Walk in the clouds

Bhimashankar wildlife sanctuary, home of the world’s biggest squirrel (The Indian Giant Squirrel). It was a sight to remember during the second half of the trail, around the bhimashanker temple. These squirrels looked almost like cats, with a orange shaded body and a cashmere shaded tail. This forest is spread over an area of 125sq. km. The forest type here is basically semi-evergreen with patches of primary evergreen forest at some places. Perched at an height of 3296 feet on the northern end of the western ghats, Bhimshankar, is one of the most thickly forested regions of the state.

On the Shayadris, we found lots of karvy plants. Karvy is a septennial plant which flowers once n seven years. These flowers are the most attractive and hence most of the insects and birds feed on the honey of these flowers at the same time increasing the rate of pollination. Due to the same reason, the year Karvys bloom, the rest of the plants on the shyadris suffer a week rate of growth. But recover in the next seven years. Thus the ecosystem remains balanced.
The trail we took was like a walk in the clouds. With innumerable thundering cascades and gurgling streams. On the way we found lots of slow moving snails, crabs, jewel bugs, beetles and also the cobra lily it gets its name from the fact that one of its petals looks like the hood of the cobra.

Luminous fungi grow on the trees that lay on the banks of the river Bhima. These glow during the dark. A natural light system during the nights. We heard a pleasant whistle. It was the whistling bird or the school boy. Because the same bird whistle that sounds like a scratch of a chalk on the slate during the evenings.

Bhimshankar temple is situated in Ambegaon taluka , District - Pune on the Sahayadri, by the banks of the river Bhima. Built in 'Hemadpanti' style of architecture is one of the 12 Jyotirling temples of Lord Shiva. The lingam was very small, just about 5 inches tall. The day we went to the temple was a pradhosam. We got a spectacular sight of the milk abhishekam using the cornshell. Otherwise nothing much around the temple was visible due to the mist laden chilly atmosphere.

All’s well that ends well. Not really! After hours of walking up, down and through the streams, I’ve caught cold. Well it was my first forest trail and this cold is in no way going to stop me from the second and many more.