Birding in Mishmi Hills: The Lower Dibang valley of Arunachal Pradesh.

The Coffee House, Mayodia

Every time we visit the north east, there is a lot of excitement and anticipation as to what new adventures are in store. Having been a veteran of this area, bad roads, sudden bandhs, unseasonal rains etc are a given. 

 

But imagine our horror when we confronted a stretch of absent road culminating in a river bank and were told that the beautifully marked NH37 on the map going from Dibrugarh to Roing was actually a dirt track in large parts, including a river crossing by ferry; jeeps and all….

 

Ferry across the Lohit

 

The British were the first people to “survey” the Indian subcontinent and made sure that they made accurate maps of the terrain, culture, religion and language of the region that they wished to administer. Of course their main interest was in getting to know what people and resources they could exploit. 

The vast river plains of the mighty Brahmaputra that revealed great commercial value in terms of tea and oil and even coal were called Assam.  Arunachal Pradesh is the mountainous region surrounding the river plains of Assam, left alone by the British, as having no commercial value at all, and often inhabitated by fierce Naga tribes.

 

 

This “Indian” state encapsulates Assam on three sides and is almost entirely claimed by China!!  Luckily for India they are not pressing that claim too much, except in the area of West Arunachal called Tawang, due to Dalai Lama related issues. 

 

Notwithstanding that, as part of the Indian Governments look east policy, a huge road building exercise is under way in all parts of Arunachal, including the lower Dibang valley area, also called the Mahao Wildlife Sanctuary, where we were ultimately headed.

Fortunately for us, the colourful birds of the north east, are not aware of any man-made boundaries or barriers and promised to be on display for us, notwithstanding the colour of our passports.

 

As with every such trip, carefully planned by NatureIndia, we intended to cover different terrains and elevations which harbour entirely different types of species. The backwaters of the Brahmaputra, Maguri Beel, for the ducks, the nearby reeds for the  grassland species, the lower elevations of Roing for some typical forest species and then rising to 8000 ft at Mayodia for the ‘rarer’ species.

 

Vulture Culture

Our group formed up at Dibrugarh airport and we set course at 1430 hrs passing Chabua and Dinjan. A group of vultures (of three different species) perched on a roadside tree was straight out of the movie Ice Age

We reached the idyllic Banashree resort located on the banks of the river adjoining the Rangagoora tea estate even as the setting sun silhouetting the ferries, made for a travel magazine cover shot. 

 

 

This resort is run by Mr Abedin, a naturalist, and though described as ‘basic’ turned out to be 5 star in comparison to what we were to encounter in the next six days!!

After a welcome cup of tea, we were treated to a documentary about the Birds of Maguri Beel, made by him which was meant to educate the local children about their enormous natural heritage. It was heartening to see that his son was also following the fathers footsteps. 

Suddenly the call of the Eurasian scops owl made all the tiredness vanish and we got spectacular views of this rather hard to spot creature. It was clarified that the scops (or false ears) need not be visible when it is roosting. Another higher perch was occupied by the Brown Hawk Owl whose eerie call is quite familiar to those of us who have inhabited the Northeast for any length of time.

Black faced Bunting

The morning birding in the Maguri Beel was by small boats which afforded good closeup views of all the winged visitors from faraway places like Siberia and Mongolia. The Northern (Chinese) spot billed duck and northern lapwing gave good views and the rare sighting of the Baer's pochard,confirmed after the photograph was enlarged, generated great excitement.

Boat safari in Maguri Beel

 

Ruddy shelducks

Sand martin and Barn swallow

Chinese Spotbill ducks

Northern Lapwing, Blackwinged stilt, Northern shoveller.

 

After a hearty breakfast, we set out for Roing on the “National Highway”. Just as we were cruising along passing Doomdooma, suddenly the road just vanished.  All manner of vehicles including cars, bikes, jeeps and buses were seen making their  own paths in the dried floodplains leading to the river bank. After a gut-churning hour into this ordeal on a semi-pucca road, we were relieved to be approaching the river bank. However we were assured that an identical situation lies on the other side!! 

Un necessary?

 

The Saikhowaghat is the official crossing point for anyone wishing to continue on the highway to Sadiaghat on the other side, civilian and fauji alike.  

Saikhowaghat crossing on NH 37

Entire buses filled with people and fully loaded trucks were to be driven onto boats and ferried across. The sight of the imposing 16 Km under-construction bridge seemed to be giving a lot of solace to our tired drivers who were quite hopeful that it would be ready by October this year.

 

For now, we had to do what prehistoric Homosapiens and Polynesians  have been doing for millennia. The simplicity (crudeness if you like) of the process has to be seen to be believed. The sight of the jeeps using 18 inch wide wooden planks to hop on and hop off the boats brought our hearts into our mouths. 

