Melagiri

Protection Staff Workshop, 2011

2011-08-22T23:40:00.000-07:00

After several weeks of planning, the workshop for Protection staff of Hosur Forest Division was held on 11th and 12th August 2011.

We reached Anchetty FRH on 10th evening along with Mr. Praveen Bhargav, and Mr. KM Chinnappa . After making arrangements for dinner, the rest of the evening was spent in listening to various incidents from Mr. Chinnappa's vast experience.

The next morning we left for Rasimanal for the first batch training along with Sanjeev, Ananth and Aparna who joined us at Anchetty FRH reaching a few minutes before the scheduled start time of 9 a.m. However, hardly any of the participants had arrived and they all trooped in gradually and changed into their uniforms and the workshop began at around 10.30 a.m..

The morning session focussed on the importance of wearing the Khaki uniform, the duties of the staff, various methods to implement protection measures, moral conscience, importance of protecting forests, the critical role that the staff play in ensuring a sustainable life for future generations, multi-tiered protection system comprising of foot patrol + mobile patrol + Anti-poaching camps + check-posts, patrolling methods, maintaining healthy and fit lifestyle etc. Mr. Chinnappa gave several examples from his own experience in dealing with poachers, mobs, 'influential people' etc.

After lunch, Mr. Praveen Bhargav spoke about some of the key provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act and how the staff should use them. A demonstration on usage of weapons and their maintenance was given. Real-life situations, when staff have to use weapons in the dark, were enacted by blindfolding them and asking them to pick the correct weapon from the lot, pick the appropriate ammunition, check if the weapon is loaded or not, remove the magazine and load cartridges etc.

The workshop ended with a fervent appeal by Mr. Chinnappa to all the participants to do their job sincerely and protect the forests so that the next time he visits Melagiri, it will be thriving with wildlife. He also extended an invitation to all the participants to visit Nagarhole NP so that he could show that how a forest can be restored from the brink of destruction and also give training in field-craft.

After the workshop got over, ACF Madhu escorted us to Hogenekkal falls since Mr. Chinnappa had heard of this but had never seen them. Returned to the FRH after that and after a early dinner, we retired for the day. George joined us late that night at 11 p.m., completely drenched!

12th morning, though the program for the 2nd batch was supposed to begin at 9 a.m., was delayed by by the forest department staff. After confirming the timings with the Urigam Ranger, we reached Uganiyam at around 10.15 a.m. and began the session.

It was conducted on similar lines as the previous day. The only difference was that this set of participants seemed a little more aware of the WPA, were better able to handle the weapons and the sessions were more interactive.

Towards the end, ACF Madhu spoke from his experience and related couple of incidents to motivate the participants. Sanjeev gave the vote of thanks and handed over souvenirs to Mr. Praveen Bhargav and Mr. Chinnappa.

Handouts were given to all the participants containing important provisions of the Wildlife Protection Act, Gun Safety guidelines. A copy of English & Tamil versions of 'The Truth About Tigers' DVD was also given to the participants, courtesy Mr. Shekhar Dattatri.

Observations:
- Some of the staff from the 1st batch need training in weapon handling
- APCs are under-staffed and probably under-equipped also
- Checkpost is manned irregularly, probably only when some FD official is visiting.
- Watch towers do not have any watchers, including the new one just before Gerhatti

Participants
11th August 2011:
Hosur, Rayakottai and Krishnagiri Ranges. 45 guards/watchers/foresters. Officers: ACF M. Anandakumar, ACF A. Madhu, ACF Padma, RFO Vishwanathan (Anchetty)

12th August 2011:
Denkanokottai, Jowlagiri, Anchetty and Urigam Ranges. 35 guards/watchers/foresters. Officers: ACF M. Anandakumar, ACF A. Madhu, RFO Vishwanathan (Anchetty), RFO Ramachandran (Denkanikottai), RFO Soligounder (Jowlagiri and additional charge of Urigam)

-
Laxmeesha Acharya

Camera Trapping Project

2011-08-02T10:12:00.000-07:00

Kenneth Anderson Nature Society (KANS) started the Camera Trapping project in May 2011 with the primary aim of documenting the biodiversity in Melagiri by getting photographic evidences. As the animals in Melgiri are extremely timid and shy due to human interferences, KANS decided that the best way to get photographs was to deploy camera traps at different locations in the field. Camera traps are silent and effective as they detect motion and body heat to take photographs automatically.

A camera trap deployed in the field

The camera trapping project is undertaken to support the vision of KANS, that is, conservation of Melagiri and its wild denizens. Conservation cannot work if we don’t know what we are trying to conserve. This project is aimed at understanding and filling that gap.

The purpose of the camera trapping project can be broadly classified into primary and sub-objectives.

Primary objective:

To obtain photographic evidences of fauna in various ranges of Melagiri.

Sub-objectives:

To capture movement of cattle in the forest.

To identify human disturbances such as vehicular movement, movement of people along forest trails/tracks etc.

Method of deployment:
A suitable range is selected based on claims of animal activity. The traps are then placed in a selected beat within the range based on direct or indirect evidences.

As of now KANS has deployed three camera traps in the field. These have been successful in getting photographs of leopard, small indian civet, palm civet, sambar deer, elephant, wild boar, spotted deer, jungle cat, porcupine and a few birds.

A few camera trapped denizens of Melagiri

This is an ongoing project and if you are interested in participating or getting any other details, please get in touch with me(Arun) at arunaccess@gmail.com.

2011-07-25T20:15:00.000-07:00

Training workshop for Protection Staff of Anchetty and Urigam Ranges

on 11^th and 12^th August 2011

Kenneth Anderson Nature Society is organising a 2 day workshop for the Protection staff of the Hosur Forest Division wherein approx. 60 staff will be trained in field craft, anti-poaching tactics, proper use of firearms and guidelines on legal issues. The objective of the workshop is to enhance the skills of the staff and also highlight the importance of their role and improve their morale and self-esteem.

The workshop will be conducted by Wildlife First, represented by Mr. Praveen Bhargav (a former member of NBWL) (http://www.theearthheroes.com/the-awards/2006-awards/29-praveen-bhargav-) and Mr. KM Chinnappa (http://www.maheshbhat.com/heroes/chinnappa/index1.html), a former Range Officer of Nagarhole National Park

This workshop is a follow up to an earlier workshop conducted in November 2010 for 32 Range Officers of the Dharmapuri Circle. See newsreport

The staff will be trained in field craft, anti-poaching tactics, proper use of firearms and guidelines on legal issues. The objective of the workshop is to enhance the skills of the staff and also highlight the importance of their role and improve their morale and self-esteem.

Itinerary

Workshop timing: 9am – 5pm
11^th August 2011: Training for staff of Anchetty Range at Rasimanal APC
12^th August 2011: Training for staff of Urigam Range at Uganiam APC

Atleast 3 volunteers are required. Please contact Laxmeesha, laxmeesha@gmail.com if you wish to volunteer for the event.

Tree Walk @ Melagiri

2011-06-28T00:31:00.000-07:00

Tree walk is an initiative to understand and catalogue the tree species in Melagiris. Our member Sheshadri who is an expert on trees is leading the walk which has been very informative to say the least.

In his own words Sheshadri puts down the following on flora and on the Tree walk project
"Trees dominate the landscape in the rich Forests of South India. Every species of Tree makes possible the existence of hundreds of other members of Biological community.

We need to acquaint ourselves with these harmonious lifeforms. They evolved from 250 to 350 million years ago. Humans are only 1.5 lakh years old !

Tree walks are the first steps needed for Tree conservation. Accurate Field Botanists and Effective Foresters are the need of the Hour.

It is important to identify Forest trees and discover their various functions in supporting biodiversity. The botanical names, local names of Trees and Shrubs.. Their various Shapes, Sizes, Forms and occurrence in the Wild will be explored in detail. In this way we can relate to them and learn to conserve them.All other species of Flora and Fauna shall follow....

In-Situ conservation measures are - protecting their habitat and minimizing Human activity ( except some ancient tribes who have always lived in harmony with the forests ). Special protection for Rare and Endangered Trees.

Ex-Situ conservation measures are Collection of Seeds, generating Tall Saplings in local TNFD Nurseries or Nurseries and Farmlands in adjacent locations. Planting them in appropriate locations on the periphery of forest areas to Improve Natural Forest Cover. Thus attracting a wide variety of Local Fauna."

We have completed 2 sessions on the tree walk session so far that began first in May 2011.

We came across to a variety of trees from the evergreen trees like Mimusops elengi to scrub jungle varieties like Capparis sepiaria. We even documented a few Eastern ghat species like Givotia rottleriformis. This verily proves that Melagiri indeed is this unique landscape, where the the eastern and Western Ghats meet!

Sometimes we came across rare varieties like Wrightia arborea.

There were trees like Mitragyna parvifolia where we witnessed several hundreds of common crows and plain tigers busy nectering reminding us of the ecological services these trees provide.

Please find the documentation on the tree walk here, https://sites.google.com/site/aboutmelagiri/main/flora and images at the KANS picasa album https://picasaweb.google.com/ka.naturesociety/FloraOfMelagiri

Documenting Flora is an ongoing project. Please get in touch with Karthik (karthikguna@gmail.com) for more details regarding participation during the tree walk and other details.

Grizzled Giant Squirrel and Four Horned Antelope re-discovered

2011-06-27T10:01:00.000-07:00

The grizzled giant squirrel (Ratufa macroura) is a large tree squirrel in the genus Ratufa found in the highlands of the Central and Uva provinces of Sri Lanka, and in patches of riparian forest along the Kaveri River and in the hill forests in the Tamil Nadu and Kerala states of southern India.The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the species as near threatened due to habitat loss and hunting.

The (GGS) is a previously un-recorded species for the Hosur forest division (HFD). Specific search for GGS was made by researchers of Asian Nature Conservation Foundation (ANCF) after Mr.Ganesan former DFO of HFD expressed his deep conviction that this animal would surely be found along the riverine tracts along the Cauvery river. Sure enough, a number of nesting sites and a handful of individual animals have been recorded at various places by Dr.Bhaskaran, Saravanan and Senthil Kumar from ANCF through record shots of a single GGS in 2009.

Recently KANS member, Mr. Prasanna was fortunate to spot and obtain some good images of the GGS. Thus the GGS presence has been verified again.

Another species found in this region, the Four horned antelope (Tetracerus quadricornis), also known as Chousinga is listed as vulnerable under the IUCN Red list of threatened species. It is usually found near to perennial water sources since it needs to drink water regularly. Its preference to dry deciduous forests has exposed it to a lot of biotic pressure from MFP collection and livestock grazing.

Both these rare species have discovered in the Urigam and Anchetty ranges of the Hosur Forest divisions during the year long bio-diversity survey carried out by KANS with ANCF along with the TamilNadu Forest department.

A recent Frontline article by Dr.AJT Johnsingh recently conjectured that the four horned antelope was probably extinct along the Tamilnadu side of the Cauvery. A dead specimen was also

recovered a few years back from the Udedurgam area of the Rayakota Range of Hosur Forest division.

It is a cause for celebration that they are found in good numbers with as many as 30 defecation sites spotted along the banks of the Cauvery river. The four horned antelope usually a solitary creature is regularly sighted in the Hosur Forest division as small herds of upto 3 individuals.

Recently Dr.Ravi Raja Singh, son of the late Mr.Raja Singh who was the DFO of these parts in the 70s, also a KANS member sighted FHA.

Its a matter of deep concern that these bio-diversity rich areas are under pressure from cattle penning, fire wood collection and Minor Forest Produce collection . The current DFO, Mr. Ulaganathan has taken a positive step by creating checkposts at points of entry to GGS habitat. He has stepped up vigil and posted watchers, which was not there earlier.

However, villagers and city folks alike have found these forests to picnic and hold social gatherings. Loud music, vehicle horn, human presence and littering of plastic and beverage bottles have continued to disturb the last refuge of the GGS in HFD.

The common Langur is nearly extinct in this range and GGS and FHA may follow suit. The cry of the hour is to take immediate steps to secure the future of these endangered species by addressing the immediate threats posed by cattle penning and human disturbance.

Mammal Survey 2011, Hosur Forest division

2011-04-05T21:46:00.000-07:00

Hosur FD in collaboration with the local NGO, Kenneth Anderson Nature Society conducted the Mammal Survey in the ranges of Hosur Forest Division namely – Anchetty, Urigam, Denkanikottai, Javalagiri, Krishnagiri, Rayakottai and Hosur. Volunteers from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu participated in the synchronised survey. Each team with one or two volunteers and watcher/guard started on their pre-assigned beat in all ranges at 6.00 am exact so that no repeated data got recorded.

All volunteers underwent orientation program by the KANS range coordinators on the survey that covered the importance of conducting the survey, entering data during the survey, the survey methodology, the geography and history of the forests and the mammals in it, the do's and don't when in forest etc., The survey was divided into a 2 day event to collect direct and indirect evidence of the mammals.

On Saturday, 19th, the volunteers did a block count by walking in criss-cross fashion through the beat area in the morning and sat patiently by a waterhole to count the mammals in the evening. The next day, Sunday 20th, volunteers collected indirect evidences in the same beat area via block count strategy in the morning. They recorded all hoof/pug marks and carnivore scratch marks. Line transect method was followed to record the elephant dung in the evening.

Overall the survey went smoothly and the data collected so far has been encouraging. Almost all the ranges saw good activity by the elephants with one team in the Denkanikottai coming across a herd of 17 elephants. Healthy Leopard activity was observed. Significant numbers of Gaur, Chital, Sambar and others were observed.

Images from the mammal survey are uploaded here : https://picasaweb.google.com/surveyphotos

The following are the reports that appeared in the newspapers:
Bangalore Mirror : http://www.bangaloremirror.com/article/10/2011032820110328000229803984dc3a/What-did-you-spot-Elephant-or-dung.html
City Buzz : http://www.scribd.com/doc/52386766/CB-25-03-11-Page-12-13

2011-03-27T01:15:00.000-07:00

One Day State Level Seminar on Urban Green Initiatives for Environment Teachers
& Kenneth Anderson Memorial Lecture, 2011
Date : Wednesday, 16th March 2011
Venue : MLA Academy of Higher Learning, 14th Cross, Malleswaram Bangalore 560003

Report by Jayaram Karkala

The programme started at 9.30 A.M. with the welcome address by the Principal Dr.Padmaja.
The official inauguration was done by lighting the lamp, and a Kannada song on Mother Earth.

All audience took the following Nature Pledge:
We, who have gathered here today, take a solemn pledge

To conserve and protect Mother Nature in all possible ways
To be compassionate towards all creations including fellow humans, animals, insects, plants, trees, rocks etc.
To conserve water and its resources.
To reduce the use of plastics & leather.
To recycle and reuse all nature resources as much as possible.
To reduce pollution in all forms.
To reduce carbon foot prints on our planet.

Jay, Secretary KANS spoke on KA and KANS .

Mr. B K Singh

Then Chief Guest Mr. B.K.Singh spoke on problems faced by Karnataka FD on man –animal conflict. He cited population growth and encroachment on jungles by people on the fringes of forests, as main the reason for such occurrences. He said that conflict of interest is there even in villages, where FD have spent lakhs of rupees for solar fencing. People have removed pockets of solar fences for their easy movement into forests for collection of firewood, honey etc. The elephants use this openings for raiding crops. He even stated that a recent experiment to relocate elephants from tea estates have failed after the elephants who were born in tea estates do not like forests and they come back to estates. Thus there are many problems, he said, unknown to public on man-animal conflicts. He cited that food crops like ragi etc should not be cultivated with in 5 kms of elephant corridors, to prevent elephant raiding crops.

Sri Suresh Heblikar

Kenneth Anderson Memorial Lecture was delivered by Sri Suresh Heblikar, who held the audience spell-bound by his oratory. His first subject was the loss of lakes in Bangalore. He said that he can show from records that 20 years ago all major lakes were connected together in with overflow systems. With the encroachment of real estate, all connections are cut and lakes have dried up. Even marsh at the edges of lakes was bio-diversity pockets in those days. With sand mafia’s activities, the lakes have disappeared. The next topic he mentioned was the influx of rural population to cities. The infrastructure requirements like water, power have reached exorbitant proportions, making it impossible for govt to provide them. He advocated basic needs of villages to be met, youth employment opportunities given in villages to reduce this influx. The third point he stated was that Tiger, being a glamorous animal, is being used by every conservationist in talks and plans. He insisted that saving bio-diversity should cover conservation of all animals, insects, birds etc, not the only just the tiger. His speech was well received by the audience.

Karthik JLR speaks

After a break, morning session started with session on Urban Ecology by Mr. Kartikeyan of JLR. He engrossed the students with his slide show and inimitable interesting interactive session. He told so many unknown facts about common insects, snakes, and rodents encountered every day by urban people. The audience, in future after this session, will see all urban insects, animals in a different perspective.

The next session was by Hasiru-Usiru team of Vinay Sreenivasa and Seshadri, with a slide show explained about trees of Bangalore and efforts taken by HasiruUsiru to protect through activism/appeals.

The next session was Shubha/ Karan of Biome- Solutions on Rain water harvesting. They explained in details various aspects, methods, and advantages of RWH.

A short film on KANS shown to the audience was much appreciated, as seen in feed back forms.

A nature quiz was conducted by KANS team of Girish/ Warrier. A prelim was done with 20 teams during lunch break, short listing 4 teams for the finals.

During Lunch break another short film on Sholas was shown to the audience.

Post lunch session started with ATREE team talking on Urban trees and their conservation. This topic was well received by the audience.

Nine teams presented papers for environment competition, and were judged by KANS team of Girish/Warrier/Nirmala.

quiz finals

The finals of Nature quiz was conducted in a very interesting manner with power point by KANS team of Warrier/Girish. The whole audience also enjoyed the quiz by participating and answering for questions which the finalists could not answer.

Feed back forms (designed by Girish-KANS) were collected back from all participants for analysis by the college authorities. They would inform us the feed back points in a few days. The successful, satisfactory Seminar ended with Vote of Thanks by Dr.Kalyani.

Synchronized Mammal Survey 2011

2011-03-09T12:11:00.000-08:00

We have just received information from the Tamil Nadu Forest Department that the Synchronized Mammal Survey in Hosur Forest Division will be conducted on the 19th and 20th (Saturday and Sunday) of March 2011. They have requested our help and participation.

This is an excellent opportunity to explore and experience this vast forested area which we hope will soon be made a wildlife sanctuary. We request your participation to make this a successful survey.

How to Register

To register for the survey, kindly fill in and submit the following form:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dDJpXzBHMlVQYlFneElJcXNFQzdud1E6MQ
(This is to avoid sending unnecessary emails to people in our volunteer database who will not be participating in this Mammal Survey)

Arrangements

Volunteers will have to report at the DFO's Office, Near Cattle Farm, Mathigiri, Hosur on Friday, 18th March at 06:00 PM. The survey will conclude by 02:00 PM on Sunday, 20th March.

Volunteers will have to reach Mathigiri by themselves. Pick up and drops to transect points will be arranged by the Forest Department. However please do keep your own options in case you want to move around.

Volunteers will be accommodated in various FD guest houses and camps available in various ranges. Lady volunteers will be allotted ranges with the better guest house facilities.

Packed food will be arranged by the Forest Department.

We will send further information on arrangements, detailed programme and survey methods, documentation procedures etc to the people who register on the above link. If you have any queries, send it to melagirisurvey@gmail.com

Plastic pollution control at Dabguli, Urigam forest range

2011-02-09T10:36:00.000-08:00

Dabguli belongs to the Urigam range in Hosur Reserve forest under the Tamil Nadu Forest Dept. Situated on the banks of the river Cauvery surrounded by hills on the one side from Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary a haven for the wild animals, especially the elephants that descends down to quench their thirst.

A temple dedicated to Basava stands on a bare hillock in Dabguli. This temple sees a trickle of devotees descending down throughout the year. Every once a year around the time of Shivaratri a gathering of 15-20 thousand people swarm this once peaceful region to be a part of the Jathre organized by the surrounding villages for 2 days.

During the rapid survey conducted jointly with the Tamil Nadu Forest Department, Kenneth Anderson Nature Society who has been devoted to conservation activities in this region, witnessed Dabguli littered profusely with all the paper and plastic waste. KANS took up the initiative to minimize pollution the next year, 2011. KANS requested the planning committee of the Dabguli Jathre to use plates made out of leaves as against paper/plastic plates. When the committee pictured financial constraint as reason to opt the plastic plates, KANS bore 50% of the costs for the Areca leaf plates and secured a vendor as well to buy 30,000 plates. The Dabguli committee who appreciated our concern dug up pits at several places to collect the plates for dumping.

