Mumbai – It’s Verdant Avatar

“Trring” the alarm bell rang. It was pitch dark outside and I just peered through the light of my cell phone. 4 AM ! 4 AM? I asked myself why I had set an alarm so early. I switched it off and went into my deep slumber. “Ting tong” went my cell phone again. Aditya? Why is Aditya calling me at this time of the morning? Suddenly I jumped out of my reverie. Oh Yes! I told myself . We were going to the best green expanse in Mumbai – The Sanjay Gandhi National Park. I disconnected Aditya’s call and just got ready in the next quarter of an hour. Armed with light snacks and a bottle of water, my SLR camera and my cap in tow, I was looking every inch a perfect tourist out to explore the verdant expanse of the land in Mumbai. I called Aditya and we met at the bus stop. I live in Thane, a suburb in Mumbai and I had to catch a bus to Borivili where the National Park Tour Group is available. We caught an early bus and it was indeed a lovely feeling to look out of the window in the dark and feel the cool morning breeze grazing my cheeks. The sounds of the wheels of the bus rolling and the rattling noise it made as the bus was almost empty, took us through the 45 minute ride to Borivili. At Borivili we were met by a group of people and the organizers of the Nature Trail that we had set into.

The tour guide went on to explain how Sanjay Gandhi National Park was earlier called the Borivili National Park and how it spreads over a vast area of around 104 square kilometers. Suddenly my chest filled with pride that I was walking along one of the few parks with a metropolis limit. Aditya nudged me and said “Rohit, do you know this is also the largest kind of urban park in the entire world?” I mumbled a hidden yes, as I didn’t want to admit that I didn’t know that.

As we walked through I saw the entrance to the Kanheri Caves. We wanted to see the flora and fauna first and shifted the trip to Kanheri for a later date. If you ever want to take a short break and feel like visiting a place beyond your imagination, then come here. For its beautiful valleys, hills, and lakes totally enthrall your mind, body and soul.

Rupali a tourist who had an entire set of equipment with her was actually filming the whole tour. She told us that this Park had a history from the 4th century onwards when the park was a trade route between two ancient ports which had activities with countries like Greece and Mesopotamia.

We walked through the park feeling the freshness, the ambience and the varieties of trees here. The simplicity of the surroundings and the lovely breeze around made the heat melt into invisibility. We saw an old woman sitting on the ground with some bits and pieces of small gooseberries, mango pieces, a funny sour fruit and also some berries. My aunt loves them so I picked them for her and the old lady said “Pehley isko Krishnagiri Park boltey they.” This in Hindi meant that earlier this park was known as Krishnagiri. The name struck a chord and I realized that the toy train in Borivili Park which takes us around has the station named as Krishnagiri. No wonder I thought. I had read somewhere that in the year 1969, the Government added more area to this park and renamed it with the present name.

The beauty of this park is that it could be accessed from all sides. Nisha, my friend came from Goregaon, Naveen came from Bhandup, Lakshmi came from the Aarey Milk Colony Road and Thane where I stay hosts the end of this lovely park.

We then were greeted by Todamal Chapni, (his name brought giggles in the group!). He was an ornithologist. He showed us the lovely variety of insects and butterflies in the park. He said that special butterfly trails were organized many times and I decided to register for one of them. We searched for the Atlas Moth which is the world’s largest moth but Todamal said we had to come for a special trail to trace it. If one went to the Butterfly Trail, one could see the Blue Mormon, the bright jezebels, and the egg flies. WE could see the Monarchs and the Sailers.

However, our delight knew no bounds when  we did see the Karvy which is a plant that blooms once in 8 years. Believe it or not, we were on the eight year and sure enough were lucky to see the plant with flowers.

Thane is replete with stories of how a leopard was seen in a marriage hall in the wee hours of the morning. Even today very few people walk through the edge of the park for their morning walks. These leopards are residents of the Borivili Park, and strayed into human land as we have encroached into their habitat. We saw these “famous” leopards in the park.  There was a lake there which had the best variety of fish. One could just sit here and laze for hours together waiting to get a glimpse of a prize fish. The lake called the Tulsi Lake had many reptiles living here. We saw the monitor lizards, the lazy crocodiles and the python but couldn’t see the Russell’s viper and cobra.

Then Todamal suddenly disappeared and in his place Kishore Nadkarni stepped in. He introduced himself as a botany student and said that he was pursuing his Masters in Botanical Studies. Explaining the trees around was part of his project and he wanted our feedback on his capabilities. He showed us the teak, shisham, zizphus, kadamba, flame of the forest etc. We had a good understanding of the botanical view of the plants. We gave him our feedback on the form he gave us.

Though the forest is a habitat for animals like Chital, Muntjac, Asian Palm Civet, Indian Flying Fox, and the leopard, we could only see the leopard, the sambar deer, the porcupine and the langur.

As we were retreating back we were filled with sadness to leave this Park  – a storehouse of birds, butterflies and the best flora. Suddenly we saw a drongo sitting on the branch of a tree, and as we looked up we saw the eagles swooping down, there was a mynah pecking away at a rotten seed and I jumped with pleasure when I saw a kingfisher. My backyard has a lot of kingfishers coming from the park as my house is just a kilometer away from the end of the Park.

I wanted to see a bulbul and a sunbird and my wish got fulfilled when I eased out of the park in the Minivan which had brought us in. I clicked it and captured it in camera, sealed in my memories of my best urban delight in Mumbai.

Catch phrase for this urban delight – Feel it, live it, seal it.