The Banjh Oaks of Sitlakhet, Vivekananda and Siyahi Devi

June 2018

My Youreka summer.  Endless stories and memories.  

Plastic-free landscapes

Night skies, stars, children staring in awe

The persistent call of the Black-headed Jay

Rain.  Hailstones thundering on the roof

Monkeys on the move

Mighty Trishul and Nanda Devi

Plums, pears, apricots, apples

And the oak groves.

The private estates were kept green and wooded with these Himalayan Oaks.  

Quercus leucotrichophora - the trees, their moist trunks and their canopies -
were at the centre of a whole ecosystem.

All around, any direction, would take you through these oak groves.  Sometimes so silent, I would almost instinctively still my breath and tread softy.

And sometimes, there would be a cacophony - the Jays calling overhead, the tits,
oriental white eyes, minivets in mixed hunting parties, darting from tree to tree.  Tree creepers
and nut hatches would be busy zipping up and down the trunks.

The paths were undisturbed carpets of oak leaves, with their characteristic serrated edges.

Looking up and the undersides of the leaves would be almost white, the reason this is also referred to as White Himalayan oak.  When the breeze blows across the valley, the trees would alternately appear dark green and white, rather pretty.
And, yes, there they were, those acorns that I had read about, the one that the Ice Age squirrel froze for!

And there they were on the ground as well, waiting to keep the grove replenished. Mighty oaks from little acorns grow.  indeed.

The Banjh or white oak, is abundant all through the hills of Uttarakhand at the lower levels, and is important for humans too.  Its one of those trees that will withstand lopping, and branches are constantly cut for fodder, fuel and for timber it appears.  The only problem this seems to create is the removal of too many acorns to allow for natural dispersion and regeneration.  As a result, these groves are now under stress, (sigh!), we take away more quickly and heavily than the grove can withstand.

It seems to be that the Chir Pines are outgrowing the Oaks in Uttarakhand, and this does cause a problem for species that are dependent upon oak.  From what I have read, the beautiful rufous-bellied niltava, which I saw on my first walk in the groves, is one such as is the white-throated laughing thrush, which I would hear noisily turning over the oak leaf litter, as it looked for grubs and insects.

Here is An annotated checklist of the birds of banj oak–chir pine forests in Kumaon, Uttarakhand

Climbing up the hill to the top of the ridge, I arrive at a "T" point.  I would come across the odd local, smiling and hurrying along as I sweated and made heavy weather of the steep slope.  Reaching the T point was a relief, because from then on it was a relative walk in the park, with stone walls separating farms and views down to the valleys below.  The hillside was stony here, and quite often I saw circling raptors above - once it was a magnificent Black Eagle that lazily circled, and I could see the tips of its wing feathers working like rudders, as it glided on the thermals.  Another day two crested serpent eagles circled and called, as a Great Barbet hurried by, and the farm dog barked at my intrusion.

I would stand and gaze down into the valley with a tinge of sadness.  Down below, the hills were completely deforested.
I mused on the sustainability of this development.  

Right through my stay, I did not get a clear view, and everyone around blamed the forest fires for this.  Some 2,000 hectares burned this summer, according to the government itself, so I wonder how much really was under fire, causing this level of murkiness.  

I learnt that the Forest Survey of India FSI has satellite information which now allows almost real-time alerts on forest fires.  And its up to the state governments to make use of this system I guess.

I digress.

I am walking up to the Siyahi Devi temple, the route all the way lined with the oak trees, and a good place to spot woodpeckers and Russet Sparrows;  

The path takes me to the village, with the primary school at one end, and the temple at the other.

The Siyahi Devi hamlet, dominated by the mobile phone tower, as a result of which everyone enjoyed 4G!

Looking down from the ridge - the haze is evident.

The mule train taking goods up and down.

The Primary School was in session and little toddlers were trickling in.

Farmlands

I did not get much of a background or history about the temple, but there seems to be one about the Devi and an eagle that is elaborated upon, in the Talking Myths website.  

And no, she is not the Goddess of Ink, but rather the Royal Goddess!
I loved the fact that one could wander around the temple, right into the sanctum,
 without being stopped by any purohit.

Devotees offer bells when their wishes are fulfilled.

At the north-western end of the temple is another gate, overlooking the Almora valley, and from where one can visit the Vivekananda caves and protected groves.  

Just beyond the temple gate.  In the background is the town of Almora in the valley below,  And the little red Shinto-like gate is the entry/exit into the beautiful wooded oak grove.

