More on Maravakandy...

Marvankandy Dam

Thanks Meghana for getting us started on Marvankandy. Its also one of my fav spots around Masinagudi. An evening stroll with friends to the dam is always rewarding..the view of the mountains at sunset, a leapord coming to drink water, playful otters, wild dogs on the prowl, elephants coming in for their evening drink, several water birds...we have even once seen over 10 blue bearded bee-eaters feasting on bees from a hive on the power station (which acc to locals provides just enough power to make a batch of idlis). Though photography is 'strictly' prohibited - these were obtained from outside the dam ;)

Am I dreaming??

I think everyone who is attached with Masinagudi Field station must have visited, at least once, the Marvakandi dam.
So you would immediately agree with me if I say it’s a place hard to forget.

And now it has become a routine for us to visit this lovely place. Just sit and watch the scenery around!! Oh… It’s really an experience and it’s new every time.

Imagine you are sitting somewhere. A beautiful lake is there right in front of you, surrounded by densely forested area... Some spotted deers are wandering here and there on the bank of the lake… They don’t have the slightest idea that somebody is watching them.. On the other side of the bank a peacock is just wandering here and there.. Exactly in front of you lies a huge wall of the Nilgiri mountains trying to stop the clouds…and the clouds like the brat boys manage to escape to play around!!).. Somewhere far away, rain has begun to fall and slowly a rainbow starts emerging.. Ohhhh!!! Isn’t it a lovely scene?

Well !! This is one of the images which is stored in my mind since that day and I would love to preserve this for my entire life.

I know it seems stupid to describe like this as there is nothing uncommon in this moment.. But if you ask anybody who has spent his/her life in crowded metro city then you will definitely understand why I am so much fascinated about this place. The place which shows different color of nature every time, which makes you forget every thought in your mind, which gives you the experience of peace and brings a ray of hope in your life.

I am so grateful to all those people because of whom I could join IISc and have series of unforgettable and memorable experiences!! Thanks to all!! :D

Birding around Masinagudi

I did not maintain a diary during my Mudumalai days - thats probably because I typed out an email almost every evening documenting my day in field. After this, I did not have anything different to write in a diary. So I blame it on our hi-tech fieldstation that I don't have a field diary from my 2.5 yrs at Mudumalai.

In the last few months, after I put some distance between me and Mudumalai, I have been getting a bit nostalgic etc and started compling those million emails I typed out to compile a field diary. Here are some notes from my fielddays (you can now call this ecological history):

1st April, 2006

It’s been so long since I went out birding and I am quite rusted. Bomma has been taking Harisha out birding, and like me, Harisha's learning bird names in Bommese. "Chitra" for shikra, "Piginy" for Pygmy. In fact, it was Bomma who initiated me into birding too. Before that 1998 visit to Mudumalai, I had not done much birding. Bomma's really good at spotting nests too.

The field station is part of this row of three houses owned by the TNEB (Tamil Nadu Electricity Board). Next to these houses is the Masinagudi FRH (Forest Rest House) and the loghouse - both of which are operated by the Forest Department and accomodate visitors. Behind the FRH is a large stretch of RF (Reserve Forest) which is heavily grazed. The rest of the TNEB township is slowly moving out since the Pykara dam construction is now complete. Masinagudi has shrunk in size in the last 2 years and most of the TNEB houses now lie vacant. Besides the tourism and dung economy, there's nothing much left here now. A lot of wildlife is returning to these areas and the forest area behind the FRH is excellent for birding.

Just trotted around the Masinagudi log house....saw usual dry thorn forest assemblage: sunbirds, mynas, drongoes, coucal, nuthatches, flowerpeckers, doves, white-headed babblers, white-eyes, small minivets, grey tits, red-rumpeds and, tons of blyth's reed warbler...they are in every bush here. Saw three golden orioles together, and a pygmy woodpecker...also heard the first brainfever call for this year. Saw the orange-headed ground thrush at the same location where I see it most of the time (just around the bend, on the road leading to the loghouse). Again, I heard the flycatcher in the lantana bushes, but could not spot it. I am not sure if I am seeing yellow-throated sparrows or some kind of munias. I could not check the chestnut shoulder patch in the fading evening light.

