Agumbe - My Peace, My Love

From:

http://www.beyondtheunderpass.com/2015/08/24/agumbe-my-peace-my-love/





Of my 33 days in the Agumbe rainforest, there was not a single moment of silence. I went to the forest imagining moments of solitude with peace and quiet. Peaceful it certainly was, but it was far from quiet. At any given time, the forest will never let you forget that it is alive and thriving. It’s like they are continually competing with each other to create an unceasing symphony.

For me, the most beautiful sound was the sound of the water. With the arrival of the monsoon, water filled up everywhere. Little isolated streams, ponds and trenches all filled up and joined together. They all joined together to empty into a stream that flows through the forest. If you follow any trail of water from anywhere, no matter how small it is, you will reach the stream. Soon, the sound of water became omnipresent. I discovered that the stream is a short walk away. The monsoons had set in, and it was absolutely breath taking; the water level would steadily rise every day. The water was crystal clear- I could see the sunlight reflecting off the ripples of the water as it meandered through the rocks. A large tree had naturally decomposed and fallen across the stream forming the perfect spot to lie down and look up at the canopy and hear the water flowing below.

With the rains in full fury, the stream had filled up considerably. Although it wasn’t too deep, you couldn’t really stand because of the current. We had to sit down and let the water pull us along with our hands on the rocks below. We finally reached a massive Rudraksh tree with an enormous, stilted roots called buttress. I could lie down, sprawled across and entire root and it was much larger than me. On one side, a large pool of water had collected between two of the roots. A waterfall had formed from above, flowing into the pool of water and then joining the stream; it was magical. I could spend hours there watching the water fall down beside the tree as the light streamed in through the canopy above, hearing that consuming sound as it flowed, with frogs croaking in the distance.

The Agumbe grassland is a vast expanse of naturally occurring grass sparsely populated with lone large trees. If you are to stand at any part of the grassland and look up at the sky, you will see more sky than you could ever fathom. You can see the hills in the distance forming a wall around the grassland. I saw more shades of green than I ever knew possible, and fantastical cloud shapes drifting across the sky above. If you take a walk through the grasslands at night and look at the lone tree islands in between all the grass, you might even spot the orange shining eyes of a Slender Loris!

I spent a month at the Agumbe Rainforest working with the research station there on wildlife conservation. As a part of my project I planted 500 saplings. I also had the extraordinary pleasure of getting to know the forest around me discovering the fantastically colourful plants, frogs, snakes, birds, moths and so many other animals of the forest. I have attempted to articulate in little detail 3 aspects of the forest that I remember with an almost surreal memory. I remember feeling so perfectly content and so engrossed in just existing; and these three aspects were essential parts of that. However, being in the forest and experiencing it is like a subtle assault on every single sense of your body and your being. I cannot really even begin to describe its beauty with any justice at all. I hope that I have managed to entice you to want to go and explore the magical rainforest of Agumbe!





Article by: Kirtana Chouthoy, Pune.

Volunteer: 2nd June to 6th July 2015

The true love story!

          This story is about love. But be aware - it is not the love usually found in romantic novels telling tales of nature. Instead, I will tell you about my actual experience with all its highlights and downturns. Tales of what nature at its purest has to offer. It's no sleek paradise of hygienic cleanliness. If you look for that kind of story, stick to your favourite love novel. But let me tell you one thing: it's nature, where true perfection can be found.

          I arrived in Agumbe with many expectations in my head. Not necessarily concerning my stay there, but when I left Austria, my trip to India was clearly something I dreamt of all my life. I had just finished my bachelor's degree in zoology and didn't want to go on studying without knowing in which direction my path should lead me. Just blindly walking on, without a roadmap to happiness seemed unfulfilling. So I decided to take some time for walking even more unexplored paths.

          After one overwhelming week in Delhi, making my way through the loud and bustling streets full of honking cars, vendors and a masala of smells, both good and bad, a strenuous journey to Bangalore, and an absolutely sleepless overnight bus journey, I finally arrived in Agumbe. And at the same time in another world. The sounds of the streets gave way to birds and crickets engaged in an eager contest of melodies, the crowds of people vanished and were replaced by diverse flora and fauna and the smell - well, let me just say, the masala changed from an almost inedible hotness to a level of spiciness that keeps you excited the whole day.

From crowded streets of Delhi...

to the misty and mysterious rainforest of Agumbe.

