Deepavali at Rishi Valley

"Lorek", my teenage son reports on the weekend. All picture credits to him as well. Taken on a Nikon FM film-roll camera.

The name Horsely hills will not ring an audible bell for the common man. But for members of the MNS, it is synonymous with paradise and filter coffee. And so to view this paradise and other assorted wonders along the way, 15 of us MNSites set for the Rishi Valley School, which was our base camp. I was jerked awake and zombied my way to the car, which would carry me, my mother, Pritam uncle, Vijay uncle, Tara aunty and Shashank to Madanapalle. Amid discussions of where the Pitta had been spottedin Chennai, I zoned out to the sound of Iron Maiden.

A short food stop at Arusuvai and we were well and truly on our way to the promised land. I made the most of the next leg to catch on some much needed sleep. Another food stop and several birds later, we found ourselves nearing the village of Madanapalle. 'Rishi valley?' for directions led us onto the bypass road and to the school.

At the school, we met up with the man with the plan and the everlasting smile, Mr.Shantaram. He led us to (yet another) midday meal at the school mess. The campus in itself dwarfs any other school that I have seen. It is around 150 acres or so. Just walking to the guest house found the most serious birders rubbing their hands in glee at the number of bird calls and the overall greenery!





After tea, we set out with Mr.Eversmile, Shantaram sir for a small walk. We walked up the nearby hill and got some fantastic views of the surrounding area. The birds were also in abundance and the bird watchers had a field day. We were introduced to the various rock formations around - Cave Rock, Sliding Rock, Windmill and what have you. At sunset, we sat around trying to keep quiet, and were rewarded with the call of the pitta, a nightjar and an owl too! Somewhat hungry we returned to a good dinner and sleep.

Day 2

I was awoken by Axl Rose singing about Hollywood, (my alarm!) and enjoyed some fresh tea, before we set out to scale Horsely hills. The trek started out through the fields and slowly went steeply uphill. Birds were out in hordes and there were sightings every few steps literally. If I remember right, the hunt was on for the yellow-throated bulbul, whose calls were everywhere.

The ascent was steep at first and gradually unsteepened. The climb was punctuated by a breakfast break and innumerable other inexplicable rest stops.

At long last we got off the trekking path and hit the road and Shashank, Jeyanth and I pulled away from the pack. We were later joined by Vijay uncle to be the first men to reach the top. While lunch was being arranged, I journeyed to the edge to get a better view and found the whole valley spread out like a carpet on a slightly bumpy floor. The lunch was Chettinad-spice hot, that had been mysteriously absent all this while. Fanning our burning mouths, we stormed the ice cream parlour, just as the skies opened up.

Those of us with rain gear triumphantly produced said gear and starting downhill. Three steps later the rain stopped and the smug others joined the caravan downhill. Fighting a wet shoe, a severely aching foot sole and the need to urinate. I sped downward, using all available shortcuts with Shashank and arrived at the village at the base of Horsely. The forward guard, waiting for the rear guard to show up indulged in a cup of tea and some butter cookies(yum!!).

After the whole group had regrouped and started tea, a bus with KA license plates came by and claimed it was completely legitimate. Hitching a ride on this illegality, we arrived at the Rishi valley turn off point, to find a squadron of cars summoned from the school by Mr.Shantaram! (Calculations made by the group estimated that we had walked approximately 17kms that day, starting at about 7 in the morning, and finishing by 5 in the evening.) That concluded the day for the Seniors, with Jeyanth, Sekar uncle, Shashank and I heading over to a nearby hamlet for hot coffee and shopping at the mall, which was in reality a small pottikadai.

Day 3

The next dawn, the "coffee boys" headed to the village again for the now guest house renowned coffee. Coffee done, we headed out to another of the abundant nearby hills for some lip smacking bird watching. Tiring, the journey, was, but a large horde of birds placated the ever hungry mob and breakfast saw a beaming many persons. A blue rock thrush sat, well, on a rock.

