#travelandbinging
Instagram: / travelandbinging
For collaborations & content creation, connect with us on:
travelandbinging@gmail.com
Hi friends, it’s winters. Perfect time to be outdoors.
And hence Travel & Binging has planned an amazing outdoor activity for you, and we want you all to be a part of it.
Hi, I am Murad here, and today I’ll be taking you to Sanjay Gandhi National Park for a nature trail. Let’s go.
Here we are at the gate now.
It’s 7 a.m. in the morning, the temperature is around 20 °C, cool & pleasant.
We are waiting for the guide, and then we’ll get on a bus to go to the actual gate where the trail starts.
The bus has come.
This is our bus, here we go.
Since we are going in a jungle. It is advisable to wear clothes with earthy colours.
This is a 2 km trail, called Shilonda trail, because we’ll be exploring the Shilonda area in the park.
This route is usually used by leopards, so we don’t want him to be scared, of his usual route.
So do not shout, so that the leopard is not scared by our presence.
Well trained guides keep sharing interesting information on flora & fauna found in the park.
There’s a wolf spider on his camera, look. It must have gone there when you were clicking that.
Ambush predators or ambush hunters, mainly Huntsman spiders, Lynx spiders, jumping spiders
What they do, is that they sit & wait at a specific place.
And if anything comes to eat, they are just going to snatch it. That is called ambush predation.
They even eat ants? Spiders eat ants, yes definitely.
There might be a leopard or another animal lurking somewhere around here.
But it’s completely safe.
Because firstly we are in a group, and secondly, leopards are nocturnal predators.
They hunt only in the night.
We cannot see the animals, but the animals can see us all the time. Even right now.
That’s the charm of the jungle.
This is a leopard dropping, they are also called as scats.
These hair indicates that leopards are carnivores and they must have had
Either a wild boar or a langur or a chital, that is spotted deer.
Wow!
This indicates, that it’s a big leopard.
So now let’s hear what the guides have to say about their experiences in the wild.
So it so happened once
That we were on the Shilonda trail, and two of our female volunteers were leading the trail
When they were explaining the Pagoda Ant nest, a typical smell hit my nose
We immediately know what the story had transpired in front of us.
When everyone came in, we told the storyline, and it goes like this.
So when the explanation was being done, if here’s any specific carnivore around
In this case, a leopard, there’s a specific scent in the air.
That scent immediately hits your nose, and in some cases, it even blocks your nose.
It is that strong.
So the moment I smelt that, I ran to check what is it, because it was very strong.
There were fresh pugmarks in the soil pad right there.
Now, when we saw those, we saw the pugmarks going in this direction.
So we immediately followed and checked if there’s anything.
Surprisingly, the alarm calls of langurs started.
Now whenever there’s a predator around, langurs give a specific call which is known as alarm call.
So we know that there’s a leopard there.
And then we decided to stay back because all of the participants were here
And the leopard, or the alarm call where the leopard could potentially be was at a higher altitude than us
Early morning at 5, I left from home and it was pitch dark
When I reached here, it was still dark & I started walking towards the Kanheri caves.
It was at the very first bridge over here in National Park under which the river flows.
And as I was passing by, from far away, like may be at a distance of that tree
I could see that there were some pugmarks and possibly that could not be a dog’s any way.
I am always the one who loves adventure and stuff, so I jumped down the bridge & went near it
And what I saw was a female leopard’s pugmarks. It seemed like she had come from the riverside
Wow, this is a snake’s skin. The snake must have just changed the skin. It’s quite fresh. Beautiful.
So we have Maitreyee here, she is the education officer here at SGNP
She had accompanied us on the trail, so we’ll hear what she has to say about her journey.
Glad to have you here on our trail. So we had been to Shilonda today
With wonderful sightings of butterflies and birds we had.
We had information about trees.
Shilonda is very popular trail of Sanjay Gandhi National Park
And everybody loves to come over here because of the diversity we see here.
This is where we stop, and we have to go back.
Because the guide says there’s active leopard movement beyond this point
So we are going back.
Quite an exhaustive trail, yet refreshing. And I would suggest
Everyone of you take this trail to experience the thrill. Amazing.
If you have liked the video, do subscribe.
#MTDC #Mumbai Tourism #Mumbai #SGNP #Travels #SGNP #Sanjay Gandhi National Park #Nature #Trails