Me Sahyadri July 2015

Western ghats, or Sahyadri as we all call it as, is a treasure trove of spectacular landscapes, biodiversity, flora, fauna, some amazing geological wonders and manmade monuments. With the increasing pressure from human encroachment, all these elements are under stress and in turn are under depletion. Western ghats should be left untouched by human beings, to protect their future generations from getting short of resources, such as water, energy and clean air. The important elements of western ghats, which need protection are highlighted in the new version of Photo journal , Me Sahyadri Magazine. The various issues of journal have a brief of inspiring subjects such as birds, mammals, forts, ancient caves, snakes and the ambiance.

Western Ghats south of Maharashtra have many flat table top mountains, with lateritic plateaus at the top. When viewed from distance the hills look so flat as if they were done so artificially. Lateritic plateau of Kaas is one of such many plateaus in the region. The volcanic rock at the top has been eroded over the years due to heavy rains of monsoon. The soft portions of the rock are eroded leaving behind the porous rock with hard elements. The thin layer of sandy soil over such rock does not have much nutrition. Due to this reason, at Kaas, the soil has many unique wildflower plants, herbs blooming in Monsoon, some of them being insectivorous plants. Though many herbs are very tiny, this plateau and the region around get dramatically transformed in the monsoon and in post monsoon season. The area is very scenic with beautiful vistas, and requires special protection for its flora, fauna and landscapes.

In the scotching heat of summer if one visits the plateau, one finds barren look with dried herbs all around. The evergreen tree species make a vivid contrast against the outlook of the yellow tanned lateritic plateau. Most of the herbs which become full of life in Monsoon are in dormant state. Their root bulbs in the soil hold the hope for their revival in monsoon. As the summer ends, few heavy showers of pre-monsoon fill the puddles and small water-bodies on the plateau. The revival of life starts in early May with these showers. The wind picks up in June with arrival of monsoon riding the wind. As the plateau is at the top of the hill with wide region open on either sides, the wind velocity here is very high with low clouds approaching the plateau from south.

In Monsoon from June to August, the plateau is mostly covered with fog and has very humid, cold ambience. In the post-monsoon season, most of the species bloom with flowers. There are numerous herbs which are seen on the plateau. Some of them are very few and isolated, with few categorized as critically endangered species. Most of the herbs are not seen by common visitors as they cannot recognize such species. However the major cause of attraction of the visitors and thus the uncontrolled tourism is the blooming of species such as Impatiens lawii and Pleocaulus ritchiei which blooms there in abundance in post monsoon season. This creates the trouble for the species other than Impatiens lawii which are scientifically significant but not so aesthetically.

Over the time year by year the degradation of natural habitat has been observed and noted by various botanists and visitors. This has lead to the permanent transformation to the plateau. One can call this as degradation of natural habitat. The degradation is significant if seen from eyes of someone who has visited the plateau over last few decades. This manmade transformation is the real cause of worry. The lack of scientific approach to control the survival of natural science, control of human welfare in the villages around the plateau, insufficient infrastructure of forest department and state government, and lack of civic sense of the visitors etc are few main root causes for this degradation.

When it comes to civic sense, the diffusion of scientific knowledge, basic education, ability to link the significance of other species in nature with survival of human survival, ability to link the significance of other species in nature with self individual, play key important role in effect of the plateau visitors. While the efforts on the front are initiated by both government and non government organizations, these efforts are not sufficient and will take years to see the positive results.

The effect of People physically walking on the plateau or on the road is very high. The visitors visit the plateau in the automobile vehicles. The vehicles travel along the road on the plateau. This causes the direct pollution from automobiles. This includes the direct leakages from the vehicles such as fuel, oil, other liquids, as well as exhaust gas emissions. The exhaust gas pollutants include nitrogen oxide, hydrocarbons, methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulphur, carbon particles. As most of these pollutants are invisible to common eye, these are not realized by society. The shoes and vehicle tires bring the dust from faraway places along to the plateau. The dust is trouble maker as it brings the seeds of weeds which otherwise cannot reach the plateau with wind so fast. Please note that the wind direction and direction in which the visitors travel is opposite. The weeds or the plants which are categorized as invasive species have entered the plateau, some of which are capable of eliminating the native species. The grass has taken over the native herbs.

The road which was small earlier has been now fences on either sides. The margins around the road were earlier full of native plants; The margins now are encroached by passing vehicles and visitors almost destroying the species along the margins and walkways. The fence has also affected the movement of fauna on the plateau. The fence has ruined the landscape in general, though it has worked well to control the mindset of people who earlier were freely intruding the natural habitat of fragile species. The tourism has brought with it the other issues such as pollution due to glass bottles, plastic bottles and wrappers, remains of food and other pollutants, etc. Every year large amount of solid waste is collected from the plateau and the region around.

In early monsoon rock platue is covered with furious clouds, heavy rains and strong wind current. no one can venture there, not even the might eagles. As the rain recedes, in this theater of Nature, veils of mist are removed. The colors start dancing, on the floor and up in the sky. the purple flowers of utricularia (“sitechi asave”). the blue hairy flowers of “aabhaali” and “nabhaali” start blooming the yellow smithia, gets exhausted after dance in the morning and goes to siesta in the afternoon. The karvi flowers which bloom once in eight years are blushed and have not appeared this year the red balsam, purple balsam, pink balsam all of them all around, the white tall orchidlike depkadi montanum is surrounded by these pink beauty. the habe amri (ground orchid) which blooms in july august has vanished now in september and nonone knows where it has gone now. All this is fine but the bird pair of chandol (Malabar crested larks) are baffled and confused. As they do their sorties and dives in the sky they look worried and tense So many people all around. tourists, children, with their cars all around. As they fly, larks say “who has broken my nest” (these birds nest on the floor in the grass, on which anybody can step upon) the small streamlet has dried, somebody has opened a tea shop on the platue. tourists are happy, drinking the tea. The stream water is being consumed, the little tiny flowers of “gend “(white balls) and “manjiri” which rely on the stream water are also worried and tense. Let us change the story. this is not what we want. As the Malabar crested lark had its flight, it saw the glory on the velvet pink green, leaving its unattended nest on the ground, surrounded by tourists. Look at the image, you can feel like a lark, happy with flora glory but tense about the future. Please help the larks, and many tiny flowers by not stepping upon them and their nests.

The lateritic plateaus have various sub-habitats. In these subhabitats various species bloom. A mosaic is seen on such plateau with various species of flowering plants. The typical examples of these subhabitats include,
a) Loose rocks/boulders (species such as Utricularia striatula, Cheilanthus farinose etc),
b) Shallow Streams (e.g.Eriocaulon dalzellii)
c) Shallow water puddles (e.g. Aponogeton satarensis, Eriocaulon tuberiferum etc)
d) Deep water holes (e.g. Nymphoides)
e) Deep Soiled depressions (Impatiens lawii etc)
f) Shallow soiled depressions (Smithia species., Habenaria species etc)
g) Rocky Slopes (Utricularia species)
h) Very Deep Soil.
A mosaic of these species is seen depending up on the local micro condition of the land.