Trip To Dzuluk - March 25-26

They were a group of 4/5 people walking down to their village. From the zig zag hilly roads, they saw a small bear like creature down about fifty meters away in an open pasture between the forests. Nearby a group of workers were breaking boulders for road construction. They immediately joined in and as the group of 20/25 people assembled, some of them shouted and threw stones at the animal down below. The creature stood up, a seven feet beast, hairy and humanlike. The observers realized it’s not a Himalayan bear. Scared as they were, they ran till they reach Dzuluk few kilometers down.

That night the army camp at Dzuluk had its water supply cut. Next morning a group of soldiers accompanied by some local laborers tried to locate the cause for water disruption. As they approached the place where the animal was sighted, they found the 3 inch diameter iron water pipe bent and broken and a large section of it thrown 30 ft high.

There is an abundance of similar stories of Yeti and others around here. Beasts that you would laugh at in your city residence came alive when the stories were told on a dark evening lit by a candle at 11 thousand feet.

I was accompanying a group of friends who were filming the silk route connecting Kalimpong in West Bengal with Tibet. The trade was going on till the 50’s, till the time the Chinese came to occupy Tibet. Remnants of the old Silk route still exist. Although in many places it’s been taken over by the metal road created by the army.

Dzuluk in east Sikkim is just a few kilometers from the Tibet boarder. It is a small stretch of land in between dense forests. The area is scarcely populated and the forest is almost totally virgin. The steep ascent of the hills ensures that even the locals can not venture into much of the forest area. The Bhutan forests are few hours walk. Dense forests of Neora valley National park are not much further either.

You need a special permit to visit this region. The permits are easily available now, foreigners are still not allowed to visit the area.

Apart from the obvious attraction of the silk route, the place offers excellent view of Mt. Kanchenjunga and surrounding peaks. The surrounding forests have large variety of flora and fauna. During April the entire hill is covered with Gurus (Rhododendron) and Chap (Magnolia). The beautiful Monal pheasant can be seen almost in every other corner of the road. I also saw a deer during my stay of less than 24 hours. Tigers, Bears, Thar are not very few either. Locals were also mentioning existence of the illusive kasturi mriga, Bharal and a variety of other animals.

I plan to explore the place further in April.

for more information on dzuluk visit the travel site of naturebeyond.