The train running 2 hours behind schedule was probably cruising at 120km/hr. Sitting beside a window I was trying to visualize some images of frogs to be made at Katthalekana. When Dr Gururaja of Indian Institute Science, Bangalore who is an amphibian scientist informed me of his week long research trip to Katthalekana, a dense jungle in the Western Ghats I readily agreed to join him for couple of days. In Kannada language Katthale means darkness, night and Kana means forest. As the name suggests this place is a scary dense jungle – The image above shows Katthalekana forest range, more about that in a minute.
Reached Sagar around 11:30PM and next day early morning headed towards Jog where Dr Gururaja and his team (Sheshadri KS, Amit and Srikanth) were camping. Reached Jog around 9am and waited for an hour for Dr Gururaja and his team to arrive from their field work. Though I had exchanged a few notes earlier I had not met Dr Gururaja till then. Around 10:30am Dr Gururaja along with his team returned after surveying a 30km stretch of road for frog kills !! which was interesting to me. For next one hour I had an enlightening discussion with passionate and energetic Dr Guraraja about their previous day work at Katthalekana. He showed me some amazing videos of behaviours of some endemic frogs of this region. For Dr Gururaja day starts at night !! The team took rest till around 4pm (they worked till 2am previous day at jungles!) and got ready for heading towards Katthalekana. I joined them too. We reached Katthalekana around 5:30pm. Dr Gururaja gave me a little bit of coconut oil and snuff powder. I was supposed a make a paste and apply it to legs which acts as leach deterrent. Then Dr Gururaja took us inside the Katthalekana jungles. Though I was born and brought-up near Western Ghats jungles Katthalekana appeared unique even for me. 10 meters off the road along a little foot path leading us inside the jungle was barely visible at 5:30pm. The rain was pouring, plenty of leaches waiting to climb up legs along the path, our heads and necks were only a few inches away from Bamboo pit vipers that may be resting on the foliage along the paths. We were told Katthalekana is the place where all King Cobras caught in the nearby villages are released into Jungles. Dr Gururaj told me “if we think of all those things will can’t do our field work !” I have agreed with him since I knew I will there only for one more day 
For next half an hour Dr Gururaja led us inside the jungle in a pouring rain. We crossed the same winding stream down hill 3 times. In just a matter of 20 minutes there were flash floods in the stream. I fell down once while crossing the stream – nothing happened fortunately and I was not carrying my camera. Amit, who is part of Dr Gururaja’s team fell down and his footwear and umbrella got washed away in the floods. After about 30min of walk into jungles we stopped at a place in the jungle where Dr Gururaja showed us a tree (Semicarpus kathlekanensis or Myristica…) which stands as a proof to say millions of years back African and Indian plates where together. I understand scientists came to this conclusion since the same tree is found today in Africa too.
We spent next couple of hours at another small stream where Dr Gururaja and his team were studying a group of endemic frogs. It was around 8pm, amidst myriad of calls of different creatures of the jungle Dr Gururaja helped us isolate a few calls and associate names of a few frogs with those. Following those frog calls he would go inside some bushes and show us those amazing frogs!! His ability to find them in jungles is amazing ! I spent an hour trying to make a few images of those beautiful frogs. In pouring rain, amidst blood sucking leaches all around and with all kind of poisonous snakes and fear of stepping on them making images of frogs was not easy to say the least. I used a 3W Maglite to make most of my images and some with flash too (with limited success though). Dr Gururaja, Sheshadri and Amit helped me while making images of these frogs. At around 9pm we decided to head back to the camp for dinner. We started back again around 9:30pm and returned back to Katthalekana jungles. This time I decided not to make images since I felt I may be disturbing their field work and I was also tired. I simply decided to see what they do. They were meticulously recording frogs’ courtship behaviours etc. At around 12am Dr Gururaja and his team decided to return back to the camp. We came back and took rest. Next day morning at 6am Dr Gururaja and his team went again for another round of road kill survey. I decided to take some more rest at camp. Got up around 7:30am and went around the camp with my macro lens to make a few images.
Next day around 2:30pm the plan was to visit Muppane and then goto Katthalekan again. I decided to do some more macro work and skip Muppane. Around 3:30am I checked out from the camp and headed towards Katthalekana. Plan was to join Dr Gururaja’s team at a place named Mavinagundi about 10km before Katthalekana. I stopped and waited near Mavinagundi for Dr Gururaja and his team to arrive. While waiting for Dr Gururaja a person came near by my car and asked “are you Ganesh” ? I said “yes I am” Then he introduced himself as Mr Ashok T Hegde ! We both are members of a nature photo forum (INW) and had exchanged a few notes earlier !! The Internet has made this world very small. Then Ashok joined us too to Katthalekana !! Previous day Dr Gururaja had promised me to show a newly discovered species of frog named Neelanethrus having beautiful blue eyes (above images – you may click on them to see them larger). We entered jungles again in pouring rain around 7pm. After listening to myriads of calls in the jungle at last the Dr Gururaj and his team found a frog in some thick bushes. “You drank enough, I will take you out now” I heard Dr Gururaja saying. He was removing leaches from his legs!! Blood was oozing out from multiple places from his legs!! I did not know what to say. Amit in Dr Gururaja’s team also found another species of frog. I made some images of these two beautiful frogs. Around 9pm we decided to return. Dr Gururaja and his team went towards Kumta, I returned back with Ashok. Stopped at Mavinagundi, had a nice dinner at Ashok’s house and returned back to Sagar around 11pm.
Fantastic experience to say the least !! Thanks a million to Dr Gururaja and his team – Sheshadri, Amit and Srikanth. Hats off to them – I have not seen another team as daring, as energetic and as passionate.
This trip will stay in my memory for years to come for sure!!
Thanks a lot to Vijay Mohan Raj for his support during the trip. Without his help I would not have made this trip.
Thanks to Ashok T Hegde for his help and a nice dinner! Anyone going to Katthalekana or Jog may get in touch with Ashok for valuable information about this amazing place.
Thanks to forest department person who joined us to Katthalekana – too bad, I forgot his name 
For more information about Dr Gururaja and his research work visit this link.
You may click on images of frogs above to see them in larger size. You can find a few more images I made at Katthalekana here. I may add some more images in a few days. If anyone is interested in knowing more about my technique of using torch lights for macro photography please visit this link.
Thats all for now about Katthalekana trip!!