Photos by: Katharina Rogenhofer

          Of course, at first, I could hardly grasp, what being here meant. In retrospective, I was still blind for all the wonders surrounding me . I arrived with much respect for the forest , I had formerly just seen in colourful, high-quality documentaries with a soothing voice in the background. It was the same kind of respect, that naturally develops when exploring an unknown terrain. "If you get bitten by a snake, there is not much we can do" was the first sentence I got to hear and, honestly, it didn't make my arrival much easier. Then of course there were stories of leopards and wild elephants, that were spread out before me on the dinner table, before even finishing my first day. So what exactly was it, I should be doing here? The answer to this question pushed my former respect in the direction of uncertainty concerning my whole stay. I was here to sample spiders. That, in turn, meant that I should go out both in daylight and at night and catch these eight-legged fast creatures, put them into a vile and bring them back to the base for identification. This decision was delivered with a half-twinkling smile by Dhiraj, who was going to be my supervisor for my stay. And at least five-hundred different species, he added.

My adorable companion of the forest.

          What would have made most people freak out, soon became my daily routine. Now imagine a foreign girl, that has never been inside a rainforest before, with a bag of rattling vials, making her way through the undergrowth, eagerly trying to manage the whole set of tasks. First, make a picture of the web, second, catch the individual, third, note down all necessary information and number the vials. Let me just tell you, that I got five individuals on my first day, which was not very uplifting. Anyways, as the days went by, I became better and also my relationship to the forest changed.

View of the Western Ghats from Agumbe. Photo by: Katharina Rogenhofer

          If anything, the spider-hunting foremost gave me the opportunity to be outside as much as possible. Soon, I grew accustomed to the cold sensations of leeches, making their way up my legs, looking for good spots to get their share of my blood, I got used to going around in slippers, which was in so many ways more practical than wearing shoes and I managed to ignore the itching tick-bites. When I began to push the thoughts on these topics into a far off corner of my brain on the second day, I started to notice the real beauty, that only those can see, that are willing to take some inconveniences. After three days Dhiraj started to accompany me on my outings. That was the starting point of a new friendship and a step into a childhood dream, that was about to come true. He was the one who finally removed the veil from my eyes and made me see the unbelievable richness of the lush green forest, that would soon become my very own paradise.

Exploring stream for spiders.

          But first, let me tell you of the night I fell in love. In that particular night, we went out to hunt spiders. Dhiraj went first. He was the shining security in the unknown night of the forest. We made our way through the dense vegetation, following small trails between the trees. On my naked feet, I felt the motion of leeches. Suddenly, we heard the loud cracking sound of twigs breaking on the ground. Something big was on its way through the undergrowth. Out of a reflex, I turned my head torch off. "Freeze", Dhiraj whispered in the front and I stopped moving altogether. But when I stood still, my thoughts began moving to the leopard-videos, I had been shown just two days before and the headlines that I read in the newspaper lying on the dinner-table. Even if all these worst-case scenarios were highly unlikely to really occur, I couldn't stop myself from being a little worried. My heart raced, my thoughts followed its lead, but at the outside I was calm. I didn't move an inch. Dhiraj thoroughly searched the surrounding with his torch. The steps became louder. He indicated to slowly go back the way we came. We managed to take three silent steps, before something broke through the vegetation. Dhiraj's light caught it, the animal freezed for a short time, got scared, and escaped into the jungle again. My brain took some seconds to process the image delivered to my eyes. It was a wild boar. A big one for sure, but still, just a wild boar. A relieved laugh escaped my lips.

          We went on and soon heard the burbling sound of flowing water and frogs singing their songs. As we approached the stream, the sounds stopped. With a questioning look at my slippers Dhiraj went on - right into the water. With my first step, I could feel the cold water embracing my feet. The slow motion and the cold wet were a welcomed change for my hot skin. When I shone my light through the liquid surface, the rocks reflected all tones of brown and red, and water plants slowly swayed in the flow. Above our heads, the canopies touched, forming a natural corridor over the stream of crystal clear water. "Torch off", Dhiraj whispered. All of a sudden, there was perfect blackness. In the moment, the night's ink closed my eyes, uncountable sounds broke through the darkness. Crackling and chirping, gurgling and splashing and calls of all sorts surrounded us. But all of that seemed to be just the prelude for everything that followed. Slowly, a frog began his lonely solo and soon others tuned in. The tunes entangled, the melodies became a choir and the voices swelled until bursting in an explosion of sounds.  What followed was a total silence, that left me with the sensations of what just had happened. After some times, the sounds started coming back and the concert started again. I was fascinated and marvelled by the magic of the moment. Nature gave me the privilege of a private nightly concert inside a stream in total darkness, with a cold breeze on my cheeks. At this moment my life couldn't have been any better.

