khandadhar falls

It was to be the penultimate day of our Orissa trip but was to be one of the most exotic and exciting. We left for Cuttack railway station early in the morning of 23^rd October to take the train to Keonjhar – one of the largest districts of Orissa. Keonjhar is famous for being rich with minerals. The place is hilly and forested and a stronghold of Maoist overt activities – a headache for Orissa government and the administration. As the train chugged past Cuttack and once it crossed the Mahanadi at Janapur (Jajpur district) and as we entered the district the landscape changed abruptly. From vast stretches of fields and sundry towns to forested hills and eerie wilderness. The color of the soil had also changed remarkably. We were going to Keonjhar for the Khandadhar falls but as luck would have it, we would land at a different fall but with the same name. It was a passenger train full of people but not crowded to the point of discomfort. We reached Keonjhar at around 1 in the afternoon and straightway took an auto to scout for a hotel. I had little cash with me and I needed it urgently for the remainder of the day. There was hardly any ATM in the town and to the top it all the usual problem at such places – the long queues in front of them if you find one. We booked a hotel and a car for our trip and while my parents waited at the hotel I waited outside the ATM. The problem with the queues outside small towns is the average time people take here for completing their transactions. I was reminded of the long queues outside ATMs at Jorhat in Assam and Daltonganj in Jharkhand. People are pathetically slow and it was frustrating. Another problem is the limited cash these ATMs have and I needed cash urgently. Since it was already afternoon I didn't have much hours of sunshine left to complete the trip – which included three waterfalls and return to the hotel.

It took me almost an hour at the ATM and by the time I reached the hotel to pick my parents and pack some edibles for the trip it was already late in the afternoon (2.30 PM) and we had miles to go. We were primarily targeting three waterfalls – the Sanaghagra, the Badaghagra and the Khandadhar. The Sanaghagra and the Badaghagra were on the outskirts of the town with the former being a rather small fall ideal for picnics. Badaghagra was relatively taller and larger but located off the main road deep inside the jungles and the roads were bad. We decided to first go for Khandadhar and while returning go for the Badaghagra and the Sanaghagra. Now, the Khandadhar fall I was looking for is a 245 m tall cascade in the nearby Sundergarh district. It’s a vulnerable fall owing to dangers posed by rampant mining but a hit with picnickers who frequent from Rourkela. I had read on the internet that the waterfall is approachable from Keonjhar also and since we were coming from Cuttack we decided to get down at Keonjhar and go from there instead. With the benefit of hindsight I can tell you a fact which is rather unknown. There are two waterfalls in Orissa by the name of Khandadhar – one is in Sundergarh district and approachable from Rourkela and the second one in Keonjhar district approachable from Keonjhar but I didn't know that. So when I had read on the internet that Khandadhar can be reached from Keonjhar also it meant the second fall which though amazing is almost 90 m smaller in height. Both these eponymous waterfalls are located pretty much nearby but separated by hills which mark the boundary of the two districts – Sundergarh and Keonjhar.

Now let me proceed and you will know why I did further research after reaching home. It should be known to my readers that the taller Khandadhar is a famous waterfall from Orissa and there are plenty of pictures available on internet and I knew exactly how the waterfall looked. I was excited for a couple of reasons primarily being we were running out of time and within 4 hours it would be dark and we had three waterfalls to see and miles to cover. Also, it would be the first time my youngest sister will see a waterfall and I wanted her experience to be trouble free. Keonjhar is beautiful for sure but an isolated place and I wouldn't say many people come here with their families. Our car crossed a hill and soon we were on the highway with sparse forests on both the sides. There was greenery everywhere and within half an hour we were out of the town and could see distant forested hills and small streams at regular intervals. The population is primarily tribal and poverty is widespread. Keonjhar doesn’t have a tiger reserve but it is rich with wildlife common in India’s plateau regions. Tigers have been occasionally seen in the fragmented forests and herds of elephants are rather common. The nearby district of Mayurbhanj along with the neighboring districts of Jharkhand form an important elephant habitat but over a period of time – owing to human greed, the forests have been heavily fragmented resulting in rather frequent human and animal conflicts. While our car zoomed past the woods there was eerie silence everywhere and we discussed sundry things – from unique vegetation to problems of Maoism.

