The forest near Gupteswar in Koraput district of Odisha are one of the finest and last remaining patches of pristine sal forest of the country. However owing to its geographic location or the apathy and ignorance of our conservationists and naturalists this biological wonderland has remained literally unexplored. No proper documentation has ever been carried out in these forests to learn about the flora and fauna of this region. Being a Koraputia myself this neglect by our front-line naturalist and conservationists deeply pains and astonishes me. That's why I decided to take matters into my own hand and started with the simple task of documenting the bird life of these little known forests myself. For this I visited the Dandrakhol Reserved forest area on 13.01.13 and spent a full day in the forest observing and recording the birds. My plan was to spend at least two days in the forests. But due to logistics and other constraints I limited the visit to one day. However I plan to do such short trips to this forest at various times of the year to collect an exhaustive list of birds found in the area. Before visiting the forests I had marked a trail on Google earth which I later followed on the ground.
On 13.01.13 me and my brother Sidharth Sankar Patra started for Gupteswar forest from Jeypore early in the morning before sunrise. We reached the edge of the proper forest at around 6.30 am. We started the process of noting down each species spotted from near Ramagiri village which happens to be at the edge of the forest. We were carrying two high-zoom point-and-shoot camera's. We made it a point to take the record shots of each bird spotted wherever it was possible. We left our bike at a village named Malipadar which is nearly 7 kms from Ramagiri. Thereafter we followed a hilly nallah which skirts the village towards its south and flows inside dense sal forest before emptying into river Kolab/Saveri about 1 km downstream of Gupteswar caves. We kept a slow pace and scanned the dense canopy for movement of birds and the early morning birding attempt yielded the maximum result. We followed the nallah till its confluence with Kolab/Saveri. There we had our bath and an all dry lunch of rusks, biscuits and mixture. Then we retraced our steps to the Malipadar village along the same trail and proceeded to Gupteswar caves. A little snack and cups of tea were refreshments good enough to charge us up for our second trek along a valley parallel to river Kolab. We set out for our second trek at around 4 o'clock. This same trail on my last visit was teeming with bird life. This time there were very fewer birds and less interesting ones. We reached the place I had pre-designated on Google-earth and returned to the Gupteswar shrine. On the way we visited the '"Parabhaadi" cave also which is home to many Blue Rock Pigeons. But there were no pigeons around this time.
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| A SURPRISE FIND - RUBY CHEEKED SUNBIRD |
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| BROWN-CHEEKED FULVETTA |
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| LESSER FLAMEBACK WOODPECKER |
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| BLACK-CRESTED BULBUL |
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| BAR-WINGED FLYCATCHER SHRIKE: DO YOU SEE THE BAR? |
Here below I have given a list of birds I encountered(either saw or heard the call) during the course of the day.(sunrise to sundown). The indicative list contains only the birds I saw/heard on that particular day. Other common species that ought to be present in the forest have not found entry.
Cattle Egret
Black Eagle
Oriental Turtle Dove
Spotted Dove
Laughing Dove
Yellow-footed Green Pigeon
Alexandrine Parakeet
Plum-headed Parakeet
Common Hawk Cuckoo
Green-billed Malkoha
Greater Coucal
Creseted Tree Swift
Malabar Trogon
Indian Roller
Common Kingfisher
Small Green Bee-eater
Chestnut-headed Bee-eater
Brown-headed Barbet/Large Green Barbet
Copper Smith Barbet
Rufous Woodpecker
Greater Goldenback
Lesser Goldenback
Speckled Piculet
Brown-capped Pygmy Woodpecker
Common Iora
Scarlet Minivet
Small Minivet
Brown Shrike
Bay-backed Shrike
Long-tailed Shrike
Common Woodshrike
Bar-winged Flycatcher Shrike
Black Drongo
Ashy Drongo
White-bellied Drongo
Bronzed Drongo
Black-hooded Oriole
Indian Golden Oriole
White-throated Fantail
Black-naped Monarch
Indian Jungle Crow
Rufous Treepie
Barn Swallow
Red-rumped Swallow
Black-crested Bulbul
Red-vented Bulbul
Red-whiskered Bulbul
Grey-breasted Prinia
Ashy Prinia
Plain Prinia
Common Tailor Bird
Greenish Warbler
Jungle Babbler
Yellow-billed Babbler
Brown-cheeked Fulvetta
Oriental White-eye
Indian Nuthatch
Velvet-fronted Nuthatch
Spotted Creeper ?
Jungle Myna
Common Myna
Asian Pied Starling
Chestnut-tailed Starling
Tickell's Thrush
Indian Robin
Oriental Magpie Robin
White-rumped Shama
Ultramarine Flycatcher
Verditer Flycatcher
Tickell's Blue Flycatcher
Grey-headed Canary Flycatcher
Jerdon's Leafbird
Purple-rumped Sunbird
Puple Sunbird
Ruby-cheeked Sunbird
Red Avadavat
White-rumped Munia
Black-headed Munia
Indian Silverbill
Grey Wagtail
Chestnut-shouldered Petronia/Yellow-throated Sparrow
White-wagtail
The above list is a testimony to the richness and astounding birdlife of the region.
I firmly believe that this small effort of mine will provide the required impetus for further studies in this neglected region and will be helpful in drawing the attention of the people who matter. I would like to add a note of caution here that unless drastic measures are taken up immediately to protect them, whatever is left of the once virgin forest will be lost forever. I would like to draw the attention of readers and bird lovers of the state to join hands with us in the conservation of this little known yet rich habitat.
Regards
PARTHA PRATIM PATRA
Mob: 09160100990
Email : parthapratim25@gmail.com
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