There are over ten flowering buteas around the loghouse...and they are full of mynas, bulbuls and sunbirds. These sunbirds are going nuts and driving everyone else crazy too. They are hollering at the top of their voices from just about every perch that they can find around these flowering buteas. One could spend all day just watching them fight over these territories.
I wandered around a bit, and then sat in front of that water hole (in front of the log house). A solitary pond heron was pecking away in the mud banks...and many mynas were coming in for a dip after their feast at the buteas. Among these were two grey-headed mynas...one of them had a very white head, while the other was greying. They rolled and fluttered around in the water...and then went to a small fig tree close by and shook themselves vigorously to dry after their bath.

End of a near-perfect day in field.

A worthwhile beginning?

(Just testing if i can blog...will probably remove this sometime soon:P. The first chapter in "My secret journal'. Just a refresher:))

In my first year naïveté, I thought I could be a worthwhile chronicler of my life in field. Little did I know that no pen (or keyboard) could ever do justice to the cacophonous confusion of sights, sounds, smells and sentiments that field existence is. Henceforth unfurls the daily drama of life that is nothing less than explosively colourful.

Let me start with the stories of Mudumalai - erstwhile Wildlife Sanctuary and National Park, now Tiger Reserve, and the extraordinary place we normally call ‘Mudumalai Field Station’ and occasionally (under the influence of too much emotion or alcohol), ‘home’. The building, as any decent legendary place would merit, is old, leaky and extremely unfriendly-looking. Add to it the jungle regulars: giant spiders, snakes, wild pigs, leopards and the occasional rogue elephant, throw in a few ghost stories (the main reception area was the local police station of the torture-and-suicide fame), and you have the perfect setting for a peaceful five years of doing your PhD in ecology alone. I am not really complaining (as it would seem to the more unimaginative individuals reading this). The wide angle view of the Nilgiris that you get from the doorstep is quite mesmerising when it is not covered in mist. And the nights...if you’ve been a city dweller like me all your life, you need to come to a place like this to actually know what a clear, star-filled sky looks like. Yes, the bathroom clogs every now and then...but we have a hot water boiler. AND a TV. Now that’s a luxury very few field stations can boast of. And a splendidly talented cook, who ensures that we gain weight in field instead of the other way round. Lilies, roses, hibiscuses and goodness knows how many more things grow completely wild in our small garden. Its air of comfortable, slow, lazy life is therapeutic. The perfect place to sit and write a field journal.

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A guide to most often mentioned people, places and animals is essential for a first timer at this enchanting place:

Places to remember: Mudumalai Field Station, Masinigudi Town, Theppakadu Tiger Reserve Reception Centre, Kargudi Tribal Settlement, Kargudi Govt. Tribal School, Peacock Dormitory, Upper Kargudi BNHS Field Station, Ombetta, 50 ha Plot, Game Hut, Cross Cut Road, Theppekadu-Mudumalai Road(TMR), Kargudi Mudumalai Road (KMR), Moyar Road, Ooty, Bandipur. (other sundry, seldom visited places would keep coming up)

People : Boss

Colleagues: Soumya, Nandita, Smita, Karpagam, Ratna, Sumit, Sakthivel, Datta Sir, Suresh, Nimi, Pals, Manavalan

Trackers: Bomma, Chinna Bomma, Dumba, Pauli maaran, Krishna, Mohan, Ketha, Maadha

Staff: Mani (driver), Maara(cook ), Bharanaiah (caretaker), Selvam (Driver)

Vehicles (in order of functionality, as on 11.5.2008): Mahindra Bolero Invader, Mahindra Major , Maruti Gypsy, Mahindra Jeep.

Animals (mammalian and invertebrate; in order of abundance, non ecological personal experience estimates): TICKS, Cheetal, hanuman langurs, Peacocks, Elephants, wild boar, giant squirrels, mosquitoes, sambar, leopards, wild dogs, bears, leeches, tigers.