Rambles in the Darjeeling Terai : Mongpong village

 

North Bengal is full of unexpected corners, partly forested, partly scrub, partly riverine which are rich in birdlife. They are mostly overlooked by serious birdwatchers who tend to converge in the major bird watching spots. However, some of these neglected areas can be excellent places to spend some profitable hours of birdwatching.

One such area is the village of Mongpong. The Teesta as it enters the plains at Sevoke makes a sharp left turn towards Gazaldoba. The road link to the Dooars crosses the river at Coronation Bridge and hugs close to the hills of what is now the Kalimpong District. Between the road and the Teesta is Mongpong. A kutcha road leads down from the Sevok Road and ends near the railway bridge. There are several large trees, including some marvelous simuls. There is a grassland and the Teesta is, of course, close by.

The Teesta River Bridge 


Further east is the Montong forest proper. To enter this we must have permission, so it is best to stay confined to the area I have described. In the spring, in particular when the simul blooms, this is a paradise of birdlife.

About a couple of years ago, we had visited this small patch of land with some friends. The main reason was to see the Teesta at close corners and also to see the other end of the railway bridge that spans the Teesta. We had noticed some sunbirds and other small birds that we could not identify. We were a large heterogenous group and bird watching was not really on our minds. We filed it away in our minds as a place worth exploring.

Last month we had two guests from Kolkata who were interested in exploring the bird life of the Siliguri region. Ratna Ghosh is a Professor at Jadavpur University and I have known her for a long time since my Malaysia days. I had first contacted her in the hope of working in a project which could drastically decrease the price of pacemakers. After a long discussion, conducted mainly by email, we realized that it was not a feasible proposition. Perhaps we can discuss the whys and wherefores some other time.

Subsequently we had become friends and I have visited her several times at their department at the Salt Lake Campus. I had invited her to visit us and she had accepted, but somehow the timings never seemed to be compatible and it was until February this year that we could harmonise our schedules. She was to be accompanied by her friend, Patrali Pal, her batchmate at the IIT, Kharagpur and an architectural engineer by profession.

After picking them up from the NJP station and after they had had breakfast and freshened up, we drove out. Susmita insisted that we should first check out the Mongpong patch. It was the right time for this because there was a bit of cloud and the simul (red silk cotton) trees were in full bloom and alive with bird life.

The "other" end of the Teesta Bridge : Patrali, Ratna and Susmita 


We rambled around the place and the more we did, the more we were astonished at the richness of the bird life. Nuthatches, Gold fronted leaf birds, three species of raptors and many more at eh end of a couple of hours birding, we had seen some 40 odd species. There was large patch of grassland which no doubt hid more treasures, but by now the sun was well and truly up and we had more pastures to explore.

Well earned rest after a hard morning's birding 


Mongpong also has a forest guest house where one can stay. This is located on a cliff overlooking the main Mongpong forest and will probably be home to many other species. We have yet so explore them. Some time later we plan to check out the rest house. Elephants are common here, so caution is recommended.

Another mini hotspot in the Darjeeling  Terai.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Alexander Grothendieck: Mathematician Extraordinaire

Image
                                    The lion in winter: Grothendieck in old age  Mathematicians and theoretical physicists fascinate me. This is because, I can imagine myself, if I work hard enough, sometime solving a biological conundrum, or evaluating a chemical compound. But the idea of sitting with a piece of paper and pencil and calculating away for days or months or years and then coming up with a proof of an esoteric mathematical problem, or a theory to explain an observation made in deep space seems to me to be more like magic. Anybody who can do this, in my opinion is made of stuff that I cannot even imagine, let alone ever to hope to emulate. There are several such mathematicians. One of them passed away last November. I refer to Alexander Grothendieck who passed away on the 13 th of last month. Grothendieck was the mathematician par excellence. He embodied all that i...
Read more

The Uttar Banga Anath Ashram ( North Bengal Orphanage)

Image
Uma Mallick looks like an ordinary Bengali Housewife. She wears a standard cotton sari, vermillion on her forehead and travels clinging to her husband’s motorcycle as he whizzes past in Siliguri’s notorious lanes. However she is anything but that. Uma is the founder and the livewire of the Uttar Banga Anath Ashram (North Bengal Orphanage). Lest that makes you conjure up an image of a gleaming building full of well dressed children being looked after by an army of attendants, let me disillusion you. Her orphanage looks after girl children (she only takes in girls), and they are housed in a tiny postage stamp sized piece of land that was donated to her by a kind soul. Or perhaps not so kind soul, because the land was already occupied by a group of Mastaans, ( local goons) who could only be induced to vacate by a long and desperate struggle, involving a hunger strike by the children, and the help of local well-wishers. The house is basically a brick structure covered by a tin roof. There ...
Read more

Mamma Africa: Miriam Makeba and Malaika

Image
Today is the fifth death anniversary of singer activist Miriam Makeba. In our school days her songs were immensely popular; especially Malaika and Pata Pata which used to be bring to our staid Calcutta school the romance of Africa. She was one of the singers who made the sixties one of the most significant decades of revolt in the twentieth century when challenges to authority seemed to be a way of life. Miriam "Zenzi" Makeba was born in a suburb of Johannesburg in one of the crowded and deprived black townships of the apartheid era. Her father, Caswell, was Xhosa: her mother, Christina, was Swazi. Her given name Zenzi was derived from the Xhosa word Uzenzile, meaning "you have no one to blame but yourself". This was a traditional name intended to provide support through life's difficulties. When she was eighteen days old, her mother was arrested for selling umqombothi, an African homemade beer distilled from malt and cornmeal. Her mother was sentenced to a ...
Read more