My Stories

Sasan Gir is a great national park, if only the people who manage it are managed well. I think I misjudged taking the early morning safari to the park all by myself, just one Measly Paw Print!! My luck with wildlife remains the same, only the pockets are much lighter now.

Sasan is not really for single travelers and this I experienced first hand. Although there is a village, everything here is valued in dollar equivalents. The cheapest of all places also runs into hundreds. It is tough if you do not have a vehicle of your own since there really is no local public transportation available but one auto and some chakdaas for the entire population of locals and outsiders. But I wanted to try it this way and I was not disappointed.

Take aways of Sasan Experience -

• Wonderful train ride through the country side of Saurashtra
• First Chakdaaa Ride!
• Semi-Wild Asiatic Lions of Sasan Gir
• Missed the leopard by a whisker
  
• .... and that's about it

Train to Sasan 

On reaching Veraval it turned out that the ST bus would delay me unnecessarily, so I decided to try the train instead. This turned out to be a good idea since there was a direct local to Sasan through Talala.

As with most places towards the sea, the vegetation gradually changes to trees dotted with Palms. However the whole of Saurashtra upto the coasts is dotted with Mango trees.


Now as we head back to mainland away from the sea the palms gradually reduce. Gir per se is Teak Wood country. On reaching Sasan, it dawned that summers are onset. This part of Saurashtra is dry but not arid. The Sasan train station has almost stopped in time. Walking towards the village, I noticed a crocodile farm - it is used to breed and supply marsh crocodiles to the forests. The place has baby crocs within meshed enclaves.






Gir Interpretation Center - A Lion Showdown



If you really really want to see a lion guaranteed, then this is the place to head out to. This 16 sq. km enclosure has two prides which are divided between 2 lions and 9 lionesses. The interpretation center is 12 km from Sasan and there is no public transportation for it. After negotiating a deal with the Chakdaa-wala I finally had my own ride. After having taken a number of pictures it was actually quite fun riding on one -




This was to and fro Sasan so the chap waited while I visited the interpretation center. The center also houses an orientation center which gives details about the sanctuary, the people and animals that exist there. Turns out that the Siddi's about whom we have spoken about in previous blogs had settled here as a community. I also came to know that on certain occasions they perform a dance called the Dhammal and I was hoping to find a way to see the form.

The state of the lions is just about ok. They do look like "Farsaan Eating" lions. The enclosure has plenty of game and the easy spotting of even the elusive black buck was proof. Now it turns out that the prides do hunt within the compounds but only rarely. Here is a sample of what the ride is like -



The lions look pretty tame though, with the guards prodding and coaxing them with ease. One also find workers walking freely in the vicinity of the enclosure with ease. This indicates that the lions are too used to the humans now and are not feared at all. Thoroughly domesticated! I have heard press reports of people feeding the lions Farsaan, but that did not happen during my ride to the place. The lions do look a bit sick, as if they were on a hay diet!

All in all it was a routine affair, however for first timers like me - it was an alright experience.

Tip - The best time to take the ride is the last bus at 5:15 pm, since it is around sunset and a lot of animal activity is visible.

On the chagdaa ride back I caught some nice skyscapes with the setting sun, here is one -



Gir National Park



Having seen the lions in the interpretation center, I had a remonition that my carnivorous wildlife viewing jinx would carry on with me. Turns out it did. Apparently the arrangements with the tour guy did not turn out as expected and I was the only one in my jeep. Here is a serious tip for those interested in visiting Sasan -

Tip - Bring your own petrol BS-III car. The permits for the park are issued at 6 am, so the operators are there in the line. A total of 90 permits are issued in one day with 30 each for three rounds. Avoid going on weekends or holidays since the ensuing rush prevents any chance of seeing quality wildlife. Also, try to take permits for the ride at 6:30 am or the evening ones around 4:30 pm. A guide is mandatory with each permit anyways.



I really cannot put up any videos or pictures of the ride since I really saw nothing. However, a couple of incidents caught my interest. Firstly, I came in contact with the Maaldharis, who are actually cow-herders.


It is them who are at logger heads with the lions, since their calves are being hunted down. I was surprised to see them calmly grazing their herd within the compounds. Turns out that the lion will not hunt when the buffaloes are in herds. The Maaldhaaris are also singers of bhajans in a unique way, which we do not find recorded anywhere. I was not lucky enough to record one, but while we were driving away this good chap started to sing, so I guess everyone will have to seek their own Maaldhari and hear one out. Quite like the Mangnihaars of Jaisalmer I must say.











Another community is that of the Siddis. Apart from being brought to the country by the Slave dynasty (remember the Habshis with Razia Sultan?) some members came as a result of wedlock with Indian merchants or as stowaways. The village of the Siddis in Sasan actually transports you back to an African nation like Kenya and for a moment it feels like you are in Masai Mara, till you speak to one of the members in Gujarati. It is kind of like a Sikh classmate of mine a long time back in St. Georges College Mussoorie. I spoke to him in Hindi and he replied back in Thai. Turns out he was a third generation Thai Sikh.


As for the lions, the guide told us that the sighting was a common affair and maybe we were unlucky. But on the way back, the leading jeep was a 2 second witness to a leopard jumping across and disappearing into a bush before they could take out their camera and say click. Well at least my jinx was intact!


With this I called it off for Sasan. Getting out was another adventure, since there was no known way to get to Diu from there. I was lucky to get a bus to Kodinar, which turned out to be a small agricultural town. From there I caught a bus to Una and then another Chakdaa to Diu.

Diu Rocks - watch out for a cultural melange on Diu. Here is a fleeting picture of the Safari I captured to salvage the attempt.







View more pictures at Gir Snapshots