People and wildlife of Eastern Himalaya_My journey to some remote village_Ghumtigaon

[Samrat Sarkar]

You can see the rest house of the Forest department of the Samsing range when you move a little forward along the road towards Suntalekhola. That is an attractive place for staying in the lap of nature. The local people come to the nearby forest to collect firewoods. They love to speak to the unknown persons like us. They would freely guide us as to when and where the birds come and sit in the forest. These people do not know the names of the birds but these birds are very much well known to them.

In the mean time, I kept my eye on the viewfinder of my camera and was astonished to see something. There were a Puff-throated Babbler and a Greater-necklaced Laughingthrush on the ground of dry leaves in the dark and dense forest. There was a Greater racket-tailed Drongo as well. I also discovered a Snowy-browed Flycatcher in the dense bushes in the forest.

I mentioned earlier that Ghumtigaon is actually a paradise for the birds. The birds live happily in the forest, in the river, in the gardens of this village. The people of the village consider these birds as a part and parcel of their lives, not the way like us who see these birds mere compassionately but they think that these birds depend on the forest the same way as they themselves depend on the forest. These are some of those selective few people who knows the value of the forest and knows how to live with and save the forest.

Snowy-browed Flycatcher