We were free, much to my delight, for the rest of the morning and a part of the afternoon. Each person headed their separate ways to do what interested them most. I headed to the terrace to capture those moments of beauty on a film negative.

Rested, birded or peeved, everyone headed for lunch with a slightly different opinion of life. I met up with Mr.Shantharam's son and engaged in a 20 minute session of guitar playing. The rest of the afternoon was spent half asleep and reading about how “bleedin' 'orrible them Nazi's were”. Tea saw some familiar fare with chikkis being on the menu.

Having done good justice to them, we headed to 'Madhunayanichiruvu'(try saying that with 3 candies in your mouth) a lake well revered for water birds. A "sniper scope" in tow, viewing of birds was plentiful, and it took the sun to forcefully tell us to move along for us to go back.

After a great dinner of noodles, I packed and read and vowed not to wake up in the morning.

Day 4

Next morning, I refused to go for a pre-breakfast walk and the rain gods obliged with showers.

After a breakfast of dosais, the Innova gang crammed into the car and headed back home and to various relatives. Along the way, we were hit hard by 'Jal', both literally and metaphorically, though Pritam saar was unfazed by all this and kept the humour and car along the right track.

In the end, we saw what we had come to see, the Yellow throated bulbul and a lot more. We enjoyed our stay, the campus, the food and the general craziness that comes with MNS. We saw, heard and smelled 100 odd species of birds and other assorted creatures. I hope the other MNSites are happy.

All thanks to our publishing team at madras wanderer, MNS and Mr.Shantaram!

*******************

Thanks Lorek!

My complete list of birds is here. This is a list of birds I saw, does not include the ones that I heard but did not see.

Tree list at Anna University

Led my first tree walk for Nizhal. Meaning, I was supposed to be the "resource person" as Shoba so sweetly puts it, spreading awareness about these trees! I went armed with my iPad. Why? Loaded on it was the Nizhal Siemens Gandhinagar Tree Guide, with more than 40 common trees of Chennai (all present in Gandhinagar, Adyar) identified via their fruit, flower, leaf or pod!

I used it successfully to identify the Mimusops elengi or bullet wood tree. I was very pleased at the fact that I was able to identify all these trees below that we found on our one hour walk. I would not have been able to do this about a year ago...probably only about five. Working at the PWD park and going for Nizhal's tree walks have really helped.

There were about 20 students of the college from the Youth Red Cross who came along with me. There were two other resource persons Latha and Yamini, who went to other parts of the large and green campus. These were the trees seen and talked about, along the western driveway just inside the main gate. This is the path I took.

1. Mast tree (false ashoka) - identified by its profile
2. Copper pod - pods and yellow flowers
3. Gulmohar - smooth bark, small leaves, large pods
4. Pongamia - with the leaf galls, a hardy local tree
5. Rain tree - there were a few flowers. told them about the insects that make the "rain", and the thoongu moonji look of the leaves in the evening.
6. Neem - the wonder tree, that everyone knew.
7. Tabebuia - there are massive specimens that line the inner walls of the campus.
8. Peepul - the fig wasp story told.
9. Cassia yellow
10. Cassia pink
11. Bauhinia - we discussed the leaf shape, and there was some lovely purple blloms too.
12. Mimusops elengi - this is the one that we went step by step using the guide (since I could not identify it straight off).
13. Palmyra - TN state tree
14. Banyan - a nice large specimen
15. False rudraksh - hairy leaves and black rudraksh-like seeds.
16. Nuna - the bark was a giveaway
17. Java olive - with their palmate leaves and characteristic seed pods
18. Subabul - the "conflict" tree, that does not allow other species to thrive, with the easily identifiable seed pods.
19. Fishtail palm
20. Golden cane palm

The Tree Guide is a handy tool for Chennai. It can be loaded on a smart phone or laptop and works well. Would you like a copy? Post a comment below, or fill in the feedback form at Nizhal's contact page. It costs Rs 150.

