Gangetic Dolphin in Nepal

Rafting the Karnali

We got up early and had a light breakfast of sweet tea and an omelet before driving the jeep up river to Chesapanni to raft a branch of the Karnali River, the longest river in Nepal. We passed through a few military and police check points on the way. Just a quick point of interest, there are Nepali military checkpoints, police check points and Mao army check points. My question is why are there two separate armies in Nepal? Many of the Nepali cars and trucks queued to show paper work but with John being a local and somewhat of a celebrity teacher in the area and now a resort partner the checkpoints wave him through and we enter the road that cut through the park. Tigers, elephants, monkeys, etc. are all possibly visible from the road as we pass. The Japanese sponsored a beautiful bridge across the Karnali that is at the edge of Chesapanni. While John and Sitaram pumped up the raft I had a look around at the local activities happening on the edge of the river. There is no running water in Chesapanni so women wash clothes and bath riverside. The whole town gets drinking water from a hand pump well near the edge of the river. It seemed like everyone was getting water for the day and a loose line formed waiting for the pump. Groups of young boys held thin bamboo rods with a line and a hook and fished off the rocks into deep holes. While the raft was being pumped up John explained another Japanese project that was underway and expressed his concerns on its affect towards the Bardia National Park and the Gangetic Dolphin that seasonally appear in the deep pools near Tikapur.

Below the bridge on the western side of the bridge is a large aqueduct made of concrete to divert some of the Karnali River towards agricultural land to the south. The problem John sees is that Bardia National Park wildlife depend on that water in daily life and diverting it will have negative ramifications towards the ecosystem there. And to top it off a species of Gangetic dolphin frequent the pools in the Karnali River system. Not many people in the world know they exist this far inland. John said the dolphins could be seen near the town of Tikapur, just a few kilometers down the road from Lamki.

During the time I spent near Bardia National Park John spoke with some locals who all nodded when asked if the dolphin are in the nearby pools. When I asked John about the dolphin he seemed under the impression no one knows the Inia are this far inland including the Japanese researchers who you would hope did a thorough assessment of the flora and fauna that will be affected or erased from the area. I don’t think Green Peace knows these mammals are there and or what the Japanese are working on in western Nepal. Well I’m telling you now. It is a concern that should be addressed. For more information on the Inia subject go to: Johnny Sparshatt at Wild Trak Adventure. www.wildtrakadventure.com. Phone: 9804543477. Cell service in western Nepal is sporadic along with power and Internet.

Once the raft was pumped up we set out down river. There aren’t any true rapids it’s more of a full day silent nature-watching float. A few groups raft the Karnali River but our goal was to find the branch that ran in front of the resort. There was a slight headwind and we had to paddle a few of the broader slow water spots. Did I mention that the river has Crocodiles and Gavials in it? It does. The Gavial looks like a Crocodile but has a very slender snout and is primarily a fish eater.

Cormorants swim around hunting while a Serpent Eagle flew overhead with a snake in its talons and perched on the riverbank. Large storks and great egret wade in the shallows flapping their wings trying to scare the fish into moving. John spotted a pair of rare Red Headed Vultures working over a carcass. We stopped and watched and took a few pictures. John drew my attention to the scree mountainside showing the whole area was carved out of an ancient riverbed hundreds of meters deep in some spots and supporting the jungle.

There are many branches of the Karnali, which means jungle islands surrounded by water and not easily accessible except by boat or elephant. Many animals go to these islands for a multiple of reasons. Some of the branches are only active during the rainy season and tend to be more of a flash flood valve for maybe a few hours to days depending on how much rain falls and snow melts from higher up. There is a 1250 kilometer highway running East/West bisecting many of the flood branches in the area and act like a dam. The water in turn undercut the highway and erodes the pavement. The government is working on the waterways under the road in the hope of ending the erosion.

The Karnali River is bisected by the Babai River in the Bardiya District and is located against the foothills to the Himalayas. When its rainy season most of the islands are submerged and debris including whole trees are collected in the branches of the trees and brushes. I saw some debris spots where wads of tree limbs stuck in a tree 2-3 meters of the island floor.

As the day went on so did the heat. Western Nepal is at a relatively low elevation, hot and predominantly farmlands growing rice, wheat, corn, etc. In the heat of the day many large mammals come to the water to cool off or drink. There were many signs of tigers climbing under downed trees and lounging in shallow pools in the shade. Unfortunately we didn’t see any tiger but I’m not done yet. We returned to the resort just as the sun was going down. Children played at the river’s edge and mothers held an assortment of nets catching little fish for an added protein in their food.

We saw both types of monkey on the shore Black Faced Langur and the Macaque along with running into a family of river otter.