The singer of darkness - Bronze frog (Hylarana temporalis).
Photo by: Dhiraj Bhaisare

          On our way back, we stopped at the grassland and turned off our torches again. But instead of being followed by darkness, this time, millions of little lights replaced the beam of our torches. They twinkled from the sky in uncountable numbers and as I looked at them, I realized their significance. There was an infinite universe out there with an infinite number of stars, whose light tell us about times, that passed long ago. Suddenly, I felt like a small part of the natural wonders surrounding me. Small, yes, but not insignificant.

The magical star gazing moment. Photo by: Dhiraj Bhaisare

          In this night, I realized something with unquestionable certainty: being here was something, that not many people would get the chance to do and with no doubt I got to see some of the most breathtaking natural phenomena I will ever be able to experience.

Article by: Katharina Rogenhofer, Vienna, Austria

Volunteer: 12th November to 19th December, 2015

The Green Paradise!

Well, I don’t feel I possess the vocabulary to articulate my gratitude, so my words won’t really do justice to the invaluable experience I had at ARRS. This has been my first volunteering experience ever and I couldn’t have hoped for a better start. Since the beginning I have had a leaning towards the field of wildlife and environment, ARRS has been my first hands on experience. My short volunteering experience has been highly insightful and enlightening in many respects. From learning how to escape the alert eyes of the lapwing to learning how to eat a jackfruit, through and through has been a one of a kind experience.

The first thing that hit me while walking towards the “Leopard cottage” with my large suitcase in hand, was the greenery, a beautiful amalgam of the different shades of green, enveloped in the sound of cicadas. Coming from the city, Agumbe was literally close to paradise. I couldn’t be more grateful to ARRS for letting me volunteer with the team.

My volunteering work began with assisting my mentor, Dhiraj, with his research work on the “Ecology of Yellow-wattled Lapwing (A bird endemic to Indian Sub-continent). Through this project I learned how to spot these birds that have the miraculous gift of camouflaging with the grasslands they live in. The parents are always alert and ready to drive away any predator. I helped with field observations. It was priceless to learn the ecology. Dhiraj has taught me a great deal of what I learnt during my visit.

Soon I had a project to work on, which was studying the nesting habitat and monitoring hatching success of Malabar Crested Lark (A bird endemic to the Western Ghats). Initially I learnt how to find the nest, then monitored the nests and then did habitat assessment. I learned how to use devices like the GPS, a quadrat and a ‘dracometer’.

A villager found Lark nest and we had to struggle to convince him to put the chicks back in the nest. He was happy at the end after we explained him about the study. Photos by: Dhiraj Bhaisare

Furthermore, Dhiraj suggested that in my spare time I should work on a project of my choice. I chose to study the activity pattern of butterflies found in Agumbe. I can now identify at least 20 different species of butterflies found in Agumbe. And I learnt the interesting mud-puddling behaviour.

Besides this, I had my list of duties for the day which involved cleaning fish tanks, I noticed that even the slightest growth in the population of a certain fish, leads to the decline in the ecosystem created in that tiny fish tank. It’s like the fish tanks are a microcosm of the entire ecosystem around us, and how that balance is necessary for the survival of all life. Even the smallest of small organisms can make the biggest difference.

How to be resourceful was another important part of my learning, for example making ropes out of areca nut leaves or making a compost pit as a method to discard organic kitchen waste.

As I mentioned before, it was a learning experience in more than just one respect. I learned a lot about the traditional and cultural rituals of the local people in and around Agumbe and how the forest plays a pivotal role in their livelihoods through the stories narrated by the Staff and team.

I never imagined that I would gain such a great knowledge in such a short time span. I don’t have words to express my thanks to the entire ARRS team.

I clearly remember my nervous feet, trying to keep up with, not just the pace of the others but also the bundle of the most intriguing facts that were being thrown my way. It’s not just about the work; ARRS has been an inspiration in many ways. I recall articulating a reply, thanking a student (in second grade) for their donation towards the King Cobra Project. He mentioned the fact that the students of his school have formed a club learning more about endangered animals. So it’s spreading the awareness that carries maximum impact.

Before I left, Sid and Molly told me that when they invite someone to volunteer with them, it is more like inviting them over to their house. Well I want to let you know that you guys are the most wonderful and cordial hosts I have ever met. I would love to volunteer again sometime. It was most definitely, an unforgettable experience!

Thank you all so sooo much!!!

Article by: Saudamini Marici, Bangalore

Volunteer: 15^th April to 14^th May, 2013

Roads less travelled...

