Mydanahalli Blackbuck Reserve

Black Buck Male
Mydanahalli is home to the Jayamangali Blackbuck Reserve. The blackbuck, made famous by the Salman Khan brouhaha can be found here in the hundreds (only if you get there early enough).

This was a long awaited trip, delayed by scary looking directions (see below) and the need for a bigger group to go with. We set out at 4:30 from home, delayed by half an hour by a malfunctioning alarm clock. We took along my parents so that with four pairs of keen eyes and we were quite sure it would be hard to get lost. We couldn't have been more wrong.

Choosing the auspicious day of Aayudha Pooja to make our trip, meant that most of the traffic was off the roads, we made great time till the road to Maghugiri. We made our first mistake at a Y junction; where there was a massive hoarding depicting a black buck and an arrow pointing Right. Our directions here said go left.


Ashy Crowned Sparrow Lark

We somehow felt that the forest dept cant be wrong. Apparently they can. From then onwards it was great fun, we visited several villages, stopped and asked for directions. Emboldened by daddy's fluent kannada and ability to read sign boards, we drove on.

At every village we were told, "oh, mydanahalli? Just few kms ahead, straight road, cant miss it". Finally reaching the village, where a man told us, there is a road, but only a jeep can make it. He however gave us directions to a tar road, which meant turning back and revisiting the villages already passed.

Finally found the tar road marked by a completely rusted board that declared that it was put up by a Sadak yojana. When we finally got there, it was just past 9.

Egret

Silver Bill

Birding was fruitful, esp in the car. We stopped at the watch tower. Walked inwards for quite a distance, the area was rich in shy easily spooked birds. We found that we made more progress from the car.

We climbed into the bigger watch tower and had an early lunch before proceeding on the way. Finally reaching a gate which we assume was the gate to the sanctuary, we drove on finding lot of Bee-eaters, Drongos and Shrikes but no black buck.

In the distance we could see herds of goat being led to pasture. Finally deciding to turn back, we retraced our path. On our way back, my mom spotted 3 black buck, 2 male and 1 female. They were quite far away for good photos, but we tried none-the-less.


Small Green Bee Eater

Bird List
Ashy Crowned Sparrow Lark (2)
Grey Francolin (quick glance)
Bee-eaters (hundreds)
Rose Ringed Parakeets (several)
Drongos (several)
1 large raptor (too far to id, even from photographs)
Southern Grey Shrike (2)
Silver Bills (pair, busy collecting nesting material)
Bay backed Shrike (several)
Little brown doves (several)
White Eyed Buzzard (first time sighting)

Detailed Directions

This describes how we should have actually gone ( we came back the right way ).
Take Tumkur highway (NH4), 5 kms before tumkur take a diversion onto NH4 (bypass - Do not enter Tumkur City).
Continue on this road for about 10 kms, till you hit an under construction over bridge. Here, take a right turn and continue on this road for about 45 kms till you reach Madhugiri
Go past Madhugiri onto Hindupura Road.
You will reach a Y junction after about 5 kms. ( This is the confusing place - Go left here.)
Continue till you reach Puravara Village - around 17 kms
From here, continue on the main road for around 8 kms till you reach a temple on your left.
Slow down, go about a kilometer further and you will see a tar road bifurcating to the left (There is a completely rusted board in Kannada there - contents are unknown)

Take left here, continue for about a kilometer to reach another Y junction, take the right arm.
Continue on this for 1 km (you will pass a village, stay on the tarred road)You will observe a wide path.
The tarred road bends left here.
Get on to the un-tarred road (its hard to miss). You will see vineyards here.
About 300 mts further, take any mud road which your car can afford and pray.

No, really... pray like you mean it.



Tips - What you need to know

Carry along food, water. Its great if you can carry these in a large ice box, since its very hot and there is little cover to park under. Take along a pair of binoculars. A hat is an absolute must.
Take a long a kannada reader/speaker (abduct one if you must - after all its for a good cause) If this is your first visit, leave early ( you cant leave early enough actually! )
There aren't too many places to fuel along the way, fill up when you can. Most of the gas stations do not have restrooms, so be one with nature, pick a bush along the highway.
The villages along the way have interestingly descriptive names, one of them my Dad said could loosely translate as Dodda-pothole-ana-halli. (I'm not sure if he was joking)




What I didn't like
Sadly, the place is most neglected, we found no forest guards or a proper entrance. We couldn't find a proper boundary, so we still don't know where the reserve begins and ends. The watch towers were not very useful in terms of watching anything. But it was a nice shady place to eat. Litter was all around.

