Bastar- The Effervescent land of the Tribes

I love driving. I was driving down the road once, when suddenly I came across a child all dressed up in vibrant costumes, huge jewellery and her face was all resplendent. I stopped the car and asked her why she was dressed so. She said she was dressed for the Talent Show in her school. She was dressed as a tribal from Bastar.

Bastar? I mused. Oh yes! I had studied about it while in school. Bastar in the present day district of Chhattisgarh in Eastern India. I hurriedly googled the place and found that it is a place with a dense expanse of forests, waterfalls, caves, parks and hilly terrains. Sounds interesting I said to myself. The very next holiday I found myself heading for Bastar.

I am a travel addict. In spite of having work and family commitments, travel is the only way I take a break from my monotonous life and I suggest you too to do the same. Look at me in Bastar now, where the culture and art is the spine of their existence. Called the Bastariyas I found to my dismay that there are really no services to reach this place. But one could reach a place called Dantewada by bus and then take a taxi or a private car. Soon I found myself shaking hands with the cool breeze grazing my face which was popped out of the taxi window. I had booked myself in a good hotel through a travel bureau and loaded with food I set out to go around Bastar – The Kashmir of Chattisgarh.

The surroundings were filled with so much greenery that one doesn’t really miss the sun here. The trees of teak, bija and sal were a sight for my eyes sore with seeing only malls, skyscrapers, hoardings on the roads and fast food joints. I suddenly spotted small rows of huts and I exclaimed in surprise and awe when I saw that they were made of bamboo sticks. Bamboo stick Huts? Yes, you find them here.

My friends and I who had set out with an idea of seeing only tribals were being surprised at every step. We were a group of five – Rohit, Naveen, Kavita, Shiv, and I. Rohit is an avid photographer and Bastar was his delight. We first went to the Chitrakot Falls.

Chitrakot Falls

Kavita went berserk seeing the elegant waters gushing down the waterfalls. It was the river Indravati I heard our tour guide tell us on which this waterfall lies. It was rainy season and there was a beautiful rainbow caused by a recent shower. This dazzled in the waterfall and the colors seemed like sparkling gems on a snowy background. Naveen, the more observant of us noticed that the waterfalls were shaped in the form of a horse shoe. I was busy noting down things on my tablet.

As if we didn’t have enough, we were taken to the Tiratgarh Waterfalls next. If Chitrakot was a damsel then Tiratgarh was a fairy

. We noticed that there was a different kind of background for these falls and we were told that it is because it is the region of the Kangar Valley National Park. Shiv was excited that we were at a height of 300 feet but Kavita got scared as she is scared of heights. After the initial furore over who would lead and who would follow, who would hold whose hands, we settled down and got ourselves a good view.

Bastar is an area with many waterfalls like the Mandawa, Chitradhara, Thamada Ghumar.

Tired but happy, we settled down for a small lunch. Fully ready for the next destination, we proceeded with the rest of the group. The tour guide, a very informative fellow reminded us of the encyclopedia. He seemed to know everything. Naveen was the encyclopedia of our group but the tour guide beat him to it. “This is the biggest tourist spot”, the tour guides’ voice boomed. We were wondering why the echo was so prominent when we realized that we were inside some caves. Rohit quickly looked up the brochure on Bastar and said it was the Kutumsar Caves and the Kailash Gufa. These absolutely black hole caves are beautiful to see with their stalactites and stalagmites. My idea of carrying torchlight was successful as we could use it here.

Rohit was happy we made it to the next destination which was a nature lover’s paradise – The Kangar Valley National Park. All of us breathed fresh air and breeze as we saw the lovely forests of the Valley overlapping against each other. The southern sal forests met the northern teak forests here. We have seen confluence of rivers, seas, but this was different. This was like two children of Mother Nature meeting at a spot. Rohit clicked away with lovely photos and the rest of us inhaled the experience. I furiously typed away my immediate emotions which is what this is.

After the visit to this virgin area in Bastar, we were told about the fauna here which consists of flying squirrel, python, hyena, rabbit, pheasants, lizards etc. WE saw some of them and we couldn’t see some of them but we were happy that we were in the area of paradise, the feel of eternal pleasure.

There was another park we visited which was the Indravati National Park which had a lot of wild buffaloes. The big grey animals with their lovely horns seemed to welcome us in happiness as we trudged on. We couldn’t see tigers though they said they were found here. Maybe they didn’t want to come out of their siesta.

We saw a lot of picnickers having fun at the Kanger Dhara and the Bhaimsa Dhara. Apparently they are popular picnic spot. Bhaimsa Dhara is a lovely park where one can see crocodiles.

We went and prayed in the Dantewadi temple, then saw the museum with its artifacts. In the evening we did a lot of shopping of articles made of the Dhokra technique which involves using paddy husk, bees wax and cow dung to make articles. Also terracotta articles and bell metal jewellery was hit with us. This done, we also visited the nearby city of Dantewada which again had a lot of spots to offer.

All in all, we came back home satiated, happy, tired but refreshed. I immediately reformatted the full short notes I had written in this trip and here I am sharing it with you.