We reached the base of the waterfall at around 4 PM and the first sight was amazing. A stream of silver falling from a great height was clearly visible against the backdrop of a clear sky. Wherever I could look it was green and hilly. A small locked rest house had Khandadhar written on the walls and gave directions towards the waterfall. We got down from the car and while our driver waited we started the uphill trek which would take us to the fall. It was not an easy trek and in 10 minutes with intermittent bouts of rest we reached the waterfall. I and my sister were the first to reach the falls and I was in for a shock when I had the first glimpse of the waterfall. It didn't look 244 m tall and did not match with the photographs of the Khandadhar I had come looking for. I tried to convince myself that it was the same waterfall but even if I ignored the height I couldn’t agree to the shape. The Khandadhar I knew spread out on huge rocks as it ended its vertical drop but this one was a plunge one. I said to myself that maybe there was “another layer” on the other side of the hill and the road that came from Rourkela led to that view. It would be sunset in almost an hour or two and we didn't have the time or the information to look for that “another layer”. My parents had trekked up to the waterfall by the time I had finished video-recording it. I would not say I was disappointed because this was beautiful and tall no less and I moreover I had something to research on after reaching home.

We spent quite some time at the waterfall and my youngest sister was quite pleased having come there and having seen the first waterfall of her life. I could gather that the best she liked was the spray of water formed of the waterfall when ending in the pool underneath – not everyone is fascinated with heights you see. The downhill trek was rather easy and by the time we got inside our car (4.40 PM) to leave for the other two falls nearer to Keonjhar the sun was threatening to set. We decided to skip the smaller Sanaghagra and at least have a dekho of Badaghagra but then who could beat fate and the setting sun. Crossing through the same sylvan woods and the distant hills it was quite dark by the time (6 PM) we took a right turn on the highway for the Badaghagra. Cutting through a patch of forest in absolute darkness – and the driver kept telling that herds of elephant came at the waterfall for the water, we reached Badaghagra. It was impossible to see through the darkness and unfortunately we were not wild cats. We decided to leave for Keonjhar and soon reached our hotel. I would say it was a nice journey. I had got looking for one waterfall and came back having looked at totally another and about which I didn't know earlier. This was the 3^rd major waterfall I had seen in Orissa after Barehipani and Joranda – both inside Simlipal Tiger Reserve in Mayurbhanj district. The other Khandadhar of Sundergarh district and Duduma of Koraput district are the other major waterfalls of Orissa.

It was Durga puja and there was a pandal just outside our hotel. We decided to go around the town a little, have our dinner and inquire about the first bus to Balasore next morning. We had our night train to Howrah from Balasore since there were no trains to Howrah from Keonjhar. It was festival time and there was quite a rush in the town. We asked for directions for the bus stop and it was pretty nearby. People over there told us that the first bus for Balasore would leave at around 6 in the morning and would take around 4-5 hours. We entered a bakery-cum-restaurant and I was surprised to look at the menu. The restaurant was air-conditioned and the food was so inexpensive. I and my sister order a plate of chowmein each while my parents ordered some naan and a couple of vegetable items with a glass of fresh-lime soda for each one of us. I must tell you, the food was very tasty and the bill was less than Rs 200 and they didn't charge service tax either or even VAT. I mean had we eaten the same quantity of food in an average air-conditioned restaurant in Kolkata or even the suburbs, the bill would have been anywhere between Rs 800 to Rs 1000. Maybe just for this restaurant, the good service, the good food and the ambience of the town I will visit again – for sure. By the time we left the restaurant and settled in our rooms it was already around 10 PM. We saw a wildlife documentary on wildlife of Africa on Discover (or was it Nat Geo?) before sleeping.

