Rainforest Memories, Tigers &Cry From The Ghats

Read a really good wildlife article in Frontline magazine (Jan 2010), about The Great Indian Hornbill's survival plight in the Western Ghats.
 It is the state-bird of Kerala, and such an iconic symbol of high-canopied rain-forests

 Cry from the Ghats : 

"There has been a drastic fall in the number of Great Indian Hornbills
 in their Western Ghats home."
 http://www.frontline.in/static/html/fl2702/stories/20100129270206400.htm

..This article brought some Memories of Rainforest :
Jungle-Dolby-Surround-Sound, and watching The Great Indian Hornbill
(The bird is known in malayalam as "Malamuzhakki Vezhambal", due to the very noticable-from-afar sound of its wingbeats.)

 Great Indian Hornbill male 
(This photo is from the North-EastIndia trip. @Kaziranga NP, Assam)

Trekking through Periyar Tiger Reserve, Kerala :
Reading that article, a few 'hornbill' memories came flying in.. including the latest one last July, during the Tiger Trails treks through Periyar Tiger Reserve, Thekkady. It took me to this world inside a high-canopy rainforest early in the morning; To the moments of excitement created by the sudden deep whooshing sound of flights of a pair of Great Indian Hornbills, and their sudden 'disappearance' into high canopy when trying to trace them by the direction of the sound. Then, again another round of sound.. and silence.. which repeated for a while.. Caught glimpses of their flight- during moments I traced the sound, they flashed in sight.

After each whoosh dies down, Eyes wide open, ears pricked, necks craned up to the canopy, heart pumping with excitement, fingers pointed, among hard-to-contain whispers getting louder, "there.. THERE..".. and the "Sshhhh".. to counter it. As if the birds caught the whispers, they would go again one after the other...  Whoosh... Whooooshhh...

What a way to start a day!!, I felt, walking on the soggy leaves through the misty morning in the forest, while the sun was still warming up, slanting yellow streams of light filtering through the high foliage. Had already seen fresh-from-the-night pugmarks of a tiger after a light night rain.. earlier in the trek. 
( More about TigerTrails experience : 
 http://greenwich-times.blogspot.com/2009/08/conservation-new-killer.html )

Tiger Trails! Fresh pugmark of a female Tiger.
(Click for: WWF guide on Identifying Pugmarks )

Jungle-Dolby-Surround-Sound

When walking back to the tent, had another first-of-a-kind "jungle-dolby-surround-sound" experience. For a few minutes, while walking I was distracted (from looking for birds and scattered reflections in the mind about the forest), by a vague and a bit far-away sounding buzz. It felt like, may be someone disturbed a honey comb or stirred up a hornet's nest (and That 'Someone' could even be a Sloth Bear- one was seen near the tent the previous day;). The buzz was barely perceptible, fading and then back, slightly surging for a while. I scanned for any signs of honeycombs. Nothing. Then left trailing the sound and forgot about it.

 About 20minutes later, it came up again, this time more sustained, and was getting clearer, and louder and louder... like a marauding army of a huge swarm of wasps coming towards you. Didn't really know, what to expect- and was thinking of escape routes and whether can escape it at all, as it sounded overwhelmingly huge. Then slowly realised, it's not 'from inside', but a swarm flying just above the forest cover, as it grew from a threateningly approaching booming hum into a pleasant crescendo that takes you to a wonderful High. Almost surreal, when a swarm of insects, barely seen, only like a faint light wispy 'fluid smoke cloud', of wasps perhaps, teeming with life, buzzed past overhead as a unit, leaving a unique, never-before, sensational auditory feeling, as if you could feel your tympanum vibrating even after it faded out in the direction opposite to where it came booming-in from..

..and then, there was a feeling of relief as well, like a soldier might feel, escaping the eagle-eyes of an enemy military recce flight passing overhead!, as the engine drone fades away! ;)

--x--

From a Misty Morning in a Mystic Tiger Forest
Dew on gossamer on the grass blades in an open glade in the tiger forest.

Edges of Tiger Forest.
Meditative Landscape: Tranquility of a Tamed, Quietened River?
Periyar Reservoir

Memories perched quietly
On the gnarled branches of time
On faraway lands
Like dew on slender gossamer strands
Swaying timidly,
Adrift in the whispering wind;
Like secrets and quiet tears
Suspended graciously over 
Blades of grass on
Glades of a Tiger Forest.

@Kaziranga NP, Assam
The back of the casque is reddish in females while the underside of the front and back of the casque is black in males.
The male spreads the preen gland secretion which is yellow onto the primaries and bill to give them the bright yellow colour. (primaries -flight feathers- can be seen yellowish on the white band, in the flight photo on top. 
Also Females are smaller than males and have bluish-white instead of red eyes although the orbital skin is pinkish. Like other hornbills, they have prominent "eyelashes".