If you’ve grown up in a big city, living in a rainforest for even a short while can be a vastly different experience. Having lived in a bustling, noisy, and rushed city like Bombay, I’ve become immune to the early morning roar of the BEST bus driving past my house.  At Agumbe Rainforest Research Station (ARRS), situated in the midst of tropical moist evergreen forest adjoining Someshwara Wildlife Sanctuary in Carnatic Western Ghats, I woke up blissfully to the sweet whistles of the Malabar Whistling Thrush and the distant calls of langurs and macaques. My volunteering for seventeen days at ARRS has been a thrilling experience that has definitely pushed me out of my snug comfort-zone and has helped me overcome phobias by the day.

The Western Ghats is known for the diverse habitats and rich biodiversity. Agumbe is famous for its highest annual rainfall in South India. The humid, tropical climate provides the quintessential conditions for prolific forests consisting of many endemic as well as migratory species of animals. Leopards, Wild dogs, Lion-tailed macaques, Gaurs, Wild boars, Slender loris, Malabar Giant Squirrels, Indian Flying Squirrels and Mouse-deer, are just few of the mammals that comprise the Ghats’ Megafauna. However, when it comes to the small critters that actually hold the ecosystem together, Agumbe Rainforest has an extremely diverse variety of arthropods, reptiles, amphibians, and birds. Prior to my experience at ARRS, I was horribly afraid of insects, and terrified of venomous snakes. Post my experience, I began to appreciate the intrinsic beauty of these animals. I learnt so much about their magical ecology, and actually loved nature even more.

A typical day of a volunteer at the Research Station is rather eventful. I woke up early every morning and went for a walk as part of my field work for “Biodiversity Monitoring Program”. In a nutshell, I walked on forest trails and through grasslands in order to spot wildlife: beautiful birds, camouflaged skinks, hopping frogs, coiled-up snakes, burrowed scorpions, and even timid mammals. Being a photographer, I have never found it more challenging to take photos of animals. After a simple but wholesome breakfast, I would assist with field work for amphibian survey or maintenance of the extensive library. Every day I learnt many new things through assisting on-station researchers with their work, as well as bonding with fellow volunteers and visitors from all around the world. After basic but tasty lunch, I’d do a variety of things: manual labor, maintenance work, studying about wildlife, or just have “me time” to introspect and reflect upon various aspects of my life and the world. Believe it or not, being in nature really broadens one’s understanding of humanity and its impact on the world. A typical evening could include assisting researchers during “human-snake conflict mitigation”. This term does not simply mean catching venomous snakes from human habitation but educating people about the ecology of these creatures and how to live in harmony with them. It could be a baby Spectacled Cobra that has found a cozy spot in a nearby school’s classroom, a massive 12 feet King Cobra stuck in a well, or even a 10 feet Indian Rock Python threatening domestic animals. ‘Mitigating’ the conflict between humans and wildlife allows smoother coexistence between mankind and the natural world - something that has rapidly enervated in a burgeoning populace. The evenings could also include assisting researchers to set up their complex apparatus, such as Light Trap to study moths at night. Dinner could sometimes be followed by a night walk that could be immersed in suspense: hearing a deep moan - potentially of a leopard - just a few meters into the dense foliage on the side of the trail, or even waiting for an eye-shine that gives away the refuge of a Slender Loris. On one of the night, during a walk into the Myristica swamp - a critically endangered ecosystem - I encountered a little Indian Black Turtle that was completely oblivious to my presence.  At night, I would edit my photos, played-back my videos, reflect upon the day, used the internet to identify the biodiversity that I see during the course of the day or read the herpetological journals to learn about research and conservation.

Personally, I used the time away and the geographical isolation from home as an opportunity to beat the stresses and constrictions of my monotonous and insipid routine of life back home. It’s not to say that I didn’t miss home, but it’s to elaborate that sometimes a digression from the stagnant routine of city life can be a refreshing experience that has numerous positive outcomes: a deeper understanding of nature, a fresher perspective of mankind, and an appreciation of the efforts of people trying to conserve nature. I found it so easy to bond with the people working here even though some of them couldn’t speak English, and barely understood Hindi. It was the common appreciation of a greater force - nature - that enabled such harmonious coexistence. As I mentioned previously, I overcame phobias by the day. I became less afraid of the insects that usually had me dashing away from their random dive-bombs, and learnt to appreciate their ecological value. Although basic, the facilities at ARRS enabled a hygienic as well as environmentally sustainable lifestyle: appropriate waste-management, solar-power generation, and hygienic sanitation (hot water, purified drinking water etc.)

