Each and every time I sit to write my experience after visiting a national park, I ran out of words. The beauty and mesmerizing environment makes me spell bound. To start with I always had fascination about the national parks of West Bengal, according to the plan we made it to Gorumara National park(Mal Bazar subdivision,Jalpaiguri district) this time. I always prefer to visit a national park when there is not much commotion of tourists,that's the off season. The reason is a simple but an effective one because the chance of viewing animals increases 10 times. I visited the park during evening hours. First thing that touched my heart was the silence and grandeur of the forest. It symbolises how small we are in front of the mother nature but it was just a beginning, after that many times I felt the same way, a experience I will share next time (#Trekking India's top mountains). We borrowed a safari vehicle and a guide which was mandatory, but according to me it was not a good ploy to sell man power. According to me a driver is good enough to guide people thoroughly, though it's entirely my personal view.
We started off around 3.30 pm and the trails were scintillating. That day only 12 safari vehicles entered the forest. I was on vigilance from the word go and the atmosphere inside the vehicle was calm and quite, though everybody was sweating in excitement. Our first destination was
"Chandrachur Watch Tower" also renowned as
"Old Kunia Watch Tower". The river that cut's the national park in and out is
Murti River and it's also the prime source of drinking water for the games inside the park. Gorumara National Park covers a vast area of 80 sq kms. The forest consist mainly of Sal tree though other tree like Rain tree and Bombax also can be found inside the forest. Gorumara National Park is famous for one horn Indian Rhinoceros though I could not find a single one inside the forest. I was upset but not surprised as viewing a wild animal in it's own habitat is not a child's play. I have been to numerous forest's and in many of them I didn't see a single animal but this time luck was in our favour. As we were patrolling through the trails we saw a huge male Gaur (Indian Bison) it was so monstrous that one of my friend shouted saying elephant. It was standing on the forest road blocking our path. We waited there in pin drop silence and followed it's movement carefully. Our guide warned us not to step out of the vehicle out of excitement. Suddenly we noticed the forest on the left hand side of the vehicle and our jaw dropped. There were a group of 25 Gaur standing inside the lush Savana staring at us. If one of them decides to attack, we would been dead meat. Thankfully that was not the case.
 |
| Picture courtesy: Sourav Karmokar |
The funny part of the situation was our guide got to much excited and jumped shouting that you all are super lucky to view Gaur and that distracted the animals tranquillity,as it left the scene.Then we took the upper hand of the situation and guided other tourists to the spot.Then we spotted few elephants though from far distance as they were deep inside the jungle canopy.We left the park around 5.45 pm to visit the local tribal dance,that was an awesome experience in the middle of the forest far from the hustle and bustle of the city life.
Next day we were preparing ourselves for a morning patrol inside the forest when a local forest guard advised us to visit " Jatra Proshad Watch Tower " and believe me that was the wisest decision we took at that stage to follow his advise otherwise we had to regret throughout our life. It was a spellbound moment for me and all other members in our group.So according to the plan we all set off towards Jatra Proshad. We had to rush because only 35 ticket's are issued per day, fortunately for us we grabbed the ticket's, courtesy to a local boy, who became a good friend later, named Riju. I have never imagined that there can be such a place inside the jungle and a watch tower of such grandeur demands respect.
 |
| Picture Courtesy : Sourav Karmokar |
Our heart was filled with satisfaction and joy after viewing this heaven on earth, that would stay with us for long. We returned back to Dooars and from there back to Kolkata. Then slowly and gradually we all became busy in the buzz of city life but still sometimes in the darkest hours our mind flies to the serenity and tranquillity of jungle life that we experienced in Gorumara National Park. I would tell all those who love to travel, explore and live life outdoor to pack your bags and visit Gorumara National Park, West Bengal's hidden paradise. I am quite sure that after visiting all these places your experiences are most likely to be the same as of mine.
 |
| I am waiting are you next????????? |
