A Vanishing Shola

Sharp naked rock

Jutting onwards to the heavens
In defiance of the Earth the ghats rise
Cradling within it innumerable beings
Carved into a niche of their own

A meandering river and  vanishing grasslands
 becoming one with the distant horizon
A green blue ocean of a  remaining virgin Shola stretches
A thin wind lashing against the peak
Whistles the mournful tune of an aching forest

The pine casts an unearthly shadow
Its ground laden with slippery leaves and hardy cones
holds not a blade of grass

The wattles and the eucalyptus have established their hold
Aided by man, their legions expands
The Shola trees are vanishing
leaving behind the king and his denizens
battling the deathly hug of the wattles

The sweet smelling forests of Thally

I have always felt a pull towards the dry deciduous and the scrub forests, the heat, the stunted trees, the amount of thorns, the looks of a bad bad west!, the surprise of life scurrying away at every corner. Thally forests fall into this category of scrub forests, it was love at first sight alright!

I got selected to the Javalagiri range as range coordinator from KANS during the Mammal Survey conducted by the Tamilnadu forest department at Hosur Forest Division during a hot weekend of March. I walked the South Thally beat with the most honest forest guard I have ever had the privilege to meet, Sivasubramaniam who had won the best guard award by the department. We spoke in a broken English and exchanged a lot of news.

The forests of Thally like elsewhere in the Melagiris are reeling under the tell-tale signs of encroachment, extensive cattle grazing, firewood collection, undergrowth clearance by fire. Surprisingly, these fires which I could observe at many places were controlled fire, meant to encourage growth of grass for cattle and also sometimes to snare the hare when they come to nibble on the fresh new grass. It was indeed depressing to witness the degeneration of these beautiful forests. I came across cattle grazers with goat inter-spread with sheep (Grazing goat in the reserves is illegal since they eat away the tender new shoots and stop regeneration),Illegal sand mining, Illegal fire wood collectors with scythes, Mr Sivasubramaniam promptly caught hold of them and seized the scythes. (we had to release it to them anyway, they unrelentingly followed us and our survey was under the danger of their disturbance.

On a positive note despite all the disturbances a few ungulates have managed to survive escaping the poachers, we noted a few hoof marks of the guar, pug marks  that stood told us a healthy pack of wild dogs busy hunting a while ago, jungle fowl, elephants. Sadly the last of leopards have left these forest.

The direst evidence survey yielded nothing in my charts. Even the most exciting, water hole count on a pond on the foothills of Devarabetta failed to mark a positive presence. However on the final day of doing a dung count via line transect we walked way up that gave a wonderful view of the entire Thally valley and left our finishing lines under the shades of most sweet smelling flowers I have ever known. The Jalri trees (Styrax species, also called Sambrani in Kannada) flower only once  a year. Shivaratri coincides its flowering and the hills are ablaze with its sweet smell lingering  profusely.

I left the Thally forests with a heavy heart and wondering if the measures by the FD to build a solid Elephant proof trench and Solar fencing might bring some relief after all.

photo credits: Shilpa Narayanan

The yellow pansy

I visited Uganiyam on the last weekend of 2010. We  travelled on bikes anticipating a really bad road that could either break our back or spare us with a few scratches.

 We had very little time since we entered the range at around 2pm, we hurried through on the loose gravel road where the 2 bikers admirably made it through albeit a few scratches each.

As we made our way, I had a chance glimpse of this buttefly, at first glance seemed to be like a danaid but whose spots were yellow. I dared not stop the bike, which would have meant us surely sliding headlong into the steep road. I was trying to figure out if I know this one, when a second butterfly caught my eye with the self same yellow, and then it opened its wings and took my breathe away, there at the bottom of its upper fore wing, on both sides lay a  blue spot like pupils. That was my first ever encounter with a yellow pansy.

For more details on this butterfly check - http://www.naturemagics.com/butterfly/precis-hierta.shtm

BUTTERFLYing at Anshi

The 340 square kilometer National park adjoins the Dandeli wildlife sanctuary and are together called Anshi-Dandeli Tiger reserve. It is situated in the North Western Ghats montane rain forests and moist deciduous forests eco-regions. The forest in this area was declared  Dandeli wildlife sanctuary in 1956. Subsequently, Anshi national park was carved out of this in 1987. Anshi and Dandeli were granted the status of Project Tiger sanctuaries in 2007.

Wildlife week celebration by KANS in Hosur Forest Division

Day 01, 09/10/2010 - Nature Camp

As part of the wildlife week festivities, KANS conducted a nature camp for the students of Sishya and Titan School, Hosur at Aiyur eco-awareness camp.

The idea behind conducting this camp was to bring into sharp focus of the students the area of Melagiri, its history, diversity and to bring into them a sense of responsibility to protect this 1480 sq km area of forest cover falling into Krishnagiri district.

The students, a total of 10 each from the 2 schools were picked up from the Sishya School. On reaching Aiyur they were immediately taken to a short walk on the road leading to the Samieri lake from the camp. During the walk the students were made to listen to the various sounds of the forest and appreciate the diversity of creature that have made these forests their home. The students were briefed about spiders, birds, trees and the various animals that are found.

THE GOD THAT LIVES IN THE FOREST

Whether the temple sustained the forests around it or the forests welcome the temple within them has long been a raging debate. But, it is also true that there are instances where the  forests have completely degenerated or disappeared around some of these temples.

 I had the opportunity to visit the temple Sorimuthayan with the Atree team who has been working in the KMTR region for quite a  while now. The festival that attracts a crowd of whooping 5lakh  pilgrims (tourists) for almost a period of 10 days leaves  tell-tale signs of post festival debris and other effects that would  take the forests a long time to recover from. The festival has  been celebrated by the villages that were under the Singampatti  Raja for around 150 years now. What was a earlier a crowd of  5000 has now blown out into 5 lakh attendees, with more and more  villages adopting Sorimuthayan as their family God. Families camp  inside the forests clearing the forest cover to put temporary  tents for a period of 10 days bringing along with them food  packets wrapped inside plastic bags, and a variety of other  items that gets discarded inside the forest.

SUSTAINABILITY OF THE FARMING PRACTICES, AND MAN-ANIMAL CONFLICT, IN KANI TRIBES OF MUNDANTHURAI PLATEAU

 I spent a good amount of a week weaving in and out  of Kani Settlements in Mundathurai Tiger Reserve  in Tamil Nadu as part of field work and project  execution of the 15 day course on Conservation  Science conducted by Atree. A project submission  together with a Full blown report and Power Point  presentation was mandatory to successfully complete the course. Me and Pradeep Kuttava teamed  together to make a mini project of finding if  Kani Tribe practiced sustainable way of living in the  Mundanthurai plateau. We picked up this project  since both of us lacked the scientific knowledge  to do more prospective projects that directly  dealt with environment and species. You can find  the report and PPT at these locations.