The next day we woke up early and took the first bus to Balasore. The bus skirted across the western fringes of Simlipal Tiger Reserve and it even halted at Jashipur which serves as the entrance for one of the biggest patches of protected forest in India spreading over 2000 sq km. I told my parents that sometime soon I will bring them here on a trip and after having some tea and snacks we again resumed for our destination. We reached Balasore quite on time (12.30 PM) and since we had the entire day left in front of us we decided to take an auto and go to Chandipur which was a few miles from there. My dad wasn't quite interested and since the driver quoted an exorbitant amount we decided to skip that and after having lunch at a horrible restaurant decided to wait at the railway station. I had a couple of news magazines but still the wait was pathetic. After spending almost 7-8 hours at the station our train arrived and by the time it was midnight we reached Howrah station and before it was 25^th October we reached our home bringing our fabulous journey to an end.

bhitarkanika national park

Before I tell you about my personal experiences at Bhitarkanika, I must tell you a bit about the place. It is a huge deltaic mangrove forest amidst numerous creeks famous for its Saltwater Crocodiles, colloquially known to English-speakers as salties because of their preference for brackish water. Bhitarkanika is a national park located in the delta of rivers Brahmani and Baitarani and located entirely within the district of Kendrapara. Brahmani branches off heavily before entering Bhitarkanika and one of its northern branches joins Baitarani to form river Dhamra which is the northern boundary of the mangroves. The main course of Brahmani forms the southern boundary while the numerous branches and anabranches of Brahmani form the crux of the mangroves. Salties were previously numerous along most deltas and estuaries on India’s eastern coast with the Bay of Bengal but with depleting mangroves most of them disappeared and are now found in isolated pockets only. We have a few salties at Sundarbans also which is primarily famous for its Royal Bengal Tigers but their stronghold is Bhitarkanika and this is also because of the protection these forests have got both before independence and thereafter. Kendrapara is home to the erstwhile royalty of Kanika who took great pride in their mangroves and the labyrinth of creeks and rivers and protected them. Serious conservation is only possible with huge capital and though I don't know of the capital involved and if it’s really “huge”, the Indian government has definitely taken a note of it and as a result the Bhitarkanika creeks are flourishing with salties - the largest species in the crocodile family.

kendrapara district - home to BNP

Bhitarkanika was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1975 with an area of 672 sq km out of which 145 sq km was declared a national park in 1998. The latest census puts a total count of more than 1600 of them and park officials say there are four salties at least 20 ft long. The park is also famous for its white (not albino) salties that are around a dozen in number. It’s a totally different matter that internationally these lengths are taken with a fair bit of skepticism though Guinness has, on multiple occasions in 1994 and again in 2006, mentioned that a 23 ft long saltie found in Bhitarkanika is the longest crocodile in the world. The skepticism stands ground because measurements have never been made and the lengths are based on mere observations where a range of amplifications creep in. I am unsure if even a photograph of that 23 ft long - or even 20 ft long, crocodile is available with the forest department. It’s though true that a saltie found dead in 2005 reportedly measured a little under 20 ft. Its skeleton is now kept at the Dangmal Interpretation Centre. Romulus Whitaker though disputes that length and pegs it anywhere between 17 ft to 19 ft. All this hullabaloo around superlative croc length from here has ensured that when people talk of salties, Bhitarkanika has to creep in – all the doubts notwithstanding.

Add-on 1: The skeleton of a saltie 18.5 ft long which died of natural causes in 2015 has also been preserved at Dangmal.

Add-on 2: There are thus 3 reported skeletal remains at Dangmal each pegged between 17 ft to 20 ft. For the 3rd please refer the table at the bottom of the article by Romulus linked above. I have no idea about the year of it.

