Trip to Mishmi Hills, Arunachal Pradesh
A wonderful and memorable trip to Arunachal in search of winged beauties...
Mishmi Hills, the land of mountains and clouds. It is located in Arunachal Pradesh, India. These hills occur at the junction of Northeastern Himalaya and Indo-Burma ranges. A beautiful place covered with pristine forest and less human population. The kind of place I have not visited before. Wherever I see I can see only green cover, clouds and hear only sweet sound of birds.
We started our journey from my hometown Nagaon, Assam and boarded Rajdhani Express to Tinsukia. It took around 8 hours to reach Tinsukia. We met Jiban Dutta, bird guide at the station. They took us to Kohua camp (Maguri beel birding camp) first.
After a short break we started towards the hill. It was a three hour journey from kohua camp to our destination. We took the route of ->
Makum > Doomdooma > Talap > Sadiya > Roing > Mishmi Hills
We had our breakfast in a dhaba before Dhola Sadiya Bridge.
Dhola Sadiya is the longest river bridge in India. Total length 9.15 kilometres.
After crossing the bridge we reached the border of Arunachal Pradesh where we had to take our entry permit. This inner line permit is required if you visit Arunachal Pradesh and some other state of north-east India. The weather was cloudy. After some time rain also started. Such a magical start of my trip!
We reached the next town - Roing. It is the district headquarter of Lower Dibang Valley district of Arunachal Pradesh.
We had our lunch packed here so that we do not waste time as we were planning to do birding on the way. When I was waiting in the car I saw three-four russet sparrow. I walked till the market area and found a lot of them along with house sparrows feeding on the vegetable waste in the market. It seemed to be very common here.
After crossing Roing we started climbing the hills. Road condition was good except in few places.
We had our lunch packed here so that we do not waste time as we were planning to do birding on the way. When I was waiting in the car I saw three-four russet sparrow. I walked till the market area and found a lot of them along with house sparrows feeding on the vegetable waste in the market. It seemed to be very common here.
After crossing Roing we started climbing the hills. Road condition was good except in few places.
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Our first stop was at Tiwari Gaon. We had our packed lunch and searched for Niltava bird as I heard it was commonly seen in this area. But no luck...
Tiwari Gaon
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Mountains..
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We stopped at many places on the way to search for birds...All new species of birds that I was seeing for first time..
Yellow-billed Magpie
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Fire-tailed Sunbird
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After a tiring day we reached coffee house, where we stayed the next two nights.
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In this part of India, sun rises very early. I got up at 4:30 am and when I saw outside of my window it was quite bright.This is the reason why Arunachal is also known as "Land of rising sun". Weather was good, not cloudy and seeing that I felt really good. Because if it rains I will have to stay inside and wont be able to explore. After having tea I went out with Jiban looking for species that is endemic to this part of country. After a small walk we saw a group of fulvettas along with babblers are calling from the bamboo bush. They are so fast moving that it was very difficult to focus and I was like whether to enjoy the beauty or to click. But somehow I managed to get few decent shots.
Brown fronted Fulvetta
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Rufous-capped Babbler
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We walked around coffee house and clicked so many birds. The snow capped mountains, the hills and birds were all amazing. Some more pics from my morning walk..
After breakfast we headed towards Mayodiya Pass. Mayodia Pass is located about 56 km from Roing with an elevation of 2,655 meter above sea level. "Mayodia" is a Deori-Chutia word which stands for "shrine of mother goddess", "Mayo" means "mother goddess", "Di" means "water" and "Ya" means "land"(source - Wikipedia). The road was bumpy and narrow till Mayodiya.
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The feel in mountains is always special. The breeze, coldness in the air, the soothing sound, curvy roads and what not. All attracts me like magnet..Once one trip is over I start planning for my next trip and till that time I am just in dreams of those places in a crowded city :-)
Beauty of cloud kissed hills from Mayodiya Pass. It was breathtakingly beautiful...
Beauty of cloud kissed hills from Mayodiya Pass. It was breathtakingly beautiful...
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We started to look for birds around Mayodiya Pass and here is the one sitting on the signboard.
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A rufous gorgetted Flycatcher was also sitting quietly in a nearby tree and not caring about our presence.
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We again went little further from Mayodiya Pass. On the way we stopped at many places looking for birds. We reached Hotel 65, the name was kept because it was exactly 65 km from Roing town. Near the hotel I was lucky to click the rare Slender Billed babbler. This bird has a very strange curvy bill. I was so excited when I saw it in the open area for the first time and lost my focus on the bird. Somehow I managed to click some decent shots. It always happens with me. The excitement of seeing for the first time always causes the shake :)
Slender billed Babbler
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Slender billed Babbler
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The whole day we were driving through the mountains and stopping at various places searching for birds. I was tired but the hope of getting new species kept me going...
We were in Mishmi for just two nights and three days..But I was really fortunate to click so many new species. Here are few more from the trip.
