First exploration of the 'Untouched' nature: Amboli

     It has been a long time since I have been exploring the regular and some occasional spots in and around Mumbai and most of the time the sightings turn out to be the regular ones with occasionally sighting some interesting beauties with almost no record of reptiles and interesting orchids. After hearing and checking really interesting sightings, and photographs in various forums, I was very keen to visit Amboli.
     Situated in the Southern part of Maharashtra, along the Sahyadri ranges(Western ghats), this area treasures one of the most extensive range of Flora and Fauna. Well as per the internet database and journals, this area used to be a completely untouched wild area unfortunately with increased awareness, thru social media, about the vibrant Bio-Diversity, this area has become one of the Eco tourism hotspots leading to unconditional encroachment of the wilderness for building hotels and resorts. To make matters worse Amboli also houses several spots like waterfalls, panoramic locations which is being exploited as weekend destinations, by people in and around the area, and violating the essence of the purity of nature by open boozing and dumping of trash post eating and drinking, open air DJ dance floors and what not. To make matters worse, atleast in few areas, had witnessed these activities happening right in front of the local police who took no interests in stopping nor opposing such activities. I wish the local authorities do take up some serious steps to curb all the nuisance and aid in conserving and nurturing the nature's creations. 
     Well I guess thats enough of all the gyaan on conservation, lets get back to the exisitng beauty that we encountered. The weekend trip was organized by MidEarth group and the timings, itinerary and the cost seemed right for my budget so decided to join in with the visit in the second half of June. The trip started off by a train journey to Kolhapur/ Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj terminus from where we headed towards Amboli by a minibus thru Nipani(Pune- Bangalore highway and then a smaller route towards Ajara)
    We reached the location by noon and stayed at a simple and comfortable accomadation at Sailee hotel near Amboli Bazaar. The weather was really awesome with overcast skies and eventually a blow of clouds covering the whole place with eventual bursts of rains. Though the weather wasnt ideal for photography but wasnt painful enough to sweat out in the humid weather of the forests. In the next 24-26 hrs we had explored few areas near the hotel and the trail to Parikshit point, a night trail in area around the Pariskshit point, a waterfall point which lays along the road to Sawantwadi, Hiranyakeshi temple and its neighboring flora rich plains and finally Kawleshet point, one of the most beautiful yet highly abused area of Amboli.
     Following are the list of sightings we could experience:
- Malabar pit viper
- Green Vine snake
- Shield tail snake
- Cat Snake
- Keelback

- Bi-coloured frog
- Amboli Bush frog
- Malabar Gliding frog
- Bull frog- Tiger centipede
 
- Malabar Pied Hornbil - Crimson Sunbird

- Malabar Giant Squirel
- Monitor Lizard

- Porcupine(No pics)
- Mongoose(Giant size, no pics)
- Three striped squirrel
And a series of Orchids and Spiders

Following are the few selected images from the trip, you can find the full set of images at the following links:
Amboli Monsoon 2016 

A refreshing sight near the Waterfall spot

Almost a waterless waterfall, monsoon had just started resulting in very less water

Serenity

An interesting sight of a troop of monkeys well perched on top of the tree

A curious yet restrained Monitor Lizard

Khaire's shieldtail, a newly recognized specy of shieldtail, endemic to Amboli region?

Vine snake with a Gecko catch

 

That posture, a Malabar Pit Viper(Juv)

The complete shot of the posture

Another beauty, this time a full sized Viper, spotted during the Night trail

Close up shot of the Cat snake

Almost a face off with the Cat snake

A hatchling/ limbless tadpole

A sleeping giant, Malabar Gliding frog female

Balanced sleep, Male Malabar Gliding frog

Close up shot of the beauty

A Bi-coloured frog, blends well in the dried leaf bed

Those red eyes

The Type-writer noise maker, Bush frog, male

Was fortunate enough to encounter this behemoth, and to top it this beauty seemed lethargic to creep us out.
ID: Tiger centipede

The hind side of the beauty

Close up of the front

H. Prashadi/Bombay Leaf toed gecko, seen on a slippery tree branch

H Brookii, this one was spotted under a rock, well camouflaged with the surroundings

Close up shot of the gecko

 

     Some beautiful and less common flora seen all along Amboli and neighbouring areas

 

 

A sight from Kawleshet point

The beautiful valley shot @ Kawleshet point

Hiranyakeshi Temple

The plains behind the Hiranyakeshi Temple

     Overall a very interesting place with amazingly unique experience and loads of sightings, a great way to explore photography as well as understand and appreciate the biodiversity of the heaven that is located in and around Amboli. Would love to visit this place time and time again to enjoy the same form of enthusiasm.

    

    A special thanks to MidEarth group for introducing this beautiful abode of nature and even a special appreciation for Nihar Shrotri and Akshay Onkar for being a great guide and sharing great amount of knowledge within the short time span. Also am very grateful to all the participants for making the whle experience a very enjoyable one. Do visit their website and FB page at the following link

Main website 

FB link 

    

     Few things I feel like sharing, essential ethical habits to keep in mind while exploring nature or any open parks and rather whenever outside of our house:

 - Never dump any waste in the open, carry a spare plastic bag and accumulate them in it and dump them in any garbage disposal bins, whenever you come across

 - Never disturb the nature, dont pluck flowers or fruits or handle any amphibian, birds or invertebrate

 - Try to maintain silence along the jungle trails to avoid disturbing the nature's beauties and scaring off the fauna around

  

As usual would like to end this blog with request for your valuable feedback and comments on improving the quality of my blogs and do share it with your friends in case they are interested in exploring Photography or nature...

    

      Couldnt leave this particular photograph, as it would have left the blog incomplete

The Colourful Group, Three Cheers MidEarth for the awesome experience