JHARGRAM - JHILLI : Birding at queen of tribal forest

Trip date: 11th - 12th February 2017

Jhargram was in my mind for quite some time being a jungle lover. However haven’t picked up the spot as a weekend destination in years for various reasons.

This time I got a chance to share my trip with a group of like-minded trotter who loves to explore places.

Jhargram Station

Arig Chakraborty was the troop leader and we were a gang of 12 men with age ranges from 24 to 66. The path of journey as we decided was from Jhargram to Jhilli – the birding hot-spot of the heritage forest of Hatibari. Jhilli is a quite famous picnic spot in Jhargram. Evidently, Jhilli is full of fun till daylight is there, as after the sun sets, the area gets completely deserted. However zealous and nature lovers can still stay there as there are couple of small cottages that can accommodate 2 to 3 persons in each of them. However since we were a group of 12, we did carried 3 tents to accommodate ourselves comfortably.

The Journey:

There are regular train services between Howrah & Jhargram. We opted for ISPAT express and the journey took three hours from Howrah to take us to the gateway of Jangal Mahal. ISPAT departed from Howrah by 7am and we reached Jhargram by 10 o’clock in the morning.

Once we reached Jhargram, the next action point was to hire 2 cars that will take us to Jhilli. Getting cars was never been easy as no driver was willing to stay in the night at Jhilli as there were no arrangement of night halt for drivers. However we were lucky enough to convince couple of Mahindra Bolero drivers to serve the purpose. We picked up 5 mattress and pillow set in rent for our tents and leave to our destination at Hatibari forest after a quick but stodgy breakfast in a road side hotel.

 En route to Jhilli:

Jungle pathway to Kanak-Durga Temple

Chilikagarh Kanak Durga Temple: We made our first stop to Chilikagarh Kanak Durga Temple. It was around 11 Km distant from Jhargram town. We took a jungle pathway to the temple from our parking spot. The temple courtyard consists two temples, one is brand new and another is very old that almost in a decaying state.

Decaying History: Old Kanak Durga temple at Chilikagarh

There were plenty of Hanuman langurs seen in the temple premises.  Devotees, tourists and visitors are found happily feeding them around. We too had a good photo session with them. 

Sacred : Adoring mother-son Hanuman Langur's at Kanak-Durga temple Chilikagarh

Water walk : Dulung river Chilikagarh

There was a walking route to jungle beside the old temple that took us to Dulung river flowing nearby. The river was almost dry, only some scattered water streams flowing behind the rocks on the river bed.

After exploring the temple and Dulung river side for around 40 minutes we move ahead to our next stop to Chilikagarh Palace.

Chilikagarh Palace:

We moved further around 3 KM from Kanak Durga Temple to reach the Chilikagarh palace which is locally called as Chilikagarh Rajbari. 

Chilikagarh Palace courtyard

Chilikagarh Palace

Chilikagarh Rajbari is an empty palace that hosts 2 temples in its courtyard. The palace contains a huge enclosure with history spattered everywhere. Unfortunately owing to poor maintenance of the empty palace it appears to be typical ghost house in horror flicks.

Radha-Krishna temple at Chilikagarh Palace courtyard

 Gopiballavpur: By the time we left Chilikagarh palace it was already midday noon and we had to arrange our rations for night stay in Jhilli from some local market. Gopiballavpur was the nearest big stop from where we can get all necessary items. Gopiballavpur is around 48 km from Jhargram and it took us around 1-1.5 hour drive to reach Gopiballavpur. Jhilli was 10-12 km from Gopiballavpur. We started for our final destination Jhilli after a filling lunch from a road side dhaba on the way.

Sunset at Jhilli

Jhilli: When we reached Jhilli it was almost sunset time. We have been welcomed with the chirping/twittering by huge gangs of migratory birds in the lake.

But we didn’t had much time to enjoy the sunset as we need to set up our tents as early as possible till we have the day light as the place doesn't have electricity. Finally tent was set after a collective efforts from the team. We are all set to enjoy the full moon night in Jhilli.

Welcome to Jhilli : Garden Lizard at Jhilli

Moonlight chit-chat: Beside Jhilli lake

It was a mesmerizing environment under the moonlight with star studded dark night sky. We sat beside the lake and spent the moonlit night with bit of snacks and drinks with the fellow trotters. We sang, we chatted and shared our photography/travel experiences before went to bed after a sumptuous dinner with roti and chicken curry prepared in typical tribal style. We all were excited to explore the place in the morning.

Wish wings: group of Lesser whistling ducks 

Woke up with fellow birder Diptesh around 6am in the morning. The sunlight and weather was just appropriate for a great session of birding. As I explore the place, found that the place contains a large water reservoir surrounded by lush greenery. Paddle boating facility is also available in the reservoir. We use the boat to its best to sail through the reservoir and get as closer as possible to our feather friends.

Pair of Cotton pigmy goose

Purple Heron: Standing tall at Jhilli bird sanctuary

Lone sailor: Northern Pintail sailing through

Marsh-landers: Purple heron stands tall in the group of lesser whistling ducks

The following species are recorded in a 2-3 hours birding span-

• Northern Pintail
• Common Coot
• Lesser Whistling Ducks
• Cotton Pigmy Goose
• Little Grebe
• Pheasant Tailed Jacana
• Bronze Wing Jacana
• Purple Heron
• Shikra
• Indian Cuckoo
• Indian Roller Bird
• Green Bee Eater

Little Grebe

Migratory birds visit this place during the winter and hence best time for birding starts from November mid itself. I believe we could have spotted more bird species if visited by December/January.

Green bee eater

 Subarnarekha river side from Hatibari forest:

Subarnarekha river side from Hatibari forest

We leave the place by 11:30 am after a late breakfast. We left Jhilli to visit Subarnarekha river side in Hatibari forest. It was just 3 km from Jhilli. We had a little but a refreshing halt with unforgettable panorama of the river along with dark green forest in its shoreline. We also had a stop at Sidhu-Kanu-Birsha bridge which offers the best view of the river.

River-scape: Subarnarekha river line from Hatibari forest

Trip closure:

It’s time to go back to our city life again. We concluded our weekend trip by visiting our last destination Jhargram Palace. Travelers can visit this place as a part of Jhargram site seeing. It also has accommodation for tourists with previous booking. 

As I headed towards my daily city life I realize the actual attraction of Jhargram is its evergreen forestry. There are many more places to explore as Jhargram contains hill ranges in Kankrajhor, Belpahari and beautiful river lines of Kangsabati, Tarafeni, Subarnarekha and Dulung. It’s a time to bid goodbye with a wishful heart to come back again and explore the serenity of the queen of jungle.

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Information:

* Best time to visit: November to February

* Places to stay: 

1. Stay in bungalow at Jhilli. Booking: Jhargram Tourist Development Committee, BDO, Chatinasol, Gopiballabhpur, Paschim Medinipore. Tel: 03221-266240.

2. Stay at Hatibari Forest: Shalboni Retreat (Maharaja Udyanbati ) 
- Mr. Bhaskar Dasgupta (9432863167, 9331041352)

3. The palace resort Jhargram: Email:jhargrampalace@gmail.com

Phone: +91 9635269416 / +91 3221255401

* Good to carry:

      - Odomos mosquito cream

            - Big Torch, Candle, Matchbox

             - Binocular

            - Notebook and pen if you would like to note down the names of birds species

          ** Good to carry for staying at Jhilli and Hatibari Forest

4. Touring Partners : Kacha Kachi Pasha Pashi (https://www.facebook.com/groups/itsKKPP/?ref=bookmarks)

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All Photos © Prabuddha Samaddar