"My husband and other animals — Take me home"

The Hindu : Life & Style / Metroplus : My husband and other animals — Take me home

Rom's mother always said that a toad or two under the kitchen sink was all one needed to keep the house clean of cockroaches. Guess what, much like everything else on our crazy farm, toads just colonised our house en masse, in a scene not different from the tree frog invasion. Like walking on a forest path, every night I had to watch where I put my foot in the house. No matter how careful I was, the magnificently-sized, sticky toad turds just jumped out, and stuck themselves to the soles of my feet! Forgetting whatever I was doing, I was forced to hobble off to wash the offending black ‘toad-gum' immediately. After a few such nightly episodes, I threw the toads out of the house, but fearlessly they returned to face my wrath.

I collected them in a plastic container and took them to the edge of the front yard, about 250 metres away, and released them. They had the temerity to return. I marked them (identification), spun the container round and round (disorientation, I thought), took them on a long detour around the farm (confusing, I imagined) before letting them go 500 metres away. There! I proclaimed in smug confidence. They were back in 25 hours.

By now, the blighters knew what was in store when the she-ogre came for them. They squeaked in distress, pissed copiously in fright, and tried to evade capture. I almost relented, but now curiosity drove me on. 750 metres. Back in 30 hours. That's a fairly long distance for small creatures to navigate. Spun the bottle, took them down the long dirt path, across the road, into the jungle and let them go by a puddle. One km away. Success? While I succeeded in chasing them out of the house, I found a couple with tell-tale markings in the outdoor planters. Now I can't tell if all of them made it back or only some did. What do other creatures do when taken far from home? Here are some interesting facts I unearthed.

In Namibia, out of eleven marked leopards that were moved 800 very long km, six returned home over a period of five to 28 months. Let me put it this way: if these cats had been taken from Chennai and released somewhere a bit north of Goa, they were able to walk right back! In the U.S., most of the 34 black bears that were moved about 200 km from their home territories returned successfully. In India, an elephant translocated from the Terai to Buxa Tiger Reserve, a distance of about 250 km, returned in less than 2 months. Salt water crocodiles in Australia were shown to home back after being moved 400 km. Put me in Bangalore, and I'm lost immediately.

However, the distance record for homing is held by seabirds such as albatrosses and shearwaters. An albatross taken from an island in the central Pacific and released about 6500 km away in the Philippines returned in a month, two others returned from Washington State, 5,000 km away.

It is not just the larger animals who have this amazing skill. In the U.K., bumblebees found their way home after being randomly dropped off 13 km from their hives. So what's a km to a toad, eh?

The fact that these animals, birds and insects return home is well-documented. But, how do they find their way through unfamiliar terrain over long distances?

Since these animals are frequently moved in covered vehicles on the outward journey (or a closed plastic container), it is unlikely they remember the route. In many cases, the animals return journey did not follow the road they were taken out on at all, but instead, took a more direct path homewards. So, how do they do it?

(To be continued)

(The author can be reached at janaki@gmail.com)

The Navaratri fortnight

Cloudy skies

dragonflies.

Sweaty, hot,

mosquitoes swat.

Lightning, thunder

leaves asunder

Cooling rains

dragonflies again!

Window sill

bulbuls trill.

Sunny day

trevally prey.

Heat abated

pitta spotted.

Swallows tease

southerly breeze.

Brilliant moon

Dusk so soon.

Ecosystems of Madras in need of some TLC

The last week has seen two articles in the Chennai Times of India on the neglect and abuse of our city's natural spaces.

Simpson estate and the Manali lake

and

The Nanmangalam Reserve Forest

A tiger spotted at Bharatpur

Bharatpur is home to the Keoladeo bird sanctuary. The article below was sent to the MNS e-group, and I was immediately transported back in time to the winter adventures of the Mad Madrasis, our 53 hour train ride to get to Bharatpur, and our daily cycling (mis)adventures at the park.

And now a tiger, identified as T7 has been spotted on camera (but not in person), devouring a boar, and suspected at having killed a nilgai as well. He seems to be a maverick tiger, sort of lone ranger, outlaw type, having made his way from Ranthambhore.