 

Even as we marveled at this phenomenon, one of the planks cracked and our vehicle almost went into the river. But I guess this was not a first for the people there, as they nonchalantly got together and heaved the vehicle up the sand bank to safety. Of course the driver Gogoi, sitting inside was not amused at all and had to summon his best driving skills, ex-military experience and steely nerve to avert disaster.

 

Now that we had crossed over and were famished, we dined at the local specialty restaurant along the river bank. For us vegetarians there was rice and aloo, while the others feasted on the local fish. Suddenly we realised the importance of small niceties like spoons and napkins when in the field, something for which only Clara was most appropriately kitted. 

 

Who says its a spectacle case

 

After another hour of bouncy driving on a semi road-like track, we reached the border town of Roing and stopped for the Inner line permit formalities. A road from Itanagar in the west and Tezu in the east was seen to be converging here. Before long we were driving on a metaled road and things seemed so much better.

 

We stopped for tea and supplies at the main Bazaar which seemed rather well stocked, considering that all supplies had come the same way that we had!! Three cheers to the Banias and Marwaris. 

 

 

Mishmi Hill Camp, Roing

 

As we reached the Mishmi Hill camp at Roing, the power went off and lo and behold, a spectacular display of the crystal clear night sky came on. Raja became our astronomy guide and we could actually see star clusters inside the sword of Orion with birding binoculars!! Ameya Ketkar spotted many a satellite scurrying across the sky, while Jupiter was literally glowing like a LED lamp.

NH 37 in the Deopani river crossing

 

The Mishmi Camp is set adjoining the Deopani river, the flowing water of which, provides the background music for camp inhabitants. The mountain streams are tapped for the perennial water supply and for a change I didn’t mind the sound of the overflowing overhead tank or feel guilty flushing the toilet repeatedly  !!

 

After we settled in our rooms (we got the tents which were quite comfortable except that there were common loos) we joined the huddle in the common room for ‘revision’ and dinner.

 

 

The location for the early morning birding was the nearby Sally lake which was approached by a ‘road’ passing through the Deopani river. The area did not yield as much as expected, but the shrill cries of a nearby group of Hollock Gibbons got everyone excited though they did not come into view.

 
After breakfast we set course towards Mayodia and noticed that the hill road managed by the defence organization (Border Roads or GREF) was in the process of being four-laned. While that would be music to the ears of people living uphill and beyond, the associated destruction of the bird habitat was a cause of concern for us. 

Anyhow, much short of the curiously named ‘Tiwari Gaon’, the road construction ended. However the laying of the brightly coloured OFC along the hill road seemed to be going all the way up. 

 

 

 

Along the way there was fabulously preserved and pristine secondary forests which played host to several dazzlingly spectacular species of birds.

 

Himalayan water

Fern shoots for sabzi

In this part of the world, Mother Nature seems to provide everything that one needs to survive including sparkling mineral water and fern-shoots for making sabzi!! For us city people venturing so far away from civilization there was packed lunch served hot on the bonnet of the jeep!! 

 

As we climbed up, the chill started setting in and a hot cup of tea at Tiwari Gaon was most welcome. This Gaon is nothing but a cluster of huts, and a camp of the BRO…and also a regular sighting place for the black-throated prinia.

Tiwari Gaon

It was dark by the time we pulled into the “Coffee House” camp at Mayodia. This camp has nothing to do with Coffee, but the story goes that when the road was being built, the BRO had made a temporary structure where staff would have food (and probably coffee) and it was named so, knowing their quirky sense of humour which is often on display on the road signs. 

 

The camp was bought over and developed by a local gentlemen called Robi who was our host for the next three nights. 

 

Coffee House-Upper level

Thankfully it is a proper cement structure with several paradoxically well appointed rooms, though devoid of power supply. We were pleasantly surprised to check into a huge room with a double bed and massive razais and a proper bathroom with Jaquar fittings!! It’s just that it was too frightfully cold to put the hand in water….let alone any other body parts. We instantly realized why we would be having our next bath only after 4 days!! 

Yellow billed blue magpie

 

The dining area next to our room, had a battery powered LED lamp and was to be our huddle place in the evenings, which were long and well utilized. There were energetic gupshup and nok-jhonk sessions punctuated by Raja challenging Clara on many of her bird sightings while she gracefully helped him with birds that he had forgotten to tick. 

 

Of course there were serious revision sessions and many a birding pearls of wisdom delivered by Adesh and Mandar. The best parts were the seemingly inexhaustible namkeens brought out by Ameya and Rujuta. We were told that we had been extremely lucky with the weather, as only last week the entire area was under a thick blanket of snow!!

Black faced laughingthrush

 

Even so, trying to go to sleep was quite an exercise with one having put on multiple layers, gloves and caps, but still not managing to keep out the cold adequately. I felt that my fingers and toes had gone missing. Just think of our soldiers manning the Glacier…..

