You know the magic of nature, when...

You know the magic of nature, when you least expect it to be beautiful, it knocks you off your breath and leaves you wondering about the sheer beauty in each and every of it's moods.

On a stony hilly plateau atleast 50-75 metres away from the nearby forests/plains, where due a to a lack of soil depth, just about everything makes an attempt to survive and life is held to tenaciously (and the proof being that relatively huge neem tree, which must have taken several years to reach this height in such a punishing environment, FALLEN, possibly because it could not fight a strong burst of wind or a heavy spell of torrential rains. Sudden death to a majestic life well spent.

Suddenly, I see a dip and see an oasis of greenery. Almost evergreen in nature, it was a paradise in the top of a tough hill. And then I see, that the entire area has subsided inwards, as if a giant JCB has scooped the rock and flung it far away. A soft layer of alluvial soil held out life to several trees and with little scope of exit, most of the water was being utilized by the trees.

Walking on that plateau, I feel that the slope or aspect plays a magical role. On the plateau, the slope was from the left to the right and as a result the vegetation on the right hand side of the cliff was much more green and luxurious. We saw much more during that super walk of a few hours through monsoonal Bidar, saw many facets of nature, got wet several times and finally came back to the resort.

Bidar has been carefully chosen as the Jungle Lodges flagship in North Karnataka. It serves the twin purpose of showcasing the rich cultural heritage of the region while at the same time sensitisies the visitor of the hidden natural gems, usually hidden from public eyes. The nature walk where I was in for example offered in the surroundings of the resort, is an attempt to explore and make visitors understand the nature of dry, scrub forests of this part of Central India. And if the walk is undertaken in the rains, it gets even better as the lush environment adds to the charm. We came back and read books, rested, had a pleasant evening and slept. The next day we finally left, went around Bidar and then to Hyderabad, through the most terrible traffic I have perhaps ever seen in my whole life. In the list of bad traffic scenarios, this counts as the highest, as we crawled through roughly 80 km of traffic. Amazing experience for a forest wallah.

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