The Hindu article.

The male tiger that intruded into the Keoladeo National Park bird sanctuary near Bharatpur in Rajasthan this past Sunday is seemingly enjoying his stay and is in no hurry to leave. The animal, now confirmed as T-7 of Ranthambhore National Park, which announced his arrival in Keoladeo with the killing of a blue bull, has over the past two days hunted a wild boar and a calf of feral cattle and fed on the former ignoring the calf. Though the bird sanctuary staff has been keeping a vigil, the tiger has not made an appearance before the humans so far.

“The tiger continues to be in Keoladar area of the sanctuary where the grass is standing tall. No one could spot it so far despite a strict vigil. However, we have now with us a set of 25 photographs of the animal eating the wild boar, taken with the help of a trap camera,” informed Anoop K.R., Field Director of the National Park, speaking from Bharatpur on Friday.

“The tiger seemingly consumed the wild boar fully though some of the photographs show a hyena in the background,” he said.

The tiger was on the run for the past fortnight after attacking and injuring over half a dozen persons at Mathura in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. Curiously this is the same tiger, estimated to be around four years old, which had badly mauled a range officer in a village on the periphery of Ranthambhore National Park a month back. Even prior to this, T-7 has been shuttling between Ranthambhore Park and the neighbouring sanctuary of Kailadevi before choosing the long haul to the Rajasthan-UP border. Experts are of the view that going by its past behaviour the animal is not to remain in the 29 sq km area of the sanctuary for long.

“I have watched this tiger closely. He is not to stop here for long,” said Dharmendra Khandal, Director of Tiger Watch at Ranthambhore. Dr. Khandal, who confirmed the animal in the picture as T-7, said the authorities should devise a plan for shifting it to any tiger sanctuary, preferably not Sariska. He was dismissive of taking it back to Ranthambhore or Kailadevi as the former was already “saturated for tigers” and the latter did not have an adequate prey base.

“We can exchange it for a tigress from Madhya Pradesh. The animal can be shifted to Kuno, Panna or Kanha. This could be a gene pool exchange which will benefit the tigers from both the States,” he argued.

There have been reports in local newspapers about the Rajasthan forest authorities planning to shift T-7 to Sariska to join the already existing five tigers, relocated from Ranthambhore. “There are already two male tigers in Sariska now and another male is not of any additional relevance,” he pointed out.

There is reason for the authorities at Van Bhavan, the Forest Department headquarters here, and at Keoladeo National Park to worry as T-7 is a tiger with a past. The young cat has attacked a good number of people and has seemingly lost its fear of human beings. Keoladeo is a bird sanctuary where the visitors normally move either on foot or on bicycles and cycle rickshaws. “T-7 is no more afraid of the presence of humans. That is not going to help much as it has a history of attacking humans,” Dr. Khandal observed.

Its travelled a fair distance!


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I have forgotten the darkness of the night

Monday evening, and I was out for my evening walk by the beach. My iPod to lighten the drudge that the evening constitutional has become, the zippy music puts a zing in my step that is otherwise laboured and bored as I sweat myself through another exercise routine!

Dont get me wrong, I do love the shore and the magical colours of the evening sky and the water, but without the music (or good company), I would rather just sit by the shore and take it all in!

This Monday evening however, as the sun set, darkness also descended. It dawned on me that the power had gone, streetlights were off, and the matchbox flats all around were dark. The odd apartment with an inverter or a genset looked like an incongruous, out-of-season Deepavali display.

I want to record the strange feeling that overcame me, as I stumbled along the dark path, unsure of my footing.

One, I felt foolish and inadequate as the street dogs and stray cats darted around confidently while I kind of walked blind.

Two, it seemed that the roar of the water was much more (I had turned off my iPod) than normal as a hush descended, no motors, TVs, fan whirrs I guess, and more laughter and chatter floated in the air.

