Day 7 - Experiencing Dehing Patkai

7th October 6am

We were originally to check out of Namdang in the morning, but the plan changed to an afternoon check out.  So it was a more relaxed morning start, meaning there was no need to pack and take our bags down.  We headed for the Suraipong range of this relatively newer National Park, I think from the Digboi Duliajan Road.

It was a beautiful morning, and the road was so picturesque, with lovely lily ponds and tall trees.

Before we reached the Park, Probinda brought the vehicles to a halt as he had spotted a family of Gibbons up on the kadamba tree, by the roadside.  What a lovely sighting.  And I remembered seeing them on the outskirts of Kaziranga as well.  We had also heard a couple of troops calling to each other on the Tiwarigaon road, in the Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary and also seen them brachiating at a distance.  Today, we saw them close enough to see their features, their eyebrows and their behaviour.  Their calls are a characteristic part of the NE forests.

The pictures taken of the Gibbons by Meera and Ramesh are in the main trip report.  We craned our necks as they were high in the canopy, hidden by the thick foliage.  The male was busy contemplating a Cadamba fruit in one hand, the female was keeping an eye on us.  Our excited murmurs and come here, go there caused one of them to brachiate upwards and inside.  Then someone saw the baby near the mother.

Probin had mentioned that the Gibbon males feed after the females and children finish.  Couples are monogamous, and they seem rather gentle and shy.

Photo by Ravi of the male gibbon contemplating the fruit.  Probin mentioned that they are very neat eaters, feeding gently and finishing off the fruit, rather than the messy eaters that Macaques generally are.

The forests and the land and the trees are their homes, and these sensitive creatures are under stress because of our activities.

This essay from Mongabay elaborates on their fragility.

"As an exclusively arboreal species that requires contiguous, closed-canopy forests for survival, the hoolock gibbon is particularly vulnerable to the massive ongoing deforestation across northeastern India.

“When a contiguous habitat is reduced to scattered smaller fragments, they become ‘habitat islands’ in an inhospitable sea of degraded habitat,” said Sharma. These conditions can lead to inbreeding, he adds. “The resultant offspring are often weak, sometimes sterile or may have little reproductive fitness.”

Hoolock gibbons rarely move between forest fragments; they may refuse to cross gaps even as small as 200 meters. On top of that, they’re extremely picky about their food, and a restricted home range means limited food options.

Wildlife biologist Kashmira Kakati, whose doctoral research at the University of Cambridge was on Assam’s hoolock gibbons, recalls a gibbon family she observed during her fieldwork. “An entire portion of their home range became inaccessible via the canopy because a single connecting tree was felled,” she says. “I witnessed severely emaciated juvenile gibbons — a phenomenon that occurs when they’ve to feed on leaves for prolonged periods in the absence of fruits.”"

The essay goes on to say that even the Mishmi Gibbons whom we encountered on our walks in Mehao Wildlife Sanctuary are under threat from "illegal logging, land encroachment and expansion of agriculture, notably oil palm cultivation."  Oil palm cultivation, in the NE!  How can planners be so visionless I wonder.

635 am and we see a board that says 6km to the entrance of the sanctuary - the Suraipong range.

However, there was still a roadblock, quite literally to cross. Efforts to move it failed and it was finally cut.  The drivers all banding together and taking turns with the "aruvaal".  

We walked on in the meanwhile - not that we went far - since every step led a discovery.  

Like this Crested Goshawk which I thought was a Kestrel.  Photo by Ravi

Anyways we meandered on and reached the entrance, and it was close to 8am already.  The original idea was to be in by 630, and do a short and quick walk, and return for breakfast to the entrance, and then head out again for a walk.

So, we started with breakfast then - sandwiches and boiled eggs and bananas - before moving on to our walk.

Photo by Gayathree.  Leech socks, water, binocs...and armed guards at the front and rear.  Supposedly there was an elephant that did not like humans much roaming these parts.  (I don't blame the elephant actually - not much to like about our species.)

Dehing Patkai, under threat from oil fires quite recently, was a name, a remote and wild place, and now here I was walking through it.  Yuvan had been a moving force in the #SaveDehingPatkai movement in Chennai, and it was a relief to note that the planned coal mining has been stalled, for the moment at least.

One of the few remaining rainforests and situated on the banks of the Dehing river, the forest also is in close proximity to the oil mining areas of Digboi.  In fact we saw some closed oil wells as well, as we walked by.  The condensation from oil pipes are subject to theft, and the leaks can lead to fires and flares.

