POINT CALIMERE SANCTUARY- THE UNKNOWN DESTINATION

-->

A beautiful morning with a sunrise welcomed us when we were on the way to point calimere sanctuary at kodikarai, nagapattinam district. We were advised to take up the left from velankanni shrine by an auto driver. The vegetation in the roads reduced time after time, the broadness of the road shrinked and we were surrounded by water and wet lands on the either side. The roads went even more rugged. Finally after a 40 minutes drive, we found an arch “point calimere sanctuary- kodikarai”. A nearby sign board warned us to drive slowly as the deers and other herbivores crossed the roads. On the way we found a shrine like spot with steps. When we climbed on it, the foot prints of lord Rama was embossed in the stone. The locals say, this particular place has its significance in Ramayana. Before going to rameshwaram, the team of lord Rama planned to build the bridge connecting to Sri Lanka from here. Due to the distance and geographical location it was not suitable to build a bridge from here.

Kodikarai point calimere sanctuary is a hot spot of black bucks. IT was declared as a sanctuary in the year 1967 for the sake of conserving the black buck population. Black bucks are a type of antelopes. Other than that spotted deer, wild dog, wild boar, pony horse and bonnet macaque’s share their space in this sanctuary. There are no carnivorous animals in this sanctuary. Wild dog is the only predator. The workers in the forest department guest house welcomed us warmly and allocated rooms for us. Being a government based guest house, I thought it would not be neat and clean. But the fact was quite different. After a bath and breakfast, we took our ride to the sanctuary with lunch packed up. It should be some where between 11.30 am when we left for the sanctuary. It exactly took 10-20 minutes to reach the sanctuary.  We sited a group of scared male black bucks, gazing around. Usually the male black bucks are black and white in colour and the female looks brown in colour. Snakes also reside in the sanctuary and we found fragrant screw pine frequently. We also spotted wild boar, spotted deer, bonnet macaque and other common animals too.

We sat down for lunch in the anti-poaching squad tents and enjoyed our meal. It should’ve been 2 pm when we started our next half of visit. Luckily we spotted a wild dog chasing a black buck. After some long time we reached a light house that is 50 years old and built by the British. The evening time witnessed heavy winds lashing at us. Finally we saw some pony horses sitting aside and gazing around. They ran away once they saw us.  Finally we reached the sea shore. We stood at the meeting point of Bay of Bengal and Palk Strait. With that our day 1 trip into the sanctuary came to an end.

Day 2 we planned for bird watching.  It should be 7 am when we reached the sanctuary. It was completely a wet land. The first bird that we spotted was brahmni kites and later we saw pelicans, little egret, flamingo and other such birds. Pelicans, little egrets, flamingos are migratory birds that come from other countries. There is a chemical refinery near the wet lands. It pollutes the wet lands from time to time. The helper was so active running from one place to another spotting out the birds with his binocular. We found something that was unusual. It was blue coloured and its hands and legs looked cream in colour. When the helper yelled, there is a bird. The bird raised and proved that it’s a human. It was a woman catching fishes in the back waters.  That morning seemed to be quite pleasant with the presence of beautiful birds.

Then that same day afternoon we visited the MPCA [medicinal plants conservation area]. A person who manages a siddha clinic in that village guided us. He took us to the nook and corner of the place and explained the different set of medicines for all diseases ranging from the major one to the minor. The first herb that we saw was “cithili paalai” it was supposed to be the cure for cancer. Then he showed the leaves of vilva and explained its medicinal values. He further explained the use of other medicinal plants one after the other.

We finished our journey with the MPCA. The next day morning we left the place with all the good things that we saw. It was a memorable journey for us. To get there reach nagapattinam and take up the bus for kodikarai.