Shibin Dinesh
Program Manager
It was nearing one year since my last trekking trip with my colleagues Arjun and Abhijith from team IT and Sourath from team Indexing to Coorg and this time we zeroed in at Aralam as our next trekking destination, a largely unexplored wildlife sanctuary in Kannur, bordering Kerala and Karnataka. One of my friend, Anoop (Ex-Molcon!) ,also joined this time. The Aralam Wildlife Sanctuary is in the news recently for all the wrong reasons as around 20 wild elephants were running havoc at the adjacent Aralam Farm (An extension of the sanctuary where human settlement and farming is allowed). They were destroying the plantations and even attacking people resulting in massive damage to property, crops and even unfortunate death by trampling of two people (In the last 2 months). Whenever such incidents happen, the entry to the sanctuary for the public is restricted or even banned and hence it was extremely difficult for us to get permission for the trek.
After countless phone calls to the Wildlife Warden, Forest officers, Range officers and so on, we finally got a go ahead under the condition that we will be accompanied by a forest guide and that permission will be revoked if any new attack is reported 1 or 2 days prior to our trip. Also, permission to trek inside the forest by foot is rarely given and is usually limited to just 8-10 groups per year mainly comprising of bird watchers, butterfly experts, wildlife researchers, and other similar interest groups.
However, when we informed the driver that our drop point is at the Aralam wildlife sanctuary entrance which is a further 8 km inside the Aralam farm, the driver became visibly uncomfortable and was trying to discourage us saying the authorities won’t let people inside so early and that he thinks they have stopped the trekking for now and all. When we informed him that we have taken all permissions and that we indeed can go early, he shared with us his real concern: ELEPHANTS.
He was scared to drive through the Aralam farm where elephants were a threat. The driver was seen repeatedly asking the guard at a security checkpoint near the entrance if there are wild elephants en route and whether its safe for him to go. After getting assurance from the forest guard, he finally took us in, and after another 30 min of drive through the farm, we were dropped at the entrance of AWS and the auto driver returned immediately with a look on his face as if he has dropped us at the entrance of death.
It was pitch dark at the entrance as the sunrise was still an hour away and all we could hear was water flowing from the nearby river and chirping crickets. There was no one at the gate and after some searching and walking into the sanctuary we found a forest officer and informed him about our trek. It was the same person who I had frequently contacted over phone and he asked us to wait for sometime as the guide who is to accompany us was on his way.
This was probably a rare trip to a wildlife territory where you wish not to be seen by wild animals!
We resumed our journey and traveling roughly a km more through the rock-paved road, a small path emerged to the left of the main road. The guide gave us two choices: Walk straight along the paved road and reach the waterfall OR take the left turn and explore the dense forest with the risk of a wildlife encounter! We happily chose the second option and started our trek to the insides of the forest. The next 5 km which took us almost 2 hours to cover was the most dangerous and exciting part of our trip, where we could come in contact with wild elephants any time. We were also going through the area frequented by Tigers (as seen in the capture cameras and according to our Guide, who himself had 5 close tiger sightings) and the vegetation was so thick that sideways visibility was just 1-2 meters and hence we wouldn’t be even knowing if danger was behind those trees .
Finally, after 5 hours of intense trekking, we reached our destination, which is small watch tower, right in the middle of the forest! This place is used by forest officers to halt at night whenever they are deployed into the forest and the tower is surrounded by deep drenches, so that wild animals do not cross and reach the place. We camped there for almost an hour, having our lunchtime snacks, clicking few photographs, resting for some time and then started our trek back.
The walk back was a lot faster and we easily covered the return path until the river side in half the time. After reaching the river side, we took a long break, Sourath and Abhijith went to swim, despite countless crocodiles living in the river. Myself, Arjun and the guide stood guard making sure there is no sudden arrival of elephants, as the herd frequent the place for drinking water.
