The Mangroves of Krishna river - 5/6 March 2016

all photos are here

After many hiccups and rescheduling we finally made a visit to the mangroves of Krishna river. The meetup was posted a month back but due to last minute drop outs again we had only 5 participants to go with. But since me and Murthy decided to go ahead with the program irrespective of number of participants, we went ahead and spent our very rich 2 days at the eastern edge.

In the camera traps setup in this area as part of Murthy's work, we surprisingly got many shots of Otters in them. 2016 being year of the Otter, we decided we will do this program themed on Otters named precisely as "The Otter trail". I caught the passenger train till Repalle with 4 other participants (all Microsoft employees). It took 8 hours overnight for this otherwise short journey of 300kms from Hyderabad.

Saturday, 5 March 2016

The morning at Repalle was fresh and I was already smiling due to the small town atmosphere with local vendor shops serving delicious south Indian food and tea. I was also really happy to meet Appa Rao after a long time. The same simple yet inspiring person who overtook the task of re-planting Mangroves over the whooping 190sqkms. I can never forget to mention about his efforts.

After an amazing breakfast and few lessons of telugu language, we headed towards the village from where our boat ride for mangroves starts. We had our booked ambassador car with a very friendly driver who kept narrating about the area. At a small pond on the way my eye spotted a colorful bird that flew by. We stopped the car and all crazily started exploring the area and we managed to see atleast 10 different species of birds here including common kingfisher, pied kingfisher, golden oriole, white waterhen etc.

We headed further to the site from where our boat ride starts. As we waited for our boat, Appa introduced a villager who's goat were hunted by a fishing cat few days back. As part of conservation here it is important to compensate such loses and find solutions as well. Murthy heard it and took all notes/pics so that it can be taken forward.

After the wait our boat arrived. Mahendra from local village will be our facilitator for the next 2 days. We took a halt at a creek to explore the mangroves. It was low tide so it wasn't possible to go on boat so Appa and Mahendra garu guided us on foot through the swampy mangroves. This was a very active forest with lots of creatures all around like the crabs, the mud skippers, the curlew birds and lot of pug marks of the endangered fishing cat. Appa told us about the 27 different species of mangroves found here and Murthy explained about the unique adaptation of mangroves in this estuary ecosystem (aerial or pencil roots and prop roots).

We now continued our journey to village. It was a very simple village on this secluded island. The house where we stayed was a simple one with two rooms, an open terrace and palm trees all around. As it was very hot, we planned to enjoy the lunch and rest till evening.

Evening at about 4pm we started another ride on boat towards an isolated beach, you cannot reach here by road. It took us about an hour to reach here. On the way our eyes looking around at all the mangroves flourishing here. We could spot a lot of birds like the western reef egrets and swarms of black headed gulls roosting above our boats.

We reached the beach and there was no one here apart from us. We all happily strolled around for about an hour. We saw a huge number of broken egg shells which were of Olive Ridley turtles, seemed hunted by the grey jackals. You cannot really mess with nature but with the dwindling populations of these turtles it felt a very sad scenario. Later we also saw 2 carcass of the fully grown turtles. High chances they were hit by some ship and were washed away to the shore.

It was getting dark now so we decided to head back. The return journey was an epic one and the best part of the trip. The sky was clear and since there was no stray light in vicinity we could see infinite numbers of stars above us. The prominent band of milky-way galaxy was very much visible. I was using my binocular and we had lazer light which Appa's brother got from US. It was a delight.

At village Murthy then gave a brief knowledge sharing about his work and about the wildlife of eastern ghats. It was a good session followed by another amazing round of food. We then all went to terrace to view the sky, where Nagarjuna also spotted an owlet couple (spotted owlet) which we had a chance to glance at. Nagarjuna is a school teacher, painter and one of our regular participant from Vizag. I later kept looking at the sky through my binocs. I was amazed by a cluster of stars that I spotted through my binocs, about a 1000 stars accumulated at a spot. I kept watching it for a while wondering the enormity of our cosmos.

A fantastic day ended and it was time to sleep. The night became colder with time and to my surprize there were no mosquitoes here to disturb us.

