Tata Safari Storme to SAI sanctuary

Sometimes you meet the most unique people and spend a day unlike anything you have ever experienced in your life. This was one such day. The story begins with finding the true meaning behind the tagline that has given birth to a generation of enthusiasts – ‘Reclaim your life’. Among many things the Safari has to its credit, one stands out the most – being the first lifestyle-SUV to be made in the country, one that truly showcased what reclaiming life was all about. Getting out there, living life, taking the road less travelled, accepting a tough week at the office because the weekend offered enough adventures, that was what the Safari represented. So there I was on a long weekend drive to the back of beyond, a private wildlife sanctuary on the outskirts of Brahmagiri wildlife sanctuary, reclaiming my life, one weekend at a time.

We started off from Pune at 4am, got on to the Pune-Bangalore highway and were crossing Kolhapur in a little over three hours. The Safari Storme we were driving was the VARICOR 400, the one with the upgraded turbocharger. It makes 400Nm of torque, 80 more than the normal Safari and this makes it an awesome mile muncher. The new six-speed gearbox is great for highway cruising, especially due to its deep torque reserves. This revised engine-gearbox combination will also be seen in the Hexa crossover soon. The Safari eats potholes for breakfast and speedbreakers for dessert so we were able to maintain a fast pace all through. We covered 950km in about 14 hours to get to our stay for the night at Gonikoppal in the Kodagu district, an hour away from the SAI sanctuary. The ample space and comfortable seats, and all the modern equipment you need like Bluetooth connectivity, parking sensors, a good quality music system, and even auxiliary lights and a roof rack, the Storme gets it all. Especially the roof rack and the extra set of lights make it just right for a jungle safari like the one we were about to commence.

I drive through a dirt road on the other side of a modest entrance to the high-pitched sounds of a cicada, the loudest insect in the world. It produces sounds at over 100 decibels, loud enough to drown the noise of broken twigs and unsettled gravel as we get to the front porch of a quaint bungalow nestled in the shade of tropical rainforest. Pamela welcomes us and guides us to the back of the house with an “Enjoy the view, I’ll be back in a minute”. And then our jaws drop.

Varun runs down the steps with his camera, to the bank of the Podanni river (a tributary to the Barapole river) for photographs. I close my eyes for a minute and listen to the sound of water cascading downstream between thick foliage on both sides. It is therapeutic. Soon enough Pamela greets me with a pleasant smile and shows me around the house-with-a-view. Pamela and her husband Dr A K Malhotra live inside SAI Sanctuary, a private wildlife sanctuary they bought in the early nineties to save the rainforest. The couple bought 55 acres of land adjacent to coffee plantations that had been encroaching in to the forest, cutting trees and planting coffee. The rate at which the forest cover was depleting and the coffee plantations were increasing had an adverse effect on the region’s rainfall and the lack of rain hampered the growth of coffee too. So a lot of the plantation land was bought by the couple and reclaimed in to the forest. Now, from 55 acres, the sanctuary has grown to 300 acres.

SAI (Save Animals Initiative) sanctuary is a trust led by the couple. The sanctuary aims at acquiring forest lands, protecting and reclaiming it. They also rescue, rehabilitate and reintroduce wildlife back in to their natural habitat. While Pamela talks to me about what the Trust does, she opens a back gate to the river bank and you can see a large deep water hole. “In the summer months a herd of 15 elephants come here for a swim. They are thankfully comfortable with my presence and let me photograph them”, says Pamela. Right behind the house, a herd of elephants taking a dip in the river… not sentences you hear people often say.

We go for a drive in the Safari Storme 4×4 around the property where the SUV’s 4-Low is brought in to action. The trails inside start off as simple mud tracks but as we go deeper, the Storme’s high ground clearance and surge of torque in 4WD-low is ample to crawl over the small rocks we encounter. The route gets rocky and leads in to the river that we saw flowing in front of the house. The brilliant second storey seating position makes it easy to gauge the treacherous terrain so I don’t need anyone to spot for me. The river is shallow enough to cross if we can avoid stopping midway as the loose gravel bed would otherwise grab hold of the tyres. The Safari’s ground clearance and momentum takes us easily to the other side, a comfortable second gear crawl through a foot and a half of water. I remember Pamela warning me to get gum boots when we spoke over the phone. They weren’t for the river. The water is so clean there, you can walk barefoot. But as you cross it, the abundant leeches in the forest will find you. As we found out, despite the boots, a few of them had supper on our feet. We joked about giving back to nature on our way to the other side of the sanctuary.

Since the sanctuary allows wildlife to thrive without the threat of poachers and illegal loggers and keeps human interaction to a minimum, the number of species visiting the sanctuary has increased over the years. What happened in the past is that the balance of the food chain was skewed. Slowly even predators started coming to the sanctuary. Camera traps show a leopard strolling in this area and even a pack of dholes, the Indian wild dog, known for their wolf-like pack attack instincts. They restore the balance in the ecosystem. Even the magnificent sambar deer thrive in this sanctuary. Pamela shared a story of another day, when she saw one with its antlers at full growth. Butterflies, birds, reptiles; all find sanctuary in a thriving rainforest.

Pamela was born in New Jersey, met her Indian husband in the US and stayed in the rainforests of Hawaii before the couple discovered this part of the country. It was almost a call for help than anything else, and the couple moved here. The sanctuary is 26 years old now and with the help of a small group of locals, she maintains the sanctuary and increases awareness on the importance of the forest to the welfare of the surrounding areas.

The sanctuary has cottages for eco-tourists too. You can come here and spend a few days away from civilization, bask in nature, watch some majestic animals in their natural habitat and just explore the hidden adventurer in you. It certainly is a life worth living.

Pamela is literally living a reclaimed life, giving back to the land that offers us so much. That is what we had set out to do with the Safari. And this place, driving through the forest, crossing the rivers, listening to the bird calls, the sounds of the forest, seeing the wildlife thrive; all with the the rugged 4X4 Safari, will help you rejuvenate and reclaim your life.