Off for 4 days to Daroji/Hampi, let’s see what we see! We are 8 of us (6 NTP members) and we’ll be meeting

Santosh Martin

Rajashekar Malisetty , and Dr S K Arun (all NTP members)

Dr. Nagraj

and

Samad Kottur

The Bellary contingent is doing a lot for the preservation and running of the Daroji Sloth Bear Sanctuary, and various other animals and birds in the area. Here is the plus and minus of their efforts over a decade, described in Santosh’s words:

“10 years back, I, Samad and Anand started our search for the 3 critically endangered species, The Great Indian Bustards, Long Billed Vultures and the Jerdon’s Coursers. Of the three, we were successful in rediscovering, documenting and moni toring two of them, The Great Indian Bustard and The Long Billed Vultures and Search for Jerdon’s Courser is still on. Bellary district’s landscape is similar to Lanka malleswara wildlife sanctuary near Cuddapah in Andhra Pradesh. We started this project as Karthik always felt that there was possibility of finding these birds here in Bellary. Ever since we have not given up and are hopeful that one day we would find them. Mr Bharat Bhushan of BNHS rediscovered the Jerdon’s Courser in Cuddapah district of Andhra Pradesh in 1986, almost 100 years after it was presumed to be extinct. Chavan from BNHS team who is currently working on the conservation of these birds, told me that there have been no sightings since August, 2010. This is bad news indeed.”

here is my post from September 17, 2010, almost exactly 2 years ago,

and

here is one from January 22, 2009.

here are the Three Bears:

But we couldn’t find Goldilocks!

Will see you lot on Wednesday…be good, but not TOO good! Meanwhile, let me share another favourite pic that I took in Masinagudi, the day after my famous “stag paati” event: