Friends,

Traveling is important for our happiness and mental health. Studies show that traveling can be great for our mental health.

Living in a world of challenges, where we are constantly slammed with the stress of work, relationships, and maintaining a family, it’s important that we take time to relieve all that stress, so we can continue to function with happiness and new zeal.

Traveling helps us gain a greater understanding of ourselves to create a feeling of wholeness within our own individuality. This is important because remaining present is such a hard thing to accomplish sometimes when our brains are saturated with things to stress over and fill our heads with anxious thoughts.

Traveling gives us a moment to remain in the present, even if it’s just for a few moments. Traveling can also just make us happy overall. The pursuit of happiness is arguably the meaning of life. Finding love and happiness is something all of us aspire to and yearn for.

Yes, Traveling is important for us, because it gives us an opportunity to see places beyond our hometown is crucial to gain exposure to the world. Whether we travel domestically or on a foreign tour, it can be an experience that is reminisced for a lifetime.

I Love Travelling

Traveling should be a joyous thing, no matter it is a family trip or just a business trip to visit some new place. It’s important to maintain a continual pattern of learning and awareness throughout one’s lifetime, and traveling is a great way to do that.

Traveling gives us exposure to other cultures as well. The dialects differ, food, local music, and the terrain can all differ from one place to another. There are different languages and ways of communicating all over the world.

Exposure to these things allows us to become open-minded and understand that though we are different, it is our similarities as humans that bring us together. Traveling is important for global humanity.

A few months ago, we decided to travel to Sikkim including a Jungle safari at Siliguri for a week-long program. In fact, we had a thought to seek regenerative travel to bridge the gap between self-care and exploration.

I like most to “adventure in the woods” and that dream came true when I wandered in the woods while visiting the dense forest in Mahananda wildlife century near Siliguri.

Yes, that was Mahananda Weir Wildlife Sanctuary. We entered the sanctuary through the Sukna Gate side.

The Jungle Safari

Sanctuary is Situated between Mahananda and Teesta Rivers in Siliguri.  This vast expanse of forest lands is home to rare mountain goats, Cheetal, barking deer, fishing cats, sambar, tiger, elephant, Indian bison, and migratory birds.

The east of the sanctuary is bounded by the river Teesta and on the west by the Mahananda river and beautiful hilly terrain.

There were strict instructions for a day jungle safari. The total distance in the safari route is 8 km. They advised us to come back before it is dark because there is always the fear of wild elephant attacks.

Our guide mentioned that elephant rides at the sukna forest area were available earlier, now discontinued. This is because sometimes wild elephants get into conflict with the elephant doing the rides and start chasing them.

On a couple of occasions, elephants carrying tourists on their backs panicked from other wild elephants and ran away, which creates enormous risks to the life of the tourist.

On one occasion, Tourists taking the ride were about to fall off in a panic. That is why the elephant rides have been completely discontinued.

That sanctuary is huge and dense. There are a variety of plantations seen all around in the forest. Amongst the forest plantations, we have seen Khair, sissoo, simul, and sal forests. Other major plantations include teak, udal, champ, Lali, Jarul, gamahar, Mandana, Siddha, and bamboo orchards. There was a large grassy area as well.

We have been told that the forest has a zone for elephant migration. elephants migrate between Nepal, west Bengal, and Assam areas and a huge number of elephants can be seen in winter and monsoon seasons.

There are Bengal tigers, and we can see lots of other animals along with reptiles.

Heaven for the bird–watcher

Many types of birds are also present in the forest. We were unlucky not to spot a Bengal tiger during the jungle safari.

This sanctuary is also a heaven for the bird–watcher. There are over 300 species of birds available in this sanctuary, including one’s hornbills, peafowls, peacocks, fouls, egrets, etc.

Many migratory birds arrive here from central Asia as well as told by the guide.

This Mahananda wildlife sanctuary has been accorded the status of ‘ ‘an important bird area ‘ because of its ongoing and critical role in the conservation of birds and their habitats.

We were excited to see several huge watch towers that have been set up in that sanctuary, which is great for watching elephant migration and watching deer, Indian bison, and other animals. We would have enjoyed all these facilities, but we had to catch the train and reach the station in time.

We had seen one good thing there. The government has been encouraging an eco-system in the sanctuary that involves villagers from 11 villages, including several forest villages.

The villagers help to conserve the bio-diversity of the forests and protect the wild life. Many of them have been engaged as guides for tourists.  The village girls take part in ethnic cultural dance and music to entertain the tourists. That was the beauty of that place.

Well Stocked Museum

There is a large, and well-stocked museum in the main building. We have seen a preserved leopard in a glass cabinet. There are many exhibits and artifacts here that reflect the flora and fauna of this jungle including preserved skins of tigers, heads of deer and bison, etc. but the major attraction is the preserved cub of an elephant and a huge Royal Bengal Tiger there. That is all about the Jungle safari.

Friends, someone truly said that when we travel and enjoy the moments, actually, we rewire our brains. We have got a novel experience that is helpful in building new neuro pathways in our brain.

Consequently, we feel relaxed and fresh.  Moreover, we become more energetic and more creative, generating new ideas to make our life happy.

Yes, we enjoyed the moments in the woods, and that was a wonderful vacation filled with memories and smiles.  I hope you have enjoyed this journey with me in the woods.

Please click below for the previous blog…..

BE HAPPY….BE ACTIVE….BE FOCUSED….BE ALIVE…

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Categories: Tour & Travel