Category: Sahastra

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Birds, Encounter, Himalaya, SahastraLeave a comment

Encounter: In Shangri-La with Bar-headed Geese

SR

Meeting the Bar-headed Goose, arguably the world’s highest flier, in its breeding grounds at 15,000 feet is a rare and humbling privilege Korzok (4,595 m, 15,075 ft), the small settlement on the border of the incredibly blue Tso Moriri was the highest I had even been. So when had my first sighting of the Bar-headed Goose (Anser indicus), one of the highest flying birds in the world, on those very waters at a shouting distance from the 300-year old monastery, you can perhaps excuse me for believing that it was probably pre-ordained. The lake, along with several other high altitude … Continue reading Encounter: In Shangri-La with Bar-headed Geese

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Encounter: The Copper Pod Tree

SR

Though not as grandly picturesque as the Golden Shower or the Flame of the Forest, the Copper Pod tree makes its yellow-crowned presence felt all over the flower-carpeted ground It’s a humid May forenoon and even in the shade there is no respite from sweat. The sea, a mere 100 m away from the Bharathi Park in Pondicherry, is a low rumble over the cries of playing kids and the croaking of crows. It continues to part with salty vapour under the scorching sun, pushing up the humidity further as noon approaches.  Except for the kids and the crows, everything … Continue reading Encounter: The Copper Pod Tree

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Trees speak, even in death

SR

Lifeless, numbered, fated to become furniture, the dismembered corpses of ancient forest trees are stacked neatly in the Dandeli Timber Depot. Peer closely at these images gleaned from that brooding graveyard — your mind’s eye might detect fate-lines gone awry, cracked smiles, suppurating wounds, faces contorted in silent pain, broken hearts, gnarled palms clasped in futile prayer… Along the northern coast, Just back from the rock-bound shore, and the caves, In the saline air from the sea, in the Mendocino country,  With the surge for bass and accompaniment low and hoarse,  With crackling blows of axes, sounding musically, driven by strong arms,  … Continue reading Trees speak, even in death

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From Madurai to Mount Kailas, a pilgrim’s puzzling progress

SR

A chance find in a Pondicherry flea market points to an unknown Tamil Nadu pilgrim party’s mysterious journey to the base of Mount Kailas in 1948, only two years after Heinrich Harrer arrived in Lhasa Last Sunday, as I am prone to do on weekends, I paid a visit to the flea shops on the East Coast Road in Pondicherry. These shops, which usually offer a motley collection of old stuff – terracotta figurines, calendars and posters, furniture, French porcelain, old black-and-white photographs, books and the usual bric-à-brac, sometimes throw up a surprise. Rummaging through an old tin trunk full … Continue reading From Madurai to Mount Kailas, a pilgrim’s puzzling progress

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Pichavaram – the great mangrove forest of Tamil Nadu

SR

Few people know (or care) that this favourite locale of filmmakers is a spectacular mangrove ecosystem throbbing with life The mangrove forests of Pichavaram comprise an intriguing ecosystem Tickets in hand, negotiations with the boatman closed, we should have been on the boat, headed for our first visit to a mangrove ecosystem. But all we could do was to gaze longingly at the dense green clumps across a vast expanse of the lagoon. The boat that was to carry us there was moored to the shore covered in blue tarpaulin. A sudden squall was depositing even more rain on the … Continue reading Pichavaram – the great mangrove forest of Tamil Nadu

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Madhyamaheshwar – In the temple of the Drunken Lord

SR

Life is so quiet and still in Madhyamaheshwar that it’s easy to imagine why local people believe that the deity is drunk A wayside shrine en route to Madhyamaheshwar A moss-encrusted tree on the trail “I found myself moved by the simplicity of this shrine. It was a place where nothing stood between me and the spiritual elements of nature… Nothing was hidden from view — no lamps, no smoke and mirrors, no priests performing a sleight of hand. I noticed the lichen on the rocks, the irregular colors in the stone lingam, the bruised petals on the primulas. Garlands … Continue reading Madhyamaheshwar – In the temple of the Drunken Lord

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Encounter: Asian Paradise Flycatcher

SR

The Asian Paradise Flycatcher can appear quite unbelievable for those laying eyes on it for the first time A female Asian Paradise Flycatcher I distinctly remember the first time I saw an Asian Paradise Flycatcher (Terpsiphone paradisi). It was May or early June and I was in my mango orchard in Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh. The orchard with its motley grove of mangoes, bamboo clumps, figs, amla and guava trees reeled under the tropical summer afternoon. Sweat ran down my back and the loo — the hot, dry summer wind — blustered through the orchard, its pitch rising and falling … Continue reading Encounter: Asian Paradise Flycatcher

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Life and death in Kaliveli’s salt pans

SR

Driving between Chennai and Pondicherry, approximately 30 km before you reach the former French enclave, you cannot but notice a small inlet channel from the sea passing below a narrow bridge and then expanding into a vast lake stretching all the way to the western horizon. This is Kaliveli, the second largest natural lake in southern India (after Pulicat Lake in Andhra Pradesh) and unfortunately among the most neglected wetland ecosystems of the eastern coast. Kaliveli is connected to the sea by the Yedayanthittu estuary from which there is a considerable intake of sea water. Along its large catchment area … Continue reading Life and death in Kaliveli’s salt pans

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Encounter: The Demoiselles of Khichan – Part II

SR

Demoiselles, like other cranes, suffer on account of habitat loss and degradation throughout their breeding and wintering ranges. With the spread of agriculture in the Eurasian steppes a large swath of the species’ breeding territory is threatened on account of disturbance, grazing and hunting. In India, where the cranes winter, the primary problems are population increase and the resultant erosion of farmers’ tolerance for this crane. Cases of death from poisoning – both deliberate and inadvertent (pesticides) – are on the rise. For cranes migrating to India another major threat along the migration path comes from hunting, which is prevalent … Continue reading Encounter: The Demoiselles of Khichan – Part II

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Wordless Wednesday: The Last Musk Deer

SR

In 2002, while in Chopta (part of Kedarnath Musk Deer Sanctuary), we had tried to visit the Musk Deer Breeding Centre but were denied access. They behaved as if it were a nuclear installation, a friend who was with me then had observed. Later in August 2006 I was in Chopta with Gopi Sundar and Swati. We happened to visit the breeding centre and it turned out that all the deer (>12) had died out due to a disease outbreak, except one lone survivor (in the picture). Photos: Sahastrarashmi / K S Gopi Sundar The Green Ogre – Birds, Wildlife, … Continue reading Wordless Wednesday: The Last Musk Deer

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Encounter: The Demoiselles of Khichan – Part I

SR

As I enter the village children greet me. They are a cheerful lot, waving and smiling at the visitor with a camera. I notice that they are playing with a dead snake and want me to see it up close. For an armchair explorer like me, fed on a regular dose of National Geographic specials, the relation between the desert and deadly snakes needs no explaining. And I am wearing sandals. The kids are aware of the purpose of my visit. They point me to the village pond where the cranes are roosting. Khichan has three ponds on its northern … Continue reading Encounter: The Demoiselles of Khichan – Part I