On the D day a team of 21 KANS members placed banners urging the pilgrims attending the Jathre not to litter the sacred forests. Additionally they set up baskets made out of jute in front of the shops that had mushroomed in the wake of the jathre to collect the plastic waste arising in the form of tea cups, bags, ice cream cups etc., KANS also screened the movie " Nagarhole Video - Tales from an Indian Jungle" by Shekhar Dattatri, to the audience to bring home the message of conservation. The following morning the volunteers spread out and collected all the plates and plastic waste scattered and dumped them into the pits.

One of the many concerns that arose during the Jathre and that needs serious attention from the forest department were the procurement of fuel-wood which was collected without abandonment (Remember nothing goes waste in a forest, the dry wood is home to many species) Loudspeakers and music system that kept a steady stream of songs and talks throughout the 2 days and the wandering tourists who camped anywhere and everywhere recklessly.

The forests of Dabguli have been seriously hampered by the stream of tourists who disregarding the laws of the forest, camp here without obtaining the permission from the FD and cause a lot of disturbance to the local fauna, a jathre in such big scale with ambitions to billow out into a cattle fair, building guest houses, renovating the temple in grand scale, laying down a tar road plus electricity will be a death blow to the already suffering forests of Hosure FD.

Prasanna Vynatheya gives below his personal experience volunteering for the Dabguli pollution control

Malarnthum Malaratha ………… Nadiyum vilayadi kodiyu kalaisaindi …

http://www.dishant.com/jukebox.php?songid=18807

Song from the past came drifting through the forest across the Cauvery as the sleep too came drifting in snatches, it was well past midnight. We were all tired, tired of the last lap of 7+ kms through the tough terrain running parallel to the river. Yet, all smiles and talks amongst 23 of us as we rested under the beautiful starry night.

A little romantic but that’s it, just to give you the background. Yes the song was Tamil that came floating at Uginiyam, whereas 7 kms away at Dabguli it was all Kannada; yes Kannada songs, Kannada announcements, Kannada skits and drama, though it is Tamil Nadu officially.

The Dabguli Jatre (Fair) is being celebrated only since recent times (some say 5 yrs ). Otherwise Dabguli was a very lonely stretch of Cauvery river tens of kms downstream from Mekadatu. In our previous trips we have recorded rare & disappearing species as Four horned antelope, Grizzled Giant Squerril, Otters etc at this very region.

Despite the last 14kms of muddy track through thick forest, there were around fifteen thousand people from the surrounding regions. They had come in small and medium trucks, tractors and the usual two wheelers to this Jatre.

Families found rocks and stones to sit and watch the proceedings that started with the usual inaugural address from the few organizers, followed by variety entertainment that was preceded by our KANS projection of Nagarahole.

There were about five Swamyjis on the stage and all of them spoke too, plus the three to four persons from the organizing group. From their talks one thing was certain; they all wanted this Jatre to be held every year and with more and more pomp and festivities. One of the Swamijis made a loud appeal to all

· To focus their energy to make his dream of including a Cattle Fair at Dabguli.

· Another Swamyji said he was looking forward to contribution from the people to help them build facilities for the devotees.

But two swamyjis strongly condemned the drinking that was rampant all around that place even on the day of the Jatre. To quote his exact words ‘Inside the temple I got the smell of incense and when I stepped outside it was all alcohol’. The first Swamyji who spoke, begged the gathering to keep the place’s sanctity, and to make this a place of pilgrimage, to come there to desist and getaway from their vices, and, not make it a place for vices.

In a way it was heartening to hear the Swamyjis boldly condemning the sordid practice of consuming alcohol in that sacred place, and at the same time it was a revelation to know that these indulgences happen to a great extent even at this place where the primary reason for visiting the place is for the Temple of Basava (Shiva’s vahana the Bull)

There was power graciously granted by the Electricity Board, the road was being improved, and there was talk about building guest houses etc. for the devotees. It is not difficult to surmise that it is only a matter of time before this quite stretch of Cauvery will become another Mekadatu or Muthatti. Well friends let me tell you that when a group of us managed to reach Mutthatti on bikes in 1975 or 76, we were the very first of the visitors to do so on bikes. There was nothing there except a small temple amongst huts. Today I believe it is a popular picnicking place, spoilt by plastic and garbage and of course noisy people.

My intention of recording these things is to give us all a clear understanding of what is happening there at Dabguli. What was also heartening though is that we managed to arouse in them a feeling of responsibility towards the environment. This was more than once emphasized by the speakers on the dais, who constantly kept requesting the gathering to keep the place clean and not to litter all around. We have scored a definitive point in that sense.

As it stands, given the turnout at the Fair and the voice of determination of the organizers and the supporting presence of the Swamyjis, we can deduce that it is definitely going the way that we at KANS dread to think.

Another song that floated upstream was again a very old Tamil song that goes like ‘sailair aluva silair cerepa, Naan aledekonde cerepae’

My dear tamil friends please forgive me for any misspellings or distortions in the above lines.

With growing concern

Prasanna

Jatre happened on: 5^th & 6^th of Feb. 2011

Uniform Distribution

2011-01-25T00:57:00.000-08:00

The villages in and around Hosur Forest Division have regularly experienced crop depradation by elephants during the months of Nov-Feb. A program was conducted at Hosur on Dec 29, 2010 to compensate the farmers who have suffered crop loss. The same event saw the Hosur FOrest Division setting up a crop depredation squad of 30 watchers who would be dedicated to assist the villagers in driving the elephants back into the forests. KANS contributed to this endeavour by donating uniforms to all the 30 watchers. The kit comprised of shirt, pant, cap, belt, sweater, monkey cap, shoes and socks. These were distributed to each of the watchers by the Hon. Forest Minister Mr. N. Selvaraj. At the same event, KANS Vice-President Mr. Sanjeev Kumar, also handed over a memorandum to the Forest Minister highlighting the importance of conserving the Melagiri forests.

Call for Volunteers: Minimising Pollution at Dabaguli Jatre

2011-01-21T12:35:00.000-08:00

Dabaguli is a picturesque place on the banks of the Cauvery in the Urigam forest range of the Hosur forest division. An antipoaching camp of Tamilnadu forest department and a small shack housing a fisherman family are the only human presence for most part of the year. A small Nandi temple is the only relic from times long ago when Dabguli hosted a cattle patti (kraal).

This sleepy little temple sees a thin stream of visitors throughout the year. However a huge crowd of about ten thousand people descend on this idyllic spot from surrounding villages in Tamilnadu and Karnataka for the annual Dabguli Jatre (festival) around the time of Shivrathri. This grand overnight event has various poojas, dramas, Harikathe etc.
This is a cause for concern as these environs are home to the highly endangered Grizzled Giant squirrel and a host of other wildlife including chital, sambhar, elephants, leopard, wilddogs and sloth bears. Theplastic litter left behind by this crowd is not only an eyesore but also a big environmental threat.

This year, the festival is marked to fall on the 5th and 6th of February, 2011. Kenneth Anderson Nature Society (KANS) has been interacting with the organising committee of the Jatre to contain the environmental impact. The villager folk and the organising committee sincerely acknowledge the pollution caused by the event. KANS' presence, participation and efforts to tackle this problem will help further sensitize them to the problem.
KANS has convinced the committee to use bio degradable arecanut leaf plates instead of plastic and thermacol plates to serve the 25000 meals that will be dished up during the festival. KANS will subsidize the cost of the plates and also bear the cost of commercial firewood instead of jungle wood used to cook these meals.
A screening of the Kannada Version of 'Tales from an Indian Jungle (the one about Nagarhole) is also being planned at the spot during the festival.

We require 20-30 volunteers during to carry out this program. The major task will be disposal of plates and plastic. The proposed itinerary is as follows:
Assemble at Anchetty Guest House on Friday, 4th February Friday night.
Proceed to Dabguli on very early on Saturday morning.
Stay over-night during the festival.
Come back on early Sunday evening.

Points to remember:
Dabguli is deep inside the forest on the banks of the Cauvery. There are no sleeping facilities or toilets. Please carry enough water and sleeping bags/mats. Weather can turn chilly and dewy at night so carry enough warm clothes and cap. Volunteers will have to make own transportation arrangements. Venue is approachable by 2 wheeler/car.

Route from Bangalore: Bangalore-Hosur-Denkanikottai-Anchetty-Tagatti-Hunsenhalli-Belpatti-Manchugondanahalli-Dabguli

If you are interested in being a part of this, mail in to ka.naturesociety@gmail.com on or before Tuesday, 25th January, 2011. If you are coming by your own vehicle, kindly indicate how many more volunteers can join you from Bangalore/Hosur. We will get in touch with the team with detailed route and availablity of car-pool, on Wednesday, 26^th January, 2011.

Global Warming Awareness Program at Nalanda School

2010-12-06T12:50:00.000-08:00

Cheerful students, wonderfully supportive staff and complete co-operation and interest by FD more or less summarises the Global Warming Awareness Program KANS conducted at Nalanda School, Krishnagiri on 4th December 2010.

The first programme was tree plantation by the students of various classes. The students and class teachers showed keen interest in planting the 120 saplings arranged by Mr. Thillairasan with support from Mr. Palanisamy, Range Officer, Interface Forestry Range. This takes the total number of saplings planted in Krishnagiri region to 1620! Range Officer Mr. Shivaji, who was the Chief Guest for the event explained to all of us what each sapling is and what all are its uses.

Next, we all moved to the mini-theatre and Laxmeesha gave a presentation on Global Warming. He explained the problem in simple terms for the students and also suggested small but effective steps to fight the issue.

This was followed by the screening of Shekar Dattatri's The Truth About Tigers. Those collective gasps during the 'violent' parts of the video (tiger's hunt and man's poaching) and the soft giggles when the video was showing the playful tiger cubs is a huge encouragement to extend this activity to other schools as well. Later, on seeing the English version of Truth About Tigers, Mr. Shivaji asked us for the Tamil version to show everyone at FD and we promised we will get a copy of it and send it across.

And, these cheerful faces were the best part of the event.

Rest of the pictures can be found here in our photo-stream: http://picasaweb.google.com/ka.naturesociety

First bird watching session by KANS

2010-12-06T05:40:00.000-08:00

Twenty five students each from Sishya school and Titan school attended the first session of bird watching conducted by KANS on 28th november 2010. These sessions have been initiated to familiarise the students with the many species of birds that have made their home in and around Hosur and its forests. The students will also be educated about the behaviour and conservation of the migratory birds that visit during the winter months. KANS intends to conduct one session every month for the students from Hosur with the cooperation of school authorities who will appoint one teacher in each school for these activities.

The following activities were carried out:
1. A Slide Show on Common and endangered birds of India was presented by by Mr. Guruprasad Timmapur, a member of KANS at Titan School. He also spoke about the various services such as pollination and pest control performed by birds in general and also about some of the superstitions surrounding some of the birds.

2. The presentation was followed by a bird watching session at Sanamavu reserve forest on the outskirts of Hosur. The students, with the help of KANS members were broken into several groups and identified many common birds found in this scrub jungle.

3. Finally a discussion was held with the children and they were given assignments to identify the birds in their neighborhood.

Deepa Mohan, who volunteered for the Bird watching session at Hosur gives us a photographic guide to the events that unfolded on the day here - http://deponti.livejournal.com/747580.html

Wildlife protection and enforcement training for the Hosur forest divısion

2010-11-20T05:40:00.000-08:00

The team

As part of wildlife week celebrations KANS partnered by Wildlife First conducted wildlife protection and enforcement training program for the Hosur forest divısion rangers and DFO, at Aiyur eco-awareness camp in Aiyur range in Hosur FD (Forest Division)

The training program was held on 19th November at the Aiyur eco-awareness camp, hosted by the Tamil Nadu forest Division. Praveen Bhargav, a trustee of Wildlife First, and a member of the National Board for Wildlife conducted the session for the Hosur forest division rangers and DFO. Around 35 Rangers from the Hosur FD, Dharmapuri FD's DFO, Hosur FD's DFO- Ulaganathan and CF (Conservator of forests)- Varadharjalu attended the program.

The following series of activities were conducted:

I. Wildlife Protection:

Explaining the importance of foot patrol, Mobile Patrols, Anti Poaching Camps and Check posts for the protection of the forests
How to set up anti poaching camp and ideal number of such camps (3 per 100 sq. km)
How to organize patrolling through patrols, tracks, etc., and gather intelligence through them
How to tackle poachers, conduct raids.

II. Wildlife protection enforcement

Went through the key points in wildlife protection act, forest act and forest conservation act . (Like sections on filing cases)
Detailed the process of lodging complaints and to make the case fool proof
Interaction with the local police
Detailed the settlement of tribal rights through various acts
Through personal examples and citing various sources explained why the forests must be conserved.

The following event appeared in the Hindu, TN publication :

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/article903270.ece?sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4ce9d11bfcb32c1b%2C0

Urigam Ground Survey - January 2010

2010-10-18T05:12:00.000-07:00

A couple of months back I had registered with KANS(Kenneth Anderson Nature Society) as a volunteer. Never thought they'll respond but they did, two months later. Got a mail asking me to come for a ground survey of Urigam, a place in the Melagiri range of the Hosur forest division. So off I went on a friday evening (left early from office), got picked up by a couple of guys who were going there by car. Reached Ancheti forest guest house by 8 in the night.

After exchanging pleasantries with the rest of the group(14 volunteers), we were briefed on our itinerary for the next day. We were divided into teams of two and would be accompanied by a forest guard during our hike through the forest. My teammate was a girl who was working with Infosys. We were given data sheets on which we had to record the data pertaining to direct and indirect evidences (direct-sighting or hearing animals; indirect-pug/hoof marks, scat/droppings etc.), covers to collect samples(in case of scat/droppings) and GPS(Global Positioning System) to record the exact spot where we found evidences. We had to collect these data while walking along a pre-decided trail. So everything set, we guys finally crashed for the day at almost 12 in the night, on the veranda, chivalrously offering the sole room to the two ladies in the group. I did have second thoughts about giving away the room as it started getting inexorably cold a few hours into the sleep.

Next morning saw us awake by 4:30 and getting ready quickly to set off from the guest house to our respective drop points. My team reached our start point finally at 6:30. We started with the forest guard assigned to us. The guard told me that our trek would be around 12 kilometers which I think was true coz we reached our extraction point only by 12:30 and it did seem like a good hike. Just at the start of our trail I saw a Crested Serpent Eagle, to me it was like a good omen, which would make my hike eventful. Spirits up, we kept moving forward. The first indirect evidences were hoof marks of Wild pigs(Sus scrofa) and Elephant(Elephas maximus) dung at an almost dry waterhole. Then we came across scat of Civet(unsure of the species) which I had to collect. Whoa! what am I talking about, pick up shit?! Yup, thats exactly what I had to do and I did it without a second thought; but then again ensured that I did it in the most hygienic way possible. I put my hand into one of the plastic covers they had given for sample collection and picked up the scat and then turned the cover inside out which made sure that I did not have direct contact with the scat but at the same time it ended up in the cover. After enthusiastically collecting this great piece of evidence, I realized the lack of a bag to carry it. So off went the cover full of scat into my army green cargo's knee pocket. Then took out the GPS, took a reading and recorded the observations on the data sheet. Later we found a lot of Elephant dung and scat of Wild Dogs/Dhole(Cuon alpinus). The Wild Dog's scats were quickly collected. Wild dog's scat is identifiable by the presence of hair(hair of its unfortunate prey). Then we also came across droppings of Bonnet Macaque(Macaca radiata) and Sloth Bear(Melursus ursinus). We also came across a strange scat which the guard claimed was of Wild dogs but I had doubts as it was completely white and without hair, which resembled that of a Striped Hyena(Hyaena hyaena). Anyway to clear doubts, this too was appropriately collected and recorded. During our hike we also found tracks of Sambar(Cervus unicolor), Spotted Deer(Axis axis) and also Sloth Bear. These were photographed like those of the wild pigs. Direct sightings of mammals during the entire hike consisted of only two- Hanuman Langur(Semnopithecus entellus), a troop of which were seen across a valley on another hill and a Spotted Deer doe. Other than mammals quite a few birds were also spotted. Happy with the data sheet being filled reasonably, we reached our extraction point to meet organizers. I excitedly told them about our experiences as to what we had seen and collected. Later during the day we met the other teams and discussed our findings. Some teams had found Leopard(Panthera pardus) scats and pug marks while others had seen Jackals(Canis aureus).

For that night, we were to camp at an Anti-Poaching Camp at Uganiyam, near the Cauvery river. On the other side of the river was Karnataka. The Karnataka side seemed better forested and the tell tale evidences of humans were less as it was a sanctuary whereas the Tamil Nadu side was only a reserve forest. The river bank in one area was littered with plastic left behind by Pilgrims who had come to a temple there for a festival; the sight was heart-breaking! Anyway did some light birding in the vicinity for a couple of hours while waiting for the other teams to arrive. During which time a couple of people went on a coracle ride and spotted the Smooth River Otters(Lutrogale perspicillata)!! After everyone got back, we settled down at the Anti-Poaching camp at Uganiyam. Here we chatted and cracked jokes and spent our time till around 12 in the night. Then some of us slept inside the camp building(me included), while others slept in their respective vehicles and some others, outdoors.

Early next day, I got up and did some birding with a guy who was doing project(MSc project) on birds. While birding we also saw a group of 4 Wild Pigs bounding away after hearing us. Soon after the birding, I handed over the data sheets, photographs and the samples to the organizers. I explained in detail whatever I had seen and collected. That brought my survey to a close. I was happy, elated and felt like I was in the air because I felt I had accomplished something; I had finished a task I was entrusted with, a task that I was more than happy undertaking...

Check out this article on Cauvery forests- http://www.flonnet.com/fl2626/stories/20100101262606400.htm
Arun also blogs at Idle Mind.

Wildlife week celebration by KANS in Hosur Forest Division

2010-10-13T23:21:00.000-07:00

Day 01, 09/10/2010 - Nature Camp

As part of the wildlife week festivities, KANS conducted a nature camp for the students of Sishya and Titan School, Hosur at Aiyur eco-awareness camp.

The idea behind conducting this camp was to bring into sharp focus of the students the area of Melagiri, its history, diversity and to bring into them a sense of responsibility to protect this 1480 sq km area of forest cover falling into Krishnagiri district.

The students, a total of 9 each from the 2 schools were picked up from the Sishya School. On reaching Aiyur they were immediately taken to a short walk on the road leading to the Samieri lake from the camp. During the walk the students were made to listen to the various sounds of the forest and appreciate the diversity of creature that have made these forests their home. The students were briefed about spiders, birds, trees and the various animals that are found.

After breakfast the group of 10 students randomly picked trekked into the Manchi trails. The trek that began at 10am wrapped up at 2pm. The students prepared a checklist of all the birds , animals, butterflies they encountered. The students also learned to identify the animals by their pug marks, birds by their calls and flight pattern and butterflies by their patterns and colours.

They were intrigued by the call of Iora and Coucal and were enraptured by the beautiful Blue mormon, lemon and yellow-orange tip butterflies. The guide who is a local gave them an insight into the medicinal properties of the herbs and trees we saw on the trail. By the end of the trek, which covered a distance of around 6-8 kms the students could identify a lot of species and were ever more excited and repeatedly asked for continuing such camps. They realized that forests are inviolate parts of our existence, that their preservation is a must and took a bold stand of spreading this new awareness they gained.

After the lunch, sitting in a circle both the groups recounted their experiences and later we headed out to the view-point of the Spider valley, where Sanjeev, vice president of KANS talked to them into length about Kenneth Anderson, the Indian born Scottish hunter who once roamed these very forests hunting the man-eating tigers and leopards and rogue elephants, the former glory of Melagiris, how KANS came into being and how the students could help KANS conserve these forests.

The students were encouraged to form groups at their school under the guidance of their principal and Sanjeev, which would then be directly involved in surveying the Melagiri in small batches. With the infusion the younger generation closer home, who feel a sense of belonging and responsibility towards these forests, Melagiris is bound to bounce back to the state it was 40-50 years back.

The group then headed towards the Sameeri lake and patiently waited for more than an hour until darkness fell with silence, to catch a glimpse of the elephants. Unfortunately perhaps because of the rains they chose not to visit the lake.

Finally we wrapped up the camp with a 40 min sojourn into the secret life of Tigers and the conservation value and issues surrounding them by screening the movie 'Truth about Tigers' by Shekar Dattatri.

Day 02, 10/10/2010 - Painting Competition, theme - Wildlife

A total of nearly 10 schools in and around participated in the painting competition with a turnover of 467 students in the groups of LKG to 2nd, 3rd to 5th, 6th to 7th and 8th to 10th.

The painting competition took place at St. Joseph's higher secondary school in Hosur and jointly conducted by KANS, HRT and HLC.