In India, found in a few forest areas in the Western Ghats and along the sub-Himalayan forests.
Their distribution extends into Thailand, Burma, Malaya and Sumatra/Indonesia.
 Their habitat is dense old growth (unlogged) forests in hilly regions. 
They appear to be dependent on large stretches of forest unlike many of the smaller hornbills.)

Birding Trek in Assam, North-East India: 

Another exciting day with Hornbill was while staying at Nameri Wildlife Sanctuary, Assam, during a NE India trip, where we did a birding trek. But even before the trek began, the presence of birds there was so filling! I woke up early morning in a thatched hut-dorm, and after freshening up was lazing in bed listening to the piercing din of bird calls from all sides while morning mist was filling me with freshness..That's when I heard the loud whooshing wing-beats of a hornbill, and I rushed out of bed grabbing my binocs- a Great Indian Hornbill!!, right there!! What a place, to see a Hornbill right when you step out from bed! Got my pal Luke also out from the dorm to catch sight of it. We followed it for half an hour. What an unforgettable morning that is!. My ears fill with bird calls everytime I think of that place.

After this morning high, went to the small nature-books library there in that compound of thatched roof buildings and found this very interesting book by Vikram Seth--his anthology titled "Beastly Tales from Here and There" (1992)- 'A group of 10 animal fables in rhymed couplets'. 'The Elephant and The Tragopan' is one of them, an 800-line  'Eco-Poem' with lot of socio-political significance, dramatically highlighting the mindless destruction of the environment in the name of so-called "Development".According to the author, the book is set 'in the grand tradition of Panchatantra'. I came upon this in the small collection there, as we were about to leave for the morning trek, and I had to rush through the initial part of it, liked it quite a bit, and so took photos of all the 25 or so pages of that poem, to read during the journeys, before it was time to leave the place for the trek into the forest..

Later I was to find out that The poem The Elephant and The Tragopan
was inspired by work done by Vikram Seth's brother Shantum Seth 
(through the Seven Sisters environmental group) in 1991 on the conservation of 
the Dzukou Valley in Nagaland and Manipur in NE India 
and to highlight the adverse effects of a proposed dam there. 

 (Tragopan is a very colourful bird, a beautiful pheasant, 
some species found only in the Himalayas, 
and others also seen in parts of China, Southeast Asia etc).

+ What You Save, When You Save The Tigers & Their Forests ?- It's the Complete Ecosystem!.
   Here are Some Beautiful Sights - If We Look Close Enough :
(Shots from Periyar Tiger Reserve, Thekkady) 

This is from the wing of Common Banded Peacock!, from the Western Ghats..You must have seen!  Apparently, the distinct "dots" with magnificent colours are "scales in interior of its wings"!..Found some fascinating e-microscope images of these here- Wing Scales of Butterflies! How they get those colours!! - http://bit.ly/ButterflyWingScales

Common Banded Peacock http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papilio_crino  

Interestingly, for a related species, Malabar Banded Peacok, taxonomic name is 'Papilio BUDDHA' ;)). Wonder why they named it so!.. Did someone spot it meditating too much on a Lotus?! 

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papilio_buddha

• + What is the Trick to Making the Most Waterproof Stuff on Earth? : It's all in the texture. An MIT-led team of mechanical engineers is creating a super water-resistant material inspired by the wings of butterflies -  “For years industry has been copying the lotus. They should start thinking about copying butterflies and nasturtiums,” MIT engineering professor Kripa Varanasi tells BBC News. “We believe these are the most super-hydrophobic surfaces yet.”

Spooky patterns on the Spotted Grasshopper- Aularches miliaris

+ Fascinating article.. which says, Some Grasshoppers can miraculously morph into

 Locusts- of entirely different social behaviour, at short notice- within hours!!!, 

and some can quickly return to original form!!

(Not sure whether we have such species of Grasshoppers in India)

 http://aeon.co/magazine/nature-and-cosmos/why-its-time-to-lay-the-selfish-gene-to-rest/

Wing patterns of the Spotted Grasshopper- Aularches miliaris

Mushroom Patterns

The Malabar Whistling Thrush
Also known as 'the whistling school boy'

And finally, Us, Humans!

Crossing the Periyar!

Returning to the tent after the trek.
Aami on the raft. 

The dew was shot a few minutes after the sighting of fresh tiger pug marks on wet mud, 
which had powerful impact on the mind.. 
I was sort of meditating on those dew drops on forest floor..with my close-up lens, holding breath, as the smallest draft would disturb the tenderly perched dew and make it out of focus.Slightly ahead in the trek route, my dear cousin Aami was fidgeting impatiently, waving and slashing a long twig in her hands on the grass around, waiting for me to be just done with that kneeling on the ground and move on, with our guide towards the river.. I guess she was anxious after seeing the pugmarks on wet mud and lots of hoofs strewn around nearby..-"Is the tigress around? Was there a kill??"..her mind might have gone into overdrive.. and to add to it, there was the story of tiger-roars which the guide claimed to have heard from the tent during the night! ;)