Khairi still roars in the woods of Similipal. The real story of a Tigress brought up by a forest officer. ( I had published this blog in 2012, 14th September at my Travel and Tourism page- Beautiful India. Once again updated this blog to let my readers know about this beautiful saga of India's one of the most beautiful and scenic Tiger Reserve- Similipal Tiger Reserve, located in Similipal, Odissa .

Simlipal National Park  located in the Mayurbhanj district in Orissa became famous with a touchy and emotional incident which made this forest a legendary place to visit. The History was created when on October 5, 1974, 12 Kharia tribals of Similipal brought a two-month old tiger cub to Mr.Saroj Raj Chaudhury, an officer of the Indian Forest Service. Mr.Saroj noticed that it was a female — famished and confused. He brought up, nurtured and carressed the tigress since then and the tigress used to stay with him day and night at his residence and became like his own child. Many a times it happened when Khairi went inside the jungle and did not return for days. Then Mr. Choudhury went inside the forest in search of her and Khairi returned in his jeep.This phenomenal bonding between the wild and the human created history for 7 long years.The story ended on 28.03.1981 when Khairi was attacked by a group of wild jungle dogs as a result of which Khairi suffered from rabys and eventually Khairi died. And after the death of Khairi, Mr. Choudhury also did not survive for long and he also expired within few years. This touchy incident which is perhaps one of the most rare bonding ever  happened between a Tigress and a Human being made Similipal very famous all over the world.  

The park has an area of 845.70 square kilometres and has some beautiful waterfalls like Joranda and Barehipani. Simlipal is home to Royal Bengal Tigers, Wild elephants,  Gaurs (Indian Bisons), Chausingha, as well as an orchidarium, Leopard, Asian elephant, Sambar, Barking deer, Gaur, Jungle cat, Wild boar, Giant squirrel and Common langur along with a wide variety of snakes, crocodiles. and birds. 

Bhitarkanika National Park is a national park located in the Kendrapara District of Orissa. The park is 672 square kilometer long with mangrove forests lying in the river delta of the Brahmani, Baitarani, and Dhamra rivers. The national park is surrounded by the Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary. Gahirmatha Beach lies to the east, and separates the mangroves from the Bay of Bengal.The park is famous for Crocodiles , Indian python,King Cobra, etc. Gahirmatha is known to be one of the largest breeding ground for Olive Ridley Sea Turtles.

TOUR PLAN : 5 Nights / 6 Days (Take necessary anti malaria vaccination before reaching Similipal and this is a must. )

Day 1-Arrive at Balasore - Simlipal (160 kilometers; 6 hours drive)

After breakfast proceed to Simlipal. . You will reach Similipal by afternoon. On the way,at the entry gate, pay your tribute to Khairi’s crematorium, the legendary tigress brought up by Mr. Saroj Roy Chowdhury , the forest officer of Simlipal in 1974. You can watch the photographs of Khairi. It’s a very nostalgic moment for every tourist I promise. Check in the Chahala Lodge and stay overnight. 

Simlipal

Day 2 - After breakfast move on for sightseeing of two most spectacular waterfalls in Orissa, namely, Barehipani and Joranda. Come back to the lodge, take your evening tea and go for a evening trail at the core area of the forest with a jeep and forest guard to try your fortune so that you can locate a tiger. In the evening you can also watch tiger from the watch tower with utmost silence. The watch tower is located beside the forest bunglow. In the evening it is so dark that you cannot locate your fellow tourist without a torch. Remember there is no electricity inside the bunglow. Becareful of poisonous snakes and sudden leopard attacks as Chahala is located in the core area of the forest and is highly populated with leopards. Return to lodge and stay overnight. You can also enjoy a camp fire.

Simlipal Park 

Day 3-After breakfast move on for full day visit to Simlipal National Park for bird watching and other animals as well.Return to lodge. Stay overnight at the lodge.

Day 4- Simlipal - Bhadrak (77 kilometers; 1 hour 10 minutes drive)

After breakfast proceed to Bhadrak and then Chandbali (another 60 kilometers drive) and then Chandbali - Dangmal Island (by boat)After arriving at Chandbali, go for a motorboat cruise to reach Dangamal Island and then check in a lodge. On your way, watch beautiful birds and the mesmerizing countryside.This region of Orissa has a couple of small islands. The amazing thing to visit here is to witness the Olive Ridley Sea Turtles arriving in shores to lay eggs in numbers (thousands) twice every year between January and March. An unexpected additional attraction is the remains of two 9th century monuments, a temple dedicated to the worship of Lord Shiva and a Shakti Shrine at Dangmal.Stay overnight at lodge in Dangmal

