Me Sahyadri 042014

As the economic development has taken the center stage, the balance between the environmental sustenance and socio economic development will be under the scanner. As most experts with balanced views have proclaimed, Indian wildlife and ecological system sustenance will be under threat, unless precautions are taken with the help of appropriate research and long term national interests. As we encounter the economic development, many habitats which indirectly or directly help sustainable development will be damaged. The awareness to gauge the success by sustainable development and not by year to year growth is a distant dream any environmentalist will assume in current scenario.
Western ghats, or Sahyadri as we all call it as, is a treasure trove of spectacular landscapes, biodiversity, flora, fauna, some amazing geological wonders and man made monuments. With the increasing pressure from human encroachment, all these elements are under stress and in turn are under depletion. Western ghats should be left untouched by human beings, to protect their future generations from getting short of resources, such as water, energy and clean air. The important elements of western ghats, which need protection are highlighted in the new version of Photo journal, Me Sahyadri Magazine.

The birds of Sahyadri is a very interesting subject. There are about 10,000 bird species on our planet. Many bird species have become extinct, during the slow evolution of life on the earth. In current era, the human interference in the ecosystems has led to severe stress on bird life all across the globe. India has about 1200+ bird species which include both resident and migratory ones. About 500+ species are recorded in western ghats. Few of the resident birds of western ghats are not seen anywhere else on the planet, outside western ghats. These are unique species, endemic to western ghats. If the endemic species vanish from western ghats, the species will also vanish from the planet. Slow but steady depletion of forest, fragmentation of habitats, is being sponsored by the state and in turn by us. The velvet fronted nuthatch is a small bird which survives on the insects and is seen in broad leaved forests of western ghats (Karnataka, Kerala) , Srilanka, Himalayas, and part of eastern ghats. This is one of those birds which have vanished from Sahyadri forests in Maharashtra. For it to survive the forests have to survive. Its habitat is forest full of trees. This bird often is seen clinging upside down on the tree branches looking for the insects in the bark, in forests of South India. It has developed its own niche in the forest. Today north western ghat forests are ghost forests in patches, already damaged beyond recovery, with loss of many such key indicator flora and fauna species. More detailed reports on forest birds of Sahyadri will be posted in special issue.

Ceropegia Vincifolia is one of the several species of Ceropegia. Ceropegia species in nature have become rare. The plant has very interesting social behavior. The flower has a unique shape with a tubular chamber connected to the mouth via a tunnel like vertical tube. The insects are attracted by odour. Insects enter the openings provided at the top of the tube. The opening size varies from species to species, thus controlling the size of the intruder. Once the insect enters the tube, it reaches the chamber at the bottom. There the pollina are transferred to the insect. Due to the hair like structure on the inside of the tube walls the insect can not easily escape. After the successful transfer of poliina, the entire flower droops, facilitating the escape of the insect. Thus the plant is indirectly helped by the insects, for its pollination. The insect gets the nectar and it is left out unharmed. Such is the understanding between plants and insects, that human being can learn from such story.

India has about 35 species of flycatchers. Western ghat has about 16 species of flycatcher birds, some migratory and some resident. Resident flycatchers include asian paradise FC, black naped monarch FC, tickell’s blue FC, White bellied blue FC, Nilgiri FC (Nilgiri), Black and orange flycatcher (Nilgiri). Migratory flycatchers include red breasted FC, red throated FC, ultramarine FC, grey headed canary FC, Verditer FC, Blue throated FC, Kashmir FC, Asian brown FC, Rusty tailed FC, Brown breasted FC. Migratory flycatchers breed in Himalayas and winter in western ghats. All most all these flycatchers are forest birds. They are seen in well wooded regions. Out of 16 flycather species 3 species viz white bellied blue FC, Nilgiri FC, Black and Orange FC are endemic birds of western ghats.

Snakes is a passion for Sadaf Kadvekar, a youth from a small hamlet near Chiplun at the foothills of Sahyadri in Konkan region of Maharashtra. He is a sarpamitra and helps people and snakes around by conducting rescue operations. His passion to save the snakes has given him vital experience about the myths, superstions and misunderstanding about snakes in the region. The following article written by him, with intention of spreading good word about the snakes, may help all of us to save more snakes from getting killed for no reason. ‘Snake is a very dangerous creature and it should be killed at once’. This is a concept in the minds of every human being. ‘Every snake is venomous and it intentionally attacks human being’ is another misconcept in our mind. Many non venomous snakes are killed by human beings in large numbers along with the venomous snakes, for no reason. Snakes never intentionally attack human beings. The attacks often happen accidentally or due to negligence of human being. In fact very few snakes are venomous. To save the snakes, the knowledge about venomous snakes and non venomous snakes should spread. Snakes have their important role in the ecosystem. Every ecosystem has different species of snakes. Out of about 2500 species of snakes on our planet, 400 are venomous. In India out of 500 species of snakes, 78 are venomous of which 29 are sea species. In Maharashtra out of 52 species of snakes only 10 are venomous. Majority of snake species are non venomous. Half the species seen in Maharashtra are only seen in Sahyari region. The photograph shows the non venomous snake, “the striped keelback”. Special thanks to Vishal Naikwadi for the photograph. The detailed awareness article about the snakes of sahyadri will be published soon.

