Many people visit Corbett Tiger Reserve each year and, it is certainly one of the premier wilderness areas in India. Perhaps not quite as many people know about Vanghat and, fewer still take the trouble to visit it.
Vanghat is located about thirty five kilometres from the town of Ramnagar, itself accessible by a six-hour road or rail journey from Delhi, past the village of Mohan on the way to Marchula in the Kumaon Hills.
The first sense of excitement comes with seeing the Ramganga River glittering like a streamer of light and winding its course through the high cliffs on either side of it. This excitement increases when one is walking with a guide about two kilometre along a footpath that clings to the hillside through scattered forests, where a ghoral, a Yellow-throated Marten, a Yellow-billed Blue Magpie or a Kaleej Pheasant can be seen with equal ease. The alternative is to ford the Ramganga River in a 4-wheel drive vehicle at five places and to do the last stretch on a bamboo raft.
I took it easy this time, my fourth visit to Vanghat in twelve years: the intervening years had taken some toll. Sumantha Ghosh, in spite of his very heavy schedule, provided all the consideration and ensured all my comfort. So in the end, I could just stand or sit anywhere in the campus and soak up the sun as it moved across the sky or listen to the sound of the Ramganga River as it brushed past the black rock-face of the cliffs. In the process, I managed - without really trying -to see about 45 species of birds just within the Vanghat campus, including a pair of Kaleej Pheasants, a flight of Long-tailed Minivets and an unexpected bonus of a Rufous-bellied Niltava; Grey-headed Tree-pie seemed to have taken over the dining area, with a Blue Whistling Thrush keeping them company. The alarm calls of the kakar and of the sambar on the second evening on sighting the tiger that at times comes in to the neighborhood, was the icing on the cake.
Making the last stretch by bamboo raft
Cottages at Vanghat
A Brown Fish Owl close to the river
Grey-headed Tree pie in the campus
Vanghat! Long may you continue to give this unalloyed delight to lovers of wildlife in India.
