AramaneGadde (Part-1)

AramaneGadda was my old plan and it was fulfilled at the beginning of this summer.  Friday night we booked a room in the Forest Department IB at Shiradigadi. When I reached the place it was very late night & very dark it was quite difficult to locate our place of stay (No power connection for this IB) finally I was able to get our reserved room. First I brightened the room with candles by then rest of my teammates joined me. The next day we were up early had breakfast at a small hotel & packed our lunch later we met our guide and planned out the schedule.

Our trek trail started from a point 7kms from IB (Chowdeshwari Temple) we caught one tanker to that point and an unpaid journey we were on our way by 8am. But on our initial journey we got disappointed because one forest officer did not allow us entering the forest without a permission letter & after lot of discussion we had to come to terms with currency.

Before he left he warned (threatened) us about smugglers were doing lot of illegal activities in the Sanctuary & they were not hesitate to kill any (But I couldn’t understand what these forest officer & department do knowing all these things whose duty was it to control unauthorized activities in Reserve forest it seems the whole department people was involved and all were just busy making money).

Later we came to know from our guides about the ruthless poaching and other illegal activities like cultivating Ganja in these wildlife rich areas. There is only one case involving ganja cultivation inside the Sanctuary there is large scale organized ganja cultivation in the AramaneGadde area & adjoining areas for which proposals have been made for inclusion in the Sanctuary. The presence of ganja cultivation in the Sanctuary is a potential threat to wildlife. The influence of the ganja cultivators on the tribal’s within the Sanctuary has been negatively affecting the eco-development initiatives in this range.

 

We entered inside the forest and followed a gravel path ascending from starting point. Slowly we were coming out of thick forest into the rough smolder grasslands after 45 minutes non-stop climbing along with carrying heavy bags. The sun was slowly coming out making the trek through the grasslands slightly tougher. Throughout the journey we find Venkatagiri, AreBetta, Himagiri and bottom side Beautiful Kempuhole River.

The climb was quite gradual steep for the first few hours we made very good progress but slowed down gradually as we were exhausted and the heavy bags were not helping the situation. The oranges we carried proved to be a very helpful when we ran out of water. The climb was very strenuous and all of us were drained there were hardly any trees to provide any shade too. 

 

During our tough dry walk few things did freshen our mind, during our climb I rested at a place and sat on one rock at the same time one brown rabbit passed through my legs & I was so stunned I jumped for this unexpected incident, even the poor rabbit also was frightened & ran from that spot. Later while crossing one mountain I found a group of Bison’s at a very short distance enjoying themselves in the wild.

 

Spending some time with them we left that place & crossed 2-3 Shola forests & we spotted some Sambers on a distance. Sighting wildlife can be challenging Nonetheless the journey through the forest ranges can be enchanting and exhilarating.

 

After a long walk we got one clean water spot settled down at a small stream inside the Shola forest. All filled enough water & had our packed lunch took some rest. After a long break once again we stepped forward to reach AramaneGudda after crossing few Shola forests & grasslands one large forest came in front of us. After almost 30 minutes struggle we stepped on AramaneGadde the wide open grassland area.

To be continued…