The theme of the competition was wildlife and an entry fee of 20 INR was collected. The enthusiasm among the kids was electrifying, from 9.30 to 11.30 the students poured out paints into their sheets and drew, painted and munched on the snacks provided. The registration and handling the students was organized such that it was ensured that each student was escorted back by their own guardian. The panel of judges consisting of Mr.Jaganathan (Art Master, Goverment Boys High school), Mrs.Usha Rani Sridhar ( Civil Engg. BITS Pilani, trained in fine arts and conducts classes in Hosur), Mr.Gowri Shankar ( Drawing master fromTitan watches) and Mr.S.Shiva( Drawing master, winner of top 30 WGC jewellery designers and founder of March Arts Foundation ,Hosur elected a 1,2 and 3rd prices plus 5 consolation prizes in each category.

And the team..

Threats to Melagiri forests

2010-10-13T23:19:00.001-07:00

A strong odour of cattle dung hit us even before our eyes caught sight of it littered everywhere like shopping freaks in Bangalore's Mall. And here we were in the middle of a thick scrub jungle come to do a census on the flora and fauna of the Hosur Forests also called as Melagiris. Kenneth Anderson Nature Society together with Asian Nature Conservation Foundation have taken up several surveys in this region that spreads over an area of almost 1200 sq kms containing a mix of several vegetation but mainly abounded by the dry scrub forest to study these forests and restore the region back to its original state.

These forests face manifold threats and perhaps the one by cattle grazing tops the list. Cattle here are grazed in large numbers and pegged down in large cattle-pen called pattis. The absence of large carnivores and a blind eye by the forest department has made the Hosur forests a cattle grazing grounds for the locals. There is a suspicion that the cattle that's been grazed belongs to the wealthier families in Tamil Nadu living far away from Hosur employing the services of the local. While the locals are allowed to graze cattle and sheep, grazing goats is illegal, though one can frequently come across goats grazing in the Melagiris. This has been made illegal because while the cattle/sheep feed mainly on grass the goat eats up tender shoots thus denying the forests to rejuvenate.

Chital that is so abundant in the other side of the Cauvery, on the Karnataka side, that you yawn when you sight herd after herd thudding away in your wake has in this region become a sight to feast on. So why have the herbivores been thinning out even as the forests remain? Answer, human interference and Cattle Grazing. These herbivores have been hunted down for meat and skin. Also since they naturally avoid man increased human interference has made them to flee these forests. The dwindling grass cover by the cattle even as it sprouts and the foot and mouth disease, poaching for meat has all played a major role in wiping out the larger population of the herbivores. With such a small prey base and poaching has wiped out the tigers, not to mention cattle-kill poisoning carried out by their distraught owners long ago. Although we have recorded pug marks of leopards and wild dogs, tigers and hyena have are no longer to be found although the locals claim to have seen one or two a while.

Thick lantana jungle has sprung up everywhere wiping away the native plant species. Its likely that these dry bushes catch up fire at the slightest chance building up into a roaring furnace and destroying the forest. KANS (Kenneth Anderson Nature Society) has drawn plans to employ locals to remove this invasive weed from the roots. However no amount of de-weeding can remove them forever, the seeds of lantana are spread by birds and need but a brief spell of rain to grow back to numbers. A sustained effort over time only can put a cap on the lantana jungle.

Man-Elephant conflict is on steady rise. The Elephants have taken to crop-raiding due to a variety of reasons - perhaps because the farms have replaced their original forests? or because they face shortage of food within forests due to expansive cattle grazing? Some also say the Elephants have taken a liking to easily available farm produce while others vehemently deny it stating elephants are shy of humans and do everything in their power to avoid human habitation. And having experienced that first hand I must say I agree with the latter belief. Human death toll is getting higher too. Unwary locals and forest guards have been trampled by bulls occasionally.

At several places Villages have taken permanent residence within the forest boundaries. Re-settling these villages from the Melagiris is essential to give the forests and wildlife a chance to revive. However this is a very sensitive issue, the tribals in this region have been living in the forests are called Poojaries and have since time immemorial developed a culture that is deeply associated with the forests. It is indeed very difficult to separate the original settlers from the new families that must have taken residence in the recent past. A fair approach must be followed and enough compensation must be given for the families to persuade them to move out of the forests. A few of the natives could be soaked in as the forest staff as their knowledge of these forests is exhaustive and indispensable towards studying and protecting them.

The locals have been using the forests to extract a variety of forest produce including firewood, tamarind pods, honey to list a few. KANS has drawn up plans to provide LPG gas to the families to cut down on the firewood gathering. Farmlands are extending their tentacles into the forest lands steadily. When the Melagiris assume Sanctuary status, with enough security, it can be said that Timber extraction, poaching and such illegal activities can be capped.

Reckless Tourism is another contributing factor. Although Melagiris are relatively unknown patch of forests it can be predicted that with all the conservation activities in progress, the limelight on the flora and fauna will inevitably attract a steady stream of picnic-goers. Already tourists are seen loitering around. At a prominent lake where the elephants usually gather in large numbers at dusk tourists unmindful of the danger have been seen in groups. Although there is no straight forward solution to the Tourism issue but it must be handled with caution.

Although the list of threats does not end here, they are not new. Our forests throughout India are reeling under the same tell-tale signs. We have only around 3% land under forest cover protecting a fragile eco-system. New lands are almost impossible to secure for the already threatened plants and animals and the majority of the forests in this 3% fall as reserved forests. The forest staff are few, they are underpaid and not well equipped to fight the poachers. There are many problems and many more solutions. Today the cry of the hour is to guarantee the security of our remaining forests, to guarantee a life to the many beasts and wild plants that abound our lands. The time is to act.

A night at Rasimanal Watchtower

2010-10-13T23:19:00.000-07:00

The last of the ground survey by KANS winded up at Rasimanal. Here is an account of the most wonderful time of my life..

Rasimanal Forest Guest house is around 2 hours drive from Anchetty. The narrow roads sneak up the hills and at one point gave a awe inspiring view of the valley. Tiny villages with hardly around 100-150 families have sprung up all along the way.

I tasted the most refreshing coffee and tea at a tea shop on the way that boasted a very interesting water heater, though I would say it was simply the lower part of water filter set up on a stove! The swooshing movement of mixing up the beverage with milk and water by the owner was worth filming!

We waited at the last hamlet for the forest guard (who incidentally never turned up) for the guest house keys. When the waiting became intolerable a few of us started walking along the jungle path for birding, a few of the locals began telling me no to go any further as elephants frequented the path beyond the farm. I would have loved to see some. As fate could have its last laugh I was again denied the elephant encounters. The heat of the afternoon gave way to the soothing evening breeze and my troop giving up the hope of the guest house keys collected the rest of the wandering gang and started moving towards RasiManal. Rasimanal belongs to the Anchetty range and here the Cauvery and Dodhalla meet up and continue their way into Tamil Nadu. With the pre-monsoon showers Cauvery had indeed swollen and was gushing away noisily.

You could feel it in the air that you were about to witness the unexpected. As is usual to me I floated away.. day dreaming wide awake. Wild Jasmine shrubs also called Kadu Mallige in Kannada littered the forest grounds profusely.. Its scent rose in spirals and set the scene of ancient Indian lore, For some reason I began to recount the tale of Shakuntala, that that lovely maiden must have sometime run around here with those wild flowers in her ear lobes..

We spotted a pair green imperial pigeon, my very first. Indeed a very beautiful bird found reportedly in the Western Ghats.The forest guard who accompanied us in the jeep prepared us for the sight of a half cooked elephant! Apparently during one of the beats last week they found a dead elephant , and had gathered dry twigs and set fire to the corpse. We found it alright, smelling it, meters away!

Finally we reached Rasimanal, my eyes all hooked at the Watchtower that guaranteed a bird's view of the valley with Cauvery just a few feet away. I accompanied the group that was hurrying to set the camera traps. We set a pair on the banks of the Cauvery around a kilometer or two from the watch tower. There were these huge trees with white bark and roots that almost seemed like skeletons hugging the loose boulders and keeping them in place reminding me of the Angkor Vat temples in Cambodia. I am guessing they were Dhindilu or dhindal , Scientific name Anogeissus latifolia belonging to the family Combretaceae

The Camera traps are motion detectors. When an animal crosses its range of detection, it sets off the camera that normally sleeps during inactivity. If I am not wrong the camera is active only for a period of 5 seconds in a minute. After a lot of circus to hold the camera facing the stretch that seemed to have seen a lot of animal activity we rushed back to the watch tower as it was getting dark and the time for the elephants and the nocturnal animals to come to the river bed. As we crashed back we almost lost our way. Its really a wonder how the forests guards can make out the way even during night. I can easily get lost on the back streets of my house! We were still discussing the camera traps when flash-flash something eerily silver seems to have floated past and my heart simply jumped into my mouth.. On a closer look however they turned out to be trees whose bark had a lustrous silver sheen, I am not sure what they are called though.

Night fall brought a lot of surprises including Mr. Thillai god-bless-him who brought food . During the time the whole troop devoured the fish curry and idlis I sat at the foot of the tower facing the river and the forests listening to light music and watching the greatest drama ever unroll, Nature unleashing its power.

As minutes trickled by dark clouds began gathering at the horizon that until now did not even have the white clouds , wind that ever so gently lifted tufts of my hair began to blow in real earnest almost pinning me to my side. The entire forests quivered in unease as the unrelenting winds grew in strength and a thunderstorm began to brew and very soon lightning forked the skies and a series of ear-splitting thunders rolled almost making you shiver at its intensity and cower in fear. For almost a hour this continued with no sign of relenting and giving way to rain, and we gathered on the watchtower's roof almost scared to stand at full height for fearing the lightning strike us!

And then with a whispering that grew louder than the howling wind it began to rain. Some of us staggered into the jeep some into the safe sanctuary of the watch tower and the rest of us filed on the side of the watch tower that provided at least little bit of shade from the onslaught of the rain. We shivered and laughed enjoying the whole scene like little children enjoying ice-cream.. We talked into sleeping all the adventures we have had every time peeking at the river bed for the sight of the crocs. The over crowded watch tower that day welcome eight of us tightly packed with me, the only girl in the group asleep facing everyone's feet!

Just imagine a perfect morning, a vast blue flushed sky , a mighty river with sandy bed and dark smooth stones jutting into her and you bend down to wash your face with the cool water. I wished my every morning would start that way! Me, Guru and Somyajit walked across for about 2 hours birding and we were lucky to see the Crested Hawk Eagle, a pair of otters who almost sauntered very close by finally beating a hasty retreat realizing our presence.

I almost ran back to the watchtower remembering Thillai's promise for a tasty Maggie for breakfast. Guru made a watery albeit tasty maggie noodles scorching Thillai's shiny vessel with black soot from the make-shift stove we made using half dry twigs and some bricks.

And there ends my most memorable day so far, rested between those soft hills and those dark angry clouds for ever.

Melagiri

2010-10-13T23:17:00.000-07:00

A troop of five people descend down the narrow trail juggling their glances between the sky to look out for birds, the trail to look out for scat and pug marks and everywhere else to soak in the heavenly view of the towering hills all around. The call of the Common Hawk Cuckoo also called the Brain Fever Bird reverberates all around.

We are the members of a Kenneth Anderson Nature Society, named after the erstwhile legendary hunter turned conversationalist Kenneth Anderson who roamed these very forests of Melagiri. The Melagiris are a range of hills on the Eastern Ghats, bound by the river Cauvery on the west. The total reserve forest area is around 1295 sq. kms. Inspired by the stories of Anderson the first KANS members ventured into these forests to feel the wild in first person. Over the years however the forests have been infiltrated by the locals for cattle grazing and to obtain the forest produce. The reserved forests are shrinking at the rapidly encroaching agricultural lands , the fauna disappearing by the unrestrained poaching activities.

KANS decided to take on the task of securing this habitat for the Tiger, to restore the region back to its original state.This is being achieved through a mix of passive and active conservation activities like community interaction programmes (afforestation, educational programmes, alternative agricultural practices), equipping the ground forest staff (uniforms, torches), field work to control Man-Elephant conflict, removal of invasive species etc.

Last weekend saw the the bio-diversity survey conducted at Anchetty, The objective of the surveys have been to take stock of the forests. To bring to public light the beauty and diversity of these forests and also highlight the socio-economic issues facing conservation in this region. The inventory of the species and inputs on the human-forest interaction issues are to add in to help to achieve the goal of securing Sanctuary status to the Melagiris.(Note: The proposal has not yet been submitted)

As we reached the bed of Dodahalla river, that has been a witness to the glorious past, a time when Majestic Tigers roamed this land, a time when Kenneth Anderson set float his hair raising adventures, We grew excited as we IDied the pug marks of leopards. At least one of the bigger carnivore has escaped the same fate as that of the Tigers, although that could be due to the fact that leopards are tinier than its cousin, have an excellent camouflage, very shy but intelligent creature that can live on smaller prey base and very adaptive. We also spotted pug marks and scat samples of Civet, Chital, etc.,However our joy was shadowed by the presence of large amount of Cattle dung scattered everywhere in generous quantity. Cattles are a menace to the forests. Their rampant grazing not only means less grass cover, dwindling the wild herbivore population but also causes seasonal outbreak of diseases to which the wild animals have no resistance. The tigers in this region have been single-handedly wiped out largely by the locals by poisoning the cattle kill (Tigers finish their food in several sittings thus becoming an easy target.) diminished prey numbers and a variety of other reasons due to the never ending interferences by man. If the forests are to be revived their is no go but to stop cattle grazing withing the boundaries of the forests.

We trekked a stretch of 8km approx along the Dodhalla river that is being fed by several small streams originating in the forests. This river finally joins the Cauvery, that forms western boundary of the Melagiri forests. While the forests on the other side of the Cauvery within the Karnataka state borders are Sanctuary the Melagiris are only Reserved forests. While the protection provided by the Sanctuary tag has helped sustain the Tigers in the Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary they have vanished from the Melagiris.

The Tiger census that yielded the numbers 1411 has created a huge wave of alarm and people across the country have risen up in arms to protect them by raising funds through running marathons and what not. While money is continuously pouring into already protected Tiger Sanctuaries securing them and tightening the protection, we have sadly not hit the mark. The numbers 1411 are of the number of tigers that can be accommodated in the Tiger Reserves. You cannot stuff in more, in fact the recent Tiger Cub deaths we have been reading are by the Adult Tigers is to reduce the competition for territory. Internal fighting have become common, the excess tigers have began to search for new territories and are frequently seen on the fringes of the Sanctuary boundaries inadvertently going for the cattle kill and what happens? A Ranathambore episode is inevitable. Man-Animal conflict is on rise. And here its just not Tigers, Elephants are seasonal migrants. They do not recognize the boundaries set by man.

Bannerghatta National Park (BNP), Cauvery Wildlife Sanctuary (CWS), Nagarhole (Rajiv Gandhi NP), Bandipur Tiger reserve, BRT and the Hosur forest Division ( Melagiris) forms a continuous region making it a major bio-diversity belt and Elephant corridor. With Melagiris assuming the Sanctuary status, the excess Tigers from The CWS, BNP and BRT can be soaked by this region. This indeed is an viable option since securing the Melagiris is cheaper than trying to extend the already existing tiger reserves that have swarms of villages littered on its fringes. Not only the Elephant Corridor is secured minimizing Elephant-Human conflict but also sustains the life-source of Karnataka-Tamil Nadu, Cauvery.

With the Anchetty Survey, ends the last of the bio-diversity survey by KANS. KANS with ANCF has found both direct/indirect evidences of the rare Grizzled Giant Squirrel, Four horned Antelope and Leopards. The Flora contains almost 20 Red listed species, these were discovered during the survey, considering the Melagiris are almost 1200sq km (An area covered by putting Nagarhole and Bandipur together) there could be many more surprises waiting to be discovered. Unless this region is declared immediately with effect - Sanctuary, the poaching/ extraction of non-timber forest produce and infringement of the Forests by the local farmers and cattle grazers will only deteriorate them further snatching away the last chance for the Tigers in this zone to grow back to respectable numbers, increasing the Man-Elephant conflict , depleting the Cauvery - a death-blow to the farmers in Tamil Nadu and increasing tension between the two states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

Synchronized Tiger Census In Hosur Forest Division - Feb 2010

2010-10-12T21:23:00.000-07:00

I was under the impression that I was in for Tiger Census in the Hosur FD, Although I am generally not very well informed I knew the Tiger Census were over. However keeping my skepticism aside I plunged in volunteering for the task.

A little about the survey, organized by KANS (Kenneth Anderson Nature Society) jointly with the forest authorities during the weekend of 20th and21st of Feb. The idea was to gather volunteers, break them into groups and send them to different divisions. The group itself will be broken into at max 2 people plus the Forest Guards to trek into the forests through a path called the beat. Day one was for Direct sighting, so volunteers were to keep their eyes and ear open and of course mouth shut for direct sightings of animals and birds. Day two was for gathering indirect evidences of the fauna through collecting scats and examining/photographing pug/hoof marks. All the groups would enter the forests at the same time so that the chances of sighting increases and counting the same animal is reduced. We were to establish credential that Tigers/Leopards are in the area. This way the forests that are currently only under Reserve Forests status get promoted to Sanctuary status, as its counterparts in the Karnataka Forest division. Higher the status, more security, hence more chances that the forests are protected from the human interferences.

It has been quite a while I was out in the wilds and in the company of people who felt drawn to nature the way I do. So, I was all for it. When Sanjeev (He is KANS V.P.) said that because of the overwhelming response from all together 80 odd people they have to draw lottery I didn't really think about it. Its like I was almost dead sure to get in, you could say I had some sort of divine foresight :). And Voila! I was in.

Somehow no matter how much of preparation you put to get geared for a trip you know you have missed out A-LOT-OF essential stuff behind. So me minus a cap and jungle tracks packed bags for Hosur.

I had no means of transport and even after the numerous mails being exchanged to carpool and stuff the following day still left me with no clear idea of how to reach the cattle farm at Hosur where all the volunteers were asked to assemble at 6pm. And then Chitra (seriously it was like God sent an angel to my rescue) called the only other female in my group. We were assigned to the same Denkanikottai range.

So, after a few negotiations I was excused from office at 4pm. Me, Arun, Valli and Chandan squeezed into Chitra's car at Silk Board and headed to the cattle farm.

I knew KANS is a well established society, what I didn't expect is the kind of reception that welcomed me. All the people who came together for the survey were the kinds you could call tree huggers, nature freaks, people who were deeply concerned about the retreating forest covers and depleting numbers of the wildlife. We had a roaring discussion until 8-9ish about this and that. Then the ACF, Mrs Padmavathi updated us about the intentions of the survey and the necessary precaution we are to take that included changing your socks and not using perfumes.. :). The DFO, Mr Ganesan then spoke lengthily into the night about his experiences in various forest ranges he has been so far. Most of us felt disgruntled at his attitude for comparing the present range with ones that are known to be thickly populated with wildlife and thus declaring the current region "very-poor-in-wildlife" . But yes, despite his pessimism one must appreciate his never fading sense of responsibility to protect the forests and love for the creatures that live in it. He spoke and lot about Makhanas in particular and the increasing number of their sightings. Makhanas are the male elephants that have no tusks or very small ones hence appear as females. He was speculating about the theory whether this is a reaction to the rampant killing of tuskers in these areas by the poachers. Well, we did keep our eyes peeled to sight a makhana but as luck goes, we did not even sight a single elephant, let alone a makhana.

The guest house at Denkanikottai came as a rude shock to the volunteers who were all geared up with sleeping bags and what not only to be given well maintained rooms with fans and Television sets!

We sat until the late night talking about places we have visited and all the freaky naturalists we have met along the way. Arun recounted all his travelogues while Chitra kept us giggling over this one forest officer, who hit her at the knuckles jovially for not getting the names of the birds right (Mr. Chinnappa himself!).

Early morning 5am we were divided into groups of 2s, Me and Arun and Chitra and Akshay were given the Aiyur division. We sort of played a bit of politics to get assigned to the most dense region of the Denkanikottai forest range :).

Not until 9am did we actually begin our walk into the beats thanks to the Forest officer who did not get the data sheets and was being severely reprimanded by the DFO. He was asked to get back to the HQ to fetch them and hence the delay. But we were sort of cajoled by the sightings of Yellow wattled Lapwing and the awesome guest house at Aiyur that sported 3 cane huts and a watchtower.

Watch tower at Aiyur guest house

The forests of Aiyur division came as a different surprise all together. The stretch of bamboo forests smoothly mixing into dry shrub forest to deciduous to kinda evergreen where the small springs flowed. However, the dense foliage left us no aerial view hence, denied us of the pleasures of birding. Same with the direct sighting, Even if an animal stood a few feet from us, there was no way we would know. So great would be its camouflage, The only way we would know, would be when it moved, which they wouldn't because they know before they see us, of our coming. So much worse for us since we are not only denied sighting a wild creature but also totally unprotected. The Guards were very jumpy, they had a death of a fellow guard in the hands of an elephant just a few days ago. We still made most of the time we spent in the forests, we have preferred them over all and any paradise man has to offer. We covered a beat area of 3km, the guards did this measurement using a length of rope.

