A 36-hour tryst with nature: USAID-Medak Forest Dept tour is worth trying

Planning a tour with children or friends or colleagues during summer? This tour covers the Narsapur forest, Pocharam Wildlife Sanctuary, has a Safari deep into the woods and much more.

Medak: Planning a tour with children or friends or colleagues during summer? The 36-hour Community-Based Eco-tourism (CBET) programme launched by the Medak Forest department in association with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) could be worth trying.

The tour covers the Narsapur forest, Pocharam Wildlife Sanctuary and has a Safari deep into the woods, a village or farm lunch, trekking in the forest, a visit to the historic Medak Fort, the popular Medak Church, all this with a glimpse of the life of tribals and their livelihood activities. You can also sleep in tents in the forest area during the night.

---

The USAID had adopted Medak district under the Forest Plus 2.0 programme in 2019. As part of this, USAID had taken up several works in Medak’s forest areas. The CBET is one such effort, which provides an opportunity for nature tourism enthusiasts to have a glimpse of the forest, flora and fauna which in turn provide a livelihood to members of the local Vana Samrakshana Samithi (VSS) or Eco-Development Committee. The committees comprise people living in the forest fringe villages.

Speaking to ‘Telangana Today’, USAID Forest Plus 2.0 programme regional director Gaini Sailu said the visiting team must have at least 20 members and they should come in their own vehicles to the Narsapur Urban Park by 6 am on any given day after booking tickets by paying Rs.2,000 per head.

Tourists will be provided breakfast, a village lunch, evening snacks and an ethnic barbeque dinner in the Pocharam forest and the following day’s breakfast as part of the package. The USAID and Medak Forest staff will escort the vehicle through the Pocharam Wildlife Sanctuary. The tour will begin from the Narsapur Urban Park, where the visitors can go bird watching, or check out butterflies and identify trees found in the forest. There will be a guide to help them to understand the forest ecosystem, soil moisture conservation and habitat conservation.

Visitors will spend two hours in the 1,700 hectare urban forest park located inside the Narsapur forest. Later, they will be guided to the Opposite forest area, which is called as Leopard Zone, where leopards have been sighted many times. They will then be driven to the beautiful Narsapur Tank in the middle of the forest.

En route Narsapur to Medak, tourists can visit the historical Shri 1008 Vighn-harneshvar Parshwanath Digamber Jain Temple at Kulcharam, the Venkatraopet Fort and also waterfalls in Kulcharam and Kowdipally areas, if the visit is during the rainy season.

After visiting the Medak Cathedral, they will be taken for a village lunch or farm lunch at Burugupally village in Haveli Ghanpur Mandal. From there, they have to drive to Pocharam Wildlife Sanctuary for the Safari, which offers chances of seeing spotted deer, Nilgai, black bucks, wild boars, peacocks, four-horned antelopes and other wild animals.

Next is the Environmental and Education Centre, where wildlife movies and sessions on wildlife are arranged. Later, there will be an evening trek along the Pocharam dam where they can watch the sunset.

At night, near the tents, there will be a barbeque dinner.