Srisailam
is a temple town located about 230 KM South of Hyderabad in the Nallamala
forest range, and along the banks of the Krishna river. Its been on our To Do
list of places for a while now, and last weekend we finally decided to just go.
A
reasonably nice drive, especially through the forest reserve, which is home to
a fair sized population of Tigers, Panthers, and other wild cats I'm told. All
we saw however are Langurs, Bonnet Macaque, and a Palm Civet. Last one courtesy
Deepa's keen observation, and something I'd never seen before.
One of
the highlights on the way is a little known view point called Octopus point for
what resembles a sort of squid like spread of the river and the embankments.
Sadly, most of the Pilgrims who visit the
place, tend to litter the side of the forest enroute and the scraps of plastics
lining the roadside is quite disheartening.
The check
post prior to entry and at exit is manned by the forest officials, who
dutifully note down the vehicle number and expected return date as some sort of
deterrent to poachers & hunters I guess. But they both asked for
"chai-paani". And so I'm guessing, if I was a bonafide hunter, all
I'd need is a couple of hundred rupees and they'd most likely let me poach the
hell out of that place.
The
indigenous "Chenchu" tribes have a conservation programme via a
little museum and awareness building initiative, which was quite nice and
straight out of the Iron Age.
They still live in the forest, and are hunter-gatherers to this day. Some of them
have branched out into fishing along the river, and some live in isolated
groups far upstream accessible only by boat.
A good
hours trip upstream by boat, took us to a 12th century cave which is considered
a meditation site of some ascetic baba, but today exploited by AP Tourism via
boat cruises and a counter selling Coke,
Chai & Frito Lays. This was a bit of a let down, but that’s the
price you pay when you want to do the tourist-circuit right ?
The
Kurnool district produces Sunflower, and in the last rays of the closing day
while returning back to Hyderabad, we got a few pics in the field which Alisha
and Deepa were waiting for.
