A THREE SECOND RAINBOW

 
800ft above sea level nestled between the  willowy mountains of Anaimalai, Top Slip  presented us a beautiful promise of get-away  from the eternal hustle-bustle of the tough  Bangalore life.

We planned a 3 day trip starting a Friday night  to Pollachi. Vivek, a native of Pollachi and a  wildlife enthusiast, arranged all our  accommodation through his many contacts and  opened us, to a unique opportunity to  experience the forests of Top-Slip first hand.

Annaimalais , a chain in the western ghats  abruptly stops to open into the plains that surround Pollachi. They form the link in the  Nilgiri bio-sphere thus home to the endemic  species, the Vulnerable- Nilgiri Langur,  Endangered- Lion Tailed Macaque, Malabar Trogon,  Sri Lankan Frogmouth etc., that  are unique to this habitat.

Threats to Melagiri forests

A strong odour of cattle dung hit us even before our eyes caught sight of it littered everywhere like shopping freaks in Bangalore's Mall. And here we were  in the middle of a thick scrub jungle come to do a census on the flora and fauna of the Hosur Forests also called as Melagiris. Kenneth Anderson Nature  Society together with Asian Nature Conservation Foundation have taken up several surveys in this region that spreads over an area of almost 1200 sq kms  containing a mix of several vegetation but mainly abounded by the dry scrub forest to study these forests and restore the region back to its original state.

A night at Rasimanal Watchtower

The last of the ground survey by KANS winded up at Rasimanal. Here is an account of the most wonderful time of my life..

Rasimanal Forest Guest house is around 2 hours drive from Anchetty. The narrow roads sneak up the hills and at one point gave a awe inspiring view of the valley. Tiny villages with hardly around 100-150 families have sprung up all along the way.

I tasted the most refreshing coffee and tea at a tea shop on the way that boasted a very interesting water heater, though I would say it was simply the lower part of water filter set up on a stove! The swooshing movement of mixing up the beverage with milk and water by the owner was worth filming!

 We waited at the last hamlet for the forest guard (who incidentally never turned up) for the guest house keys. When the waiting became intolerable a few of us started walking along the jungle path for birding, a few of the locals began telling me no to go any further as elephants frequented the path beyond the farm.  I would have loved to see some. As fate could have its last laugh I was again denied the elephant encounters. The heat of the afternoon gave way to the soothing evening breeze and my troop giving up the hope of the guest house keys collected the rest of the wandering gang and started moving towards RasiManal. Rasimanal belongs to the Anchetty range and here the Cauvery and Dodhalla meet up and continue their way into Tamil Nadu. With the pre-monsoon showers Cauvery had indeed swollen and was gushing away noisily.

Wildlife Tourism

With the ongoing debate on Tourism people are voicing opinions for and against tourism in the Core Tiger zones. I wholeheartedly agree with the Wildlife enthusiasts that Tourism is not the solution to keep the tigers alive nor do they keep away poachers. And yet you give all the reasons why this must not be done somehow some rich guy will put enough pressure politically or financially and tilt the law to his side. I am not meaning to comment like this as a final act of giving up, No sir! If we can push things and get another few 100 years for the tigers we would keep doing that.

I was thinking just for the sake of finding some solution to this tourism racket for myself. How to keep off the folks who come purely for fun who have no respect for nature and wildlife? How to filter?

And then it struck me why not take away the luxury factor out of the tourism equation in the NPs, Sanctuaries, RF etc.,? After all if they want to experience luxury let them go to the cities and book those 5 stars for heaven's sake! Why do you need 3-4 varieties of food, cozy bed, television, fan, electricity in the jungles? If you have come to experience jungles do it the jungle way! what is the fun after all if you live here like you live it cities? Give them a bed on the ground, just a single toilet and bathroom, plain rice-dal, no electricity and voila! the resulting tourists are the ones that deeply care about the wildlife enough to for-go the modern day comforts to experience wildlife first hand.

Ya, I know Tourism is a booming business and they are the major stakeholders in Indian economy and that their tentacles have reached our core areas, but I hope with all my heart someday we will be able to bring down these resorts and man will be able to experience wild the right way, the forgotten way!

