Trip to Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary, Sambalpur,Odisha

Last year during our annual visit to Orissa, we decided to explore lesser known places. Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary situated in Sambalpur, Orissa caught our attention. Located 40 Kms from Sambalpur adjacent to the waters of the Hirakud Reservoir, this Sanctuary has two reserve forests i.e. Lohara and Debrigarh Reserve Forests.

We reached Sambalpur and next day morning drove down to the sanctuary. The early morning drive along the Hirakud reservoir was very nice. After taking permissions from at the forest check-post we started our journey…Being the summer season the forest wore a dry look with dry bamboos clumps dotting the forest line. Soon we spotted the Chital, Indian Peafowl and a herd of Indian Bison (Gaurs). You should plan to go in a Jeep or SUV as the roads are not motorable enough for cars.

We went to the watch tower along the banks of the Hirakud Reservoir and as we were moving back, we saw two sloth bears crossing the road behind us. We stopped to click some snaps, however they soon disappeared into the thickets.

It was getting hot and after exploring a bit more we decided to move to the Eco-tourism complex developed by the Forest Deptt. The place

was impressive and while we waited for the food, we did some birding activities to capture flower peckers, Oriental white eye, tree pie, red vented bulbul, drongo etc. It was getting hot and after having our lunch we moved back to Sambalpur.

You can visit the official website at http://debrigarh.org/

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