brahminy
a brahminy kite that didn't stop for photographs.

i6159w_heron-pond
pond herons everywhere in this region

i6161w_heron-grey
a grey heron. after encountering it (infrequently) in this region, i was surprised to see this bird by a canalside in Metz, France, last summer.

i6176w_coot i6179w_whistling-teal
coots and whistling teals, in the jheel at lakh

i6184w_unknown_redbreast-like_white-ring-eye
couldn't id this bird for sure. most likely a black redstart.

i6215w_ibis i6329w_stork-black-necked_shovellers-coots
birds along the jheel at lakh, including a black-necked stork

i6350w_moorhen-purple i6352w_moorhen-purple_shovellers-pintails_coots i6361w_moorhen-purple
purple moorhens were lining the edges along the lakh jheel

shivrajpur ghat on the way back

the plan was for us to go back by car, since the Holi fires (holika would be starting that evening. we had a car meet us at indergarh, and on the way back, we took a detour to the ganga at shivrajpur, just curious to see the ghat. as it happens, we could see a lot of birds settled on the water near the far bank, and we managed to hail a passing boat and get there.

here at last, we were able to see the ruddy shelduck!!

i6385w_pintails-shelduck-shoverller-stilt i6398w_shelduck-ruddy_stilts i6406w_pintail-flock-taking-off i6407w_pintails-flight_crp i6422w_shelduck-ruddy_looking-left i6430w_shelduck-ruddy_stilts i6433w_shelduck-ruddy_pair_w-stilts i6435w_openbills-in-flight i6467w_chat-brown-rock i6476w_lapwing-river

information on lakh-bahosi bird sanctuary

here is a hard to find pamphlet brought out by the forest department, uttar pradesh, circa 2003.


pamphlet: side 1 (click to enlarge)


pamphlet: side 2; contacts likely to be obsolete (click to enlarge)


amitabha mukerjee Aug 9 2010 mukerjee [at] gmail