The instructors during my ‘volunteership’ were Ajay Giri and Dhiraj Bhaisare. The former’s expertise is human-snake conflict mitigation and I accompanied him on quite a few of these ‘missions.’ His intense experiences with snakes and propensity to understand the behaviour of snakes of all types makes him adept at carrying out his work with an ethical and efficient approach that not only respects the snake but also the people who often come in conflict with these animals. The latter supervises the internal research and co-ordinates with all external researchers as well as administrates volunteer and intern activities. His meticulous and professional approach, compounded with his extensive knowledge over different domains of ecology, be it taxonomy or behaviour of animals, makes him a very accomplished conservationist. His ongoing conservation efforts - data collection both qualitative and quantitative - have greatly inspired me.

As a whole, this experience was monumental in my development as a person as it not only educated me, but also helped me grow as an individual. I feel like I can adapt better to different circumstances by just getting immersed in it. What those same circumstances can offer: in this case, a beautiful, prosperous ecosystem.

Article by: Arjun Doshi, Mumbai
Volunteer: 10^th September to 9^th October, 2014

The Rainforest Ecology

It was around 8 in the morning when I got down at Agumbe bus stand and took an auto-rickshaw to reach the field station. As rickshaw took left turn and started running on the mud road, hundreds of thoughts were running together in my mind and I was excited for my further experience in the rainforest. Suddenly, from the woods a Malabar Grey Hornbill flew across the road just above the rickshaw. That was for the first time I ever saw a hornbill in real. I got even more exited. When I got down in front of the station it was so joyful and refreshing to see the how beautifully it is built in the midst of forest. I was then taken a cottage, which was even more fabulous. The cottage was very clean and very comfortable.

After breakfast we went for a walk on the nature trail within the campus. It was such an amazing experience to walk through the trails and knowing about various flora and fauna. We found many amphibians and reptiles on our walk. Along with some tasty food for lunch and dinner, we had interesting conversation about research and conservation with researchers. After dinner we went for a night walk, which was unique experience. We saw the endemic Malabar Slender Loris and Cat snake (Boiga spp.) As I am more interested in snakes and butterflies I loved the walks which made my dreams come true.

Heading out for the walk in the woods. Photo by: Dhiraj Bhaisare

The next morning, Dhiraj took us for birding and taught us field techniques. We went to the grassland where the Yellow-wattled Lapwings breed in summer. It was an extraordinary day with good sunlight. We saw two dozen bird species in a day out of which around half a dozen were very new to me.

In the night we went in search of Arachnids and found large tarantulas and scorpions. With rain poring heavily it was the time I went for a stream-walk. I never liked rains and getting wet earlier but visit to ARRS completely changed me. By the touch of rain my heart was pumping more curiosity and enthusiasm. During the stream walks I got to see and learn about various riparian flora and fauna. In the same night we saw Mouse Deer and Malabar Spiny Dormouse.

Next morning as sun rose next to the cottage I woke up with the call of Grey Langurs. This was the last day of workshop. We went to explore caves after breakfast. There were lots of Leaf-nosed Bats hanging to the roof of the lateritic cave and we were fortunate to observe a mating pair. Later we went to Kundadri – famous for a very old Jain Temple situated on a monolithic hill. We were not there to visit temple but to explore the biodiversity and look and enjoy the landscape view. There we saw some beautiful butterflies including one of my favourite the Common Map. Later in the noontime I got mesmerizing sighting of Western Ghat’s Flying Lizard on a betel nut tree and a Hill Keelback Snake on a trail in the plantation.

 

Enjoying the beautiful landscape from Kundadri hill. Photos by: Dhiraj Bhaisare

Then it was the time for last walk... which turned out to be the best. We saw a herd of Gaur. It was an amazing moment to observe them from close distance without being noticed as we were frizzed. It was an amazing experience to be in Agumbe.  I was really happy with the food and accommodation at the station. Within my 60 hours of stay at ARRS, my checklist got 91 species of butterflies, birds, mammals and reptiles. I thank my coordinator Dhiraj for his guidance and special thanks goes to my friend Harika Guntur for encouraging me to participate in this workshop. It was such a blessing to stay in the same cottage where Sir Romulus Whitaker lived.

One of the Gaur gave us a look before crossing the broken fence. Photo by: Dhiraj Bhaisare

Article by: Gnaneswar Chandrasekharuni, Visakhapatnam

Workshop participant: 13^th to 15^th September 2014

Agumbe Blues!

Long ago, during a conversation with a primatologist friend of mine, I discovered one of life’s simple truths. It began with him saying that he and two of his colleagues were following a troop of macaques in the forests of north east India, exploring questions for behaviour studies on these macaques. While they observed the same troop for days, each of the primatologists saw something different in the troop. One ended up observing the dominance hierarchies amongst the individuals, the other looked at their foraging behaviour while my friend looked at their conflict with humans. Each researcher ended up studying aspects of behaviour that interested him or her and at the end of the day each had a wholly different set of observations although they were all looking at the same thing.