As we walked through in humid and hot conditions, I was struck by the dipterocarps that broke though out of the canopy and formed the overstory.

Mushrooms of different shapes and sizes were everywhere.

A pair of great hornbills flew overhead.  The forest resounded with the temple bell sound of the green cicadas.  Soon, the MNS groups was strung across a wide swathe, despite the early admonitions to stay together.  Arun, Sekar, Ramesh and Arjun had marched ahead along with one armed guard - they were the leading pack.  I was in the middle examining the undergrowth and leaf litter, and exclaiming at every bloom and the beautiful dry leaves.

Dipterocarp seeds on the forest floor, 

as also Hingori, chestnut seeds, 

and were these wild balsam?

Bringing up the rear were Yuvan and co, as they photographed butterflies, herbs, fungi and tried to id the trees.

At some point the decision was made to turn back.  I was worried - no sign of Sekar, where had he reached?  (He usually marches along at a merry pace while I dawdle and malinger).  Anyways a guard was sent to call the leading pack back- the message being that we were returning and they were to turn back. 

We hung around and chatted, waiting for them to return.  Pralay of Help Tourism telling us about all the other spots from Siliguri which we definitely should visit.  

After a length of time, still no sign of the returning troops, Vijay gets restive and begins to mutter and pace.  Finally, Sekar, Arjun and Ramesh return, sans Arun.  Supposedly the message conveyed at the other end was that you guys are too old to make this trip, so let's return!  Chinese Whispers to the power of N!!

And so we dawdled back and into the cars, met up with the local children, and went back to Namdang for a rather nice lunch with excellent Baingan bharta filled with chillies and otenga curry.  The plan was to check out, land our luggage into the cars and then head back to Dehing, and then move on to Tinsukhia.

We headed back to Dehing and walked along the outer road where the guards were not required.

I gasped upon seeing the Sultan Tits - goodness what colours.  A lifer for me.  They were like flashes of sunshine in the canopy, flitting about here and there.  I could not get enough of them, and also it was a challenge to see the whole bird as they moved so quickly and the canopy was so thick.  

Probin then took us down a  path where the Trogon is usually sighted.  We were shushed and excited.  It was sighted through the canopy!  Shh - there's the head - can you see that long tail, wait wait come here, you can see the full bird.  We strained and peered and finally, all of us in that group managed to piece the bird together, bit by bit!

And then we went and excitedly told the others when Yuvan shared this picture.

Red headed Trogon - Pic by Yuvan.  The bird gave him a good Darshan, sitting on the branch out in the open.  How blessed he was!  Harpactes erythrocephalus - another lifer for me.

And he also saw the Khalij Pheasant as did several others, but not me.

Another group had wandered down a third path where they were accosted by what looked like some guards - not Forest - who wanted to know their precedents and antecedents.  And so they left from that road.

The sun was beginning to set, and we set out from Dehing to Tinsukhia.

The last rays of the day were catching the tops of the Dipterocarps

and there was this lovely glow on the bucolic scenery. Everything looked so idyllic, even as I realised that there are hardships and tensions aplenty. 

The legendary Margherita as well.

630 pm - we were checked in at the Aroma Residency, and welcomed with some hot tea and biscuits,

and a Rhino matchbox

to boot!

More rain, Maguri Beel and Dibru Saikhowa awaited us.

A limerick ode to Purple Rain

A tree stands, hungover,
wanting, it seems, to be here
moreover.

Syzygium cumini
Branches untidy
Fruits aplenty.

Drops purple squish, in season
beyond belief and reason.
Ignored by birds, bees and humans
and watching it go waste, such treason.

I try to pick them off the floor

but alway the grit is more.

Damaged and bruised are they by the fall.

I need a net, to catch them all!

Thanks to my faithful reader Sagarika

From the land of Jambudvipa

through these lines I proclaim-a

the plentiful and wild, purple rain-a.

Nature walking

 7th July 2022

WhatsApp conversation with G3.

She:  need to see you.
Me:  Am at mum's,  come anytime.
She: ok.  Tomorrow morning?

Me:  Sure!  

She: 545am?

Me:  Whaaat?  No no...Finish your walk and come, no hurry.

She:  LOL!  Ok 6am - for you.  Come, lets explore estuary!  Send address, will pick you.

Me:  (Pleading) - 630pl?

She - Che(with her trademark duck)  - ok 615! 

 8th July 2022

She sends a reminder at 545 that she's coming shortly.  I am saying wait, I have to have coffee, wear shoes....