Day 5-Dangamal - Bhitarkanika Sanctuary (90 kilometers; 1 and ½ hour drive)

After breakfast proceed to Bhitarkanika; check in at forest lodge and have refreshment. Later go for a boat ride inside the wildlife sanctuary. Also visit the Olive Ridley Turtle nesting site located on the beach stretch of Bhitarkanika. Bhitarkanika is a natural habitat of a lot of wild creatures like Crocodiles, King Cobra, Pythons, Wild Pigs, Monkey, Sambars, and Spoted Deer etc. There is a Crocodile Breeding Farm at Dangmal. Bounded by rivers on the three sides and the sea on the fourth, Bhitarkanika forest is full of numerous creeks and canals which finally meet the sea and make the estuarine delta, the playground of the Bay of Bengal. Bhitarkanika is famous for its evergreen mangrove forests. 

Stay overnight at lodge in Bhitarkanika

Day 6- Return to Kolkata via Bhadrak. Take any train from bhadrak and reach Kolkata.

Lodge bookings for Simlipal and bhitarkanika can be done through OTDC.

This entire 5 nights and 6 days tour at Simlipal and Bhitarkanika will cost you Rs.15000-Rs.20000 per head including tickets, fooding, lodging and jungle safary. If you move in a group of ten, which is always advisable, your travel cost will be much more economical.

From my own diary - 

This is an informative blog and I have collected the informations and photographs from different sources. However I have personally visited Similipal in 1998 and was stunned with the amazing natural beauty of the forest. I went with my group of office colleagues and stayed in the forest Bunglow of Chahala. Chahala is one of the core area of the forest and is famous fir elephant, leopards and tigers. In the night it is so dark that you cannot even locate someone even at a hand shaking distance. We saw a group of elephants in the night from the watch tower located beside the bunglow. It was dusk and initially went inside the trench located in tbe middle of tbe forest near salt leaks. Just like the way we human beings cannot survive without water, the animals cannot survive without salt. In all forest areas you will find these salt leaks where the animals visit in tbe night to taste salt. It's very risky to sit i side the trench and wait fir tbe animals to come and taste salt because there is a fear of the poisonous Cobra Bites and also sudden attack by tbe animals as well as tbe mosquitoes. So we safely moved to the watch tower. Before climbing up tbe watch tower, our forest guard had shaken tbe tower and made noises to make sure that there are no predators sitting inside tbe watch tower to make us it's victim. We were told not to make any noise as the animals have very sensitive ears and they can locate sound miles away. At 9 pm, we saw tbe dark ghost like shadows of elephants visiting the salt area in a group with their cubs between their legs. This is a safety measure taken by all elephants to protect their cubs from tbe tigers who tries to cut the veins of the foot of the baby elephant so that the cub elephant dies due to excessive blood shed and is buried by the elephants under tbe cover of woods ( Stems of the trees ). The tiger is the most clever animal in tbe world and locates easily the burial place. Tigers love to feed on rotten flesh and unlike lions, they do not taste the fresh kill and rather prefer to preserve their kill to get rotten so that tbey can taste the soft meet and feed their cubs with the soft meet kept under their claws. And therefore if someone is injured by tiger attack with tigwr bites and claws, the wound gets infected easily and there are high chances of getting septic. 

So while we were watching the elephants, suddenly tbe forest guard gave a signal far away deep inside tbe forest and we could see the glittering pair of eyes of probably a tiger. She was keeping a watch on the elephants as well as on us !!! For her , both were delicious menu for a dinner. Within seconds, we were surprised to see the elephants disappearing fast deep inside the dark forest. That means the elephants could realize the presence of a tiger deep inside the dark woods and this shows how sensitive these animals are. Tbe forest guard instructed us with his signals to wait for atleast half an hour so that tbe tiger disappears into a safe distance. Otherwise there was every possibility of an attack on us as the tiger had already located us at the top of watch tower inspite of such a pitch darkness and from such a huge distance. 

That night after dinner, we were all kept awakened for whole night because of fearful nocturnal noises coming from all over the jungle and it was a real feel of an adventure.

In the morning we were glad to locate bright yellow flashes of a group of deer coming nearer to our bunglows and disappearing fast inside the jungle with the bare minimum noise of our footsteps. We went for a walk i side the jungle in tbe evening along with our forest guards to locate wildlife and could see a number of elephants, different species of birds, peacocks and deer. But missed tbe much awaited close encounter with Royal Bengal Tiger who are there i side the forest in numbers. May be they were watching us with tbe camouflage of green whereas our human eyes could not locate them.

It was an exciting safari for 4 days at Similipal forest amidst beautiful nature.

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