Second in the series of various Nature Photography Spots around Mumbai, I would like to share one of the many interesting trails in Sanjay Gandhi National Park(SGNP). SGNP is a vast nature paradise right in the heart of Mumbai, rather can say a major part of the city of Mumbai is settled/encroached around it. Shall require lotsa blogs to just cover the essential and immense treasures of SGNP, but for this part shall share the beauty of Shilonda Trail. Situated about 2-2.5kms from the National park gate, this beautiful and well protected /maintained trail is a good location for nature lovers with sighting for a variety of flower, insects(macro), birds etc.
I, along with few close friends and fellow photographers, had visited this place in the month of October(post monsoon session). With the winter season just lurking in we had a good amount of sightings for a variety of insects feeding on a range of winter bloomers and some surprised visitors too.
Few details about visiting Shilonda Trail, since its a fenced off area, hence one cannot access the trail directly. One has to be get permissions from the officials, which can be availed from the NIC office, and along with the permissions, which includes paying entry fee for the trail, one has to go for guide too. Taking the service of a well trained and knowledgeable guide is really a thoughtful thing as they share quite a lot of valuable information about various sightings and also helps us to understand the importance of the nature trail and how to respect and maintain it.
Timings: 7:30a.m.-6p.m.(SGNP timings)
Charges: ₹44/person entry to SGNP(Updated in 2016)
₹75/person, Entry fee for Shilonda trail and Guide/Naturalist charges(As per October 2015 visit)
Following are few of the frames clicked while heading towards the trail:
 |
The monkey face
ID: Lynx spider, spotted just outside NIC gate |
 |
| A beautiful, back lit frame of an Orb weaver along the Dahisar river bank |
 |
| The Inhumane side of us...Some waste firecrackers dumped into the river |
 |
| The land and the aerial ones...a monkey having a cautious eye at a herd of deer as well as some precious food dumped around |
 |
| A blister beetle devouring a flower |
 |
| Some candid shots of the macaque |
 |
| A butterfly(not sure of ID, probably a glassy tiger) feeding on the flower's nectar |
 |
| A beautiful bud at the entrance of the trail |
 |
| Some essential info at the entrance of Shilonda |
 |
| A beautiful Conjoined swift butterfly welcomed us to the trail |
Apart from the winged beauties there were a range of vibrant and unique flowers all along the trail. Not that great in ID-ing the flowers, would be just sharing the photographs without any names:
 |
| This particular one caught my attention, thought to be a tail of a snake, turned out to be a series of wasp's nest |
 |
| A beautiful damselfly |
 |
The moment of the Day came in form of this tiny beauty, a Tiny Grass Jewel.
Despite being too tiny, the elegance in it was really amazing and locating it around in the muddy terrain was a big task |
 |
| Here's my colleague and talented fellow photographer struggling to get the tiny Grass Jewel in frame |
 |
| AN interesting Beef ly along the trail |
 |
| A brilliant example of camouflage, a Blue Oakleaf, close wing |
 |
| Slightly opened vibrant look of the Blue Oakleaf |
 |
| 'Niche koi hai?' an interesting pose of the tiny mantis nymph |
 |
| Saw a variety of grasshoppers, in different colours. Here is one of the dry coloured Grasshopper |
 |
| Another vibrant green Grasshopper |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| Yet another greener Grasshopper, the dry coloured one in front of it |
 |
| A huge, slightly different mantis |
|
 |
| Another closer look of the beauty |
 |
| While we were busy capturing other life forms this huge beauty tried to sneak right from our front. |
 |
| Always my fav, Lacewing fly's eggs |
 |
| A beautiful, post monsoon frame of the Trail |
 |
| The electric shock ant |
 |
| Clinching to the metal, a garden lizard |
 |
| A common pierrot graced us |
 |
| The bearded one, a male Golden Angle basking its manly beard |
 |
| Trying to gel in...A beautiful Crab spider |
 |
| An interesting Spiny Orb weaver spider, busy rebuilding its web |
 |
| A Six spotted crab spider, rarely seen this beauty |
 |
| Face off with the crabby |
 |
| Speaking of crabby, spotted this beauty along the end of the trail, near the dried river bank |
The official/restricted trail comes to an end by the rocky river bed, further of which seemed a bit too tough and extreme. Rested here for some time only to spot two beauties, probably male and female, Grey wagtails along the rocky bed and kept on looking for some prey along the shallow waters.
 |
| The grey wagtails |
 |
| The contrast in the dead bed |
The return journey from the end of the trail was also interesting iwtht he sighting of a hyperactive Yellow Pansy, first sighting for me. Was a tough task capturing it as it kept on flying metres at a a stretch before settling down for hardly 2-3 seconds and heading off again. Would had been really disappointed if I couldnt get a frame of it, so finally captured one, closed wing shot of the beauty.
 |
| Another interesting sight of a Garden lizard enjoying a fresh catch, a grasshopper |
 |
| The trail ended with a shot of a huge snake(missed framing it) and finally a Langur seated high up the tree near the BEST bus stop(inside SGNP) |
The trail ended with a really amazing finds and plenty of decent frames. It would be really interesting place to spend some time during the monsoon season with loads of potential for the macro beauties. And the best part of the trail's restricted access being no nuisance of noisy families and college romeos nor couples desperately finding some private space for the... So very less distractions and good amount for learning, practicing or improving one's photography skills and especially with the guidance of the naturalist/guide, a good dosage of knowledge too. One major issue faced during the trail was the time restriction, one is allowed to roam the terrain just for 2 hours, any more time, the guard comes in trying to get us out of the place. Another issue being we are supposed to stay along the trail and not allowed to move out f it into the surrounding wilderness...something that hampered us from getting even more variety of life.