Melagiri

A troop of five people descend down the narrow trail juggling their glances between the sky to look out for birds, the trail to look out for scat and pug marks and everywhere else to soak in the heavenly view of the towering hills all around. The call of the Common Hawk Cuckoo also called the Brain Fever Bird reverberates all around.

We are the members of a Kenneth Anderson Nature Society, named after the erstwhile legendary hunter turned conversationalist Kenneth Anderson who roamed these very forests of Melagiri. The Melagiris are a range of hills on the Eastern Ghats, bound by the river Cauvery on the west. The total reserve forest area is around 1295 sq. kms. Inspired by the stories of Anderson the first KANS members ventured into these forests to feel the wild in first person. Over the years however the forests have been infiltrated by the locals for cattle grazing and to obtain the forest produce. The reserved forests are shrinking at the rapidly encroaching agricultural lands , the fauna disappearing by the unrestrained poaching activities.

KANS decided to take on the task of securing this habitat for the Tiger, to restore the region back to its original state.This is being achieved through a mix of passive and active conservation activities like community interaction programmes (afforestation, educational programmes, alternative agricultural practices), equipping the ground forest staff (uniforms, torches), field work to control Man-Elephant conflict, removal of invasive species etc.

Forest Fires

The first learning during my stay at Bandipur during the 3rd week of March was Forest Fires. I was under the impression  that Forest fires were caused mainly due to dry boughs rubbing  against each other (taking into consideration a large amount of  dry dead leaves littering the forest floor) , due to  lightning during storms and sometimes by man. I was in for a  rude shock when I came to know that all forest fires in India  were caused by Man!

We are so much influenced by American way of life through the  medium of television, that we know a lot more about their wildlife  than our native species, we know the emu and the ostrich than  the Bustard, we know about the cougar more than we know about  our panthers, we know a lot more about African elephants than  about their Asian cousins and so also I was under the impression  about forest fires through natural causes through the widely  televised events shown in TVs about the fires in US.

Indian forests are mostly deciduous type . Even  during the driest season they contain enough moisture to rule  out fire due to natural causes. Unfortunately the same cannot be  told about the invasive species -lantana, eucalyptus and the Australian wattle which the government has planted everywhere to  suck out the underground water, to wipe out the native species  and thus deny the herbivores that depend on them for food, and  hence to go extinction ( the introduced species neither provide  good shelter nor do they provide fodder) and to support fire to  spread easily  (these trees are so dry and the leaves litter do  not decompose fast and contain oil thus encouraging fire). Of  course that wasn't their idea, their logic seemed to simply rotate  around the fast growing nature of these trees. How could the  govt without a scientific analysis on the impact from these  trees to the native environment do mass planting everywhere ? why  do they still continue doing so even after the impact is so  visible and screamed out loud by the scientific community?

Our forests are fragile. Every successive fires caused  accidentally or deliberately by people living within and the  fringes of the forest areas inadvertently causes irreversible  damages to the ecosystem. Fires bring down century old trees  that are destroyed beyond repair and encourage rampant lantana  growth in the successive rainy season. Not to mention the  animals that perish in the fires. Bandipur this Summer saw fires  breaking out all around. The concerned forest authorities were  helpless. They lack resources to control and prevent fires. They  lack man-power and motivation. True they don't take steps to  secure but dare I point at them? Isn't it true that the number  of forest watchers and guards are at their record low? That  there haven been any new permanent posting, the govt happy to  appoint guards on contract basis and pay them poorly.

So, what is the solution? Encourage forestation with native  species. Check the growth of lantanas. Educate the tribal and  villages encircling the forests about the menace of forest fires  and steps they must take to prevent accidental fires. Educate  tourists on the same lines. Post more guards and watchers. Raise  their salaries to the level of hawaldars in the civil dept.  Provide them with equipments to control fire in case of forest  fires. Its a big task ahead of us. Educating the masses ,  mobilizing them to protect this rare treasure that's in our  hands.

Konehalli Farm Episode

In the damp cold wind;

After a shower of rains;

The landscape purely sedated with life;

Tender green shoots and myriad blooms shooting everywhere;

Miles and miles a golden green haze spread;

Birds chirping the joy of life;

Far away a Black buck majestically trots away.

On these rocks where the wolves gather,

And claim the night,

I feel profoundly at rest.