Diary of Manas- Malayan Giant Squirrel and Capped Langur

[Samrat Sarkar]

Biku was repeatedly pressing me to go as far as possible towards the lower bungalow and he also will accompany me. Biku loves the forest and knows all the nooks and crannies of it. The lower bungalow at the foot of the hill was not there even a few years ago and there was only an old wooden bungalow at the top of the hill. The Mathanguri bungalow is a renowned one worldwide. It is said that the essence of Manas cannot be realized unless one spend at least one night in it. And it is true. I think this is one of the best forest bungalow considering its beauty and position. Obviously, many tourists opt for that bungalow while coming to Manas.

The tourists visit this place time and again and some of them want to spend a night or two there. Thereby the government earns some revenue and afterwards consider expanding the infrastructure there. With more tourists there will be more revenue. That is how there has come up a new bungalow with so much haste at the foot of the hill. Presently the number of people who can stay here at night is twice the number that could stay previously. This way the human activities increase. The usual silence of the forest is broken and the wild animals feel disturbed. The leopards and other animals of the cat family do not feel easy to move around undisturbed the bungalow areas as before. On the other side, the Capped langurs frequent the neighbouring areas of the bungalow for some readymade food. The tend to forget their own food habits and become dependent on thrown away and leftover crumbs of cakes and biscuits, oranges, chocolates etc. I’ve heard that to cope with the increasing number of tourists the government has made a plan to construct one more bungalow at the top of the hill. This is a stark example of the policies of our law makers on the conservation of nature!

I visited Manas quite a number of times. But I spent one night at Mathanguri only once. On every other occasion I visited Mathanguri during the day only but did not spend the nights there. But the night I spent there has made a permanent place in my memory. The nights at Mathanguri is different in so many respects and is really very beautiful exhilarating. And one must experience that place which is so beautiful.

That the portion of the lower bungalow had no occupancy and therefore was empty. The surrounding area was for that reason undisturbed. The armed guard gentleman checked out all the sides, kept his firearms at his side and sat there apprehending no danger. I had some biscuits which Biku gave him and Biku and I went a little distance away from there and stood there. The trees started shedding their leaves. The silk cotton trees had started blooming. The sky was covered with scattered clouds.