Adventure Ride through Bastar and Rich Tribal Culture

Bike ride in Chilly windy dark night of January amidst a Dense Isolated Forest deep in Hinterlands of Chattisgarh..

During one of the weekend, I planned to explore a friends place in Chattisgarh on insistence of friend who was inviting me to visit his place since last 2 years. 1st question - How to go? 

If you ask my Baba - Its Simple- Bus or Train.. 

So for Bike lover like me it was insult that my bullet will miss out on this exciting journey to a new place.. 

But still to convince baba a bus ticket was booked from one of the Bus vendors near Gitanjali theatre in Nagpur. For those who are not aware of Nagpur, Small area in front of Gitanjali Theatre on CA road has a Small Private Bus stand for all buses leaving for MP and Chattisgarh. Ticket was booked in advance and news was immediately shared with Baba that is am finally going to a awesome place in Chattisgarh by BUSSSSS!!

He was happy that finally his boy has stopped use of his risky mode of transport- Bike, that too Royal Enfiled. When I first told him that I wish to buy a Bullet in 2010, he was like - its a Safed Haathi. But being a Rajdoot user himself , I knew that he loved my plan of owning a bullet and would ultimately approve of me buying bullet. And I became proud owner of Bullet.  

Date of Journey was decided as 25 Jan 2014 and mode of Transport was supposed to be a Bus.However fate had some other plans and suddenly I came to know on 25th afternoon that my scheduled Bus was cancelled and another bus will depart at late night. Well this is what is conveyed to Baba and then told him that I have no other option than Bike to visit this awesome Place called Jagdalpur which is some 600 km from Nagpur.

Jagdalpur is Administrative centre of Bastar District. Bastar is predominantly tribal area and is famous for its Wood Craft, Teracotta Work, Bamboo Craft , Kosa Sarees and Dhokra or Bell Metal art.The Dussehera Celebration of Bastar is well known Festival . Major tribes Gond, Abhuj Maria, Bhatra Etc.

From a local old man I also came to know a really amazing tradition called "Ghotul" followed by tribal in this region. In this age old tradition, single men and women are allowed to explore compatibality before marriage. Highly prevalent in Dantewada's Gond and abhujmadia community, the local panchayat provides housing facility to potential couples for fortnight. After End of term couple can marry or go their separate ways. May be current trend of Live In relationship was borrowed from one of these tribes!!

As usual I was short of time and we had two and half days to complete the trip and return Nagpur by 27th Jan. The trip was ride of 300 km from Nagpur to Raipur and further 286 Km from Raipur to Jagdalpur. I asked my friend Guddu to accompany me on this trip and he readily agreed since he also loved riding. Luckily Guddu was in Raipur for some office work so it was planned that I will reach Raipur by 5 PM on 25th Jan and then move to Jagdalpur. I started from Nagpur in afternoon and rode  NH 53 , stopped for lunch at outskirts of Bhilai and reached Raipur at 5 PM as planned. To my surprise NH 53 turned out to be a nice Four lane Highway and it was real fun to ride on the tarmac. Met Guddu near main Railway station of Raipur and had delicious Uttapam in small restaurant nearby. 

We started for Jagdalpur at around 5.30 PM and ensured Petrol tank was full at pump on outskirts of Raipur. The road was smooth and we were cruising at 60 kmph. As sun went down the traffic reduced drastically due to sensitive area which we were to enter. On the way we saw many local villages guarded by heavily armed Paramilitary Troops on most main crossroads of villages on highway. On enquiring about the deployment of troops in area we were told that it was to ensure peacefull  Republic Day celebration which was on next day i.e. 26th Jan.

Now we understood the sensitivity of the area which was infested by Naxal Problem and came to know that some nearby areas to Bastar like Dantewada were stronghold of Naxals. Some local Police stations on the way had 15 Ft huge walls with barbed wires and watchtowers which reminded us of some movie scenes. We crossed some dense Forest patches which felt totally isolated with just small hamlets on the way . Since it was forest and winter, the cold was anil biting and we were not at all prepared fro such extreme cold. But we continued our journey till Kanker which is 127 km from Raipur and felt it was not safe to move further as also advised by some locals on the way and moreover vehicular traffic was almost zero on Highway. We booked a small lodge and spent night there

At 7 AM in morning had some tea and snacks and left for Jagdalpur. On the way we observed that the Highway and State Tourism dept has done very smart work by installing big well maintained metal signpost/ glowsigns near each and every place of intrest on the way. Looking at these boards some tourists like us may stop at nearby place on highway to check out a intresting offbeat place not having any mention on web.Such initiative should be implemented by other State Tourism Dept to promote tourism. We reached destination at around 12 noon and directly went to friends place. We planned to visit Famous Chitrakoot Waterfall, tirthgad Waterfalls and Bailadila Hills near Dentewada. 

We firstly visited Chitrakoot Water fall and was amazed by the grand view of the fall which is  56 km from Jagdalpur City. Its located on Indravati River and has a drop of 95 ft deep and has a horseshoe shape. Hired a boat and went near the fall, clicked some memorable pics with friends and went for lunch at a local small eatery recommended by local friend. This small hotel had black chicken on menu also known as Kadaknath specie of Hen which is very low on fat and hence very healthy opting for Chickne lovers. This Breed is native to bastar district and has now gained lot of popularity in India. Althought  me being a strict veggie, I enjoyed Paneer, my friends relished the Kadaknath Chicken. 

                                                            Mighty Chitrakoot Falls   

Later we visited tirthgad waterfalls which is about 35 Km from Jagdalpur and  is situated in Kanger Valley national Park. The fall is located on Kanger river  and falls from hieght of 90 mtr. Water falls down in stepwise pattern hence the final flow at the bottom of the fall is less harsh and we could stand right below the water. Enjoyed a lot till evening and due to sunset approaching fast , dropped our plan to visit  Bailadila as its located in Dantewada District which has presense of Naxals due to dense woods. The hills resemble the hummpof Ox hence the name Bailadila. These days the forest cover has reduced due to heavy Iron ore Mining in area . 

                                                                   Tirathgad Waterfall

      

                                                                      BailaDila Hills

There are few more palces to be seen in Bastar District like Tamda Ghoomar Falls near Chitrakoot , Mendri Ghumar falls ,Chitradhara Falls and Kotumsar Cave which I recommend you to visit becuase they are awesome and I missed it out due to time Constraints. Bastar is predominantly tribal area and is famous for its wood, bamboo and metal art. 

On 27th Jan we started early morning and planned to ride almost non stop to reach Nagpur by 7 pm. After a heavy breakfast we zoomed towards our first major stop at Raipur which was approx 287 kms. On the way we saw Jungle Warfare Traning Centre of Army at Kanker and felt proud about the preparedness of our troops. We decieded to stop for 2-3 min after every 50 km since the condition of pillion riders back worsens in no stop ride. We reached Raipur at noon and had lunch and finally reached Nagpur by 7.30 PM. 

Awesome trip came to an end...But with full of memories and awakening about beauty of Chattisgarh and especially Bastar. there iis nothing to be scared of this place rather its a exotic place with nature in abundance and rich Tribal Culture.