Thank you G3, for hustling me into the walk, which I thoroughly enjoyed, along with the giggles over God Knows what!

A herd of buffaloes crossed by lazily, reminding us of Yama and a fancy dress competition where G3's classmate came as Yama, astride a buffalo, if you please.  (yes she brought along the buffalo's owner too!)

The scrub was full of bird call.  Ashy Prinias loudly called from atop the highest branches and flicked their tails.  White-browed bulbuls gurgled incessantly within the scrub.  A couple of green beeeaters hawked.  A Francolin's call pierced he air.  A drongo swooped as it caught the dragonflies that hovered.  In the distance I heard the call of the Laughing Dove, even as there was a screechy flypast of parakeets.  Now neither of us had binoculars, and we only had cellphones.  So we enjoyed the sounds and sights and wondered if that brown bird was a Jerdon's bush lark and was that a Jacobin's cuckoo?  A group of ladies were binocularing into the bushes - peering at what they hoped was a pair of Ioras - but no luck.

We wandered onto the sand.  The tide was receding and we walked and explored the shells among the plastic waste thrown back by the sea.

I found a clean patch of sand, water and shells!  Photograph-worthy indeed.  It was a lovely cloudy day, with a beautiful breeze blowing across.

Among the bonnet shells, clams, bivalves and tower shells was this unusual one - the shell of an Ark clam, I was told later.

Arca zebra - Rohith opined.  What beautiful colours!  Wiki says this is called Turkey Wing clam, after the colouring which resembles the wings of a turkey.  Hmm really?

The insides of it.  I loved the hinge of the mollusc that still opened and shut.  The shell housed a filter feeding, hermaphrodite shallow water mollusc, now long gone.  Dead.

https://www.sealifebase.ca/summary/Arca-zebra.html

"Diagnostic features: Shell rectangular, elongate (twice as long as wide), equivalve. Sculpture of about 20 to 30 irregular radial ribs, and fine concentric threads that cross-ribs and interspaces. Byssal gap present opposite to hinge, moderately narrow. Hinge long. Colour: creamy white, streaked with reddish to dark brown wavy bands. Periostracum brown and dense on fresh shells, covering colour pattern almost completely "

Seemed to fit perfectly for this shell.  The only problem with this id is that the mollusc is found of the eastern coast of the Americas.  Hmmm

As we walked through the TS, we argued whether a bush was the idlypoo ixora or not.  The estuary side was all cleared up - but the only water birds we saw in large numbers were little egrets.

A Brown land crab fixed us with a stare - the only one that didn't scurry into its hole.  He must be an outlier, a leader I thought to myself. Large fellow.

We admired the cacti, putting out flowers, the lotus pond with the full lotus lifecycle - bud, bloom, unfertilised seed case and fertilised - all gyaan picked up from G3, our Green Goddess Walking Encyclopaedia!

The mighty baobab was flowering and fruiting.  What an amazing tree it is.  Every time I see it, I wonder at it - the size of its trunk, the magnificence of its branches.  I learnt a new term - Pachycauls - trees with disproportionately stout trunks.

We spoke about the ideals of the Theosophical movement and how they were relevant even today - yeah along with the giggles there were some serious discussions too.  I almost missed the rat snake that slithered into the undergrowth, spotted by G3 - me as usual watching the sky and clouds.  It was a large and magnificent specimen.

And so ended my lovely morning as the coucal flew across our paths and the sunbirds flitted above.  Thanks G3 - appa would have been delighted to hear how he touched your lives, as was I.  He enjoyed taking amma to the TS, even though he was not much into "nature".  

The Mall, the Elms and the Ramble of Central Park

14th July 2019



Another morning walk in Central Park - this time the lower part of the Park, near the Mall.  I got a ride from Harlem down 5th Avenue to 67th from where I entered the park.  A sparrow on one of the benches greeted me with a chirp and was off in a trice.

The row of park benches were donated by various people in memory of their loved ones.  It reminded me of the cement benches on our Thiruvanmyur beach - similarly donated.

I saw this interesting statue and walked up to it.  Turned out to be a 1925 statue of a Siberian Husky called Balto, who was used to transport diphtheria vaccine in Alaska that year, thus saving many lives.  Good old Balto was present when the statue was erected - seems to be the only statue that came up when the person was alive!  Some celebrity indeed!  In the background is one of the old arches - Willowdell Arch

I meandered onto the Literary Walk or the Mall, lined by beautiful Elms as also statues of novelists and writers.  I did not stop to see the statues.  