Add-on 3: Based on extrapolation of the skull size, a 23 ft saltie was shot in 1926 near Dhamra on the northern fringe of the park and now housed in the private collection of Kanika royalty. Since estimating a saltie size based on skull length is still not standardised, the croc could have been as less as 17 ft 6 in long.

Add-on 4: Per latest figures reported in January 2020, Bhitarkanika has now more than 1700 salties.

bhitarkanika - a success story

The longest croc ever measured alive is Lolong who recently died in February, 2013 not far from the place where he was captured in Philippines. He was 20 ft 3 inches long (6.17 m) and thus far is the only croc measured alive longer than 20 ft though we have quite a few strong instances of crocs – from the recent past and now, who might have measured, or measure, around 20 ft – on the basis of actual tape measurements or observations followed by scientific extrapolation of skulls. There is though always a debate going on with every measurement one does or any methodology one follows. One thing is for sure that any croc longer than 18 ft is a truly gigantic croc and are rare in the wild or captivity. One thing affirms Bhitarkanika’s grand claim is the fact that salties grow all their lives and if conditions are favorable, which they are at Bhitarkanika with all the protection and ample food, they surely can reach 23 ft in length though experts say that rather than length crocs would grow outwards under such a scenario. So maybe there actually is a 23 ft long saltie somewhere in Bhitarkanika silently laughing at the helplessness of man and enjoying all the debates and discussions and skepticism surrounding it. Here is a list of some long ones.

a huge saltie from BNP - © 2006 wildlife directorate, government of orissa

Now coming back to the day we left Bhubaneswar, early in the morning of 21st October, 2012 at 6 AM, for Bhitarkanika. It was the month of October and the onset of the tourism season in India. Bhitarkanika was not quite choked with tourists at this point of time and considering India’s population there are some places which don't get their share of tourists they deserve owing to their anonymity. I believe this place receives guite a footfall in summer. I must give you some background on the planning pertaining to this trip. I have a colleague at office, Prabhu, whose dad is a divisional police officer posted at Pattamundai, a major town in Kendrapara district. Bhitarkanika is a huge forest with many entry points but we had decided to enter from a place called Gupti. Had Bhitarkanika been the only point of our journey we could have got down at Bhadrak railway station and drove all the way till Chandbali on the banks of Baitarani river and from there entered Bhitarkanika via mechanized boats but since we were coming from Bhubaneswar we went via Pattamundai. Chandbali is located in the north of the park while Gupti is located in the south. Earlier, I had planned for a night halt at Bhitarkanika and had requested my colleague to get a room booked with the help of his dad but that for some reason didn’t happen so we had to make it a day-long trip. So we would miss on a lot many things that are at Bhitarkanika or nearby. We would miss the estuary of river Dhamra which has a couple of islands at its mouth including the famous sand island of Kanika and the controversial sea-port of Dhamra. We would also miss visiting Rajkanika, the headquarters of the erstwhile Kanika royalty whose palace is now a museum and houses amongst other things one of the longest croc skulls in the world. We would also miss visiting the Gahirmatha beach – famous for being one of the few and one of the largest nesting beaches for the Olive Ridley turtles. All this would have necessitated a stay of at least three days but we had only one day in hand. So from Gupti we had to go to Dangmal and return back. Dangmal has an Interpretation Centre (which has the 20 ft long croc skeleton) and breeding facilities for salties but I was unsure if it could be possible to make a visit even there because of time crunch. We would have to be satisfied with the journey we would take from Gupti to Dangmal via the creeks, have some rest, lunch and then again back to Gupti because Bhubaneswar was quite far away.