Flame of the forest tree

We did spot morph paradise flycatcher and red vented bulbuls and squeezed in so much talks in between. Arun has this vast enthusiasm for everything about wildlife and forests that kept me hooked in to everything he has to say. The best treat however was at the end, at the Sameri lake. We spotted a Grey headed fish eagle and several drongos and barn swallows hovering lazily. The guards overcome with exhaustion dozed off underneath the bamboo clumps while we sat still for a long time in the shimmering afternoon sun enjoying the voices of the jungle. I had an eerie feeling as if the jungle was observing us, appraising of what promise we held. Of whether we would stand true to our conscience and protect her from our fellow beings. A vast feeling of sadness swept over me for seeing her helpless, of have brought her to this state. If each one of us would wake up to the fact that we are moving rapidly towards a doom, by depleting the forest covers and killing the wildlife relentlessly until they go extinct, has upset the fragile balance of our earth, perhaps there is still some hope for us .

Sameri Lake

We arranged our stay with the DFO to stay the night at Aiyur guesthouse, so that we could be closer to the forests. The idea of returning to Denkanikottai simply did not tempt us. Evening brought us a flood of visitors. Mr. Prasanna (treasurer of KANS) , Mr. Jayaram and few others, mainly a journalist from Frontline , camera crew were in the region, to shoot a documentary about KANS. We accompanied them to the Spider Valley. The view point at Spider valley is simply breathtaking. The rows of hill softly melting into one another, fog that refused to fade even at the height of summer afternoon, the shrill call of the Black Eagle that flew in circles above us all created a sense of solitude. Of being absolutely at peace.

Gutherayan silhouette from Spider valley

Next we hurried to take our places at the Samieri watchtower. Its generally predicted that at dusk the elephants gather at the Sameri lake. However, owning to a large number of people pouring in, the noise levels could not be controlled and we had no such luck with elephant sighting. They must have known about our presence a mile away. Elephants are very sensitive creatures, though their bulk would make you think otherwise. They can catch movements, they pick up sound waves through the ground, through their incredibly sensitive feet. They are extremely smart too, like crows and chimps, they learn very fast, no man made enclosure can keep them bound for long. Of late, elephants have become very aggressive thanks to the poaching of the tuskers and drastic changes in their habitat. They have lost their natural water places and feeding areas to the ever increasing desires of man. Elephants migrate to the same place every year. One time there is a sprawling green bamboo field, next year a village has come up, what would you expect? And thus Man- Animal conflict keeps rising. We need to realize that this place not only belongs to us but to them as well. We must learn to share.

That night we gathered our Binocs and did some amazing star gazing. Just when I was beginning to feel that buying a 10*40 binocs was the worst thing I did, its so heavy, I can't hold it steady for more than a minute and as the experts say higher the power more are the disturbances magnified. I only realized its worth when we did Raptor birding and star gazing. Suddenly my much criticized binocs became a hot commodity! Thanks to Akshay we sat under the star lit skies and identified several constellations and satellites. We were simply amazed at the amount of stars clustered in M31, the globular cluster in constellation Orion.

While the rest turned in early after a sumptuous meal given by the forest officers at the guest house ( I tasted the most yummy rasam ever!) me and Arun took our positions at the watchtower to have a glimpse of the much hyped Mottled owls that were resident at the tree next to the watch tower. Not until 12 or 1 am when we were paying the least attention a huge bird swooped above our heads into the night like some sort of grey ghost. The resident Mottled wood owl! We tried unsuccessfully to go out for a night stroll. The Guards were simply not taking any chances, they had closed the main gates during the night and hoped the trenches all along the guest house borders would keep the elephants from crossing.

The next morning's birding brought another string of surprises, I saw my first ever Indian Pitta. Tiny bird colored in green and the most vibrant blue on its rump and saffron on the vent. We walked right from the guest house until the Sameri lake, a stretch of 5km. Our faithful companion or must I say our Canine guard, the dog at the guest house who I have fondly named Courage, the silly dog :) kept us company all along, sniffing the trails before we reached it. No new sightings, though we did have fun since the guard kept forgetting the way and took us amidst the the thick bamboo groves and thorny lantanas. But as it goes we had no luck getting lost since he kept turning and we ended up on the road again and again. We finished our last trail again by ending up at the lake and observing the Grey headed fish eagle.

Thus my trip to the Hosur forest winds up by us returning to the Hosur cattle farm and giving a few details of our sightings to Sanjeev and returning to Bangalore at around 3pm.

And what follows is disorientation. Like its told in 'Gods must be crazy' re-adapting to the ways of man.

Synchronized tiger census in Hosur Forest Division

2010-02-09T23:16:00.000-08:00

This is going to be an interesting excercise as all the beats (around 65) are going to be covered, and it is expected that if tigers are present they will surely show up in the census. Besides it is also a good opportunity to come across other wildlife and birds that are found in this region such as elephants, sloth bear, leopard, dhole and the nearly 200 species of birds.

Date: February 20th to 25th

Considering that volunteers will be unable to spare weekdays, please confirm your availability for the 20, 21 weekend. If you can take the time off, you can continue to participate on the other days as well.

Important: In order to avoid sending unneccessary emails to people in our volunteer database who will not be participating in the Tiger census, I request you to kindly fill in this simple 3 line form to help us keep things simple:

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dEg5ZmtnelVpQjlDN1pRVUhzTDlYWXc6MA

I will be emailing a manual/presentation on the methods when I receive it from the FD to the people who register on the above link.

Best wishes
Sanjeev Kumar S.R
Vice-President
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society

Elephant calf rescue

2010-01-27T15:54:00.000-08:00

Saravanan (Junior Research Fellow, ANCF) came across this small family consisting of a young calf, a mother and a sub adult along the banks of the river Cauvery. He observed that the mother and young calf did not move away from the banks. The mother was standing still and a sub adult which was grazing in the jungles nearby would charge out every now and then when the calf called out. It was obvious that the mother elephant was seriously ill. Saravanan managed to contact Karthikeyan (committee member, KANS) and passed on the details of the situation. Karthikeyan got in touch with the DFO and by the time the FD team reached the place next day, the mother had died sometime in the night and the sub adult was nowhere to be seen. The young calf however was standing by its dead mother when we reached the scene.
Sentries were posted all around the area in the fading light, to keep at bay the missing sub adult or any stray herds in the area. The team set about carrying out the postmortem of the dead mother amidst regular bang of fire crackers. Meanwhile to spare the already traumatized calf from any more pain, it was removed from the scene. It took all the strength of three grown men and Karthik to coax and drag the calf towards the jeep parked about half a kilometer away. As soon as we reached the place where the Anchetty stream joins the Cauvery, the little calf greedily fell upon the water and drank for a good 15 minutes.
The calf had gone hungry for over a day and day and had probably not even had a drink of water. The calf was then shifted overnight to Vandalur zoo in Chennai, where it appears to be doing well. However it is obvious that the forest department at least in this region is neither equipped nor trained to deal with such situations.

-
Sanjeev Kumar S.R
Vice President
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society.

Bandipur Night Traffic ban hearing on Nov 4, 2009

2009-11-10T13:03:00.000-08:00

Though I had been visiting the high court for the past 7-10 days, I had never had the experience to sit through a case hearing. So, when I got a call from CWS that the Bandipur case hearing was coming up that morning, I rushed to the court. I met Poornesha, from CWS, who had also come to attend the hearing.

The hearing was in Court Hall (CH) 1. This is located on the 2nd floor. We checked the list of cases that was listed outside the hall and noted that our case was listed 75! Wondering how long it would take for the court to reach till 75, we nevertheless took up our seats and got engrossed in the various cases that were being heard. Except for the odd case here and there, most of them were adjourned and our case came up at around 12pm.

It seemed like this was most prestigous case being heard that day. From the respondents, there were 8 advocates and there was our lone petitioner!

Some of the arguments put forth by the respondents were:
- Alternate roads are not good enough and vehicles reaching bangalore were coming in late.
- As per the RTI information from Muthanga, there have been no roadkills in the past 1 year.
- The photos given by the petitioner have no supporting documents to prove their authenticity.
- Convoy system should be allowed so that a win-win situation can be achieved. This can be trialed for at least 1 week to check for its effectiveness.
- The DC cannot implement the ban under Motor Vehicles Act since it is applicable only for public convenience and safety.

Against the above, the 2 judge bench including the Chief Justice Mr. Dinakaran, stated the following:
- The traffic is restricted only from 9pm till 6am. If it were from 6pm-6am, then the court could have considered the request. But the current timings were good and all business can be done before or after that. People have to adjust to these timings
- All impleads are from people point of view. Someone has to consider the point of view of wildlife and the court is doing that.
- The question is not only about roadkills happening at night, but animal behaviour is also affected. Hence, even convoy system is not advisable.
- Under the Motor vehicles Act, traffic is not being prohibited..it is only being restricted.

Further observations and conslusions of the High Court:
- According to information received from FD, animal movement has improved during night.
- The court is not convinced to vacate or modify the ban
- All parties have to submit authorized copies of traffic regulations implemented in protected areas across the world.
- The next hearing will be in 8 weeks time.

Participants:
KANS: Laxmeesha Acharya
CWS: Poornesha H.

-
Laxmeesha Acharya
President
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society

Elephant Estimation @ Bannerghatta NP on Oct 30-Nov 1 2009

2009-11-10T11:29:00.000-08:00

Members of KANS viz. myself, Ananthraj and Harish participated in the elephant estimation exercise carried out by A Rocha and the Karnataka Forest Department.

Background:
-----------
The forests between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu has always been a region of high man-elephant conflict (MEC). In addition, the regional disparities have also played their role with the forest departments of each state blaming the other for 'pushing' elephants to the other region and creating havoc in the agricultural lands. KANS has already completed a study of the MEC with the help of ANCF. ANCF has in the past carried out trials of barriers that could prevent elephants from straying into human habitation.

Objective:
----------
KANS intends to reduce the MEC and for this it was important to understand the elephant behaviour and also understand the stand taken by the forest departments of the two border states in tackling MEC.

A Rocha and the KFD are carrying out this exercise to estimate the number of elephants. This will be followed up with a census in December by when the KFD expects an influx of elephants migrating from Tamil Nadu. Based on the increase, the KFD intends to provide adequate resources to manage MEC and incorporate this in the management plan for BNP.

The event:
----------
The event was addressed by Dr. Vijay from A Rocha who welcomed the volunteers and spoke about the gravity of MEC.
He was followed by the DCF Mr. Venkatesh B., who talked about the initiatives taken by the KFD for tackling MEC. There were further talks by the RFO of Anekal range who described the terrain and the constraints and challenges in tackling MEC.

A key point was the fact that from this year onwards the KFD was planning to refrain from pushing back any of the elephant herds migrating towards BNP. All efforts, would in fact, be put into restraining the elephant within the park boundaries. A Rocha was planning to assist in this by putting up 'Chilli-tobacco fence' at the exit areas of the park.

After a quick tea-break, Mr. Gopal Krishna, Senior Researcher A Rocha explained the techniques of the estimation exercise viz. Block count and Water hole count and the procedure to be followed for collating the data.

Subsequently, all the volunteers were divided into 3 teams..one for each range viz. Anekal, Bannerghatta NP and Harohally and they were shunted to their respective ranges.

At Harohalli: Day 1 (Waterhole count):
--------------------------------------

I was assigned to the Harohalli range. Gopal, who was in charge of the team, assigned the waterholes to each of the volunteers.

Geri and I were in-charge of the Erle Kallu Katte waterhole. Early on 1st morning, we took off with Gopal 'literally' on the wheel and we were dropped at our respective water holes. Bhommaiah was the guard entrusted with our lives, in case we were attacked by elephants.

Soon as we disembarked, we did a quick recce of the waterhole and found a shady spot where we could have our packed breakfast of pulav. Geri and Bhoomaiah dug into their b/f while I decided to stave off the hunger. Having experienced this at Ramanakere at Bhadra Tiger Reserve in May 2007, I knew that hunger will keep knocking at our stomach doors all day and I had realised that 'delayed gratification' was the only solution.

The hours ticked by slowly. No sign of elephants and Mr. Bhoomaiah was getting restless. While he suggested that we move to a higher altitude from where there is a possibility of sighting wildlife, we explained to him that the objective of the exercise was not to sight wildlife. For that we could have visited Bannerghatta Zoo!!

Soon after lunch, we undertook a quick 1 hr trek to a nearby hillock where we say a lot of elephant activity.
Upon our return, I continued my new hobby of chucking pebbles at frogs and towards evening we were joined by Senthil and Aruna who had spent the day at a nearby water hole.

Gopal came to pick us up, and in the intervening period the guards tried to make things a little exciting by narrating stories of people attacked by elephants and by alighting some of the bombs that had been given to us to scare elephants in case we ran into them!

There was a welcome surprise for us when we returned to the range office at Harohally. Lilavati (Lily) from BNP had been brought into town to carry the local diety, Chamundeshwari Devi, the next morning.

At Harohally: Day 2 (Block count):
----------------------------------
The team composition was changed slightly. I was teamed with Mr. Narayana Forest Guard. Enthusiastic fellow that he was, we scoured the block that we were assigned (Bheemadoddana halli to Ravutanahalli dam) up and down, criss cross...but no direct or indirect signtings :)

Finally at around 11.30 am we called it a day and caught up with the other teams who had to be picked up. Rajath and Shashi, however decided to play truant and did not appear till nearly 2pm while the actual reporting time for all the teams was 12 pm. Thankful that we were to see them in a single piece, we left for Kalkere where we had to assemble and share notes and make a quick estimation of the number of elephants.

The final count, arrived at after hearing from everyone was that the NP had around 50 elephants!

Conservation Notes:
-------------------
- The information received from the field staff was inconsistent. While one guard categorically said that elephants always come from TN, another said that KFD also pushes elephants to TN resulting in the TNFD and local TN villagers together pushing back an equal or higher number of elephants back into BNP.
- According to one of the field staff, there are nearly 300 elephants in BNP!
- According to one of the field staff, cattle grazing can be strictly curtailed but due to the ongoing crop-raiding, the KFD also seeks cooperation from the villagers and hence the cattle grazing threat is not seriously addressed.
- The neighbouring Kanakapura Reserve Forests can be notified and included within the BNP. The FD staff in Kanakapura RFs take bribes to allow live stock grazing and this puts the BNP staff in an uncomfortable situation.
- The count of elephants significantly increases during the months of Oct-Feb. This is primarly due to elephants migrating from South to North. These forests and the ones in the Hosur Forest Division receive most of the rain from the North-East monsoon and hence elephants have traditionally moved from South to North in search of water and food.
- The migratory behaviour brings a lot of pressure on the neighbouring agricultural lands which are raising fresh crops after the rains. The FD tries to control this through night vigil and firing bombs.
- The reason for crop raiding has to be ascertained. While it is clear that they find crops more palatable, the fact that the forests do not have ample fodder is a matter of concern. One reason for this could also be the degradation of the forest from livestock from the villages.
- Elephant population has also been increasing due to the protection measures adopted by the FD. However, the measures such as creation of artificial water holes should be analyzed properly. Wildlife should be left to remain wild. There should be no human intervention in providing them with fodder and water e.g. artificial water holes. This is the manner in which nature keeps a check on the population and any human intervention will lead to imbalance and could result in unpleasant actions such as culling!!!

Participants:
KANS Members:
-------------
Laxmeesha
Ananthraj
Harish

Others (in Harohally team):
-------
Rachana Patwardhan
Geraldine Fernandes
Aruna Vedale
Chitman Kaur
Shashikala
UdayKumar S.
Sunil Karthik
Senthil
Rajath Ravindran
Ayaraj
Suresh

-
Laxmeesha Acharya
President
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society

KANS 1st Anniversary and 55th Wildlife Week

2009-10-07T04:11:00.000-07:00

Celebrated KANS 1st anniversary and 55th Wildlife Week on Oct 4, 2009 at Denkanikotta where a medical camp was organised for the Forest Dept. staff. Karthik and I went there the previous day and after taking permission from the DFO for conducting the camp, met the Hosur RFO at Mathigiri to make arrangements for acco etc. Went over to Denkanikotta and inspected the location of the camp. Gave instructions for cleaning up the place and returned to Mathigiri. Sanjeev joined us in the evening and we went on a drive to SamiEri with the hope of catching a glimpse of the elephants...but no luck!

Next morning, reached Denkanikotta where I was joined by the doctors from Chennai and Bangalore and other KANS members. Mr. TNA Perumal was the chief guest of the event and after inaugurating the proceedings, the doctors Dr. Sudhakar, Dr. Balaji and Dr. Manjunath, got down to their job.

Around 45 people were inspected and medicines and prescriptions were given. The RFOs of Hosur and Denkanikottai, Mr. Madeshwaran and Mr. Ramachandran respectively also joined the camp and provided all the support during the entire day.

Visit to Bhadra Tiger Reserve on Sept 5-10, 2009

2009-10-07T03:15:00.000-07:00

The long due visit to Bhadra Tiger Reserve happened finally. Prakash, Sunil and I left on our bikes (Thunderbird, Bullet)early on 5th morning to volunteer for a post-doctoral research project being conducted by Dr. Krithi Karanth, Columbia University on impact of Eco-tourism around Tiger Reserves.

Reached Chikmagalur towards noon (around 260 kms) where we were joined by other volunteers. From thereon, the route became interesting since had to go up the hills along a windy path and eventually after about 40 kms, we reached our camp for the next 5 days - Hulikanu Estate. This is the field station of the Centre for Wildlife Studies, Bangalore. The rest of the evening was spent in settling down and interacting with the other volunteers. One group left in the evening for the Lakkavalli Range.

On 6th morning, we took off to do the questionnaire surveys. My route was towards Chikmagalur town and Vishnupriya and I left in that direction. Conducted interviews at the Lodges and Homestays in Chikmagalur town and near Mullaihnagiri and returned to Hulikanu by evening.

On 7th morning, Vikas and I biked towards Kemmangundi. This was the best route..lovely western ghats drizzle, mist, clouds, wind etc. made the ride unforgettable.
On crossing KM, Vikas and I split and visited some of the Homestays near Kalahatti falls and Ballavara. Had lunch with the amiable owner of one of the homestays and his wife and dad. Vikas also joined in and after lunch, visited Kalahatti falls. Returned to Hulikanu by around 7.30 pm. Around 90 kms covered.

On 8th morning, we were taken for a drive in the Muthodi range by DV Girish from Wildcat. Went along the Kesave beat and for the first time in my life I saw a Tiger pugmark.
Some other sightings we had were of Muntjacs, Gaurs, Chitals, Malabar Giant Squirrels and plenty of birds.
Later, Krithi, Santosh, Vishnupriya and I went on a ground-truthing exercise. Covered around 300 kms and travelled through CM-Kadur-Igati-Srirampura-Huliyar-Banavara and back.

On 9th morning, my bike conked out! It simply refused to start despite efforts by myself, Santosh, DV Girish and all. Finally took Sunil's bike and went to Chikmagalur town where I was supposed to interview couple of homestay owners whom I could not meet earlier. Finishing those, I joined Amit, Vishnupriya and Sunil who were lunching at Chikmagalur. Later Sunil and I went to a garage referred by DVG and asked them to pick up the bike and then we returned to Hulikanu.

10th was very relaxed. Most of the resorts/homestays had been covered and all the ground-truthing had been done. Took Prakash's bullet and biked to Mallandur where VP and Sunil were interviewing the last of the homestays. Headed to CM to pick up Chicken for the 'badaa khana' that was planned for the evening. I paid a visit to the garage to hear the sorry news that the valves had to be replaced and the entire engine oil had drained out. After giving him the money to buy the spare parts, I returned to Hulikanu. The evening was special since we were joined by Dr. Ullas Karanth and his wife, Ms. Pratibha Karanth. Over cocktails and snacks, we exchanged conservation stories and his exepriences with the late Mr. Kenneth Anderson. Had sumptous dinner prepared by Santosh and retired for the night.

Left for Bangalore on 11th morning. Sunil dropped me at the garage. The bike was ready by 2.30 pm and I headed back home to Bangalore and reached by 9.30 pm!

A good experience, many new friends made, first tiger pugmark sighting..hope to go there soon! The road beckons...

Rapid Survey at Jowlagiri RF on Sept 12, 2009

2009-10-07T03:08:00.000-07:00

Three transect routes have been marked out by the forest department and these three routes were taken up for survey
1. Pasumandoddi to Chennamalam (Gnanaskandan and party)
2. Jowlagiri to Kembudoddi (Khusro and Party)
3. Maragadadoddi to KembaraKotta (Debashish and party)
Three teams accompanied by their respective forest department personnel set off at 7:00 AM. There were 2 GPS between the 3 teams. Indirect evidences of Gaur, elephants and Chital etc were encoutered by all teams. The team on the second trek path also encountered pug marks of wild dog and jungle cat. Bird activity was subdued probably due to the overcast weather conditions.