Three, it brought back memories almost fifteen years ago of a night in the Himalayas when we trekked through the Great Himalayan National Park and darkness descended and we were nowhere near our destination. That pitch black, I next experienced at Mamandur on a night walk again. Its a weird feeling, like walking around blindfolded, and for a city dweller like me, I realise how I have lost touch with all my other senses, in order to navigate.

Four, my mind rambled (it does that all the time) to how night lighting has changed the way we live, changed the planet, and how every other species has had to adapt to this human intervention. We love lights, it makes us happy and cheerful, the more neon signs there are, we feel we have progressed and we are prosperous.

Will we willingly reduce our night lights, for the sake of all those other creatures, lights in advertising hoardings, buildings and public places? Maybe we need a green tax on unnecessary night lighting...or am I being a killjoy?

Nizhal's tree walk at Sembium Gardens

(Due apologies to a kids nursery rhyme)

Bus driver bus driver, can we have a ride?
OK, OK step up inside.
Round the bend, up the street, madly we go
Screeching and horning
Hold on tight!

Conductor sir, may we alight
We seem to have reached and we are alright!
Into an auto, squeezed up tight
We reach Sembium gardens, much to our delight!

Shoba is there, as usual giggling
And Arun is there to take us treewalking.

Buttress roots
New palm shoots
Subabuls are plenty
Rain tree flowers so dainty.

But where are those birds that I came to see?
Have they all gone off to have their morning tea?
Mosquitoes attack bare legs with glee
Sending my son on a hopping spree.

Coffee and biscuits, a welcome break
The caffeine ensuring we were all awake
To see Saraca indica
Which is the real ashoka
And not Polyalthia longifolia,
Our common false ashoka!

At last I see herons in the pond!
And is that a coot and moorhen beyond?
Parakeets in the raintree screeched
A flameback in the cordia, knocked

And to go home we turned around
Oops, the same mad bus driver we found!
Round the bend, up the street, madly we went
Screeching and horning
Held on tight!

The rains, trees and insects

Seen at GNP -

Pranav of MNS helped me id this!

Hi Ambika,
This is a short horned grasshopper (Acrididae) in the subfamily Oxyinae- most probably Oxya hyla hyla. I don't think there is a common name beyond "Short horned grasshopper"(which refers to thousands and thousands of other species), so these two will just have to be satisfied with the binomial name mentioned above.
Yes, they are a mating pair- the males are always smaller than the females. There is another subspecies- O. hyla intricata , which looks similar, with a deep brown shade above, instead of green. The two subspecies have been noticed mating with each other, but these two specimens seem to have stuck to their own kind... grasshoppers are strict vegetarians. In fact, they are despised for this very fact- the grasshopper in your photo is an infamous pest of rice...
Pranav

Wildlife Week Celebrations Chennai

Sign up for the quiz, and come for the storytelling...promises to be fun.

Click on the picture for the enlarged poster

Elephant - God or victim?

We celebrated Gowri and Ganesha hubba/pooja this morning, and as I listened to the mantras, my mind wandered (Sorry, but it did!), to elephants, wild ones, those magnificent large creatures with gentle eyes that for some reason always look so sad. Odd, isn't it, we have deified both motherhood and the elephant, and both are exploited and mistreated in Indian society?

While we talk a lot about the vanishing tiger, as a country we have failed the much loved elephant haven't we? These large creatures need space and food, and as we pressure them into a corner, there is an inevitable man-animal conflict. Nowadays, a fortnight doesn't go by without a report of either an elephant killed, or a man killed/injured by an elephant.

Man vs elephant - the conflict of civilization, indicates that deaths of both humans and elephants are on the rise in India. When I read some of the reports, one almost gets the sense that the elephants are angry and raging.

I would be an enraged elephant too, if I found I had nowhere to go, take my babies, no safe points to cross from one forest to another, wouldn't I?

And then Ravi Chellam writes in his article Beyond the Herd, that there are 3,500 elephants in captivity. And I see those temple elephants in shackles and everytime I do, I make a silent apology to it, wishing I could free it.......