the first view of the exotic mangroves

Now Prabhu was constantly in touch with me all this while in the journey and had given me the name and phone number of a forest officer at Gupti whom he had told to contact. He had also given me the name and phone number of a person from Dangmal for any assistance I would need. Since he wasn’t able to book a room at Dangmal for our stay he had at least arranged one for some rest – and we needed that. The journey from Bhubaneswar to Gupti via Cuttack, Kendrapara and Pattamundai was long. We crossed lush green fields and small dusty towns and reached Gupti at around 11 AM. But before calling the person whose contact number Prabhu had given I thought I should ask myself. I inquired for a boat till Dangmal to which a forest guard told me that there are few licensed boats that run here and all had pre-bookings. I was numb for a while. I thought that Prabhu definitely had made arrangements for us to rest at Dangmal but what if we didn’t get a boat till there at all. Will it be yet another case of so near, yet so far? My parents gave me a deserted look and I felt disappointed. By then Prabhu gave me a call and when I told him that there are no boats for us he told me that he had already booked one for me.

my parents inside the rock-solid boat at BNP

I felt blood running through my veins once again. He told me to hand over the phone to the forest guard and told me not to give any extra money to anyone except the formal charges of entry and the boat. He was such a smart guy. I had no idea that we had to do pre-booking of a boat too but Prabhu had done that for us. I couldn't have been any less thankful. He also told me that while I completed the entry formalities my parents could rest at the Gupti guesthouse. Such a nice man he was. I handed over the phone to the forest guard. He immediately recognized Prabhu. Prabhu was basically giving him instructions to allow us entry in the guesthouse and to get the boat ready for our trip. We entered the guest house and while my parents took some much-needed rest I went for the booking formalities. The total charges for entry and the boat was around Rs 2000 which I hadn't imagined. Actually I had no idea that the boats that ply in Bhitarkanika are specially made and licenses given via tender. This could be because the forest administration can’t afford a boat collapse in these creeks so full of salties which are known to be man-eaters. At the entry office I could see a group of hapless visitors who had also come without pre-bookings (Bhitarkanika Private Boat Association contact no - 8908225158) but probably had no Prabhu as a back-up help. I don’t know what happened to them because after I was done with my entry formalities I went ahead to pick my family from the guest house and move towards the boat. Prior to that I bought some eatables – mostly biscuits and mineral water, and told our car driver to wait for a few hours. The first look at the creek was amazing. It was huge with mangroves on both the sides. The boat was also huge and looked very strong. All of us boarded the boat and left for Dangmal. Mom made a mix of mudhi and chanachur for us and we had our fill in the first half an hour.

the first saltie we saw

We were told to keep an eye at the shore of the creek for any sign of salties. The journey to Dangmal would be around 2 hours long but it wouldn’t be boring at all though it was pretty much the same creeks and forests everywhere. We had our eyes fixed in the water and the creek because we desperately wanted to see at least one saltie – and Bhitarkanika didn’t disappoint us. Very soon, at a gentle turn in the creek, we came across a saltie basking at the shore. It stayed there for enough time for us to photograph it and since the boat wasn’t very far away the animal probably felt our presence and slipped into the water very quickly. It was a great sighting and we felt good. Very soon, the creek looked so full of water with some turbulence in it. Mom and I spotted parts of the body and the head of a saltie a few yards from our boat. That was a thrilling feel. The creeks are so full of them. At some places the sky was full of Asian Open-bill storks. Continuing in our journey the creek got wider and though we did see a few salties more they were quite at a distance. I also got to see a Painted stork wading through the shore waters looking for a meal. It was such a fantastic place. We soon reached Dangmal but a few hundred meters away from where our boat anchored the whole of us again saw a basking saltie with its mouth wide open.