Lotus is known to all of us as a symbol. Lotus is called as “Nelumbo nucifera” in science. It is an aquatic plant. It is a national flower of India. Its roots, flowers, young leaves, seeds are edible. The life of lotus seeds is very long, more than thousand years. Lotus has another interesting character. The plant maintains the temperature inside its flower between 30-35 deg C, to attract the cold blooded insect pollinators. In Budhism, lotus represents purity of body, mind and speech. As it grows from mud, floating on the water it remain clean and pure. In Hinduism lotus is a symbol of perfection, beauty, purity and elegance. The iconic painted sculpture on the ceiling of the Buddhist caves, carved around 2200 years back depicts the very purity of mind. Thanale caves are located in the western ghat ridge bordering Pune and Raigad district. Caves are located on the route which connects ancient Chaul port to ancient commercial centers of Deccan plateau. Today the sculpture and the caves are in bad shape slowly turning in to ruins due to apathy of state. There is no caretaker of the caves. A part of caves have collapsed in last 30 years period, with loss of some very interesting sculptures. The visitors often further damage the caves, due to lack of knowledge about its significance. The walls are paint marked by local village youth with their names, indicating how much love they have for their girlfriends. Let the purity of lotus inspire the human beings to purify their minds away from the ghastly materialistic desires, in turn protecting the very mother nature which feeds them. I have translated the sculpture by using a handmade sketch, just to further impress how beautiful it is.

Kaas plateau is known to most of us. It is a rich hotspot with a special ecosystem. The ecosystem with mocro habitats of plants on this lateritic plateau is extremely rare. The very specific location of plateau on the deccan plateau, its altitude, at a specific distance from western ghat ridge, the shapes of geological structures in the region including the high rise mountains around Mahabaleshwar, indirectly control the level of mist, rainfall here. There are various types of microhabitats. The rocks on the lateritic plateau have lost the soft elements, and what we see is a rock surface porous in nature with very little nutrients. The lateritic plateaus have various sub-habitats. In these subhabitats various species bloom. A mosaic is seen on such plateau with various species of flowering plants. The typical examples of these sub habitats include, a) Loose rocks/boulders (species such as Utricularia striatula, Cheilanthus farinose etc), b) Shallow Streams (e.g.Eriocaulon dalzellii) c) Shallow water puddles (e.g. Aponogeton satarensis, Eriocaulon tuberiferum etc) d) Deep water holes (e.g. Nymphoides) e) Deep Soiled depressions (Impatiens lawii etc) f) Shallow soiled depressions (Smithia species., Habenaria species etc) g) Rocky Slopes (Utricularia species) h) Very Deep Soil. A mosaic of these species is seen depending up on the local micro condition of the land. The habitat of these plants is very fragile. With the incursion of visitors, the external species weeds, are likely to enter in the habitat. Some of the external elements entering the system, are gaseous pollutants, plastic, external soil coming with tyres and shoes. Though the Kaas plateau is protected to certain extent by state, the hills around kaas on the way from Satara to Kaas plateau such as shown in the image are facing the human interference. The carpet of smithia Hirsuta will be lost in the future.

The expedition to see and photograph the circular rainbow (Indravajra) in Western Ghats took us to Konkan cliff of Harishchandragad. Being one of the geological wonders of Western Ghats, the cliff has amazing structure. It is a vertical precipice with overhang. The overhang is about 10 meters. The height is 3900 feet (1300 meters) above msl. There is a semicircular valley on the western end of the mountain having vertical fall depth of 1200 feet. The horizontal arc length of the cliff top edge is about 1 km. In the pre and post monsoon season, a strange natural phenomenon called as glory or circular rainbow can be seen from this cliff edge. The phenomenon is similar to rainbow. However its scientific principle and structure is entirely different from that of rainbow. The normal rainbow is called as “Indradhanushya” in Marathi. The glory or circular rainbow is called as “Indravajra” in Marathi. In western world the spectacle is named the “spectre of the Brocken” after the peak in the Harz Mountains of Germany, where it is often seen. The optical illusion is purely a natural phenonmenon. In another expedition we were caught on another fort in the region called Ratangad. The weather was unbreathable. The heavy moisture present on the top made survival difficult. Thanks to a cave where we could find the small section with dry air, that we could breadth whole night. The fog was intense and triggered us to conduct the experiment to create the indravajra artificially. An interesting experience of creating the Indravajra will be published soon in a separate article.