Finally an Elephant Task Force has been set up by the Ministry of Evironment and Forests.

Beyond the herd
RAVICHELLAM Posted online: Mon Sep 06 2010, 03:34 hrs

One of the innovative recommendations of the recently submitted report of the Elephant Task Force (ETF), backed by the environment ministry, is to declare it India’s national heritage animal. The elephant is possibly the most appropriate species to be awarded this recognition. Elephants have a wide distribution across the country, living in diverse habitats ranging from the tall grasslands of the alluvial flood plains of the terai to montane grasslands, evergreen forests, and moist and dry deciduous forests of the Western Ghats. They are also a much-loved species, with very strong cultural and religious links with vast sections of our population. The elephant is one of the most recognised symbols of India, and unique in being among the few widely domesticated wild large mammals. They play very important roles in religious and cultural ceremonies across India. Three thousand and five hundred elephants are estimated to be in captivity in India, largely in temples and under private ownership.
India is home to more than 60 per cent of the remaining wild elephants in Asia, with an estimated population of around 26,000. So, as a country we have a crucial role to play for their long-term survival in the wild. While these numbers may seem high and indicate that the elephants are well conserved and secure, the field reality is actually very different.

Elephant habitats have been undergoing rapid change in the last couple of decades in India due to conversion to agriculture, development of infrastructure and other development projects including tourism resorts. Much of this change has had negative impacts on elephant populations due to fragmentation and degradation of their habitats. In many instances, elephant habitats have been totally brought under human use, resulting in the complete loss of the habitat. Poaching of elephants for their tusks has also been a problem in certain parts of India. In Asian elephants, only the males possess tusks and so poaching tends to be focused on males with disastrous consequences for the sex-ratio of the remaining elephant populations. Human-elephant conflicts (HEC) are widespread and according to the ETF, about one million hectares of crop lands are damaged by elephants annually. Every year in India, about 400 people are killed by elephants and in retaliation about 100 elephants are killed. This indicates how widespread and serious this conflict is in India today. The task force has recommended multiple approaches, some of which are very innovative and practical, in order to mitigate and manage this problem. The focus is on preventing human actions which will create fresh conflicts and to prevent and minimise existing levels of conflict. This includes integrated land use planning in and around elephant habitats, enhanced guarding of crops, higher levels of local community participation in these efforts and more efficient and just payment of compensation.

Another major and avoidable cause of elephant mortality is death on railway tracks due to collision with trains and electrocution from low-hanging high-tension wire. These problems have also been recognised in the ETF. It has identified 10 elephant landscapes where conservation would be prioritised. These landscapes include all 32 of the existing and proposed elephant reserves. Elephants are extremely mobile and social mega-herbivores and so they can only be conserved at the landscape level. These elephant landscapes contain several types of lands including protected areas, reserved forests and revenue land. Many of the protected areas are connected by vital corridors, which enable elephants to move from one part of their home range to the other and also ensure the genetic connectivity and integrity of the populations, which is vital for their long-term survival. The task force places emphasis on securing the corridors and elephant habitats beyond the protected areas for their long-term conservation.

The report supports a strong role for science in assessing and monitoring elephant populations and also in undertaking ecological and veterinary studies which will help us understand elephant populations and their behaviour in a better and more holistic manner. A clear role for civil society organisations and public participation in the conservation and management of elephants has also been outlined, with Rs 600 crore recommended as the financial outlay to implement the recommendations during the Twelfth Plan period.

Wildlife conservation in India is beginning to take a broader approach, after many decades of tightly focusing on tigers alone. Last year, the river dolphin was declared the national aquatic animal, Project Snow Leopard has been functional, there is a move to bring back the cheetah, and the latest heartening development is the spotlight on elephants. This indicates an increasingly mature approach to wildlife conservation, one which values nature in its myriad forms.

The writer is country director, Wildlife Conservation Society-India Programme

He is also an MNS member.