But I did stop to stare at the Red-Tailed Hawk, high up in an American Elm!  There was much ado  in the bird world, as they flew around agitatedly trying to shoo the hawk off, but (s)he just sat unfazed and almost bored by all the commotion around.  It was obviously not Pale Male the celebrity Red Hawk, but could it be one of his female partners??

The American Elms (Ulmus americana) with their twisting branches were a beautiful sight.  

I learnt that they have shallow root systems that get get damaged with people walking around their roots, or if the soil is compacted.  So the trees were all fenced off.  Wonderful to see the trees regarded as "Living Treasures".  

As I wandered along trying to make my way to the Ramble, I was a bit bemused by the sudden appearance of this somewhat old-world European fountain in the middle of all those trees and arches.   I learned that I had wandered into the Bethesda Terrace.

I wondered why this was called "Bethesda"?  After the biblical pool?

At the centre of the fountain, was one of those angel statues I did not pay much attention to.  But the Central Park Conservancy page has some interesting historical jottings on it.

More importantly and more regretfully, I seem to have walked above the Arcade area below, which had beautiful Minton tiles, all restored now.  I did not see them.

Instead, I made my way across Bow Bridge, that crosses the Lake.  It was a lovely sunny day, and the bridge was filled with people taking in the view and the sunshine.

Oh and wait, a bunch of birders as well.  Seems like I had run into a tour with Birding Bob.  We had a brief chat, (about India, the Himalayas and the Western Ghats if you please), and he was off like a whirlwind with his group.

And how appropriate was it for the wanderer from Madras Ramblings to be at the Ramble?!  36 acres of tree-lined paths winding this way and that.  

Quite easy to lose your way, and of course yours truly was lost many a time. But it just meant some extra wandering which was quite alright.

A Canada goose also wandered and rambled and foraged around.

Up and down roughly hewn steps, via a little stream....it seemed that one could explore endlessly here.

Turning a corner, I stopped abruptly.  An American Robin was enjoying the peace and quiet.

And then was the chap who sat and fed the birds. Looks like he does it every day.  He had settled himself under one of those large umbrellas and armed with bird seed spends many an hour, he said.  Birders come and go, watching the sparrows and Blue Jays and Catbirds.  He said I had just missed the cardinals and blackbirds.

It was close to noon, and definitely time to head back.

Past the beautiful trees of Harlem Meer...

... and a sunbathing turtle.... 

....a squirrel in the shadows, and then out onto the Duke Ellington circle.

And a blaze of pinks from the apartment flower bed, their pink reminding me of the bougainvillea of Chennai.

The North Woods

5th July 2019

Another New York morning, and I set out to walk through yet another part of Central Park.

North Woods - some 40 acres of forested area, with a natural stream - Montayne's Rivulet - flowing through it.

A favourite of dog owners and runners, it seemed, as I walked through, taking in the sounds of the water, the Robins in the trees and everywhere, the crunch of dry leaves and the squelch of the wet ones.

The magnificent oaks were all with new leaf.  Right now, I'm guessing this one is a beautiful russet colour.

A rocky ravine with a stream, little pools and waterfalls is the central feature, and with little bridges to crossover, it really is idyllic and peaceful.

These bushes (Lace Cap Hydrangea i think) lined the pathways on either side of the stream, and I have not been able to figure what they are.  

The Park leaves fallen trees (like this one) as they are - well for the most part I guess.

Lizard's Tail - Saururus cernuus - another widespread bush

And these lovely archways you can go through.  It seemed that I could wander a whole year and still not cover every pathway.

The light streamed through the trees, making for a beautiful view...I was not the only one who thought so.

The stream tumbled over another jumble of rocks.  And there were many American Robins which would rest on the rocks, in the sun and fly off and return.  

The stream also wandered with me under the Glen Span Arch.  And there were a few swimming tortoises here.

Emerging from under the bridge, I bumped into one of the many Rangers with his electric cart.  They do an amazing job, keeping the park clean, safe and helping visitors.  

I emerged into an area just called "The Pool".    

Rather algal at the moment I went.  I dont know if it meant it was not in great shape, or whether it was a time of year thing.

There were beautiful trees all around, of which I recognised only the weeping willow, on the left.  

I read later that a major tree mapping project of the Park was done and all species and their locations are mapped.

A lone Mallard? stood on one leg surveying the scene.  As I watched it pirouetted on the leg and as soon facing the other direction!

The sun was up, my stomach demanded breakfast, and I headed back to Harlem, passing these Bottlebrush Buckeye catching the sun.