Length of trek varied as all teams returned to the same starting point after touching the RF boundary. The longest was nearly 22 Kms. As the planned blocks were covered in one day, the teams dispersed in the afternoon after a couple of hours of birding in the early evening.

Eupatorium and Lantana are the most visible flora in most parts of the RF.

Team members:
1. Sanjeev
2. Khusro
3. GRP Karthik
4. Ajay
5. Gnanaskandan
6. Sripad
7. Varun
8. Debashish Bandophdhyay
9. Chandan Haldar
10. Rakesh Verma
11. Gowri Varanashi
12. Paul

Forest Department:
1. Forestor Rajamani
2. Muthu
3. Madangiriappa
4. Balakondappa

Food expenses were met by contributions from the volunteers, leaving over a surplus of Rs.500/- to KANS account.

-
Sanjeev Kumar S. R.
Vice President
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society

Rapid Survey at Denkanikottai RF on Sept 5/6, 2009

2009-10-07T03:00:00.000-07:00

Seven blocks were selected in Denkanikottai Range. These blocks are of various sizes and are in various reserve forests. Of these seven blocks four blocks which were in the vicinity of Aiyur were taken up for rapid ground survey.

Of the remaining blocks, Gutherayan RF was set aside for a comprehensive survey at a later date. Remaining 2 blocks have been set aside due to logistic reasons and non availability of volunteers. Some blocks of Anchetty and Denkanikottai range can be more easily covered from a convenient base camp other than Aiyur.

The four blocks selected had the following trek routes:
1. Galigattam to Mukankere
2. Mukankere to Aiyur
3. Nelkunthi to Panchapalli Eri
4. Denkanikottai extension reserve forest

Denkanikottai extension reserve forest could not be covered due to lack of resources.
The trek teams have noted down encouters of indirect evidences and direct sightings of birds on the data sheets.
Lack of GPS units
This survey was again hampered by lack of GPS units. Only one working GPS was available at the Field station at Aiyur. At least 4 working GPS will be required so that each team is equipped to note down significant indirect evidences of less sighted animals such as carnivores. This will be very helpful at a later stage when setting up Camera Traps.
Lack of ID Cards.
The team that surveyed Galigattam to Mukankere led by Saravanan was accosted by a large Police team lead by a Deputy Superintendent of Police carrying out combing operations. This happened when Sanjeev was dropping off the team to the starting point of the trek. The police could not be convinced even after we showed them permit letter from Hosur Division office and the Chief Wildlife Warden and demanded to see photo ID cards of ANCF. Unfortunately the name of KANS does not figure anywhere on the permit letters issued by either the Hosur Division or the CWW, hence they will be of no use. It is very important that the key personnel co-ordinating the survey have to be provided with photo ID cards. Anti Naxal operations are quite regular in these regions and a chance encounter can easily escalate into unsavory incidents. All KANS members carry their photo ID cards of the society and volunteers also need to be issued ID cards which are available with KANS. It is recommended that the following people Saravanan, Mohan and Madan be issued ANCF photo Id cards as soon as possible. It is also recommended that each trek team be accompanied by at
least one KANS member or ANCF member carrying their respective ID cards.

Team members:

1. Dr.Geetha Nayak
2. Saranavan
3. Karthikeyan
4. Khusro
5. Arvind Adhi
6. Manivanan
7. Akshay Ukey

Forest Department:

1. Kadirappan
2. Annadurai
3. Samappan
4. Nanjappan

-
Sanjeev Kumar S. R.
Vice President
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society

Rapid Survey at Rayakottai RF on August 29, 2009

2009-08-31T19:46:00.000-07:00

The third rapid ground survey was carried out at the Udedurgam Reserve forest. This RF forms part of the Rayakota range and is the largest tract of forest in this range.

Trek Path: Kadur to Panchapalli Dam along the left bank Pennaiyar River. (time 11:00 AM to 3:45 PM)

The Pennaiyar stream enters the RF near Kadur and flows diagonally nearly bisecting the RF. The stream empties into the reservoir at Panchapalli Dam at the intersection of the Udedurgam and Aiyur Extension RF.

The teams started from Kadur and trekked along the left bank of the Pennaiyar stream looking for scat, pugmarks, hoofmarks and other indirect evidences of mammals, birds and reptiles.

Late start of the trek at 11:00 AM could be the reasons for the low level of bird activity and lack of any direct sightings of mammals.

All indirect evidences were noted down on the data sheets. A noteworthy highlight of the trek was the fresh trail left behind by a Leopard adult and cub along a sandy stretch on the pennaiyar river.

Spoor of Chital, Gaur, wild pig etc were found along the stream. Scat samples collected were handed over at the field station at Aiyur.

Team members:

1. Karthikeyan
2. Khusro
3. Chandrakant Konar
4. Yedhunandan
5. Manivanan

Forest Department:

1. Venkatagiri
2. Chellappan
3. Madhu
4. Lakshmanan

-
Sanjeev Kumar S. R.
Vice President
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society

Rapid Survey at Thally RF on August 1/2 2009

2009-08-07T20:56:00.000-07:00

A field survey of mammals, reptiles and birds in the Thally Reserved Forest was carried out on 1st and 2nd August, 2009, by a joint team of ANCF and KANS volunteer naturalists supported by nine Forest Guards from Jawalagiri Range. Thally area was divided into 31 grids of 1.7km X 1.7km. Grid numbers 1-5 placed horizontally (East-West) were designated for sampling. There were 9 such horizontal segments for sampling. However, after consultation with forest guards only 5 segments were sampled, as the linear strip part on the south had highly degraded forests with Lantana infestation.

Thally region is known to be an area with high human-elephant conflict. Keeping in mind the safety of participants, known trek paths were chosen in consultation with the forests guards of the region.

Five paths were chosen to cover the following areas:

1. Gummala Agraharam-Muthurayan Gudi-Belakkeri
2. Ganganahalli-Bolari-Balemadu
3. Oddarpalaiyam Foothpath-Janpokantai-Bajjaitank
4. Devarabettam via Vanabanda – Muddenaattam tank
5. Puduyeri (Hosakere)-Sankareshwaran temple-Karnataka border

The Divisional Forest Officer and Range Forest Officer were informed about the survey program and a request for the support of Forest Department field staff for the survey had also been conveyed to the concerned Range Officer. Participation from the forest department personnel was excellent. There were 9 forest guards present for the survey along with a person from the village for each team consisting of 4 volunteers. Members of the Kenneth Anderson Nature Society took the responsibility for all the local logistical support for the two-day survey program.

The participants were given a presentation on the survey plan and methods by Dr.Geetha Nayak, ANCF, on 31st evening. Herpetologists Mr. Ganesh and Mr Chandramauli, consultants of ANCF, conducted a rapid survey and made a checklist of the reptiles and amphibians species of the region.

The survey recorded mammal and reptile species by (1) direct sighting, (2) indirect evidences such as the droppings, pug/hoof/pad marks and feeding signs and (3) interviews with local inhabitants using photographs to gather information on the presence of mammals and reptilian species in the region both at present and in the past.

Participants were divided into three teams with each team having 4–5 people. On 1st August there were 3 teams going to the trek paths 1, 2 and 3. On 2nd August there were 2 teams that took paths 4 and 5.

Background materials such as a map of the study area, documents of pug/hoof/pad marks of larger mammals, survey methods, and data sheets along with a GPS unit were given to each group.

Due to the heavy rain on 31st evening many footprints could easily be seen on the wet ground on 1st August. Most commonly seen footprint was wild pig (Sus scrofa), elephants (Elephas maximus) and spotted deer (Axis axis). Teams also recorded the foot prints of Leopard (Panthera Pardus), Sloth bear (Melursus ursinus), Indian hare (Lepus nigricollis) and Indian porcupine (Hystrix indica).

Mammals sighted during the survey were Bonnet Macaque (Macaca radiata), Common Indian Mongoose (Herpestes javanicus) and Three-striped palm squirrel (Funambulus palmarum). Bird sightings were also recorded in the survey, and some of the amateur bird watchers felt that Thally area was exceptional for raptors. One of the teams also recorded a species of butterfly, Red Admiral, which is known found mostly in the wetter parts of the Western Ghats. The herpertologists also recorded an unidentified species of toad, which did not belong of any of the genuses that they were familiar with. They have recommended a thorough investigation of the area for reptile and amphibians species.

A checklist for birds is given below and for remaining taxa is being complied.

Rapid Survey at Sanamavu RF on July 25/26 2009

2009-08-03T03:10:00.000-07:00

A field survey of mammals, reptiles and birds in the Sanamavu Reserved Forest was carried out on July 25, 26, 2009, by a joint team of ANCF and KANS supported by a group of volunteer naturalists. This was the first field survey under the year long Hosur–Dharmapuri Biodiversity Survey (HDBS) Project. The survey covered a relatively isolated forest patch of Hosur Forest Division located on the north-eastern side, on either side of the National Highway 7.

On the first day [25th July 2009], the participants were given a brief presentation on the survey plan and methods by Dr. N. Baskaran & Dr Geetha Nayak from ANCF. At the end of the briefing, each team was provided with survey data sheets along with a document on the known mammals of the region to record the direct sightings. Instructions were given to photograph reptiles. Additionally, a copy of ‘The book of Indian Mammals (S.H.Prater) or Field Guide to Mammal (Vivek Menon) and The Book of Indian Reptiles (J.C. Daniel) were provided to each survey team. Each team carried at least one digital camera to photograph direct wildlife sightings besides indirect evidences of target animals whenever possible.

The survey planned to record the mammal and reptile species by (1) direct sighting, (2) indirect evidences such as the droppings, pug/hoof/pad marks and feeding signs and (3) interviews with local inhabitants using photographs to gather information on the presence of mammals and reptilian species in the region both at present and in the past.

Participants were divided into three teams with each team having 4–5 people. The area to be surveyed [Sanmavu RF forest patch on northern side of NH 7] was divided into three survey units, viz. (1) eastern, (2) central and (3) western units. Each survey team was to cover one survey unit traversing from the NH 7 (south) to the northern end of the RF patch and then back to NH 7 (south). On the second day [26th July 2009] the southern side of NH 7 in the Sanamavu Reserved Forest was surveyed with one team surveying the forest along the NH, the second team traversing from Sanamavu village to the northern part ending at the NH 7, and the third team moving from Sanamavu village toward the southern part.

Direct Sightings: The teams recorded only three species of mammals, namely Grey Mongoose (Herpestes edwardsii), three-striped palm squirrel (Funambulus palmarum) and black-naped hare or Indian Hare (Lepus nigricollis). Among reptiles, two species were recorded and these include Snake Skink and Rock Agama (Agama agama). The reptiles were also photographed and their identification will be confirmed by an ANCF herpetofauna specialist. A list of birds sighted during the survey was also compiled from the data sheets of each team.

Indirect evidences: Indirect evidences such as feeding signs of wild boar and scats of small carnivores (mongoose? and jackal?) were noted. Recording the presence of mammals from the indirect evidence was not a very productive exercise, since the teams did not have sufficient background materials such as photos/features for identification. Most of the volunteers still had to gain experience in identifying the indirect evidences of various species.

In this particular survey programme the forest department personnel were not able to participate owing to a sudden deployment of staff to tackle a problem elephant herd in the Oothangarai region.

The boarding arrangement for the entire programme was sponsored by KANS and lodging was provided by the Forest Department. Accommodations for the last programme was arranged at the Forest Research Centre located at NH 7, which is an unused bio-fuel extraction demo plant unit that does not have basic sanitary facilities.

Visit to Sonda on June 27-28 2009

2009-07-01T13:50:00.000-07:00

The lack of rains in Bangalore and the sultry weather conditions drove me to make a quick plan to head to the Western Ghats. The choice of destination was a non-descrepit place called Sonda in Sirsi district.

History: Not aware of a lot of history, but Sonda happens to be the seat of Shree Vadiraja Theertha and is one of the 8 Mutts that govern the Krishna temple in Udupi. By a tryst of destiny, I happen to belong to this particular Mutt and have visited this place on atleast 2 previous occassions. The temple itself is around 700 yrs old and Shree Vadiraja Theertha was the 20th guru in the lineage of Shree Madhwacharya Theertha, who propounded the Dwaitha philosophy of Hinduism. The current head of this Mutt is the 36th guru and goes by the name of Shree Vallabha Theertha. The previous guru, Shree Vishvesha Theertha passed away in 2007 after heading the Mutt for more than 50 yrs.

Left from Bangalore by the 10.30 pm Rajahamsa and reached Sirsi by 7.45 am on 27th morning. We heard that the bus for Sonda had just left and the next one was not expected for another 2 hrs. I was not at all disappointed since it was raining and I spent the time wandering around the town, breakfasting over 'buns' (a delicacy of North and South Kanara districts of Karnataka) and enjoying the rain. Our bus eventually arrived and after a 30 minute ride for a distance of 19 kms, we reached Sonda. Upon reaching the temple, we found out to our dismay that all accommodation was booked and we were left with nowhere to stay. But my mother and I are made of stout stuff and we decided not to be bothered by such minor hiccups. Leaving the worry of the night stay at the back of our minds, we did the round of the temple and paid our obescience to the resident dieties and the Vrindavana of Shree Vadiraja Theertha.
The lunch gong was sounded at 12 pm and after stuffing ourselves with the good food that was offered by the temple, I headed out towards a lake near the temple to do some birding while my mother decided to do some reading of the devotional books that she had wisely carried along to cater to situations like these.
The birding was not very exciting, but I found directions to couple of other 'tourist' spots nearby. So, I headed back to the temple and lugged my mother for a walk of 3 kms to a Venkataramana temple. What was relieving of this temple was that there was not a soul around, the gates to the temple were closed (not locked) and we were pretty much left to ourselves. We marvelled over the architecture for a while and then headed back to our HQ.
On the way back, we noticed a board to 'Tapovana' which is the place where Shree Vadiraja Theertha used to meditate and the lord used to appear to him. While we were comtemplating to make another 3 km walk to this place, a localite appeared on the scene and suggested that we do not make this walk since the route goes through forest and in these season there are bound to be leeches by the dozen. Considering that I was bare-footed and that my mother already was not too keen on simply ambling around, we returned to the temple. I took off once again, armed with my mammal guide to make some enquiries with the locals on the possibility of the LTM (Lion Tailed Macaque) infesting these forests. Ventured into the forests, enquired with the locals and got negative results. Hanuman Langur - Yessir, Bonnet Macaque - Yessir, LTM - No Sir :(

It had become dark by then, and not wanting to be lost in the forest, I made haste to the temple just in time for the evening puja. The walks in the afternoon and evening had made me hungry and though I had intended to skip the dinner (after the heavy lunch that I had), I was actually looking forward to a good meal and a nice sleep after that. To my dismay, my mom suggested that we have 'Pallara'. To those who do not know what a 'Pallara' is, it is nothing but any food item without rice. So, while the sensible people headed to have the regular dinner, my mother and I and few other people sat down for the 'pallara' which my mother assured would be served in sufficient quantities so as to satiate my appetite. Though the dinner was good, there was only one serving and I had to wash my hands with still a major portion of my stomach desiring for more food. Thankfully, the bus journey on the previous night and the exertions of the day had made me quite tired and the moment I slipped into my sleeping bag, I was sound asleep.
The next morning, we woke at 6 am, took a dip at the temple tank, paid another round of obescience and packed our bags to head to another place called Swarnavalli, around 9 kms from Shree Vadiraja Mutt.
Once there, we walked around the place. Couple of lines on this temple. This was founded by Shree Adi Shankaracharya and is dedicated to Lord Narasimha, Goddess Durga and Lord Shiva. It also houses a Veda Pathashala and the place reverberates through the day of the young lads chanting and learning the vedas and upanishads. Rather pleasing to the ear, much like any child singing rhymes.
The river Shamala flows nearby and I dragged my mother to see the river and also to visit the Sondha fort, which I was told was along the banks of this river. Lunch was at 2pm and we had a good 4 hours to finish this tour. As on the previous day, when we reached the bridge to cross the river (the fort was on the other bank), we met another friendly local who again put the fear of leeches. This time I had my footwear, but my mother would have nothing of it. So, we walked back to the temple, left my mother there to continue her reading and I walked back to the bridge, crossed the river, took the path along the bank which after about 100 mtrs led into the forests.
After about another 1/2 km, I reached the 'fort'.
The place had a huge stone bench (Raja's Seat), 6-7 cannons and a Shiva temple.
Rather sad king I thought to have a fort this small!! After resting there for a while, I began exploring the forests, when I realised that the earlier place I had seen was something like the king's 'durbar'. The fort itself was huge and was taken over by the forests. Strewn all around were mutilated rock carvings of an era gone by, just lying around. Saw 3 bath-tub kind of structures.
Wanted to explore some more, but time was running out since I had to return to the temple for lunch and then catch the 3pm bus back to Sirsi.

To our luck, the afternoon puja went on longer than usual, due to which we had to miss the 3pm bus and opt for the 5.30pm bus instead. To kill time, I convinced my mother to visit a place nearby called 'Sasyaloka'. This is a fine place maintained by the Karnataka Forest Department and a local NGO and houses saplings of rare medicinal plant, flowering plants, foreign plants etc.
My mother gamely tagged along, but a chance encounter with a snake, made her turn back to the safety of the temple while I ventured ahead and returned an hour later.

On reaching Sirsi, there was one last place I had to visit and this was the Marikamba Temple of which I had heard a lot.
Fortunately this temple was just about 1 km from the bus stand. Rounded up this walk with a quick Bhel puri and contentedly we boarded the 7.45pm Rajahamsa bus which then safely deposited us in dear old Bengaluru at 5.30 am on 29th June 2009!!

Bandipur Roadkills Campaign - 13/14 June 2009

2009-07-01T11:54:00.000-07:00

With the Bandipur traffic restriction plans in the news, we decided to prepone the roadkills awareness campaign by a week. Sunil Gaikwad and I left from Bangalore in the morning in my Thunderbird, with the rest of the gang supposed to leave Bangalore on sat afternoon and meet at Gundlupet by evening. Sunil and I reached Nanjangud by 11 am and deviated to Chamarajnagar to have a word with the District Commissioner Mr. Manoj Kumar Meena regarding the opposition he was facing in implementing the ban. Try as we did, we could not meet him since he was not in office and when we visited his residence, the security did not allow us to meet him. Despondently, we returned to Nanjangud and headed to Gundlupet where we were joined by the rest of the guys by around 7 pm. After finishing our dinner, all of us headed to the Kekkanahalla check-post. Sunil and I retired for the night while the rest gamely took up their duty of stopping the vehicles and advising them about safe driving in the forest.

Since a lot of opposition for the ban had come from businessmen, traders and transporters, KANS did a quick check on the types of vehicles that traverse the forest between 9pm and 6am. The results of the study were:
1. Trucks carrying flowers from Ooty to Banglaore ply at night. They are plucked in the evening and have to be transported over the night to keep the freshness intact.
2. SKS has 2 buses plying every night, one plying from Kerala to Bangalore and other one Bangalore to Kerala.
3. 20 Karnataka Government Buses ply every night: 10 from Bangalore and 10 from other States.
4. 9 Kerala Government Buses ply every night: 5 from Kerala and 4 from Bangalore.
5. 8 Tamil Nadu Government Buses ply every night: 5 from TN and 3 from Bangalore.
6. Thursday and Friday nights experience heavy interstate truck movements carrying Rice, Sugar and Vegetables.
7. Vegetable Trucks on Saturday from Manjari (Kerala) ply towards Hassan travelling in the night to reach morning Sunday market.
8. Trucks squeezed with 1000 of ducks/chickens travel in the night because that causes less stress for the birds and hence less number of deaths.
9. It is tough for the concerned authorities to check these trucks in the night, many travels in the night to avoid payment of Regular Marketing Committee and they can also skip checking of documents in the night.
10. When a road kill of wildlife happens, the guards are generally informed of this by the passing by vehicles. The guard checks the animal and calls the doctor. Postmortem is done and the body is either burned or buried (incase no wood available to burn it). Finally record the road kill in Majjir (we did not get this word; assume some kind of record book). It is very difficult to track the offenders.

Our vigil was called off in the morning. After breakfast and some photopgraphy, we headed to Gudalur to visit the farm of our fellow KANS member, Bala, called Jungle Home. After enjoying the hospitality, which included some delicacies made from jack-fruit and a tour of his resort and a round of horse-riding, we decided to leg it back to Bengaluru by around 3pm and reached home eventually by 11 pm after completing hard but satisfying ride of 725 kms over 2 days.