Sunday, 6 March 2016

The morning light woke us all. Few of us went to explore around the village for our morning call. I was surprised to spot a fantail flycatcher in a bush. We headed back to our home stay where we had to wait for some time for our breakfast. I was getting anxious due to running out of the best time to spot wildlife. We finally ate some delicious dosas before heading to another mangrove creek on our boat. It was already about 9.30 am as we explored here on foot. These mangroves were different, with thorns, and aldo the swamp below, so it was very hard to walk through them. Me Appa and Pragati were courageous enough to take our steps and go to the other side while all others just observed the patch around. We saw few more pug marks of fishing cat and some birds. We headed back to the village from where we boarded our boat yesterday as we had to drop Murthy Appa and Spandana who had to go to Guntur.

Now it was me Raman Pragathi and her husband, along with Mahendra garu. We were heading towards the light house which was about 2 hours away. This was the worst part of the trip as we were traveling on an open boat under the bright noon sun, in a really humid environment. I was trying to observe some species on the riverside but there were none due to the heat. Later I felt the shock of dehydration and stress when we just reached the light house. I was dying to eat some food and take some rest.

The light was a place beyond my imagination. In middle of mangroves just shy of the coastline there was this high structure. Around there were few quarters where the care takers of this light house stayed. I didn't wanted to interact these (expected to be) non-polite govt. officials but we needed their permission to relax there and also visit the top of the light house, if possible. Mahendra garu was taking care of this conversation in Telugu but as I could see it wasn't going any friendly. I then intervened and talked with this Surprisingly polite Mr.Das who was a Bengali posted here since 3 months. He was flawless in Telugu and I was happy to talk about his life how he got into this job and have been serving at various light-houses along the eastern coastline all his life. His senior was also Bengali from whom we got all permissions.

We finally settled for lunch but it was a only fish-curry, rice and curd. I was disappointed to not see any veg curry. I had to eat that fish, which was really really tasty but I broke my promise to remain vegetarian for animal love, only for this extreme scenario. I napped for a while there under a tree shade and then we climbed the 8 floors to reach the top of the light-house. The expanse of mangrove forest that we saw from the top was a sight of life. You could see the green spread and the creeks cutting through it, meeting the sea. It was all the worth of the tiring journey we did today.

We had to start back now as there was a cab waiting for us at the village to take us back to station. Lot of birds, mainly kingfishers and blue-tailed bee-eaters I observed. We then took a halt in the middle of the river to catch some fish (I don't even know when Pragathi and Raghu communicated their wish to Mahendra in Telugu). There were two illusions that were prominent. One that we are traveling towards ocean, which was an effect the waves of high tide (infact we were traveling faster upstream, than noon due to this). Second was that we were in deep water. We all jumped out of the boat to put the net and then catch all the fishes caught into it due to the tide.

We continued our journey with no one talking but all enjoying the view around. I was really down now, could feel the high fever I had. We spotted a water snake but no one could click a photo. We were finally at village where after a cup of tea we headed towards the station in the ambassador.

It took me a couple of days to recover from the journey. I got a call from Appa Rao next day thanking us for doing the great work, conserving the forest and also providing income to local villagers. I also thanked him for all his support for the amazing 2 days we spent there. He also mentioned how tough it is to work in mangroves. He himself never go out in hot sun, the reason why I got so sick. It looks now a promising place for us to carry out our work and also lot of field programs to create awareness about the wildlife here.

Second field program - Jan 23/24 2016

all photos are here

It was challenging to find participants for this program. I finally convinced my friends from my frisbee team and others around to join us for the program. The cost was reduced to very low and finally we were able to conduct the trip with 9 participants apart from me and Murthy, making it a total of 11.

A brief outline for the 2 days program:
The overnight Volvo bus journey from Hyderabad to Vizag was tiring for all. We reached Vizag at 8am and did a quick freshen up. Then we headed for breakfast on our pre-booked 12 seater. Murthy also joined us later with another participant from Vizag, Nagarjuna.

We took a halt at a resort where we released a live specimen of rat snake in the nearby forest that Murthy's uncle rescued a day back from a village near srikakulum. Murthy explained the behavior of the snakes, the myths around these harmless animals and other details related to their ecological importance. Participants also got a chance to handle it. It was an exciting start of the day for all.

We then headed to Borra caves junction to have our lunch. A pit stop at view point and finally we were at village. Everyone had a good feeling of the village atmosphere, the small huts and the curious faces of villagers looking at it. We then had a cup of tea and met our guides who took us for a forest trek. The trek started through the village farms and then across the railway line was this green forest cover all around. Just after half a km we were at a water stream where all relaxed for a while. We then trekked down the stream to enter into the forest. Here Murthy demonstrated the camera trap fixing to all participants. We continued the trail from here and not entered the dense shrubs. Our guides were clearing and creating the path for us. We all had to bend and walk for quite some time to cross this dense patch.