 

The food served here was fantastic, considering the logistics involved. The tea was there at 0515 sharp! The hearty breakfast served on the balcony with the view of the snow capped peaks was something else.

  
The kitchen waste from the camp served to attract many local rarities as we got ‘studio’ views of the yellow-billed blue magpie, black-faced laughingthrush and streaked scimitar babbler among others.

White tailed nuthatch

Fire tailed sunbird

Streak-throated barwing

Stripe throated yuhina

White-browed rosefinch

As we halted at the Mayodia Pass, the white-browed rosefinch and the streak-throated barwing were on spectacular display. There is a Signals Dett of the army right on the pass.

The enthusiasm of this motley crew of four men ‘incarcerated’ at this inhospitable and lonely location had to be seen to be believed. Before we knew, hot steaming cups of tea were being served by a Havaldar to complete strangers. Long live the spirit of Indian Army!!.

Mayodia Pass

 

 

This is also the place where one gets a weak BSNL signal ever so briefly, for those who wish to connect with the outside world. I wondered why anyone would want to do that though.

 

We descended down to 62 (yes that’s the name of a place since they are named as per the Km from Roing) which is on way to Hunli and Anini.  We had some of the most fruitful sessions in this area on both days. 

 
 

 

The lunch served at the Fooding Place consisting of good ol Maggi, was hot and invigorating. The notable sightings included the black faced warbler, bar winged wrenbabbler, beautiful sibia, beautiful nuthatch, treecreeper, fulvettas (Nepal and Manipur), maroon backed accentor.

 

Beautiful sibia

Maroon backed accentor

 

 

On the way back we stopped at Tiwarigaon and ran into a group of very excited photographers from Mumbai. Apparently they had sighted a kind of bunting   which has not been recorded here before. En route there was an excellent sighting of the crested goshawk.

Black faced warbler

As evening drew close and as we thought that it was the end of the days birding, they pulled out a rabbit from the hat. There was a deserted camp just short of Roing where the Hodgsons frogmouth had been reported. Much excitement followed as we trooped in pitch dark and waited patiently for more than half an hour. Finally a pair showed up and we got excellent sightings thanks to some very powerful FBI style torches.

Hodgsons frogmouth

 

 

We thawed out at the Mishmi camp at Roing, and the next morning were back at the Sally lake. This time there were fabulous sightings including the rufous-necked laughingthrush and black backed forktail at the riverside. The spectacular display by the ruby cheeked sunbird in brilliant sunlight defies description. The sights from atop the viewpoint overlooking the river were simply out of the world. 

Ruby cheeked sunbird

Himalayan bluetail

 
Notable sightings included the chestnut thrush, silver eared mesia and rufous gorgeted flycatcher. We even stalked and got a fleeting glimpse of the ultra shy bird called red-faced liocichla. 

 
 

Chestnut thrush

As we made our way back along the dreaded river crossing (this time uneventful) we managed to spot the himalayan bluetail, dusky warbler and the  firebreasted flowerpecker.
   

Returning back to the Banashree camp was most looked forward to,  in view of the piping hot water that was provided for a bath and for the excellent hospitality. The next morning was the last item on the agenda in the form of the Magori grassland. 

Maguri grassland

Crossing the small rivulet by boat, we were transported to an entirely different and unique habitat. There were rewarding views of the yellow bellied warbler and the rufous capped babbler. Again there was much excitement since the first sighting of White browed crake in India had been made here yesterday, though we were no obliged with a sighting. 

 

The bluethroats, Siberian stonechats and tricoloured shrikes were seen in good numbers though the Siberian rubythroat eluded us. That still did not deter our overall birdlist from crossing 150 including many lifers.

Tricoloured shrike

Siberian stonechat

 

Having visited west Arunachal (Eaglenest/Nameri) comparisons were bound to arise with this area of Arunachal. While both trips are enjoyable in their own right, this one scores in terms of infrastructure and comfort (relative), while the Nameri component definitely scores over Maguri. We leave it to our hosts to check out the Walong and Lekhapani-Jairampur valleys for subsequent sojourns…One just can’t have enough of Arunachal it seems.

Travelers:

DJ, Sangeeta, Rajagopal and eight others.

Travel dates: 28 Feb to 06 March 2016

Camera: Nikon P 600 on auto mode.

Tour organizers: Nature India

Travel Tips:

Dibrugarh airport has a thoughtfully placed ample waiting area after the arrival and luggage pickup, which is air conditioned, and has adequate toilets and a snack bar. 

Much of the credit for our smooth ride on the trip goes to our chief driver Bobby Singh who is an Assamese Sardar!!

 

Bobby Singh and his crew

The Banashree resort is recommended even for a one night getaway from Mohanbari / Chabua/ Dinjan for those who are so inclined.

Distances in the hills of North east should not be measured in terms of kilometres but in hours.