-
Laxmeesha Acharya
President
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society

Participants:
-------------
Soumyajit Nandy
Rakesh Gupta
Vasanth Kumar
Satish Pari
Sunil Gaikwad
Prakash Matada
Balamurugan

Melagiri Bio-diversity survey

2009-07-01T11:34:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,
Call for volunteers for Melagiri Biodiversity Survey
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society (www.kans.org.in) and Asian Nature Conservation foundation (www.asiannature.org ) are jointly conducting a biodiversity survey in the Melagiri region of Krishnagiri and Dharmapuri districts.

Asian Nature Conservation Foundation, a professional research and conservation trust, is the lead agency for the survey and they have deputed a team consisting of 2 full time researcher officers, GIS expert and a field assistant all lead by Dr.Bhaskaran for a period of one year.

Kenneth Anderson Nature Society is an NGO whose members are serious, non-professional naturalists and conservationists drawn from all walks of life. KANS was born in these very forests one year ago.

Background of the region:

The Melagiris are a range of hills on the Eastern Ghats, bound by the river Cauvery on the west. Forest covered hills and valleys are the predominant landscape, with the highest peak of Gutherayan rising up to 1390mtrs. The forests are largely dry deciduous with some stretches of shola forests on the slopes of Gutherayan peak. The total reserve forest area is around 1400 sq km, with representative presence of nearly all animals and birds expected to be found in a similar habitat. The ruling monarch of these jungles is however the Elephant.

Purpose of the Survey:
This is a hitherto unknown area is covered extensively in the stories of Kenneth Anderson. The objective of the survey is to take stock of the forests, which have been deteriorating over time. We hope to bring to public light the beauty and diversity of these forests and also highlight the socio-economic issues facing conservation in this region.

A Sanctuary is being proposed in this area and we hope our inventory of the species and inputs on the human-forest interaction issues will lend weight to the proposal.

Survey particulars:
The Survey is broadly divided into the following categories:
1- Bird count for temporal and spatial distribution of bird species and populations (transects).
2 – Vegetation (transects).
3 – Reptiles
4 - Fishes
5 – Mammals (transects, camera traps).
6- Biotic pressures and effect of human activities on forests. (socio economic questionnaires)
7- Man animal (elephant) conflict. (questionnaires being done by a full time dedicated M.Phil student)

8- GIS mapping of the landscape with overlapped layers of vegetation maps, species distribution etc.

Call for Volunteers:

We request your help making this survey a success. We require volunteers to carry out transects and field surveys. None of the volunteer work is full time and can be carried out on weekends or holidays. Transects will be carried out by teams of two. Participation dates are flexible.

This is an excellent opportunity to experience the little known jungles frequented by Kenneth Anderson and experience a unique area of the Eastern ghats.

These are territorial forests and facilities are meagre to say the least. Accommodation wherever possible will be provided in places such as anti-poaching camps, forest guest house etc,. Otherwise please be prepared to sleep under stars like Kenneth Anderson did!

Reasonable level of physical fitness is expected as the transects will involve walking over distances measuring 6 to 8 kilometers, over densely wooded hill slopes. A willingness to rough it out and enjoy the outdoors are an essential requirement! There are no other prerequisites.

The survey is a voluntary unfunded project and no stipends or reimbursements will be paid for the volunteers. The survey work will begin in the month of July and continue for a year.

Please do drop me a mail at sanjeevkumarsr@gmail.com giving your interests to enable me to keep you informed about programs as they develop.

Warm regards
Sanjeev Kumar S.R
Vice President
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society.
Mob: 9362321000

Gundia Hydro Electric Project

2009-05-27T09:38:00.000-07:00

Date: 25th May 2009
Shri. B.S. Yeddyurappa
H’ble Chief Minister and
Minister of Forests and Environment
Government of Karnataka
Vidhana Soudha
Bengaluru – 560 001

The Honorable Chief Minister Sri.Yeddyurappa, amidst protests by local communities, environmentalists and others, has laid the foundation stone on Saturday 23rd May 2009 for the Gundia Hydro Electric Project (GHEP) located amidst the serene and ecologically fragile Western Ghats.

The action of the Karnataka Power Corporation Limited (KPCL) in going ahead with the launch of the project is illegal since the project is yet to get clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). This is in violation of the order of the honorable Supreme Court which mandates compulsory permission from MoEF for undertaking Non-Forestry activities in Forest areas. Breaking the law cannot be the example set by the head of a state.

Further, the Honorable Chief Minister and KPCL contend that the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) has been carried out by an independent agency. A Bangalore based agency has been hired by the Project promoters for carrying out the EIA and hence can hardly be considered as ‘independent’. And moreover the EIA report is also ridden with high technical irregularities regarding Flora and Fauna of the area to mislead the general public. The GHEP area has several endangered animals, birds and vegetation as recorded by various scientific studies including Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Wildlife Conservation Society – India Program and is identified as an area of irreplaceable value for biodiverdity in the entire Western Ghats.

The EIA study has not been undertaken by professionally qualified personnel who do not even have the basic knowledge of Zoological taxonomy. For instance PG-II, PARA 9 of the EIA states “PERUSAL OF THE VARIOUS FAUNAL SPECIES OBSERVED IN THE PROJECT AREA, INDICATES THAT THERE ARE NO MIGRATORY FAUNAL SPECIES OBSERVED IN THE AREA. THUS CONSTRUCTION OF THE RESERVOIR AS A PART OF THE PROPOSED PROJECT IS NOT EXPECTED TO CAUSE ANY ADDITIONAL BARRIER TO WILDLIFE MOVEMENT IN THE PROPOSED PROJECT AREA”.

The above statement is unsubstantiated, no field study or literature study has been undertaken by the EIA to state that there are no migratory faunal species observed in the area. While most of the mega fauna found in the GHEP area such as tiger, elephant, lion-tailed macaque are species with large home ranges migrating over large areas (elephant, tiger and lion-tailed macaques are all highly endangered animals, listed in Schedule1 of the Wildlife Protection Act which gives it utmost priority for protection). Their movement ranges over several sq. kms. and signs of Tigers, elephant are found all over the GHEP area. Gundia is one of the only three important locations in Karnataka where the Travancore Flying Squirrel (Petinomys fuscocapillus) is recorded according to scientific studies by wildlife biologists of Mysore University. It is also an important area for the endangered slender loris (Loris tardigradus) as recorded by the same University.

Hence the EIA should be declared as fraudulent and unacceptable. It is completely irrational to submerge and execute such a project at an enormous loss of wildlife and bio-diversity.
Construction of the GHEP involves many other development works such as roads, new human settlements, increased movement of people and vehicles etc. All these will lead to fragmentation of the forests, disturb the movement of Wildlife and provide easier access to people to carry out illegal activities such as poaching, timber-logging etc. Arboreal animals such as the Lion Tailed Macaque (LTM) that is endemic to this region and which are restricted to tree canopies will get increasingly isolated leading to the fragmentation and will weaken the gene-pool and eventual loss of this species. How does the CM intend to compensate these species for whom these forests are their homes?

The CM needs to realize that a Karnataka can become a model state not by only progressing on the infrastructure front, but by maintaining the proper balance between development and environment. The Pride of Karnataka is not just IT and BT but Tigers, Elephants and other Wildlife species which put Karnataka on the global map. We request the honorable Chief Minister not to go ahead with the project.

Yours sincerely,

Laxmeesha Acharya,
President, Kenneth Anderson Nature Society, Bengaluru

CC:
- Principal Secretary, Ecology and Environment, Government of Karnataka,
MS Building, Bengaluru – 560 001

- Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (General)
Aranya Bhavan, 18th Cross, Malleswaram, Bengaluru – 560 003

- Chief Wildlife Warden
Aranya Bhavan, 18th Cross, Malleswaram, Bengaluru – 560 003

Demand for a capable Minister for MoEF

2009-05-27T09:34:00.000-07:00

Date: 19.05.2009
Smt.Sonia Gandhi,
President, Indian National Congress,
10, Janpath
New Delhi-110011

The period from 1970-90 was a golden period for Indian forests and wildlife. With the launch of the Project Tiger, our national animal was saved from the brink of extinction through strict legislation and enforcement of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act 1972. The visionary act of the then Honourable Prime Minister of India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi ably guided by people who realized the importance of protecting the forests was instrumental in getting strong foundation for conservation of wildlife in our country. Unfortunately, after the demise of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Indian wildlife took a downward trend and few of the successive governments were able to continue her legacy.

Today, we are faced with the bleak scenario of dwindling forests and not a day passes without reading in the press of an animal being poached or wildlife habitat being encroached / making way for grand infrastructure projects like highways, dams, mines etc. Sariska lost all its Tigers few years back. Panna has met the same fate today and Kanha is headed the same way. According to official sources, India has lost eight tigers this year due to poaching and unofficial numbers could be three times higher.

A lot of cheer is on in our country today with the prospect of a stable government at the center, which will be able to carry forward economic reforms without any pressure. Unemployment is expected to come down, industrial production is expected to improve and the Sensex has been on the upward trend from yesterday. The cheer is also for the prospect of a young government which will bring freshness and honesty into governance. While this augurs good for the future of our country, it will be very sad if this freshness, honesty and integrity is not infused into the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).

Scientific studies have valued the annual cost of loss of forests worldwide between $2trillion and $5trillion. India stands to benefit largely by utilizing this resource wisely. The revenue that our forests generate for our country in terms of water sources, air, carbon sequestration, medicines, eco –tourism etc. is far greater that what any economic reform can bring in. However to understand and appreciate these benefits, foresight is needed and going by past experiences this foresight has been lacking by governments of the past decade, at the center as well at the state level. Many of these benefits may not be tangible and hence the inability to appreciate it. Conservation of forests and wildlife are similar to the spending on health, education, security which do not have direct benefits but bring intangible benefits for the society.

To save our country from the loss of such high economic valued resources and to protect the wildlife which, though cannot vote like we humans do, but have an equal right to ‘roti’ and ‘makaan’, a person with foresight, steadfastness and broad outlook is needed. Insulating the forests from development activities like infrastructure projects and mining also requires hard conviction and principles to resist the lobbying powers. The legislations in our country are among the best in the world. The weakness is in the implementation of these laws.

In light of this, a strong, committed and young Member of the Parliament can give visionary direction to this ministry which needs a good understanding of scientific, biological and socio-economic aspects combined with wide travelling to remote regions of the country. Hence we request you to allot the very important portfolio of Ministry of Forest and Environment to someone with such dedication and commitment.

Regards,

Laxmeesha Acharya
President
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society

Medical camp at Kodakerai on May 3, 2009

2009-05-18T06:09:00.000-07:00

The visit to Gutheri last month lead to a discussion on conducting a medical camp for the village of Kodakerai and the neighbouring hamlets. Dr. Sudhakar, who came up with this idea, worked on getting the doctors and drugs to be distributed to the patients. Parallely, Sanjeev worked on getting the FD permission and for passing the message to the villagers. D-Day was decided for May 3rd 2009 and the team was supposed to jam up at the Aiyur FRH the previous evening.

Since it was a long weekend (due to May 1st - Labour day), some of us decided to head to Aiyur early. Karthik and Anand took off in Anand's trusty Shanthi. Guru, Sunil and I left a little later in our bikes and after breakfast at Attibele, we reached Aiyur FRH at noon. Karthik and Anand, who had gone towards Devarabetta to do some birding, had not yet reached Aiyur. So, the three of us decided to bike over to Kodakerai and find out if the villagers had got news of the medical camp as yet. Got to sight a black eagle and couple of Short toed snake eagles hovering over spider valley.

On reaching Kodakerai, we realised that the villagers had not received news of the camp and so we went about informing everyone we came across about it. Since we had time to kill, we trekked up to Gutheri, did some birding (sighted an Emerald dove for the first time) and returned to Kodakerai by 5 pm. Got news that Shanthi had visted Kodakerai in our absence. Headed back to Aiyur and bumped into the entire gang (Karthik, Anand, Sanjeev, Prasanna, Jayraman, Sudhakar and Balaji) by Sami Eri. as they made plans for the evening's revely, I headed back to Bangalore since there was no one at home and I had to feed my dog, Subbu.

Left early morning and zoomed to Aiyur to find that people were still getting ready. Bumped into Guru and Dr. Jasim at Namileri packing breakfast for the rest. After breakfast, we hauled few chairs on Arvind's Qualis and with Shanthi and Dave's Innvova, we left for Kodakerai.

On reaching there, we got the school opened, arranged the tables and chairs, made a make-shift covered area for the lady patients. The doctors were grouped as follows:
- Dr. Lavangi and Dr. Deepika: Gynecs
- Dr. Jasim: Pediatrics
- Dr. Balaji: General Physician
- Dr. Sudhakar: Overall in-charge of doling out medicines
With everything set, the rest of us set about getting the patients! One man came in hesitatingly, and then a lady with a child and gradually it became a deluge. Guru was handling the patient registations and he was soon surrounded by ladies, babies, old women etc. We had to soon resort to crowd control which Dave, Karthik and others ably handled. Sunil set about taking pics while Jay and Prasanna went about to the other hamlets to spread the news of the camp.

By around 12 pm, we ran out of drugs and then had to just issue prescriptions to the patients. The typical problems that people had were skin infections and respiratory problems (due to poor hygiene). After dealing with approx. 167 patients, we decided to close the camp and after thanking the locals we headed back to Aiyur where Karthik had organised a sumptous lunch.

With that we decided to call it a day and we headed back to our respective houses. The doctors and Sanjeev decided to pay a visit to a hospital at Bettamugilalam which is run by a retired doctor. There we donated the some of the stuff like surgical gloves etc. and they returned to Chennai.

All in all, a very satisfying experience. A big thanks to the doctors for thinking of the idea, organising the medicines and coming all the way from Chennai for this. And a big thanks to Karthik for co-ordinating the whole activity.

-
Laxmeesha Acharya
President
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society

Participants:
- Laxmeesha
- Sanjeev
- Prasanna
- Jayraman
- Karthik
- Anand Menon
- Dave Stocker
- Arvind Adhi
- Ravi
- Guru Timmapur
- Sunil Gaikwad
- Dr. Sudhakar
- Dr. Lavangi
- Dr. Jasim
- Dr. Balaji
- Dr. Deepika

Bandipur Roadkills Campaign - 20/21 March 2009

2009-04-14T01:34:00.000-07:00

As usual, the 6th Road Awareness Campaign a Bandipur was kick-started from Bangalore on Friday 20th March 2009. As per plan, all of us met near the Deve Gowda Petrol Station in Banashankari at 10pm. This 6th campaign had 3 new volunteers and the volunteers were as follows – Rakesh, Laxmeesha, Soumyajit, Satish, Vasanth, Ananth, Harish, Mani (first-time), Praveen (first-time) and Mohit (Praveen’s 7year old son). As compared to the previous campaigns, we had 5 bikes and 1 car (it is usually 1 or 2 cars).

We headed for the Mysore Road by 10:45pm and had a first tea-break soon. The next pit stop was at Kitty’s Punjabi Dhaba if I’m not wrong, close to Maddur. At the Dhaba, couple of the guys had a late dinner! After a long break, we started again and the next important pit-stop was Café Coffee Day Gundulpet.

Saturday morning started off with breakfast at Jungle Lodges Bandipur. Breakfast was confined to bread toast as other items had finished (we were actually late). Before heading for breakfast, we had our first sighting – a pack of 6 wild dogs, crossing the road not together but in different time intervals. After the wild dog sighting, we were in high spirits and hoped that we could meet “The King” soon!

Soon we started our work – pamphlet distribution and educating the drivers passing through the Kekanahalla check post. As always there were a few guys who thought these rules don’t apply to them, good listeners and a few appreciated the initiative taken by KANS. Lunch at Jungle Lodges soon followed (3 pm) and we were back at the check post by 4pm. At around 5pm a truck driver gave us a ray of hope – “Sir I have been driving on these roads for nearly 10 years but this is the first time I have seen a tiger and it crossed the road majestically”. His words really rejuvenated us as the location was less than half a km ahead from the check post.

Our brief period of joy was about to end. At around 5:40pm, there was a slight drizzle but the pamphlet distribution was going on. All of a sudden, a Maruti Omni (taxi) was speeding towards the check post and even as we lowered it to stop him, he hit the post and halted abruptly. Vasanth and Rakesh had a narrow miss as they were in his path. On closer inspection, the vehicle was already damaged before hitting the post and the driver was in real high spirits!! The impact caused the door to jam and we literally had to pull him out as he didn’t want to come out. The passengers told us “Sir we are going for a relatives death, please leave us”, but we firmly said no and told them that we would be handing over the driver and the van to the police. Meanwhile the forest guard Mr. Madhavappa took the driver to his room and give him a few slaps. The negotiations went on for some time and finally we decided to hand over the van and the driver to the police outpost at Bandipur Reception Center. As the Maruti VAN occupants were totally drunk, I drove the van accompanied by Guru, Vasanth and Mr. Madhavappa to the police outpost. Rakesh and other followed us in the car and bikes. After handing him over, we went to our room at MC Resorts and had our dinner.

At around 10pm we decided to go on a ride on the Ooty highway. Our first encounter was a female elephant and a calf just after crossing the check-post. Rakesh, Soumyajit, I, Ananth and Mani were in the car. Guru and Praveen were following us on a bike. Except for Rakesh and Mani, the others in the car were really sleepy and dozed off even before reaching Kekanahalla check-post. After Rakesh took a u-turn at the check-post, we woke up and were happy to head back to the resort as we were really tired. Just after some 5 minutes, we saw the first tiger crossing the highway at a distance – the feeling was just amazing. Immediately after stopping the car, we saw a second tiger cross and then a third one. Four tigers within a matter of 10 minutes (2 Males and 2 Females including one Alpha Male Tiger) – just sheer luck I guess! Finally our patience paid off with 6 sightings and two very close sightings. As they say sighting a tiger in a South Indian jungle is always special – it sure is!!

Sunday morning there was the usual safari from MC Resorts but a couple of us including me skipped it. After checking out, we had breakfast at Jungle Lodges and then proceeded towards Nugu Wildlife Sanctuary. We climbed a small hill and the bikers it was like off-roading as it was full of stones and loose sand. We could see Kabini far away and had to leave early as we had to be in Bangalore by 9pm. Our very late lunch was at Country Club Mysore (5pm) and after a good lunch, we hit the road back to Bangalore. Overall it was a very eventful trip – wild dogs, drunk driving and of course 4 tigers!!

-
Satish Pari
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society

Aiyur - Kodakerai Trek on 4/5 April 2009

2009-04-07T08:18:00.000-07:00

After much planning, several emails and phone calls, the long awaited trek to Kodakerai finally happened on April 4/5 2009 when Karthik, Guru, Sudhakar, Tanu, Shan, Avishek and I made the 'full monty' from Aiyur to Kodakerai.

Sudhakar drove down from Chennai the previous night while the rest of us left from Bangalore on 4th morning. Met up at Denkanikottai (at Shankar Cafe...where else??) and then headed straight to Aiyur FRH. After parking the cars and re-filling our water bottles, we started the trek at around 10 am. Within few metres we came across a local who said that there were elephants further down the road. Thereafter, we met people at regular intervals...some warning us about elephants and some saying that it was safe. We anyway continued our trek and after 45 mins of steady walking, we took our first break at Sami Eri..around 3 kms from Aiyur FRH. By this time, all 7 of us were behaving like we had been childhood friends despite the fact that not everyone knew each other just about an hour ago.

Subsequently, our pace began to slacken as the sun's intensity grew, the tar road became hotter and the turn leading to Kodakerai did not appear. We began to wonder if we had missed it somewhere. Fortunately we sighted the hand-pump and opposite to it, the mud track!! By now we had covered 7 kms and with a spring in our steps, we got onto the mud track and for a strange reason the breeze also picked up. Spider valley showed up after few minutes and all of us took sometime to drink in the beauty of the view.

As our gaze swept Spider valley, we could see the mud track winding its way up, deep into the Gutherayan ranges and we wondered how we would make all that distance.

Thereafter, the breaks came faster and lasted longer than the previous ones. Every villager we encountered had his own estimate of the distance to Kodakerai...from 2 kms to 12 kms.

After sometime, we decided to ignore all estimates and carried on gamely. Stopped at a bamboo grove for lunch of puris, sambar, sagu and chutney (which we had packed from Shankar Cafe) and resumed the journey and finally reached the village at around 4.30 pm.

While we relaxed and drank the 'sweet' water from a tank and made enquiries for a guide, we got to know that Kodakerai was still 1 mile ahead! Picked up our back-packs once again and headed towards Kodakerai.

Shan used his charms to arrange lime tea for us while the rest of us busied ourselves in sourcing a guide, equiring about the forests etc. The headman finally organised Lingappa to take us into the forest to our camping site at Gutheri.