After trekking further for a while we were at top of a small hill. There was another higher hill visible to us, totally into dense forest. The guides told us that it will take an hour of climb if we want to trek that. Some excited trekkers did wanted to trek up but I refrained as it was already past 4pm and I did not wanted to take any chance of night trekking as most were amateur trekkers.

We took an alternate route to return back, most of it along the railway track. It was exciting to cross a railway bridge on the way. Finally we were at village around 6pm. Some marks along the railway track which our guide mentioned were made by bears. I still doubt it though as they seemed very machinic.

Back to the village we had our tea and after that followed a nice home made dinner. We sat around a bonfire for our talks and trying the local drink of Taadi which made all of us little high. I remember trying some unique dish made of ragi and kacha mango (don't remember name). It was liquidy with a unique sour taste. No one else was brave enough to try it though :P Late night we played cards and then slept in these few rooms in two village houses which were very cozy and well built.

Day2
It was a long way to trek but wait for breakfast was long. We explored the village in morning and then finally started the hike which was very easy crossing through farms and small forest patches and then the railway track. After 2-3 hrs we reached the diversion towards the Katiki waterfalls. We halted at a small hut to try local bamboo chicken (not me, am veggie :P) and get some water. Then we were at the base of this quite beautiful fall that left a nice mist around. It was a tourist place where many people were there which did disappoint us, mainly the garbage that had accumulated here over time. Reaching the fall was itself an adventure itself, crossing through the wet rocks, but what was ahead was not expected by anyone.

Beside the waterfall we were supposed to trek till the Araku view point where our bus was waiting. The waterfall itself was at an adventurous spot and beyond it was a steep climb that nobody anticipated. And it all starts from a huge rock that was hard to climb. Me Murthy Raman and Nagarjuna, showed some courage. We all went up the rock to see how far the climb is further. We all then had to convince everyone to climb this as we stood on this rock to support everyone. I was standing on an edge, below me feets deep cliff. My legs were shivering but I showed some fake confidence that this is easy. As I saw some participants like Ravi and Spandana, who were not confident, I still voted to step back and take another route, longer but safer. But Murthy and Raman were adamant and we all took this path. Tricky it was but all were successful to climb this rock. Now it was no looking back, it was a steep climb with slippery mud and rocks where everyone, including me, almost crawled all the way up. After about another 40-45 min of this unexpected adventure on a wildlife program, we all reached the view point and waited for our vehicle. There we met Jayshree and her husband as well (Jayshree has been working with the Araku tribes since more than 10years now). We had a nice chat about the program from last 2 days.

We now headed to the Borra caves as few people wanted to see them (though not a natural site that attracts me). After a quick watch we rode back to Vizag where people had to catch their train to hyderabad. I stayed for an extra day to explore some more places around Vizag. I was amazed by the beautiful forest we visited and the villagers we interacted with. The hidden waterfall here was also a great site. We may take a program here soon.

Turns out tough times for EGWS as we couldn't save any funds from this trip. Hopefully after more streamlining and popularity we should have better sustenance model to carry out our conservation work here.

First field program - 12/13 Sept 2015

all photo are here

Before I left for Himalayas me and Murthy worked out all logistics and plan for the first 2 day program of Eastern Ghats Wildlife Society (EGWS). A facebook event was created and RSVP's started pouring in which was really encouraging.

I came back from Ladakh and 20 days later was our program. Surprisingly there were zero confirmed participants when I came back and we were worried for it. I started forwading it to my channels. We got a couple of confirmations but still atleast 10 members we were looking at. Luck played our side as one of my friend, owning his private startup, gave me a team of 11 people to visit Araku. It was a good angle of his where his employees can enjoy an outstation visit and he gets a chance to contribute to my initiative as well.

We had a team of 12 participants + me and Murthy. Murthy took care of all booking for accommodation and transport in Vizag. I took care of indemnity forms and transport for Hyderabad participants. After an overnight bus ride, me and 11 others reached Vizag. We boarded our private bus to Araku with 14 people onboard, plus 2 snakes :) Murthy visited Srikakulam day before to get 2 snakes rescued by his uncle in last 2 days, to be released in the wild. No one was aware of the snakes part except me and Murthy, as we didn't want to unnecessary scare the first timers of a wildlife visit.

