Page 69 - Travel + Leisure India & South Asia (January 2020)
P. 69
SINGALILA NATIONAL PARK IS AN EDEN NESTLED in the tragopan, blood pheasant, fire-tailed myzornis, red
lap of Eastern Himalayas. Located on the Singalila ridge crossbill, rosefinch, and fire-tailed sunbird.
in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal, at an elevation As a biologist, I’m fascinated by red pandas. They are
of 3,000 metres above sea level, the area is blessed practically living fossils, and their evolutionary adaptations
with subtropical forests and temperate coniferous include a herbivorous diet (bamboo) in spite of being
forests. The vegetation includes oak, silver fir, maple, carnivores, a false thumb to hold on to bamboo branches,
magnolia, bamboo, and 19 species of rhododendron, and special pits on the tongue to sense threats in the air. As a
which bloom in spring and cover the valleys in a multi- wildlife photographer, I love Himalayan terrain because the
coloured garb. The forests also have a wide variety of animals that live here are rarely found anywhere else in the
wild orchids and cobra lilies. world. Their behaviour and adaptation to these difficult
This unique location and wide variety of flora have forests also make them very hard to photograph. For
made Singalila the favoured home for myriad animal instance, red pandas are solitary, shy, and arboreal. They
species. Among those is the very special red panda, an sleep inside tree holes or on mossy branches of big trees. As
endangered species found in few pockets of the Eastern they are crepuscular and nocturnal, they tend to rest through
Himalayas and China. Apart from the adorable tree the day. Though they are vibrant in colour on the top, they
dweller, the park harbours over 30 species of mammals, can perfectly camouflage on moss trees and are extremely
including the elusive clouded leopard, marbled cat, hard to spot in the wild. A clear view of a red panda in good
Asiatic black bear, musk deer, and Himalayan serow. daylight is a rare phenomenon. So far, I have had 65 sightings
The 200-plus bird species found here include satyr in the wild but just a handful of good frames.
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