After an ardous trek of 2 kms, we finally reached the rocky ledge overlooking Gutheri. It was 7.30 pm...a good 9.5 hrs and 18 kms and several nutri bars since we started from Aiyur in the morning. However all fatique vanished as we sensed the dense shola forests around us. After some exploring around the lake, we came back to our camp site. We got a good fire going and soon we were enjoying a nice night in the middle of the jungles and under the dark sky, munching biscuits and cakes.

After deciding to take it easy the next morning (attempting to reach Gutherayan peak, which is a good steep climb of 4 kms, would have delayed our return to Aiyur), we all slipped into our sleeping bags while Karthik took to the safety of the tent. He was soon joined by Shan and Guru as the night turned colder.

Woke up in the morning to the sounds of birds all around us. Guru went down to the lake for birding and the rest of us slowly crept out of our sleeping bags and tents. Sudhakar got the gem of an idea to toast bread on the camp fire. With a stick poked into the bread, he got into the act and soon we were all served with hot toast and green apple jam.

With our breakfast done, we all went down to Gutheri and after some exploring and photo sessions, came back, packed and traced our steps back to Kodakerai.

Our aim was to reach the main road before 2 pm and catch the bus to Aiyur. However, when we noticed that a Tata Sumo had come to the village to repair the bore-well, all thoughts of walking down the mud-track went up in hot air (literally!) and we asked the driver to drop us to the main road. He adamantly refused and did not give any reason also for it. Fortunately, as we were having tea (milk tea this time), we were given the welcome news that a tempo was on its way to the village to drop some provisions and we could go in that. Much to our relief, the tempo came in soon after and thankfully, we agreed to drop us till Aiyur. We then quickly distributed all remaining biscuits, chocolates, cakes etc. to the kids around, boarded the tempo and in 50 mins were at the Aiyur FRH.

After a quick and sumptuous meal, we parted ways..with Sudhakar heading to Chennai and the rest of us to Bangalore, but not before deciding to return soon, scale Gutherayan and have a barbeque on the camp fire!!

Encounters:
-----------
Civet cat
A gun-shot
A growl + Loud rustle

Facts:
------
Approx. 300 families in Kodakerai.
Around 15-20 hamlets surrounding Kodakerai.
Total population 3000-5000.
Source of water - borewell.
Conflicting reports about wildlife presence, with majority saying that there is no wildlife. But one gentlemen named Chandrappa stated categorically that the forests are teeming with all varieties of wildlife, except Tigers.
No schools and hospitals.
Most of the people practise farming or work as contract labor in Hosur and Bangalore.
No public transport. People normally walk 9 kms to the main road to catch the TNSTC bus.
-
Laxmeesha Acharya
President
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society

Participants:
-------------
Karthik
Guru Timmapur
Sudhakar
Tanushree Das
Shanmugam
Avishek

Bandipur Roadkills Campaign - 21/22 March 2009

2009-03-24T03:44:00.000-07:00

As usual, the 6th Road Awareness Campaign a Bandipur was kick-started from Bangalore on Friday 20th March 2009. As per plan, all of us met near the Deve Gowda Petrol Station in Banashankari at 10pm. This 6th campaign had 3 new volunteers and the volunteers were as follows – Rakesh, Laxmeesha, Soumyajit, Satish, Vasanth, Ananth, Guru, Harish, Mani (first-time), Praveen (first-time) and Mohit (Praveen’s 7year old son). As compared to the previous campaigns, we had 5 bikes and 1 car (it is usually 1 or 2 cars).

We headed for the Mysore Road by 10:45pm and had a first tea-break soon. The next pit stop was at Kitty’s Punjabi Dhaba if I’m not wrong, close to Maddur. At the Dhaba, couple of the guys had a late dinner! After a long break, we started again and the next important pit-stop was Café Coffee Day Gundulpet.

Saturday morning started off with breakfast at Jungle Lodges Bandipur. Breakfast was confined to bread toast as other items had finished (we were actually late). Before heading for breakfast, we had our first sighting – a pack of 6 wild dogs, crossing the road not together but in different time intervals. After the wild dog sighting, we were in high spirits and hoped that we could meet “The King” soon!

Soon we started our work – pamphlet distribution and educating the drivers passing through the Kekanahalla check post. As always there were a few guys who thought these rules don’t apply to them, good listeners and a few appreciated the initiative taken by KANS. Lunch at Jungle Lodges soon followed (3 pm) and we were back at the check post by 4pm. At around 5pm a truck driver gave us a ray of hope – “Sir I have been driving on these roads for nearly 10 years but this is the first time I have seen a tiger and it crossed the road majestically”. His words really rejuvenated us as the location was less than half a km ahead from the check post.

Our brief period of joy was about to end. At around 5:40pm, there was a slight drizzle but the pamphlet distribution was going on. All of a sudden, a Maruti Omni (taxi) was speeding towards the check post and even as we lowered it to stop him, he hit the post and halted abruptly. Vasanth and Rakesh had a narrow miss as they were in his path. On closer inspection, the vehicle was already damaged before hitting the post and the driver was in real high spirits!! The impact caused the door to jam and we literally had to pull him out as he didn’t want to come out. The passengers told us “Sir we are going for a relatives death, please leave us”, but we firmly said no and told them that we would be handing over the driver and the van to the police. Meanwhile the forest guard Mr. Madhavappa took the driver to his room and give him a few slaps. The negotiations went on for some time and finally we decided to hand over the van and the driver to the police outpost at Bandipur Reception Center. As the Maruti VAN occupants were totally drunk, I drove the van accompanied by Guru, Vasanth and Mr. Madhavappa to the police outpost. Rakesh and other followed us in the car and bikes. After handing him over, we went to our room at MC Resorts and had our dinner.

At around 10pm we decided to go on a ride on the Ooty highway. Our first encounter was a female elephant and a calf just after crossing the check-post. Rakesh, Soumyajit, I, Ananth and Mani were in the car. Guru and Praveen were following us on a bike. Except for Rakesh and Mani, the others in the car were really sleepy and dozed off even before reaching Kekanahalla check-post. After Rakesh took a u-turn at the check-post, we woke up and were happy to head back to the resort as we were really tired. Just after some 5 minutes, we saw the first tiger crossing the highway at a distance – the feeling was just amazing. Immediately after stopping the car, we saw a second tiger cross and then a third one. Four tigers within a matter of 10 minutes (2 Males and 2 Females including one Alpha Male Tiger) – just sheer luck I guess! Finally our patience paid off with 6 sightings and two very close sightings. As they say sighting a tiger in a South Indian jungle is always special – it sure is!!

Sunday morning there was the usual safari from MC Resorts but a couple of us including me skipped it. After checking out, we had breakfast at Jungle Lodges and then proceeded towards Nugu Wildlife Sanctuary. We climbed a small hill and the bikers it was like off-roading as it was full of stones and loose sand. We could see Kabini far away and had to leave early as we had to be in Bangalore by 9pm. Our very late lunch was at Country Club Mysore (5pm) and after a good lunch, we hit the road back to Bangalore. Overall it was a very eventful trip – wild dogs, drunk driving and of course 4 tigers!!

Group picture taken at Jungle Lodges. Starting from left to right the members are
* Praveen
* Rakesh
* Harish
* Mani (first-timer)
* Guru with Mohit (praveen's son)
* Vasanth
* Ananth
* Satish (me)
* Laxmeesha
* Soumyajit

By,
Satish Pari
Member
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society

Gutherayan visit

2009-03-07T11:38:00.000-08:00

Arvind and I went to a short notice trip to Gutherayan. CCF Mr.Sreenivas Murthy, (working plan) from chennai, Mr.conservator (Vellore cirlce working plan), Dr.Ravikumar (Foundation for restoration of local health systems) were coming to survey the area along with our DFO Mr.Ganeshan.

Dr.Ravikumar is a leading taxonomists in the country with knowledge as vast as an encyclopedia. Our DFO Mr.Ganeshan is not far behind him either.

We drove up to Kodekerai and then trekked up the hills to Gutheri lake and finally to Gutherayan summit. Poojaries from Kodekerai accompanied us and it was an amazing trek.

We had to stop every few feet and Dr.Ravikumar would point out plants and trees and quiz the poojaries about its habits, exudation, fruits flowers etc, and I cannot recall a single instance when the poojaries faltered. An old poojari called Kullan was especially impressive.

I believe we recorded nearly 20 redlisted plant species upto Gutheri lake which is half way up to the summit. The vegetation is typical of evergreen shola forests. I have never seen forests such as these in this district.

Some notable sights were huge wild mango trees (Mangifera Indica) with girth of 6 meters and easily over 50 meters in height. There were wild jack, some species of wild citrus, many members of the cinnamon family, Garcenia Gummi gatta etc. Dr.Ravikumar's celebrations on finding Garcenia gummi gatta was a sight to behold!! I have never seen Mr.Ganeshan so excited. We were also treated to Shorea Roxbhurgii in full bloom.

Many specied considered endemic to Western Ghats are also found here.

I could observe some bird activity though the time of the day was not suitable for birding. Malabar Parakeets rool the roost here, and there seems to be an absence of rose ringed parakeets.

There were signs of Bear, muntjak, sambhar etc and a more detailed study is essential to fully understand this fantastic place.

Arvind went up to the summit of Gutherayan and I stayed behind. I dont know what I missed there. But I stayed back on a rock hoping to do some birding. Not much to report on that front. However, the shola needs to be explored for birds.

Sanjeev Kumar S. R.
Vice President
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society

Bandipur Roadkills campaign - 21 Dec 2008

2009-02-26T02:07:00.000-08:00

Day: 21st December 2008
*Time: 4:15 AM*
Place: Gundulpet "Coffee Day"
2 Cappuccino's and one Assam tea were "washed down" the throat by 4 KANS
members to set the tone for the day. Saying bye-bye to sleep, we set off for
a long and fruitful day. (what a "relief" this one gave!)

*Time: 10:15 AM
*Place: Bandipura Check post (karnataka border)
Officer Names:Prakash, Satish and Chandu-- Trainee KANS Awareness officers
:) and Soumyajit (officer-in-charge)
Task: Stopping vehicles and educating people, while our almost Forest
officer look alike Soumyajit doing the vehicle "census"

Typical Dialogues:
"Excuse me sir/Mam , please drive slow, do not stop anywhere, do not get
down from the vehicle, and please do not honk, no music please"
*Time: 12:00 PM*
(The Probation completed Officers...)
Prakash: "Do you know at what speed you are driving?"
Driver: "No sir, I think 20-30 (in fact he is drining at 50+)"
Prakash: "Do you know what is the speed you are supposed to drive?"
Driver: "No Sir!"
Prakash: "40, you should not cross it and no honking, no music .. go..

On the other end..Satish handling things for KL, TN (the registration
numbers)- "There can be elephants in the forest, don't stop sir. "

Chandu: "Forest department rule says the maximum permitted speed is 40 kms,
do not let anyone, especially kids to get down.. Switch off the music till
you go out of the forest."

*Time: 4:00 PM
*Prakash:(no more questions)... "Oye maximum speed should be 40.., no
stopping , no honking...no getting down.. OK?? .. understood??
go..!"(annoyed with attitudes)

Satish: "There are elephants in the forest, be careful- this is for your
safety, they might attack you if you try to get down or do something silly."

Chandu: "No honking & over speeding, there is a squad few kms down the road
waiting to penalize, you better drive slow. "

~~~~~
Did you perceive the change in tone?? Blame not the amnesia! It came out
after witnessing the attitudes and lack of awareness in the people who drove
through jungle. We realized that just listing/reading the rule won't help
much, you have to show a bigger picture and we tried to sketch the same.
Let's switch over to few more things...

*Some "situations" we were "put in":
*1. One guy: "Sir, from where will the wild animals start ??" (you are in
the wrong place moron..Do you think all animals in the jungle queue up for
you to watch??)

2. Another fella:" Sir, is something happening in the jungle?Any wild life
movement "(what to say?? it happens everyday if only we allow it to happen)

3. (3 drunken fellas in an a/c maruti car):
Satish: "Sir, there might be elephants around, so don't stop,it's risky!!"
Feellas: "We can take care of elefant, no prrroblem, we will take
rishk..."(with half open eyes.... go get "crushed"- wish the jumbos are
around)

4. Few people carried their big egos along, and one impatient fella who had
no time to listen drove over my toes and another one was about to crash into
Satish.(beasts in the forest!!!)

5.Some tourists: "..Oh we know it, we are from Coonoor!"- Another guy-"I
know, I am from Ooty!!"....(Does that make any difference??)

6. One cab Driver: "Sir, I have been driving on these road from past 6
years, but no body told me about these rules !!? "(no surprise, that's why
we are here!)

7. A bunch of guys were stopping on the road in the mid of the forest-
drinking and driving at 4 pm!! But when the forester checked their cars,
they managed to hide all bottles!! (is that what we call "bar-car-di?"?)

8. "Why should we switch off the music???(oops the animals can't understand!
somebody forgot commonsense back at home)..... Where can we see animals??"
(go to zoo man, there is no sighting-guaranteed scheme out there!!)

9. Few people are too generous to offer us money even before we start
explaining things- assuming we are guards creating a "situation"
there.(Corruption, tell me d place u haven't been..!) Couple others promptly
came down with RC book and license!! :)
10. After packing off for the day, on our way back, close to the bandipur
reception, we spotted 2 guys drinking openly stopping their vehicle in the
middle of the forest. Sadly for them, we aborted their joy and made them
move out of the forest. (Is it time, we rename the forest to
B(r)andi-pur???)

*Few appreciations:*
"You guys are doing a great job!!!... "
"I have a suggestion for you.... "
"Where are you based at? Can we have some details about KANS!?"
"Can we join KANS??"

The most surprising thing or rather one of the highlights-- We met a warm
and friendly young couple who happened to be family friends of Donald
Anderson.They told that Don is living in EJIPURA. They are very happy to
know about the group and told us that they would join our group and took
Soumyajit's contact numbers and yahoo group URL. Let's hope something would
materialize soon!!

~~~
Hope, that sums up quickly how we dealt with people and their attitudes.
Overall, it's fun talking to so many people (count must be 500 vehicles).
It's a good feeling to educate people. We had a great time but we had our
share of irritating moments as well.But to witness the kind of ignorance
people displayed was appalling.

Drunken driving, over speeding, stopping, honking...we witnessed everything
that can be considered as "breaking the rule". But, What hurts me MORE is
NOT the ignorance of people-but the impatience, in sensitiveness and
attitude of the some of the so called educated class whom we interacted
with. Somebody tell them that the ego-filled, closed minds are not going to
help them !!

With the new year eve around, the drunken driving things is going to get
even worse! God save the wild. I wish we can suggest the DFO to deploy few
guards on the new year eve to check the drunken drivers. I am sure, a huge
"penalty" money is awaiting the Forest department which can be used for
other useful purposes(not sure where the money goes!)

Although we do not know how long the drivers and tourists remember the
guidelines, but now they at least know that there are few "guidelines" while
driving through the forest.

Kudos to our team -
*Prakash*- For driving most part of the journey with hardly one hour sleep
and the officer kindda look (shades+khaki shirt with half- folded
sleeves) that scared the hell out of few people out there!!(although
unintentional)

*Satish*- For coming down all the way from Chennai and sleeping in advance
on Friday evening to save energy for the program and handling Tamil and
Malayalam and for sharing the driving time!!

*Soumyajit*- Our officer-in-charge of the operation and who never showed
signs of fatigue and sleep despite of not sleeping the previous night and
did the vehicle count without a break!!

*Chandu- *For writing this report & clicking pics !:P

As we pass on the baton to the next group of volunteers, let me tell you-
Being a volunteer for this program is FUN with a little drama and
"surprises"(like the sighting of elephant and a calf we had) and you can
leave for home feeling better and ample reasons to smile!

Chandrasekar Bandi
Member
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society

Bandipur Roadkills campaign - Jan 2009

2009-02-26T01:59:00.000-08:00

The Bandipur Reserve Resort Forest
(no offence meant for resort owners)

******
Hello all and welcome to the Bandipur Resort Forest. This is one of those few places where you feel like "being at home". We had lots of attractions lined up for you and trust me all those makes an amazing package!! Without boring you much, let me brief you all a little about the mind blowing facilities and attractions one can experience.

The Bandipur Tea:

If you are a tea lover, we bet you never heard about BANDIPUR tea?? Move aside ASSAM tea, Darjeeling tea, we have our own best branded BANDIPUR TEA. You can choose this as welcome drink and we know your inquisitive minds wish to know how to prepare it, hence to soothe you all, we will share the recipe too!!

1. Reach Bandipur forest with all your friends and family playing loud music and screaming.
2. Drive through the forest and when you feel you are in the middle.. stop!!, Yes stop in the middle of the forest where you can find THICK dried bamboo or dried grass
3. Make sure the place is dry and had all dry twigs and dead leaves around.
4. Collect some leaves, lit fire and make temporary stove, boil milk, add ingredients.
5. Leave your brains behind and don’t worry about wind or forest or a bed of dead leaves around ready to catch fire that can demolish the forest!

You can choose it as a “welcome drink”! Some people out there found it tastier!???

Monkey Massage

Then, as you proceed we have a NATUROPATHIC SPA with a little difference. It provides special refreshing massage and naturaopathic treatment, usually done by 2 masters we had in the resort, a Langur-dada and the Bonnet dada.
To experience the offer, you need to do the below.
1. Get down in the middle of the jungle
2. Carry some eatables be it namkeens or whatever you eat or about to throw into bins
3. Go closer to our experts and try feeding them!!
You would get a bite on your body (can be any place) that feeds in the "secret" ingredients that makes you run crazy and drives you into "musth" mood. Remember we are not responsible for the "hospitlization" charges if any that you need to incur due to the “side-affects" of our NATUROPATHIC SPA.

Other Attractions

If that was not enough, we have a “Drink-while-drive” scheme, where through out the “resort” you can throw your beer or any liquor bottles and drive at your “will” testing the limits of your speed-o-meter. Remember we are not responsible for any freaky accidents.

For the sake of devotional souls we have a "feed-d-animal" scheme where you can get down in the middle of the jungle and feed the chital and sambar around and feel that you are a "kind-hearted" and treat it as “alms”. We are not responsible if you feel guilty when you realize that one of them was killed because you disturbed their natural food habits and make them stay close to the road ending up as road kills!

For the "i-have-been-there-seen-there" kind of photo lovers, we had a scheme of CLICK-ANYWHERE where people can get down wherever they want in the forest and pose for photographs proving Darwin’s theory of "evolution" by reminding people that we still have our ancestors (read apes & chimps) traces in us, which comes out only during forest visits! But, we are not responsible for tusker attacks!

So, come visit us and feel refreshing!!!..

******
So, if you managed to read this till here, didn't you think at some point of time that I am insane and wrote rubbish and wondering what this article is about? But these appear to be the hidden rules of the forest as perceived by our public. People are treating it as a resort, but not national park!

Fun apart; let me tell you that we WITNESSED all those schemes that I detailed above during KANS-4th Road kill awareness campaign in BANDIPUR in JANUARY. The mindless tea makers, the stupid drunken drivers, the benevolent animal feeders who make the monkeys and langurs sit on road expecting every vehicle to be potential source of food. Some throw food at them, some of them pass it to their hand, others calls them up and offers, someone gets down and get closer and ends up being chased away.

At one moment we saw a line of 10 cars stopping in the middle of the forest and magnanimous people getting down and feeding and posing with chital!! What a stupidity!!? Now, don't blame the forest department! They are understaffed and overloaded. What can they do when the netas are not interested in taking care of them??

Again, don't blame the netas, after all, we are the one's who elected them. But hey, don't blame people completely. I feel it is partially because there is zero awareness and partially due to the "attitudes". Like what my friend quotes- when humans are least concerned about other humans around, how can one expect them to be sensitive towards animals? I would say chances are as good as spotting a 'native' tiger in Sariska! This is precisely the reason why we are trying to educate people about the behavioral ethics in the forest.

After stopping close to 10,000 vehicles and talking to more than 20,000 people over the past 4 months, we realized how badly our public needs this kind of education/awareness. With every campaign we are resolving ourselves to do it more often and with more vigor. It's not about which NGO do we belong, it's not about whether Kenneth Anderson wrote fiction or truth, it's not about who inspired us to head jungles... but all that matter to us is.. -What can we do to the precious precious jungles which gave us this air to breathe, the food we eat, the inexpressible joy we perceive...which is shared by any nature lover around the world be it Kenneth Anderson or Jim Corbett. All are a Band of brothers in this good world of conservation, taking different paths like the way we all are doing it on our own small ways! So let's pray and hope that our jungles are safer and our efforts are blessed!

