Life in Rainforest: 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!