As we started to climb the valley, I realized how the amazing monsoon weather has turned this place into heaven. Clouds of mists hung on the peaks around us making an amazing site. And it was much cooler than the hot and humid of our last visit.

The stop at Tyda resort was a good start, which is in the middle of hills. People refreshed after the overnight journey, did their breakfast and also got a glance of what they'll witness in the next 2 days. We also spotted a black crested bulbuls, my firstie from eastern ghats. A nice tea and we move ahead as Murthy was anxious to release the snakes into wild. He is a true snake lover as he time and again talked about the stress the snakes were having, how he hydrated them last night and took care during the 120km journey from Srikakulam.

So here we were, at the Maryland resort of Raghu. The distant tents few kms away were visible, but Raghu recommended us to stay at resort as there was a forecast of bad weather in evening. We kept the decision aside till evening and headed straight to campsite so that we can do a brief about snake behavior with live specimens and let them free in wild. We had 2 specimens, one rat snake and one common cobra (spectacled).

It was a good session for about an hour where the participants were keen, curious and excited to see the snake behavior. They got a chance to touch the rat snake, but the cobra was handled well by Murthy. The hiss of it was scary and kept participants on toes, but as we told it is more scared than us (and as it ran in wild as we let it free), it calmed the nerves. It was great talking, busting all the myths about snakes, interesting facts about their venom and other behavioral aspects.

We headed for lunch, then for a climb to a nearby hill after a small briefing session about forest etiquettes and general do's and don'ts. Two local tribal escorted us as guides. This was a first time trek for many and it also rained heavy, so it did create a sense of anxiety. Many didn't carried rain suit (including me), just umbrellas. But it was good enthusiasm and all climbed some really steep sections to reach to the top. And it was all worth the effort, the view from top was a heavenly one. The clouds hung below as, and beyond you could see the entire valley. A sense of excitement was there as all were awestruck by this natural beauty, a first experience for many. The rain came and went away, along with the wind. We enjoyed this view for some time before starting back as it was getting dark. The silence of forest broken by the toads and crickets, the fresh air and mist all around. It was a dream experience, the one I always cherished in western ghats, I was surprised to have it here.

At Maryland it was Jayshree waiting for us. We had a brief talk before it started to drizzle again. We realized, we made just in time as this was one of the heaviest rain I experienced. We were not even able to come out of our room for an hour or so. We freshened up and waited for rain to calm down. I observed the group people were having their good time in their tents, singing and dancing.

Another amazing meal was served in dinner and later Murthy gave a small presentation on common snakes, their distinction and first-aid. It was a long day indeed, that ended well.

Day-2, I woke up around 4am as my sleep broke. Outside it was total fog, we were inside a cloud. I saw Seetharam Raju, the enthusiastic birdwatcher and our only participant from Vizag. He was ready with his camera to go to camp site as he saw an oriental white-eye there last day. He went out as the day broke.

We got ready at 7, the amazing idli wada chutneys were served in breakfast. We headed for our morning trek to Galikonda forest patch. It is one of the last intact forest in this region, mainly grassland (similar to palm) what created a Savana kind of a landscape. The trek route was easier than last day but the views, the trail and the unique rock formations were a highlight. Also highlight was the visit to a natural cave in the dense forest below. We spotted a toad and few small insectivorous bat specied inside. It was interesting to see the unique formations inside, my first natural cave experience, and also for the participants.

The trek continued uphill and we crossed the Galikonda peak to go further traversing a huge patch of savanna forest with an amazing backdrop of clouds. We later reached a water stream, spend some time there and enjoyed the really tasteful water. Further down near another stream we spotted 3 different species of frogs in the small pond there. This was exciting for all, as apart from caves, there weren't any good sightings today.

There was another good lunch served and we gave some video bites to local news channel reporter (yes we got some media coverage as well), We now started back for Vizag as our first time visitors wanted to enjoy the Vizak beach as well. At a stop on the way we had a feedback talk with all and it was good to know all the people thoroughly enjoyed the trip.