A team of 12 volunteers joined the campaign in January delivering instructions in English, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Bengali. I am sure every one went back with a pool of memories and a well-lit inspiration to pass on the message to their friends and family as well. Someone sent their wife to home town to catch up time to volunteer, some one heeded nothing to parents concern of driving all night, Couple of guys drove all the way on the bike from Bangalore daring chilling cold skipping the sleep, Someone came from Chennai, Some came from close by place squeezing in whatever little time they had in between running their businesses. Someone came all the way from Kerala, someone made sure they did their bit before flying out of the country…. & the stories goes on..
Kudos to the spirit of the volunteers and finally someone is volunteering to make a trip report at almost midnight!(self-pat)

P.S: We thank the forest department officials, KANS committee, our volunteers and supporters. Also, special thanks to Sudhir Shivaram & Giri Cavale of INW ( www.indianaturewatch.net) for stopping by (or stopped!!? :) ) and passing their encouraging words beside showing us the precious 800 mm bazooka

Team:
Satish Pari Baskaran, Guruprasad Timmapur, Prakash Matada, Rajesh Mangat, J. Balamurugan, Arunava Das , Anantharaj MS, Soumyajit Nandy, Rakesh Gupta, Vasanth, Arun and ChandraSekhar Bandi

ChandraSekhar Bandi
Member
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society

Bandipur Roadkills campaign - 21/22 Feb 2009

2009-02-26T01:23:00.000-08:00

The team reached the Kekanahalla Check Post around 10.00 AM on Saturday morning, before reaching the check post the team picked up two trespassers walking on the forest road without the knowledge of the unforeseen dangers. They were picked up and dropped in Bandipur Reception Center; they were also educated about the consequences. In between Bandipur and Kekanahalla we found few patches of land being burnt out due to forest fire.

After reaching the forest check post at Kekanahalla the team started distributing the pamphlets carried by Mr. Soumyajit and Mr. Rakesh Gupta, we also explained the vehicle drivers about the need for wild life conservation, Do’s and Don’ts while driving in the forest range. About 80% of the people the team stopped showed interest in the conservation of wild life, and approximately 10% of the drivers neglected and the rest 10% bluntly replied that they knew every thing and they were regular travelers. However, the team ensured that every vehicle passing through the check post were stopped and the sound systems in the vehicle were switched off and requested to drive their vehicle at a maximum of 40 km/hr speed. These activities continued till 7.15 PM and in that time span approximately 850 vehicles passed through this check post.

After the dinner around 9.30 PM the team set out for a patrolling in two cars up to Gudalur. On the way we sighted two groups of Gaurs and few spotted deer and Sambar deer. This went up to 1.00 AM midnight. (Note: Mr. Soumyajit and Mr. Rajesh spotted Leopard in the bush which others could not). We also noticed forest fire was blazing on top of a hill, on the way to Mangla village.

On day two we set out for a safari ride around 6.50 AM we found many fresh tracks of Tiger and Leopard, its seems to be lot of activities that has happened the previous night, we also visited one of the Anti Poaching Camp (APC) and spoke to the Watchers, we understood from them that there was a need for drinking water and sanitary facility, we also observed a dried well, which on pumped could not let out anything other that hot air. If this is the situation for the watchers, imagine for the wild animals it is really pathetic, tears welled in our eyes without our knowledge. We could see nothing but the burned vegetation. The green has turned into black ash, water holes had dried up expect for very few still left with some amount of water. I hope this could provide some life to the wild animals till the next monsoon.

With this pain we came out to Pugmark, Jungle Lodges and Resorts for breakfast. Then the team moved towards Gopalswamy Hills, the way was very painful, the destruction of the forest fire was un-imaginable as it has washed away the heritage of the green lands. From the top of the hill deep in the valley we could see fire erupting like a volcano, the smoke was reaching the sky looking like a bridge between the land and the sky. The fire was very huge and was spreading quickly. We could see it was burning away the landscape within hours. We felt helpless and could do nothing against it, and kept watching. The fire was spreading from both the sides destroying the valley. We could also spotted two small patches of smokes just starting up the fire on the other side of the hill. The Forest Guards in Gopalswamy Hill didn’t seem to be much interested in that, we were not sure whether he had informed the department about the fire. Also we could not understand their intentions, like whether he was deliberately neglecting or felt the same helpless like what we felt.

On the hill, we understood that there were been movement of wild life prior to the destruction of the forest fire. We were able to trace foot prints and scats of gaur, elephant, deer, leopard and tiger.

At last we decided to leave the hill around 1.00 PM with the heart full of nothing but the pain.

However this camp was successful in bringing in awareness of Wild life Conservation among the public passing through the sanctuary. Photographs of the forest fire have been taken as a proof.

Team : Soumyajit, Rakesh Gupta, Harish, Ananth, Vasanth, Satish Pari, Dr Rajesh, Bala, Dr Paul, Tarun Paul, Divyan Paul and Prince Rahul.

Number of vehicles/pamphlets distributed: 825

Pics at 5th Bandipur Campaign

Harish Kumar S
Volunteer
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society

Nagarhole Speed-breaker painting activity - 1st Jan 2009

2009-02-22T20:19:00.000-08:00

KANS, true to the cause of conservation, has a large and varied activity base. This time around, the members and volunteers of KANS decided to build on their Roadkill Awareness Campaign by painting about 30 speed-breakers in the 35 km. stretch of forest road inside Nagarahole (a.k.a Rajiv Gandhi National Park).

So we collected some artistically inclined people and also some with previous painting experience and bundled them into three cars and we were off to Nagarahole for a date with the bumps. En route we did manage to try and explore two new routes to Coorg, but failed miserably, one at the hands of a railway gate and the other at the hands of the new police strategy against terror movements – road blocks that drivers cannot possibly see until they go straight into them and therefore render all vehicle stopping equipment useless…

After navigating a road full of R’s, i.e. rabbits and rats, and avoiding adding them to our already bloated dinner menu, we arrived at the check post at 5 A.M, only to be greeted with the rather shady noise of 5 men in a tent. Once we approached, they moved toward the check post hand-pump and proceeded to wake up all the inhabitants of the check post and the jungle with that ghastly early-morning noise that would have driven any jungle dweller up the nearest tree.
It’s a wonder how some people really miss the din of the city and endeavour to replicate thee racket of a concrete jungles in our wooded jungles.

After their ‘family ablution’ we had the fortune of a silent jungle dawn and at 6 A.M, the guards at the check post let us through. As though quietly forbidding, and at the same time wooing us, the forest opened out in a surreal shade of pale grey and light green. To add to this, the dew methodically set about getting all over the windshield of the cars and clogging it up. However, onward we went into this majestic forest that boasts of a fantastic predator-prey relationship in the hope of catching a glimpse of the King of the Jungle, the tiger.

A short way through the forest, we encountered the first of the many road humps that we needed to paint over the course of the day. The drive through the forest was a fantastic experience and we did manage to get a moment of adrenalin in when a couple of bison careened off the road and into the surrounding thicket in front of our car. The bison were huge to say the least and exacted a fair amount of awe from us.

We were told by the two cars following us that a tusker had made himself quite friendly by chasing two cars behind us. Unfortunately, it took the inhabitants of the car much less time to realize that sometimes even opposites don’t attract than the poor tusker and he had to be left to his fate…

Next up, the actual road hump painting activity. Our able President, Laxmeesha Acharya, who had defied the giants of sleep, fatigue and conversation throughout the night, was up fresh and jovial as he began to mix the paint as a bartender would cocktails. Somewhere at this point, the front left tyre of Hari’s car decided that it wanted to make use of the ‘exchange offer’ with the spare tyre and proceeded to unceremoniously puncture itself. Talk about tyre suicide! Repaired, we rejoined the team on their ‘paint my love’ journey…

Painting the humps wasn’t the big time consuming activity we perceived it to be, but rather a quick one with a factory line operating – a broom, a stone layer, two painters and two facilitators-…and soon the bleak road was transformed into a black and white strip that must make most film cameras a joy to behold.

Must mention here that the forest guards were of immense help, directing the rather sparse traffic away from the fresh paint and the vulnerable painters by the wayside.

This particular group of volunteers was made of young and middle aged folks with a great interest in improving the visibility of forest awareness. Another point worth noting is that a young chap in the midst of his exams, made this trip with us.

Nagarahole is famous for its Dholes (Cuon alpinus) and they did not disappoint us. These deceptively docile looking creatures were spotted at the Kalhalla Range on either side of the road. At about the same time, a couple of Giant Malabar Squirrels (Ratufa indica), another flagship of Indian mammals, appeared out of seemingly nowhere and began a game of hide-and-seek with each other, all the while providing us with a fantastic view of their daily lives.

The painting activity was rather quick and by 14.00 we had worked up a huge appetite for lunch. The cook provided some much needed nourishment and soon the team was ready for the next piece of action.

At this moment two busloads of people from a college in Bangalore burst upon the scene and blasted all our eardrums. Immediately they pounced upon the safari vehicles just like a tiger would on its prey albeit without the fuss and mess.

On the safari, the folks managed to bring back most of the city noise so much so that not even a combined effort from the driver, us and an elephant unit (mother + calf) could do much to quell the racket that left us, and the elephants, with a mighty headache…

The mother and calf were very shy and disappeared into thickets immediately, but the mother being alarmed and concerned for her young one, did let out one small note of alarm. Just goes to show that all that these animals want is to be left alone.

We did see some interesting sights in the jungle, but did not come face to face with the Mighty One and left with a heavy heart, something that we wish to amend next time around.

The road hump painting activity was geared at increasing human and animal safety in the forest as well as increasing visibility for KANS. It was an effort that all of us made worthwhile and we hope to assist the people of the forest, the forest officials and the animals themselves to retain their rightful land and not perish in any way that has to do with human negligence.

Quick Facts
Number of speed breakers: 40
Distance: 35 Km
No. of participants: 12

Naren Damodran
Committee Member
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society

Understanding man-elephant conflict

2009-02-22T20:08:00.001-08:00

Background of the project:

1. Elephant crop raiding is an important issue in all elephant forests abutting human settlements.
2. Maximum claims faced by forest departments seem to be from elephant crop raiding and deaths caused by elephants coming into conflict with humans.
3. The pressure to keep crop raiding claims down seem to be one of the reasons for the elephant ping pong that happens at the Bannerghatta-Kempatahalli corridor, where TN and Karnataka forest departments drive elephants across state borders. This was a statement made by a forest range officer of Thally-Jowlagiri range when Anand and Sanjeev met them for uniform distribution recently.
4. The victims of crop raiding are mostly subsistence farmers and the loss of income causes enormous hardships to poor families.
5. Nightly vigil maintained by village folk creates a stressful situation for the men and breeds antipathy towards animals in general.
6. All possible efforts need to be taken up to reduce conflict situations between humans and elephants.

A possible solution:

1. Chilli fencing is a strategy that developed in Africa to address similar human elephant conflict situation.
2. Elephants have an acute sense of smell that is said to be 150 times more powerful than humans. The pungent odour of chilli is an effective deterrent to elephants. Three methods of utilizing the property of chilli seems to be prevalent:
1. Use chilli as a border crop to deter elephants from entering fields.
2. A fence made of ropes coated with a mixture of ground chilli, tobacco and engine oil is erected to ward of elephants.
3. Cakes made of elephant dung and chilli are burnt at night times. This cake is said to burn upto eight hours emitting pungent smoke which drives away elephants.
3. ANCF carried out trials of the engine oil, chilli and tobacco coated rope fences at Gulhatti area close to Aiyur reserve forest. The results were summarized like this:
1. The chilli fence experiment at Gulhatti village was successful in controlling 80% of attempts by herds and bulls.
2. It was more effective against the herds (95%) than the bulls (50%). Since, it was effective overall for 80%, it is still recommend to use this technique but should be restricted during the reproductive (flowering and grain) stage of the crop to avoid elephants to get acclimatized.

Extent of the problem in Melagiri hills:

1. Elephant is without doubt the flagship species in the melagiri hills. A sizeable population of resident elephants said to number around 150 heads according to FD sources are said to exist here.
2. Frequently elephants from Bannerghatta range are driven into this area and this year the figure of elephants coming in from Bannerghatta is thought to be around 150 to 200 heads.
3. Elephants also cross over from Kollegal and Kanakpura forest ranges by swimming across the Cauvery river into the area.
4. Almost every local farmer complains that elephants are aware of the harvest seasons and promptly present themselves to eat up the crops.
5. It will be interesting to find out whether this happens because the elephants do not have sufficient food within the forests, or whether they just prefer to munch a free meal!
6. Human deaths caused by elephants are a regular feature every year.

Specific background and first hand information:

1. At the recent meeting with the FD at Hosur attended by Laxmeesha, Sanjeev, Anand Menon, Soumyajit, and Sudheesh, chili fencing was broached with the DFO. His support for this activity is very encouraging. We requested details of the areas facing the problem at the current time. We were given a report of 2 herds one numbering 5 and another numbering 30 which were active in the Udedurgam area. This is the same place where a person was killed just before the uniform distribution day. Also recently another person was killed a couple of days ago. It is reported that elephants travel nearly 2 kms from forest boundaries to raid crops. We decided to visit this place for a first hand account.
2. We went to villages bordering Udedurgam forest area and went to a small village called U-puram. The Bangalore Salem railway line passes just outside the village. Beyond the village at a distance of maybe 1.5 KM is the forest boundary. We were surprised to see patta land farms literally on the edge of the forest boundary. A few years ago 5 elephants were run over by a train on these very tracks not far from here.
3. An elderly lady and a young kid gave us a lot of information. The last visit of elephants to this village was 8 days back. Another lady joined up and showed us her house which is just along the railway line, where elephants had come and eaten up large bales harvested crops laid out to dry.
4. We were told that the person who was killed 25 days back had been gaurding his harvest laid out for threshing by sleeping on a nearby rock along with another person. On hearing the elephants, he had stepped down to fetch re-inforcements from the village, when he was pasted into the ground by the elephants.
5. We also gathered that pigs were another menace in this locality. The young boy then accompanied us to the last field bordering the forest.
6. The person present there told us that his last planting of vegetables was torn up by elephants and that he had recently replanted beetroot. He showed us the place from which elephants came in, which is literally like stepping out of the jungle into the field!
7. There was an ample collection of elephant dung in his manure heap to vouch for his account and also visible were elephant foot print craters in his paddy field.
8. A small gathering collected around us and we spent a while talking to them about the forest but did not ourselves venture into the jungle.
9. We were flabbergasted when he told us that there were camels in the jungles. He identified them as "Duppe" having long neck and long legs and being coloured like Laxmeesha's T-shirt. Later on being shown picture, he identified them as Sambhars, which seems like a reasonable error.
10. Other animals reported here were Sambhar, wild pigs, peacocks, chital, sloth bear, gaur and Leopards.
11. One more gent informed us that they had two kinds of leopards Mataka and Matakadu living here. One was large and the other was smaller. Once again we were surprised when he identified the Tiger as one of the Matakas. He was quite confident about his report and insisted that a group of herders were followed by this animal a while back. The general proportions of the animal described by him regarding height and size of head seems to indicate a tiger. Some of his own friends were skeptical, but our man was sticking to his story.
12. It is interesting to note that the person from whom two tiger pelts were siezed near Majestic area in Bangalore hails from Achettipalli which is less than 10 KM from this place. It is reported that he confessed to having got the pelts from Hosur area.
13. We were also told that a leopard (mataka) had killed two goats within sight of the field we were standing in. This field is surrounded by low lying rocky hills with good forest cover.

In any case we told the farmers that we would be back in a week or two with some experiments to control elephants. We gave a contact number to get in touch at any time if elephants were sighted. On the way back, we stopped to ask a person for directions and it was revealed that this person was the brother in law of the person killed 25 days back. He hailed from Kadur and told us that he could take us to the place and also to the jungle to show us elephants. We told him that we will take a raincheck on that.

We then made our way to Panchapalli Dam through Denkanikotta, which forms the other border of the Udedurgam RF. This is also listed as Sanatkumara Nadhi in old maps. Beyond the dam are hills which lead on to Aiyur RF and beyond.

At the Dam we ran into some fisherfolk who told us that they had just sighted some elephants on the jungles on the shores of the reservoir.

Proposed Plan of Action:
The recipe for making chili spray is pretty straight forward. This can be done with local materials. It is proposed to make a sprayable concoction to try out the field in U-puram village. Most things should be available at little cost. I am making a small batch of this spray as a test. This can probably be diluted with water and emulsifier.

Based on the modifications and success at U-puram, we can develop a strategy that can be scaled up to cover all conflicted settlements in Melagiri hills and beyond.

Sanjeev Kumar S.R
Vice President
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society

Uniform Donation to Forest Watchers of Hosur Forest Division

2009-02-22T19:47:00.000-08:00

On 10th January 2009, Full uniform kits were distributed to 46 temporary watchers at Denkanikotta forest rest house today. This covers places from Urigam, Jowalagiri, Rayakotta, Denkanikotta, Anchetty and Krishnagiri. All these places figure largely in KA's stories. The kit included:
1. Sweater
2. Monkey cap
3. Cap
4. Socks (2 pairs)
5. Shoes
6. Belt
7. Shirt + Pant

These temporary watchers are soldiers of fortune and wardens of wildlife. They spend their lifetime protecting our wildlife and human lives from unfortunate conflicts and other dangers such as poaching and wanton killing. But, as the term temporary suggests, they do not receive full benefits of being a permanent arm of the Forest Department and hence are orphaned.

Forest watchers constitute the lowest rung of the Forest Department and are directly involved in field activity. There are confirmed employees who get paid around Rs.7, 000 a month but a large number of them are temporary employees who are usually paid around Rs.800 a month. It is also a well known fact that the FD is usually understaffed and these people are expected to fulfill more than one role.

Needless to say, this pittance is hardly sufficient to take care of the needs of one man, let alone a family. These watchers live far away from their families in remote jungles and still carry out their noble duty. The low pay is a serious cause for dissatisfaction and low morale among these foot soldiers of the FD. Often the salary is delayed and sometimes kind Range Officers or the like pay these watchers out of their own pockets.

To give them their due and recognize their unwavering and diligent service to humans and animals alike, KANS thought it would be appropriate to present them with what they need most. In appreciation of their endeavor to support wildlife causes, KANS partnered with Hosur Round Table and Ladies Circle to arrange funds to procure these materials. While the Hosur Ladies Circle and the Hosur Round Table made up the chunk of sponsorship, members and good Samaritans from KANS too provided funds toward this.

Donors:
1. Hosur Round Table 87 : Rs.20,000/-
2. Ladies Circle 32 : Rs.20,000/-
3. Sanjeev Kumar S. R. : Rs.1000/-
4. Santosh Kumar S. R. : Rs.1000/-
5. Dr. Arvind Raj : Rs.1000/-
6. Laxmeesha Acharya: Rs.501/-
7. Anand Menon: Rs.1000/-
8. Naren Damodran: Rs.1000/-
9. Karthikeyan Sivagnanam
10. Jayraman Kakarla: Rs.1000/-
11. Arul K Kulathmony : Rs.1000/-
12. Nanda Ramesh : Rs.500/-

KANS would like to specifically thank Mr. Ganesan, DFO who has provided his unstinted support time and again.
(Inauguration of the Uniform Kit Distribution by the Mr. Ganesan, DFO – Hosur Forest Division. Presided by Ms. Jyotsna, Chairperson Hosur Ladies Circle 32, Mr. Chandrasekhar Kutty, Chairman Hosur round Table 87 who were the principal sponsors)

(Pictured here are Ms. Jyotsna, Chairperson, Hosur Ladies Circle 32, Mr. Chandrasekhar Kutty, Chairman Hosur Round Table 87 and A.S Hari, Director, Publicity – KANS and the beneficiaries).

The uniforms turned out to be really smart and the watchers were quite pleased and proud to wear them. This small gesture will help show our appreciation of the efforts being put in by these people and hopefully should motivate them.

KANS, through its innovative contact programmes endeavors to enhance the lives of all those who are guardians of nature and also aid the cause of conservation.

First-hand experience of man-elephant conflict in Denkanikottai

2009-02-19T19:14:00.000-08:00

Some time in the early hours of Monday 9th February 2009, a young elephant and her calf found their way to the outskirts of Denkanikottai town. The commotion this caused forced this pair to walk down about 4 kms skirting a school, houses farms etc to a lake about a kilometer off the Hosur Denkanikottai road.

They spent the entire day waiting out the hot sun, calmly eating the lush grass around the lake and generally hiding in the cool rushes. A crowd gathered around them meanwhile and nearly the entire forest department turned up to control things.

The elephants displayed no nervousness or aggression. As the day cooled and the sun began go down, they calmly emerged from the water and made their way back to the jungles with some coaxing by the watchers and public.

It was nice to see the watchers attired in the uniforms provided by KANS. The huge pockets were very handy to carry fire crackers used to chase the elephants back to the jungles.

This was my first experience of wild elephants coming into contact with humans. There was no conflict as both the people and the elephants seemed tolerant of each other. However, such contacts are quite frequent and I am told that things can take a turn for the worse just as easily.

Sanjeev Kumar S.R
Vice President
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society