It made me realize that for different people, the same event or phenomenon can mean different things and what we interpret out of an event or experience is up to us. Agumbe, I’m sure meant a lot of different things to all those present there; this is about what it meant to me: (I have not dwelt much on the deeply personal part and kept all that emo jazz as much out of the picture as possible.)

This trip was something my body and mind has been in need of for almost 6 months now with all that jazz about the new job and my new scary boss, missing my old job almost like missing a lover, missing my old boss and his gyan and guidance, missing my friends and colleagues, going crazy with the challenges of research work, getting used to the new routine involving so much travel, feeling utterly lost most of the time and then of course the giant break up. So a trip away from life in general was very much the need of the hour. And Agumbe was just perfect. It had everything I needed, the perfect ambiance of the rain forest and the perfect bunch of nut cases for company, and we also ended up having the perfect field co-ordinator who gelled so well with the group, which was an added bonus. But the fact that I was in Agumbe, an ecologist's paradise, put me in a dilemma. Do I treat this as one of my field excursions where the ecologist in me goes all data hungry and gathers all the information around me by walking around in the forest day and night with pen, paper and camera and takes down rigorous notes on all the new species I see and updates checklists at the end of each day or do I treat it like a “vacation” and just shut myself off and just “be”?

Just be....... or not.

So as I oscillated between being on holiday and being a professional knowledge hungry sponge, I thought the dilemma was making me go even more crazy and finally at the end of the first day, I missed the evening session and after that I ended up missing quite a few sessions, especially all the morning ones. Yes, I didn’t hear the frogmouth and I missed the Malabar whistling thrush calling out in the mornings coz I was snoring away to glory, but I got the well deserved rest and break I needed and I guess that is what counts at the end of the day.

I also ended up doing more “timepass” at the dining hall than any actual serious field trip, but perhaps that refreshed me more than anything else. It was great to be with a bunch of people whom I know in general but had never spent so much time with. There were two things that brought us together - 1. Anupamaa (coz she was the common denominator among us all) and 2. our love for nature. I was amazed and profoundly touched at the sheer amount of curiosity Jeroo showed in learning about all the plants, birds, insects, arachnids and snakes. And this from a so-called senior citizen who isn’t even professionally related to the natural world. The same goes for the Gowri-Vidyanand duo who not only relished in hearing the elusive frogmouth but also loved the super common lapwings. That I think is very important, to not only be crazy about the rarer wildlife but also the more common ones. There was that one time however, where we acted like run-of-mill tourists and begged Dhiraj to try and search for the king cobra. I think our cool-visitor-quotient must have dropped down several notches because of this!

There is however, one more thing that brought us together and helped us gel so well - our love for food. I still can’t believe all that ginormous amount of food we ate! Its incredible, our enthusiasm to first buy all that stuff; carry it all the way there and to devour it with so much zest!

A major credit for this detox-therapy-for-my-mind vacation of mine also goes to the random humour that surrounded me ALL THE TIME. Every time i think of those crazy moments, I just crack up! I mean, remember that time when….

...Jeroo walked out of the snake taxonomy class and almost instantly walked back in?

...Dhiraj's said  "I will tell you later”?

...Sam wished Dhiraj happy diwali and only Nandu and I saw that priceless expression on Sam’s face when he said it and we cracked like never before?

...Nandu did that fantastic maggi wala imitation n then everybody else did crazy imitations as if on Que?

...we walked into the stream for the first time and Jeroo thought we were going somewhere to see the King Cobra?

I will also never forget Gowri’s expression on seeing the yellow wattled lapwing, her maggi and the back massage she gave me, Vidyanand getting into his old groove and starting to bully me as if he was back in his 20s and I was 10 again, Anupamaa tying her hair like a school girl, Sam “knighting” himself with the telemetry antenna with the pink flower in his hair, Dhiraj pulling our legs countless number of times and Jeroo actually falling for it, Abhijit refusing to get into the water, Dhiraj doing the imitation of the dancing frogs...the list can go on.

Oh yes, and the profound enlightenment that girls fall for Captain Jack Sparrow coz he doesn’t have a bath for days and so we can smell his pheromones!!

And amongst all these hearty laughs and tears of joy and major bonding among us mixed nuts, at the backdrop was the forest itself. For we were not 8 in the group, we were in fact, 9. For every tree, every blade of grass, every croaking frog, every snake that slithered in the undergrowth, every mass of moss that hung from every tree, every flower that bloomed and every decaying leaf...they all came together as one entity. The forest had a mind of its own, its own moods and its own personality. Sometimes it closed itself around you and engulfed you in darkness with the dense canopy while some other times it opened up suddenly into a grassy meadow like the open arms of a dear friend. It just had to be Agumbe. My much awaited trip couldn’t have been anywhere else or it couldn’t have been with anyone else.  It just had to be Agumbe.