Me and Murthy had a good talk in evening about our next plans. We mainly observed, the stay in Raghu's farm earned him a lot money but we hardly saved much for our conservation activities we want to do. We are thinking of capacity building programs, with home stays in villages as well. The idea is to create an Eco-tourism environment around wildlife of region, where the communities value what is there in their backyard and also generate revenue from it. It is theoretical right now but we hope it works out well. It would be an ideal win-win for everyone.

traction

Keeping this note to track our future progress. all photos: http://1drv.ms/1COl8zP

The visit that changed some perpectives. Araku valley is about 90km from Vizag where me and Murthy went to look for possible site of our field station for EGWS (Eastern Ghat Wildlife Society). We were lucky to be accompanied by Mrs.Jayashree, a women Inspiring, bold, courageous.. cannot describe in words her personality. Since almost 10 years she has been working with the tribal schools of Araku (I didnt knew there were so many tribes in Araku. I visited here an year back for a fun trip). With "Happy Schools" scheme of Rotary club at Vizag she has been facilitating library books, benches, activity material etc for these schools. Also engaging many other activities, inviting international students for exchange programs, learning farming techniques, seed banks, and empowering tribal women and promoting local craft under other initiatives "Sanjeevini and Samata" . The list goes on (I forgot a lot I think). She also mentioned about the expert villagers that can create almost anything you ask, using wood. Samata got lately shut which is a huge loss as they were working for tribals since quite some time..

Jayashree took us to 2 schools. I taught frisbee to tribal girls in one school, that was a new experience. In the other school there was performance by girls on an english song, then a religious song. I was amazed by the talent of these kids..

And we met another influential person in the area, Mr.Raghu (I call him hunter always as his introduction started in that sense, searching for game :) ) God knows where this path will take but he is the one who promised us to provide all ground support for our education and awareness programs. He even offered us a patch of land for our field station, provided we only to scientific study and awareness programs through it. Raghu has been himself from a tribal background, his mother among one og PTG tribe (progressive tribal groups). PTGs changed my view of tribes, which I though live in harmony with nature. PTGs will take a forest land, clear it, do farming for a year or two and then leave to move to other location. I could see bare hills all around Araku as a result of this. Raghu blamed the provisions by govt that allowed this.

Raghu's Maryland resort organizes 4-5 day treks for groups (yea, this guy have a resort and all kind of nuisance people visit him). He facilited a tribal villager to guide us through one of the last patch of forest (Ganepalle / Gaalikonda) left in this area. The climb started steep, but from a monoculture plantation of coffee (another huge problem in this area) Araku may seem very green from distance but the greenery is the monocultivated coffee and silver oak plants only. Silver oak provide the necessary share to coffee and also pulp for paper (so all revenue plantation only). Biodiversity is at a big loss here. Few wild rhesus macque we saw, and no other wildlife As Raghu said, tribals have killed everything here (not sure how many he himself killed :P). There are sloth bears in this area as we learnt, thankfully we did not spot any as you are never sure of their behaviur. The chirps of bulbul were around but I kept ignoring until i realized, they were the white cheeked bulbuls (my life firstie). I was lucky to click few shots. Few streams on the way were good, but I remained confused and unhappy seeing the state of forest and tribes here. The noisy church near the resort of Raghu also made it a weird experience (i thought churches are silent places).

Another threat unveiled when Jayashree mentioned about the vast deposits of Bauxite in these rocks. Mining is a threat here and can actually start a sequence of disaster for the oldest mountain range in the world, the eastern ghats.Three road kills of trinket snakes and a kill of a bat made it all sad for me. High time to change all this. A lot for work for the upcoming years.
Later we visited an amazing serene place with the view of full valley. A stream on a side and forest beyond it, we could see a positive option for our field program. With support of Raghu we plan to launch our first program in Sept (mostly towards the untouched hill owned by Raghu's brother). Birdlife i observed is good here. Finding and narrowing to a location for field station is still long way to go. We will have to explore more forests in SKota, Madulapalli and other places along the ghats.. awareness programs, changing school curriculum, afforestation project, wildlife census are the projects for the taking and will be next steps.. We also learnt the tourism is huge in this area due to the famous Borra caves and the unique valley.. Our plan to tap some of it for the good is what we are targetting.. hope we create some thoughtful souls on these lines..

Other notes:
new idea of creating Paraecologists (or citizen scientists)
INDIAN NATIONAL TRUST FOR ART AND CULTURAL HERITAGE http://www.intach.org/ : Jayashree is a member
Etikopakka and Kondapalli : local tribal expert towns of wooden toy making. They are under threat from wooden toys replicate by Chinese manufacturers. Ironically, at a tribal museum in Araku we saw Chinese version of toys getting sold. This is INDIA :/