Love at first sight with Koyna: full of exciting and refreshing moments

Surveys in Koyna have always been special. Most parts are accessible by only boat and hence it has a special impact on my mind and body every time I have visited Koyna. The forest department generously provided us a boat to survey interior forests of Koyna. I am certain that the team can never forget how we started the boat journey. It took almost two hours to reach our destination spot, majorly because it started raining. And when it rains in Sahaydri, it pours. The wind, the heavy shower, made the beginning exciting and the whole trip memorable. The boatmen advised us not to close the windows of the boat as that might tilt the boat causing it to tumble and flip. So we kept them open and were soaking wet sitting inside the boat, but we could not care less. It was such a refreshing trip.

The rains hit us as we started

Personally working in Koyna have always been challenging, I have had to climb really steep forests but upon descent and reaching the boat and river, I felt refreshed and anew, full of energy to climb again. Of all the areas surveyed I believe one of the most memorable would be visit to Shirshinghe beat. We had to abandon our vehicle, and reach Shirshinge on foot, it took us around four hours to reach the beat hut. On our way, the forest watchmen informed us that to reach the watch tower, we had to walk almost six-seven hours. The watch tower was the only safe place to spend the night. When asked if there was any other option, he said that there was a hut but not in very good condition. We opted for the hut hoping that the condition of the hut was not as bad as he explained. After reaching the hut, it turned out that the watchmen was right about the condition. The rains had been on and off since the last week and this made the hut even worse. The hut was damp, the palm branches that worked as the ceiling were wet and house to fungi now. Fortunately, the stocked food was safe from the rains, it was inside a trunk.

We started preparing food without any delay, it was around 3 pm. We were hungry and we feared that if it rained there would be nothing to eat because no fire, no food. We would also not have any shelter if it rained, we would just soak all night. This might sound dim and risky, but the wonderful people around me actually made it fun and exciting. I took the responsibility to prepare food and as anyone would anticipate, there was no spice in the meal. I had just Rabi who preferred food like that. It was nice to see that the other guys did not complain. After a while we prepared to sleep, well, there was not much to prepare. We had our sleeping bags with us and the watchmen unfolded and spread a trampoline on the forest floor big enough to accommodate all five of us. 

So, this was our arrangement for the night. There was this small open patch just in front of the hut. We slept outside the hut, however vulnerable because well, we had no other option. I am certain that I slept for maybe about half an hour during the whole night because every now and then, I would wake up with every little sound of say twig snapping or just a breeze sweeping away dry leaves. It had such a ghastly feeling to it. Honestly, all that ran in my head was the bear incident (detailed in the previous blog). I was surprised how the other team members slept almost carefree; sometimes I wish I could be that carefree.

Our camp that evening. The open forest patch and the trampoline