The north western ghats in state of Maharashtra, underwent lot of political and commercial upheaval during the past. It was seventeen century when a major political battles were fought between the invaders and King Shivaji in western ghats. The Sahyadri range has today some of the remains of the forts and battlefields from the past, from this era. We today enjoy the democratic freedom, which King Shivaji imagined and founded in 17th Century. Even today many get inspired by his nationalism. When we follow the history of the north western ghats, we overlook the geography, flora and fauna of the region. I have tried to generate the cross learning medium here.

Due to the advances in social media, there is a sudden spurt in mobilization of groups who advocate the conservation of monuments, specifically the forts of Sahyadri, in Maharashtra. In a typical approach the mountain tops are cleaned off any vegetation. Due to lack of knowledge amongst the common man, about the biological significance of the rare endangered plants, the species are under threat. Most of the mountain forts are actually islands of high altitude land, surrounded by a sea of low altitude hills and land. In this series I am putting forward some important geospatial parameters about the mountain forts of Pune district, with the list of botanically important species found on these forts. In the chart, above you can see that there are about 28 mountain forts in Pune district. The altitude of these mountains vary. Also the position of these mountains with respect to the main western ghat ridge is different. Altitude is a specific parameter. Above 1000 meter altitude the flora and fauna changes. The 4 top mountain forts, namely Sinhagad, Rajgad, Torna and Purander are amongst the top 40 high rise mountains of western ghats. These hill tops have special vegetation. Purander for example has plant species such as Frerea indica, which is endangered species. Some of the species which are seen on Purander can only be seen nearest in Himalayas and Afganistan. Purander is important botanical place not only because of its altitude but also because of the far distance of this fort from western ghats ridge as compared to other 3 forts. The average rainfall is less there as compared to other 3 high rise forts of the region. This also does not mean that other forts in the region which are of lower altitude less important botanically. There are other parameters apart from altitude that matter, which we will see in next series.

The grassland around us was lit beautiful golden, in the moon light. The moon was about to set. It was when we realized that how every night is different. The darkness started prevailing as the moon came close to set against the Telbaila wall. While it was about to set, th eastern sky was lit with the shower of meteorite. We could see the colors in the streaks clearly after the moon set at around 4 am. Entire sky was lit with stars and occasional meteorite streak. It did not last long. At dawn the eastern skies were lit again, this time with a pink diffused light. The sun rose, with it came the golden rays. The rays lit the entire grassland golden. The wind blew this time swinging the grass merrily. Nowadays it is very difficult to find the natural grasslands. I wonder what will happen to the harriers that glide in the sky few meters above the grass.

Drosera burmannii ( दवबिंदूं ) is a small tropical sundew. It was first described by Johannes Burman 18th Century botanist, but the species was not formally published until 1794 when Martin Vahl named it in honor of Burman as Drosera burmanni. It is one of the compact species in the carnivorous plant genus Drosera of size, only 20-25 mm in diameter (roughly of the size of one Indian rupee coin). Drosera burmannii ( दवबिंदूं )traps the insects very fast and its leaves can curl around the prey insect in few seconds, compared to the minutes or hours it takes other sundews to trap the prey. Drosera burmannii is an herb that produces short stems and leaves in a rosette. (a rosette is a circular arrangement of leaves, with all the leaves at a particular height.) Tiny creamy white flowers are produced in groups on 6–15 cm tall racemose inflorescences, (An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch.).

India has 16 species of deers and antilopes put together. Black bucks, Chiru, Chinkara and Goa are species of antilope family. Chowshinga, Blue bull are species of Bovinae family. Spotted deer, Barashinga are the species of Cervinae family. Barking deer is a species of Muntiacinae family. Mouse deer is a species of Tragulidae family. KasturiMrug is a species of Moschidae family. Out of these 16 species, 7 species namely Chowshinga, Bluebull, spotted deer, Sambar, Barking deer, Mouse deer, and chinkara are seen in western ghats. Barking deer is shown in the photograph. The barking deer is seen in the forest. The deer barks like dog hence it is called as barking deer.

Oh Sunlit Morning,
wash me with the Light rays of yours
Oh the beautiful sunlit morning,
wash me with the springing light rays of yours and
remove the dust which has covered my true self,
Oh the beautiful sunlit morning,
wash me with the beautiful light rays of yours and
The one within me who is still entangled within the net of sleep,
you gently touch his forehead with your golden wand and wake him up.
Today wash me with these rays of joy, coming from the vast universe,
so as to wash away all narrowness and darkness from every corner of my mind.
Within the veena of my heart is sleeping the song of immortality,
which has neither words, nor rythum or notes; touch the innermost chord with this awakening of joy in this morning.
- Rabindranath Tagore