Small mandirs dot the protected grove

The sun was going down and the light through the trees was magical and ethereal.

This is what Vivekananda had to say about the Kumaon Himalayas:

"This is the land of dreams of our forefathers, in which was born Pârvati, the Mother of India. This is the holy land where every ardent soul in India wants to come at the end of its life, and to close the last chapter of its mortal career.
This is the land which, since my very childhood, I have been dreaming of passing my life in, and as all of you are aware, I have attempted again and again to live here; and although the time was not ripe, and I had work to do and was whirled outside of this holy place, yet it is the hope of my life to end my days somewhere in this Father of Mountains where Rishis lived, where philosophy was born … I sincerely pray and hope, and almost believe, that my last days will be spent here, of all places on earth. Inhabitants of this holy land, accept my gratitude for the kind praise that has fallen from you for my little work in the West….
As peak after peak of this Father of Mountains began to appear before my sight, all the propensities to work, that ferment that had been going on in my brain for years, seemed to quiet down, and instead of talking about what had been done and what was going to be done, the mind reverted to that one theme the Himalayas always teach us, that one theme which reverberates in the very atmosphere of the place — renunciation! The Himalayas stand for that renunciation.” (Extract  from: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 3/Lectures from Colombo to Almora ). 

It was a special place, that grove beyond the gates, and I hope I can visit again, to hear the wind whistling through the pines, the dry call of the black headed magpie, the crunch of the oak leaves under my feet.

More than anything else, I hope it remains, undisturbed and magical.  

The stately Chir pines at Sitlakhet

Pinus longifolia also called Pinus roxburghii

I could not get enough of this lower Himalayan pine.  And since it is named after the Scottish botanist William Roxburgh, who spent many a year in Madras, I shall ramble a bit about it.  He called it Pinus longifolia and it finds a place in his Flora Indica.  The Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew have a digitised version of the three volume compendium on India's flora, and these two pictures are from there.  It seems to be that he was reporting on the tree from his observation in Calcutta, rather than the Himalayas.



The bark is so characteristic, deep red and fissured, and whenever I had the opportunity I would kind of touch and feel it with wonder.

The tree is used by locals to extract resin and oil via these cuts which form a herringbone pattern

The needle-like leaves grow and fall in threes.  the cover of dry pine leaves on the forest floor discourage growth of other trees except the rhododendron and the banj oak, which is what I found around these trees.

It is the dominant species of the area, and is quick to recover and re-grow after the common and frequent summer forest fires.  When we drove up the hills in end May, we saw many forest fires, with the inner cores of these pine trees glowing and alight.  However, when we came down three weeks later in the middle of June, the frequent heavy rain showers had put all the fires out.

The undergrowth is rich with grasses and wildflowers which I have not yet identified.

Maybe some variety of Imperata

A glorious yellow that would catch your eye

These beautiful wildflowers were seen all over.

My eyes trace the trunk.
Blue skies above.

Roly poly puchi

Chetan dropped this into my hand while at the Yercaud camp this summer. No, its not a nut or fruit, but a roly poly puchi!  It was so tightly rolled up like one of those well-made cases that cannot be opened.

Leave it alone, and after a good 45 seconds, it slowly unfurls and becomes this.

Seems to be, this is a pill millipede, and not a pill bug.  The latter is actually a crustacean, and from what I read, my puchi seems to be a puchi only and therefore the former.  I may be wrong, may be right....

Thirteen body segments and they feed on dead matter from what I read.  So, not a pest, but one of those little ancient critters that quietly go about recycling decomposing plant matter.

How many push ups can you do?

I have been seeing a lot of rock agamas of late.  At Yercaud.

I have seen the males do push ups, as they occupy the highest rock, chase other males, and I also came across females digging holes really deep for the purpose of egg laying.

The videos below are of her digging exploits.

After she was done, she covered the hole and it was fascinating that the sight of the digging could not be detected, so well was it camouflaged.

Our human male gym show-off can be assured that his behaviour is no different from that of the rock agama, and is a deep evolutionary behaviour.  I shall treat it with less scorn and impatience from now on!

Why do rock lizards display varied behaviour?

Study provides rare evidence of why animal signals are relevant in nature

Aathira Perinchery

Lizards may perform comical push-ups, head bobs or suddenly transform from a stunning crimson body colour to a paler shade in just a few seconds, but this is no game. A recent study on male rock agamas published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution shows that such ‘signals’ advertise their quality to prospective mates and competitors.