It is time now that I woke myself up from this Agumbe reverie and move on with life. As Robert Frost has said, I have miles to go before I sleep, miles to go before I sleep. I have my job to do, my larvae to feed, my paper to write, my train to catch, my office bitching to catch up on, my polluted air to breathe, my traffic jam to get stuck in, my boss’ quirks to endure, my......my miles to go before I sleep.

Till then, Wow Wow Beautiful Beautiful Wow!!!

Article by: Yashada Kulkarni, Mumbai

Workshop participant: 20^th to 24^th October 2014

Ah….. Rainforest!

I visited Agumbe rainforest, Karnataka to attend a 4-day workshop on Rainforest Ecology (April 12 – 15, 2014), hosted by the Agumbe Rainforest Research Station. Before leaving from Mumbai, I called the coordinator, Dhiraj Bhaisare, several times to ask several questions – Are there leeches in the forest? What kind of shoes do I need? The poster said that participants will need to walk a lot, but will there be climbing as well (which I can’t really manage)? What is the nearest railhead? If I take a bus from Mumbai, should I go to Udupi or Shimoga? Dhiraj answered most questions quite patiently. He also sent an instruction sheet, which mentioned that there is no cellphone network in Agumbe, except BSNL.

On April 12, at 7.30 AM, there I was at Agumbe bus stand, looking hopelessly at my 2 cellphones (Vodafone and Tata Docomo SIM cards), which showed no signal at all. How do I go to ARRS from here? There are no auto-rickshaws in sight. I should call Dhiraj, but how? And there appeared a young man on a bike, about 5 ft. 4, unshaven, with neck-length hair. I gave him a cursory look and went back to staring at my phones. Hesitantly, he said, “Are you from Mumbai?” and then I said, “Dhiraj? What a relief!”

Anyway, he put me and my bags on the bike and we proceeded to the field station. We turned from the main road into a dirt road and I began to see tall trees everywhere, with an occasional clearing thrown in. Deep inside the forest, I saw a signpost saying ‘Entrance to ARRS 30 meters ahead’. So we had reached. I recognized the main building and meeting / dining area from photos on the website I had seen earlier. Dhiraj said I would be living in a cottage, which was to the left. And oh yes, I was the only participant. What? But the poster said there could be upto 10 participants… Yes, but the other person who had registered had to cancel last minute so now you are the only one! Well, so be it then.

The rest of this write up is a montage of moments during the workshop. And I have to write it in the present tense, because it’s still so fresh and live in my mind!

Rainforest:

It is an unforgettable experience to be inside a rainforest. Most workshop sessions involve walking through dense forest, some clearings within the forest and some water bodies. I have never visited such a dense forest before. At 3.30 in the afternoon, so little sunlight reaches inside the forest! It is quite cool inside through the day. The forest floor is covered with leaf litter. And in the areas which have more moisture or dampness, there are so many tiny frogs in the leaf litter! They jump about as I walk through.

I have learnt in the Ecology course that a good forest is ‘multi-storeyed’ – with trees of varying heights, from bushes and shrubs to small trees to tall trees to very tall trees. This forest is a really good one. While I wade through shrubs and small trees and Kewda (Pandanus spp.) plants (which poke me with their serrated edges), I am only mildly aware of the large buttressed roots of the very tall trees. Occasionally I look up and see the sunlight struggling to break through the dense canopy. There are woody climbers hanging down in loops and twists between trees. Some trees have such big trunks, it would take three people like me to stand around them with arms wide open to cover the circumference!

This forest is so alive! Cicadas, bird calls, frog calls, monkey calls, squirrel calls…. There is a variety of audio information coming in constantly. And yet it is so quiet. The crunch of the leaf litter under my feet seems too loud.

I decide that this is going to be my biggest recommendation to all my friends who are interested in Ecology – visit Agumbe just to experience the forest.

Walk in the woods:

The workshop schedule mentions a post-dinner session on each day: Night Walk in the Forest. Really? A walk at night? In the forest? In the dark?

“How else would you see nocturnal life in the forest?” says Dhiraj the Serious Face.

