Dec 152012
 

The mysterious little Hedgehog of Forest Rest House Tal Chapar Rajasthan

 

Let me be honest the moment the word Forest Rest house comes to my mind, a rickety old bungalow with no power and plumbing comes to mind, with an old Chowkidar with a lantern who does not cast a shadow completing the picture. So when Shreeram MV of Darter informed me that we will be staying in Forest Rest House in Tal Chapar Rajasthan, I was mentally prepared to rough it out in the middle of the jungle. Surrounded by beautiful Indian acacia trees with fragrant yellow flowers, middle of the jungle it is, but rest of my images of a forest rest house were shattered the moment we entered the Forest Rest House in  Tal Chapar Rajasthan. It is brand new swank, colonial style bungalow with huge ceilings, A/C rooms, running hot and cold water (but please use it frugally as you are in the desert).

The food served is delicious home cooked sourced from a local family living close by, but the icing on the cake is the owners Vandana and Sharad Sridhar.  Sharad is one of the most seasoned birders in the country and he has leased the guest house from the government of Rajasthan. We were very lucky and he joined us on some of the safaris in the sanctuary. Vandana used to work for a top MNC as its marketing head and is now shuttling between writing, managing and marketing the Tal Chapar Forest rest house and her 4-year-old daughter who can identify more than 70 species of birds!

The bunglow style Tal Chapar Forest rest house

Forest Rest House in Tal Chapar Rajasthan

Anyways this post is about the Hedgehog of Forest Rest House Tal Chapar and let me share the little story of how I got lucky. I was trying to sleep on the first night while counting the birds that we have seen during the safari and what my wish list for next day would be. Suddenly I heard a few noises and I enquired what is happening.  I was informed by Vineet and others that there is a porcupine in the complex and they are trying to click its pictures. I decided to let it pass as I wanted to be fresh for the early morning safari.

Hedgehog+of+Tal+Chapar+(2)

The Hedgehog of Forest Rest House in Tal Chapar Rajasthan

Early morning around 6 am I was first one to get up and I picked a cup of tea from the kitchen and stood out in the verandah with my cup of tea. Suddenly I saw two sparkling eyes looking at me suspiciously from a corner. I was not sure what the creature was, but I kept the cup aside and switched on my camera on. In the meantime, it started moving very fast and I realized it is hedgehog (Paraechinus micropus), an extremely shy animal very rarely sighted.

I did not have time to adjust the camera settings hence the pictures are not very sharp, but I am glad I was able to capture a few of them. I was able to follow the hedgehog till its burrow and then decided to leave it alone. Soon others joined and I showed them the pictures of my hedgehog (notice how I have adopted it). Soon we all agreed that the creature last night must have been the hedgehog and not the porcupine.

Hedgehog+of+Tal+Chapar+(3) Wildlife Sanctuary

The Hedgehog Trying to Hide

As the Tal Chapar forest rest house is right at the edge of the jungle and the owners have a policy of wildlife first they have not removed the nests of the birds on the property and I saw some sparrows building nests, while on the top of the Gazebo there was a peahen fiercely protecting her eggs.

Hedgehog+of+Tal+Chapar+(1) wildlife sanctuary running away

The Hedgehog running away

Acacia Flowers in Tal Chapar wild life sanctuary

Yellow Acacia Flowers in Forest Rest House in Tal Chapar Rajasthan

Update: Do check this post about the last few Hedgehogs in the London Zoo, that shows how sensitive these little critters are and we should never take any creature for granted.

  22 Responses to “The Hedgehog of Forest Rest House in Tal Chapar Rajasthan”

Comments (22)
  1. Hi Shreeram, Nice writeup on Tal chappar. May I get the contact information for forest guest house – Tapchappar pls. Thanks in advance.

  2. Great article and good information, rarely available online. My friends visited last month and stayed at a family managed guesthouse called Manu homestay in Bidasar, 15 km from Sanctuary as guest house in sanctuary was not available. They found it through airbnb. You can check for more details.

  3. Dear Sir,

    Greetings!!!!!!
    I want to visit in Tal-Chapar. Can you let me know the contact
    information of Forest Rest House for stay.
    Please also advise to me any other Hotels and rest House at there,

    Thanks.

    Regards
    Manoj

    • The previous management has given up the contract and now it is managed by somebody else. You can also look at fixed departure trips by darter Photography ( I am one of the team members )

      Otherwise you can get in touch with Rajasthan Tourism as they own the Tal Chapar Guest house

  4. Wonderful travelogue! Enjoyed reading your experience. During my next trip to India, I want to visit Tal Chappar during first week of Nov. Need help with accommodation. Can you let me know the contact informationt to stay at Forest Rest House. Are there any other accommodation that you would recommend?

  5. That was a ‘good’ morning, huh! 🙂 Love that picture of the hedgehog scurrying away.

    I’d come by this post the day before yesterday but couldn’t read the first para. The ad seems to be squeezing that para on the ipad and the sides are being cut off too. 🙁

    • Hi Divya…Thanks for the feedback.
      The format issue is due to WordPress, for some reason it is not loading mobile version on the phone and ipad which will format it for the screen automatically…I tried without ads also but it is still not helping. Need to talk to my tech savvy friends to find a solution. Request to please bear till then.
      Q.. Have you tried wordpress app for Ipad ? That supposedly helps as per wordpress support group…I will try it out also.
      Thanks a lot

  6. sounds like an amazing experience!! loved all the pictures 🙂

  7. This looks like a real nice place.

  8. Hi, I had written a comment on this post yesterday. Where did it vanish? 🙁 Can you please check for it in your spam folder?

  9. Loved…this one travelogue a lot…specially the hedgehog…!!!

  10. I can imagine how thrilled you must have been to have had an exclusive account with the shy little creature. I love the captures, it beautifully tells the story. You truly deserved the adoption. 🙂

Dear fellow traveler welcome to desi Traveler, I am excited to have you here, please share your thoughts and I will be very happy to reply. Please check our Blog Comment Policy. All comments are moderated and urls in comments end in spam automatically. Happy travels.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.