Jayamangalli "River" is more like a trickle. I was quite disappointed.

What I did like

Villagers were extremely helpful all along, though a few did give misleading directions. A lady cutting grass at the reserve told us "Ginke" (deer) could be found on our way back, she said to look towards the right and she was spot on!



The road to the reserve though carpeted with potholes is rather scenic, there are several huge lakes along the way. Our next plan is to just visit the lakes.



Inspiration for this trip came from :

Lovely photos of maidenhalli from INW members.

I particularly liked several lovely ones from Kiran Poonacha.
I especially love this one, dont miss it.

A blogpost from Sachin and Neelu

Directions we followed (till we goofed up at the Y) were from Tumkur Ameen's excellent webpage.

Thanks everyone!

Devarayana durga II

Date: 20th Sept, 2008



This was our first birding trip post marriage. Our original idea was to make a trip to the black buck sanctuary at Mydanahalli. Detailed Directions can be found here

The length and complexity of the route had me worried as did the fact that getting there, required asking directions from villagers and a knowledge of kannada to read sign boards.
Having never progressed beyond the first 17 alphabets, I think this is better left when my Dad is along to read the boards :) We were also told to go in a slightly larger group since getting lost is almost guaranteed.



We opted for Devarayana Durga instead, being very fond of it after our first visit. Starting at 4.45am we got there at 6:30am, stopping at times to see some birds. It was very overcast and drizzled all along.
We found the spotted owlet again on the same tree as we did last time. Also found some yellow billed babblers and the usual robins and bush chats.



The bad light and the drizzle made photography difficult. We parked at the little green building near the lake at the base of the hill. Sadly the lake's water level was quite high and we couldnt walk around it as we had done last time.

One friendly coppersmith made our day; posing patiently on a massive tree; while we struggled to locate it in a sea of green.



We saw an African Guinea Fowl among some chickens on the way, I wonder if it is being bred for meat?

Bird sightings

Spotted Owlet
Yellow billed babbler
Indian Robin (Male)
Grey Tits several
Coppersmith Barbets (4)
Red Vented bulbuls
Red whiskered bulbuls
White browed bulbuls (pair)
White browed Fantail (pair)
White breasted kingfisher
Hoopoe - 1
Small green bee eaters - several
Purple rumped Sun birds (pair)
Larks several - not sure of species
Ashy Prinia
Plain Prinia
Small minivet (male and female)
White bellied Tree Pie - glance
Red wattled lapwings - 2
Red necked falcon - along the highway, on the way back
Indian Roller



Where to fill fuel

Most of the stations we passed were closed in the morning and those that were open only filled diesel.
We filled at a station past the diversion to Devrayandurga( the big over bridge) on Tumkur Highway, cross Cafe Coffee Day. Another 6kms, it was on left of the road.

Road Condition

Marvelous for the most part, since the road has been recently laid.
For about 300 mts there is a very bad stretch watch out for it. It is just after the village having a Y joint ( the left turn at this junction takes ppl to some other place of pilgrimage, the right arm goes to Devrayandurga road.


Tips

Carry water and food, nothing is available along the way.
Bottled Water is available at the top, near the temple, as are few packaged snacks and cucumbers.

If the water level is down, there are 2 large rocks at the end of the lake on the leftside. Its a good place to have a picnic lunch.

Carry along an icepail, we tried it this time. It gets quite warm as the day progresses.

Boards are in english also, from Karnataka tourism and look nice and bright.

Directions (from Keshav)

Take Tumkur Road - (Cross Peenya - Nandi Corridor junction - Mangalore highway junction - toll gate)

About 15 to 20 kms after the toll gate, there is a huge overbridge that comes.
Take the immediate right after the getting down from the bridge - Take a U turn there, come along the side road of the bridge for another 500mts.
You will reach a market area, take a left U turn there. It cannot be missed. Continue on that road for about 17 kms to reach a village.
There is a Y junction there. Take the right arm of it. Travel another 1 km, there is a cement arch on the left indicating route to Devrayanduga there.
Take that, 2 kms on this road is the temple.