An avid nature lover, to me wildlife sightings (especially of the rarer species) are all the more thrilling and pleasurable when I stumble upon these by chance. And living deep in Munnar’s forested and wildlife-rich interior has enabled me to do so now and then much to my delight.
Returning after the midnight Christmas mass last week, our car’s headlights ferreted out a pair of tiny mouse deer scampering away into a tea field. I was enthralled, having last seen one in Valparai way back in 2004. Indeed I had feared that the unbridled invasion of tourists had driven these timid nocturnal herbivores away for good. And here was a pair hardly a kilometre from home!
Just a week earlier, my son and I had surprised a leopard squatting on the road late one evening as our car swept round a sharp curve. Its eyes smouldered malevolently (as only a leopard’s can) as it nimbly nipped up a steep ledge into a tea field. Leopards are known to be extremely elusive and one has to be singularly lucky to find one. This sighting was truly uplifting as I hadn’t seen a leopard in Munnar for years.
One night a few months ago, while driving to Munnar we had found the narrow road, or rather track, blocked by a massive gaur bull. It stood its ground resolutely, its impressively horned head upraised in clear defiance. My son resignedly switched off the car’s headlights and with a patience born of experience, we waited in the dark. After more than 15 minutes—apparently mollified that we had acknowledged its ‘right of way’—the mighty bovine slowly sauntered into a ravine and let us pass, untroubled.
Then there’s a family of sambars—a stag, a hind and a fawn—that frequents our garden at night to browse on the lush shrubbery and nibble off the roses that they seem to relish. The other day I chanced upon them at dusk on the road leading to our home. Alarmed, they fled helter-skelter, each preoccupied with its own safety. Yet, undeterred, they still return at night to forage in the garden, lured by the undisturbed ambience.
Despite the unrelenting intrusion of countless tourists and all that this inevitably implies, I find it truly heartening to see the wildlife here display a rare resilience that augurs well for the future.
George N Netto
Email: gnettomunnar@rediffmail.com