I have to interrupt the process here because the Katmandu Earthquake happened while I was in Bardia. I have a five-day trek to describe but I just visited Katmandu yesterday and have a few photos of the government’s invitation to return to their villages for free and I witnessed the damage and exodus first hand. Stay tuned.

www.davidcdagley.com

Bardia National Park, Nepal

Bardia National Park

I had the front desk at Garden Buddha set me up with a taxi at 6:30 am in order to catch an 8 am flight to Nepalgunj. There was a small group of folks from a wheat watch perspective that I met on the plane and just after that I hitched a ride to their Hotel Siddhartha. The hotel is one of the nicer in the town and there aren’t that many. They were super nice and helpful and pointed me in the right direction to pay for a ride to the Bardia National Park entrance and to a suggested guesthouse, Wild Trak Adventures. I still hadn’t made contact until the power went back on In Bardia when Sitaram’s phone could be charged and call me. I was being driven in a brand new Siddhartha Hotel luxury four-wheel drive vehicle by Mr. Raj a kindly Nepali with Indian roots.

We had to pass through a couple of military checkpoints because there are areas where stopping, taking photos or getting out of your car are forbidden. The checkpoint is a time stamped paper that you must delivery to the other end. You can’t speed or go too slow because they generally know how long it takes from one end to the other. You can be questioned and your vehicle searched, it’s up to them.

Sitaram greeted me and showed me to my spacious room and dropped my bags off and went and chatted for a while about the park and what’s around it. Obviously the park is broken in two one where you can’t go at all and one area you can go in with a guide or driver. There was a family from Melbourne a couple houses/bungalows away and they were very fun and the kids entertaining. They mentioned they were headed down to the elephant camp on the confluence of a branch of the Karnali River. When I arrived elephants were crossing the river. A mother elephant being ridden by a worker had a baby elephant trotting along her side out of the water. More elephants emerged from the jungle on the far side and followed in line back to where they spend the night.

Some of the elephants have been moved from Chitwan National Park to Bardia National Park. Once upon a time Bardia National Park received many Rhinos from Chitwan but 10 years ago the Mao political party and the Nepali Government had a civil war and the Mao group went into Bardia National Park and killed 80 Rhinos and cut the horn and sold them. In two years Bardia may be getting some more.

 The baby elephant is a product of the domesticated mother having a fling with a wild elephant. Apparently it happens with regularity.

The river water is clear and swimmable but there are crocs, bigger the further up river you go I hear. A couple rivers back when I crossed a bridge in the car I looked below to the edge of the water and saw a few Garials, also known as Gavials, half in the water and caked in mud. I’m rather tentative to go for a swim if the locals aren’t in it doing washing or taking a bath.

The following day I teamed up with the Aussies to share in costs for a half-day jeep trek inside the park. We saw Spotted Deer, Swamp Deer, and I think Hog Deer all in a grass pasture below a lookout tower. These towers are for the park guests to get a vantage point over the high grasses and spot animals moving about. There are quiet a few of these towers throughout the park. Otherwise, we’d park the jeep and walk to the riverbank and look out for animals crossing or getting water.

 Johnny got back from a trek with a friend from England and they were sun burnt and peeling like they had been microwaved on the thicker than normal snow over the pass. They learned not to hike in the afternoon because the snow melts and you end up ‘post-holing’ each step taking that much more energy and moving that much slower.

We packed water and lunch and took a day hike in Bardia National Park looking for the bigger mammals still in the wild. There are large populations of Rhino, Elephant, Tiger, wild boar and five species of deer. The park caters to the deer in order to help keep the tigers localized with a centralized and growing food source. Sitaram led us through the park crossing rivers in the shallows and considering the possible encounter of one of two types of crocs the Muggers and the Gavial. Both get big. The Gavial is considered endangered or close. From my geographical perspective there’s plenty.

With sweat dripping down our faces a park ranger phoned Sitaram and gave him some area directions to find a lone bull elephant. I’ve been told there’s a herd of about twenty-five but I’ll settle for what I get. He stood at the edge of a clearing eating the grasses toward the middle. We stood a good distance away. Trying to be quiet is almost impossible because the ground is covered in a few layers of dry brown crunchy leaves. The elephant can hear every step we take.

We moved away and sat in a natural hide on the riverbank cliff and watched for animals to cross over. As we did the old bull moved on down to the river and got a drink and cleaned his teeth by spraying them and spitting out some of the water he had taken in. He stood by the river for a good half an hour before heading off across the river to disappear in an instant with legs like tree trunks and a body the color of many tree limbs cracked with shadows. Gone.

The Rhino was the same way. We found this female taking a long quiet mud bath before we came along and disturbed her with camera clicks and trying to be quiet as you tip-toe across a round river rock exposed shoal, marbles and rolling stones with moss on them. There was no reasonable way to take a good picture of this animal so John took a really nice one of her head from maybe 10 meters while hiding behind a grassy sand bar. I got the other end and out of focus to boot. She agilely turned and ran up a hillside like a tank into the underbrush also gone in seconds.

We found tiger tracks everywhere.

We walked out of the park in the late afternoon sun. The heat of the day subsided into a tranquil night of stars with a nearly full moon.

Wild Trak Adventures is a great place to stay with clean rooms, great food, and you step into the local culture naturally. Johnny Sparshatt is British and partnered with Sitram and his family and they are in their element. John is a Bio jungle bug with a passion for big mammals, birds, spiders, bugs and life in general. They are prepared to take you out of your element and live to tell the tale. http://www.wildtrakadventure.com/

Upcoming; a raft trip, a five day trek, and an EARTHQUAKE!!!!!

www.davidcdagley.com