the exotic BNP

We didn't have much to do at Dangmal. I had no idea that the Dangmal interpretation Centre was an important dekho. I gave a call to the number Prabhu had given me. He was supposed to assist us at the island. He directed us towards the guest house and told that the restaurant was nearby. We had to walk for more than a kilometer to reach the guest house. It was a beautifully landscaped place with Cheetals running helter-skelter. We rested at the guest house for a while. There was nowhere we could get tea though. How I wish we had pre-booked the rooms and stayed there for a night. It was an amazing place to be. I could have stayed there for a week. The restaurant was good too and we ordered four plates of vegetarian meal. We are non-vegetarians but avoid as much of it while on a vacation. The food was quite simple but good enough. Our family eats little and soon we were done. The family seated next to us had wasted so much of food and I felt angry. We had already spent more than an hour at the place and we had to go back to the boat and return to Bhubaneswar the same night. The boatman asked us if we wanted to go to the island where they had a palace of the Kanika kings. He told it would be a ride of another couple of hours from here and we didn’t have that much time so we politely refused. With the benefit of hindsight I wonder what that island could be. The palace I now know of the Kanika royalty (not kings as the boatman mentioned) is at Rajkanika which is outside the park and not located on any island. The boatman though did take us inside the narrow Suajore creek where they had a large heronry – a board said the largest on India’s east coast. Since it was located en-route we had no problems with it. We had to walk through a forest route and climb atop a high steel machaan to have a look at the heronry and big it was. 

Everywhere I could see there were birds and more birds. Since it was at the side of the sun I couldn’t take nice photographs and left. On our return to Gupti we had our eyes yet again fixed to the shore and yet again we saw a few salties – a few on the shore and one in the water. But the best was saved for the last. While we were nearing Gupti, I spotted a huge saltie basking at the shore and there was a village nearby. Salties have a soft underbelly and they are not known to move much beyond the shore so there was no direct threat as such to the villagers except when contacts are sudden, direct or very close. Before I could tell the boatman he had already steered the boat towards the shore for a closer look at the saltie. It was a huge one. As we neared I got atop the boat and took quite a few pictures. It was the closest I had come to a saltie and it was a beautiful animal. It soon slipped into the water but I could capture its movement – though forgot to take a video which I should have. The journey to Bhitarkanika was complete. We had seen almost a dozen salties – big and small, far and near, at the shore and inside the water. Could we ask for more? Soon we reached Gupti from where our boat had taken off in the afternoon and lo and behold – we again saw a huge saltie at the opposite bank and it was a huge one too. Since it was quite far away and camouflaged and I was tired I didn’t take any picture.

the closest we could approach a saltie

We had some tea, visited a nearby Durga puja pandal and left for Bhubaneswar. It was about to be dark. Prabhu meanwhile had called me and told me that he too was about to reach Pattamundai and we should meet him for a while. I couldn’t possibly have said a no though we were getting late. He had done so much for me. Without him the trip wouldn’t have been such hassle-free. We reached Pattamundai and it was already dark by then. We had to wait for a while before Prabhu and his family members arrived. His father was already there though. I was a guest at the office of a police officer for the first time. They are such a nice family. The whole of us were sitting in an open verandah and were having tea and snacks. It was great. Prabhu’s dad told us about the rising crime rates in his block. I told him that at Chilika, we could see the Irrawaddy dolphins at just one place and I suspected they were actually confined to that place via netting. He agreed to it and said it was done to provide greater protection. Freshwater dolphins are very rare and are poached for their oil which is expensive and used as a bait to catch catfish – a delicacy in many parts of India and elsewhere. Chilika is a huge place and to provide them protection in the entire lagoon area would have been a logistical nightmare and thus the confinement. Since the current population size is very small the government couldn’t have cared for inbreeding any less.

a glorious sunset to a beautiful day

We left in a while and reached Bhubaneswar at around 10 PM. The owner of the hotel had arranged the car for us for some Rs 1400 but since we had already crossed the 10 hour threshold he was asking for more. Ideally we should have paid him more but at that point of time I had no idea about this time limit. My dad wouldn't pay a penny extra but when he retired to the room I gave the owner Rs 100 more and told him not to tell dad and that I had no idea about the time limit. So thus came to end a fantastic day where we covered so many miles to visit Bhitarkanika – a palace where we saw so much and left so much that we could have seen. I would definitely return to the place sometime again.