He hands me a powerful flashlight. He has an even more powerful one. He walks ahead and I follow close at heel. He flashes the light on the trees and a large area gets lit up. And also light up a pair of eyes in the middle of a tree. “It’s a slender loris”, he says in a hushed tone. I remember seeing a poster at the ARRS office. The smallest primate, with big eyes, endemic to Western Ghats. “It’s a shy animal. Let’s slowly move close to the tree.” I follow Dhiraj as noiselessly as possible, but the crunch of the leaf litter under my shoes is really really loud. Dhiraj can see the slender loris. But as the light flashes near the animal, it moves and hides behind the leaves. I am two steps behind. I only get to see the movement of leaves.

On another night, I get to see a flying squirrel. It is peacefully eating some fruit. It watches us as it eats. Then it climbs up to the denser part of the tree, away from our sight. I don’t get to see it flying.

And on another night, I see a kingfisher, roosting. It looks so adorable! Its beak tucked into the feathers on its chest, looking like a blue and red fur ball.

And then, a wolf snake, about 3 ft long, and about as thick as my index finger; slithering up a tree. It is a good looking one – black with yellow bands. And a vine snake, sleeping. What a sharp green colour it has! And on all nights, I see several frogs, varying in length from 1 cm to 3 inches. And spiders, tarantulas, scorpions.

Each night, as I go for the walk, I look inside my urban head and heart, and I am surprised to find that I don’t feel any fear at all. No fear of the dark, no fear of the forest, and no fear of the animals I may see. There is curiosity about what I may get to see. But there is no agenda. There is no “I want to see this animal or that”. As I walk in the forest, I am only aware of the present moment. It is a completely spiritual experience!

Reptiles… eeek!

On the first day itself, I declare to Dhiraj that I hate reptiles, that I have an aversion for them. Seeing a tiny lizard around the house can set me in a tizzy and just looking at them gives me the creeps.

I also sincerely tell him, that I hope this would change after the workshop. Because I have read about ARRS and much of their work is on herpetofauna. I can see that Dhiraj has made a mental note.

Sure enough, there is a session on learning about Draco. These are flying lizards endemic to Western Ghats. Dhiraj takes me to an abandoned arecanut plantation within the ARRS campus, where Draco are seen rather easily, unlike in the dense forest. He spots one climbing up a tree. Immediately I train my binocs on the creature. A male Draco, identified by the inch-long yellow dewlap flipping under his throat. I have just about managed to focus, and he disappears. Well, not really. He has simply flown to the next tree, and binocs are not at all useful to see the flying which is all so sudden and unpredictable. I keep watching, without binocs now, and a few minutes later it glides again. What a thrilling moment it is for me! It’s lovely to see him glide from tree to tree using his tiny wings (actually they are wing-like appendages of skin). The sun is shining from above, and the wings look orange-yellow from underneath, silhouetted by the bright light.

The reason for his jumping about becomes clear soon – there is a female on one of the trees. He is probably attempting courtship. Dhiraj tells me that the female is bigger in size, doesn’t fly as much as the male, and if she doesn’t approve of the courtship, she simply whacks him with her tail! I wait to see this show of female empowerment. However, the courtship doesn’t happen. They are both probably just too hungry and want to concentrate on finding food.

Seeing the graceful gliding motion of the Draco minimizes any misgivings I have about lizards and geckos. I learn that they are beautiful creatures. That’s not creepy, is it?!

The innocent comment:

One afternoon, Ram comes running to the dining area with a snake in his hand. The snake is alive, it is about 2 feet long, has brown patches on the skin, it was found under some tree behind a cottage. Dhiraj and Ram discuss how to do scale count on the snake. Dhiraj says that they should put it on a glass sheet, and photograph from below, so that all the ventral scales and sub-caudals can be easily counted without stressing the snake. The snake is agitated a little – it is a nocturnal animal that sleeps by day, and these humans have disturbed its sleep. They put away the snake in a bucket and go looking for a glass. Rajesh finds it in a forgotten corner in the office. This 3’ x 2’ piece of thick glass has not been used for a long while – it is covered in dust and dirt. Chandan, the young volunteer from Bangalore, who is passionate to learn about snakes, and who is also trying to learn Hindi, says, “This is so dirty – ganda…. will become… ummm how do you say ‘will become’ in Hindi?” I show off immediately – “Ganda ho jayega. But what do you mean it will become dirty? The glass is already full of dust…”

Chandan replies with an earnest face, “I wasn’t talking about the glass. If we put the snake on it, saanp ganda ho jayega”!!

How wonderfully innocent is that comment – this young chap is worried that the snake, a creature of the earth that moves through mud and undergrowth and what not, will become dirty!

Whitaker's Boa (Eryx whitakeri). Photo by: Dhiraj Bhaisare

Article by: Anupamaa Joshi, Mumbai

Workshop participant: 12^th to 15^th April 2014