An animal’s quality or ‘fitness’ — measured by how successfully it obtains mates and reproduces — is an important concept in evolution, showing how well an animal’s ‘strategy’ does in nature. So what do these males do to win females over?

Multiple signals

To find out, Shreekant Deodhar and Kavita Isvaran of Bengaluru’s Indian Institute of Science studied all behavioural and physical (changes in body colour) signals displayed by 41 wild male rock agamas throughout the lizards’ lifespan (for around 2.5 years) in Andhra Pradesh’s Rishi Valley. They found that males used multiple signals, including head bobs, push-ups and neck flap extensions. Males often used these traits all at once; the frequency of most of these traits increased with the number of females in the vicinity, suggesting that these signals — directed towards females — are maintained by female choice.

“These behaviours may help females judge a male’s quality quickly and more accurately,” says lead author Deodhar. “It is often [energetically] costly to display all these signals together, and if a male does this, it can indicate his quality.”

But there are costs to such flamboyance: it attracts predators and fellow competitors. The scientists found that most of these displays reduced in the presence of predators, proving that predation risk too played a role in the use of signals. Some colour-changing traits could be aimed at multiple receivers including competitors, but detailed experimental studies would be necessary to understand this better, says Isvaran.

Rare evidence

The team also quantified male ‘fitness’, which is usually extremely difficult to measure in the wild. Observing males throughout their lifetimes, Deodhar noted how many females each male had access to per day and ‘breeding tenures’, the time for which males occupied territories during the breeding season (the longer this time, the more the access to females). Males that signalled more had longer breeding tenures; thus these signals are relevant biologically because they also affected lifetime reproductive success.

“The biological relevance of this finding is also exciting because it is often difficult to follow individuals across their lifetimes,” says Isvaran.

Agamas are well suited to answer this question because they have short lifespans, perform very unusual displays and live in open habitats which makes it easy to study their behaviour, she adds.

Fruit country. Uttarakhand

Khumani/Peach

Adu/Apricot.....i brought a whole bunch back

Apples

Kaphal/bayberry

Juicy plums....so tasty

Pears too.

Peaches, (aadu), apricots, (khumani) and apples by the roadside. And of course kaphal or bay berries. Yours for the picking. I have eaten quite a few.

The pleasure of watching the fruits ripen and choosing which one you want to eat. Of course, the monkeys and birds are also doing the same.

Wildflowers of Yercaud

I need help in identifying these little beauties that dotted the paths and undergrowth, on the slopes of the Yercaud range. I enjoyed looking for them.

The untrodden areas were covered with these little white stars.

A close-up of the same flower

Common Floss flowers (I think)was also common, especially in the more moist patches, on the banks of streams.

I have no idea what this dramatic spiky ball is!

Little Glories - so small that one could miss them entirely.

Common wood sorrel was everywhere.  This is puliyarai (Tamil) or khatti bhaj (Hindi),
huli soppu (Kannada), is eaten raw and is good for health.

Looks like jasmine doesn't it? Id needed.

Pink rain lilies!

Another unidentified beauty

I found this in more rocky areas.

Jamaican Blue Spikes were always humming with little bees and insects.

Morning Glory, indeed!

Apona Shevaroyensis

April/May 2018

This large brown moth was seen every night at the Yercaud Youreka camp. Attracted by the lights of the dining hall, they would come and sit on the rafters, as also rest on the floor. Unfortunately, the ambient light was poor and I had only my phone camera to depend upon.

The moth was a light brown, with hairy antlers and was around 12-15 cms wingspan.  It was slow and clumsy.

I went through Ryan Brook's amazing collection of moth pictures on Flickr, and have made a tentative guess.

Tentative id is Eupterote geminata

If it is a correct id, then this moth is seen ony in India and Sri Lanka, and was identified by someone called Walker in 1855!!

Update - 2022 - Thanks Sagarika.  Looks like Apona-shevaroyensis.  I will update the id.

Viraali - The Sand Olive or Sticky Hopbush tree

Dodonea angustifolia - An evergreen shrub that grows in rocky outcrops

I was fascinated by the gloss of its leaves. 

I would always find a butterfly or bee hovering around. 

It is used for firewood and for small implements, but is also good as a bee forage and for stabilising and reducing erosion.

A different purple - in the hills of Yercaud

April 2018

The hills were alive
with the colours of the Crepe Myrtle.
Pride of India.

Lagerstroemia

The Jacarandas of Yercaud town - a photo post

April 2018

Yercaud town was aflame in purple. Every estate, every street, around the lake, across the valley. Fallen flowers on the road, boughs laden with flowers in eye view....