Garo Hills- Balpakram

Satyaa

Nothing much has been written about Garo hills. Tourists generally are unaware (add most of the locals too in other parts of Meghalaya aka Khasi and Jaintia hills)of the hidden treasure that is Balpakram. Actually I was amazed to hear words like "infested with Malaria" "Unrest and Terror" "Dangerous to take the tribal belt road which passes through sohra to reach Balpakram, you would be looted at gun point if you travel after dark" . None of it is true at least for us as we had a wonderful stay. The staff at the FRH in Balpakram are super cool, especially the guard who doubles up as your guide James Marak and the RO Dalim Marak. Unless you know the place to the last detail or your driver has personally visited the place, tracing it would be a nightmare as is with the roads to Balpakram especially if you take the tribal belt which goes through Sohra and then meanders its way towards Garo hills.Nightmare it was as we (me and my wife) decided to do this route in the night with our driver/s in a SUMO (One of the driver himself was a Garo. The charcoal mining has hit this place like a menace and it is virtually impossible for you to do this road with a map in hand as most of the roads end abruptly and is impossible to make out which is high way and which is not. Add to this a "Drunken Driver Duo", you add a dash of uncalled for adventure into your itenary. After being frisked by the BSF at a couple of places we finally managed to get to our destination but not before waking people from there deep slumber, some times even knocking on their doors just to know which road to take. Once we reached Balpakram we were taken to the FRH by a local villager who would double up as our cook for the next couple of days. Us visiting the place during off season, we had to venture into the forest on foot with a heavily armed guard due to the slush in the Jeep tracks. Armed as much to protect us from the wild elephants as is to protect us from the Bangladeshi poachers/ wood smugglers. The place is heaven for botanists and entamologists not to leave out the herpetologists. Amazing collection of orchids in wild especially the ground orchids and the elusive pitcher plants. Add to all these, being a first hand witness to an encounter with a group of poachers who actually turned out to be wood smugglers, recovering their tools and being a part of the entire reporting process was an hair rising experience.These wood smugglers chop off trees by entering into the balpakram forest during night, throw the finished wood into the river to be transported into BD. This happens regularly in the off season when the patrolling become irregular. Back at the forest rest house, after a hard day's hike, we rest our happily weary bodies in the huge balcony overlooking the expansive forest,watching occasional visiting deers, a wild elephant(which we were not able to spot in our entire days hike, uncountable insects swarming the illuminated area(seperated from us by a net-lucky us) with their charecteristic buzz. The highlight really was a huge lizard whose mating calls sounds like a laughing kid. Soaking in the plethora of nature's bounty we slept like logs. A visit to local market is a must hust to savour the sights of the produce and the local tribes porting it to the market.

A PArting shot :- Elephant meat in the down scale restaurants of biggest town in Meghalaya .

piran_e

Satya,

You seemed to have a very nice adventure in Balpakram in every which way. Did you go to any other place in Garo hills, by any chance did you also go to Nokrek ???

I am planning to go to Garo hills in November, the weather would be much better at that time of the year.

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Walking a Dream