Brownian Movements

 It was the penultimate evening of our birding trip with Nature India to Sri Lanka. The group was engaged in a relaxed walk along a narrow mountainous road, close to our hotel, on the lookout for birds, and other lower wildlife forms like spiders and their webs, lizards, millipedes and interesting trees and orchids. We were all, off course, constantly vigilant of leeches that abound in the rain forests of Sinharaja which was to be our last stop in our carefully curated itinerary in Sri Lanka. On the return, as we were nearing the main road that led to our hotel, we heard a most unusual and unexpected sound in the forest, the melodious tunes of Beethoven, to wit, his famous composition Fur Elise! Adding to our surprise was the spectacle of our group leader Adesh Shivkar, running pell-mell towards the source of this mellifluous aural harmony. It was, as we were soon to see, a 'choon paan' man. Choon-paan translates as 'musical bread' in the local Sinhala language. For ...

  The leopard is a magnificent animal. Of all the great cats the leopard stands out, beautifully proportioned, agile, ferocious, cunning and a survivor, adapts well to any terrain as well as human onslaughts. Be it forests, scrub-lands, rocky mountains or even the frigid Himalayas, leopards thrive everywhere. The female F 2 Leopards are elusive creatures and a mere sight of them is considered lucky. In certain terrains, however, for example, rocky mountains with scrub vegetation, it is easier to see them as they inhabit caves that abound in the rocks and then they may be seen for extended periods of time. One such place is Jawai, in Pali district of Rajasthan where leopard safaris have become very popular in the past few years. The Jawai bandh leopard conservation reserve was notified in 2010, and covers approximately 20 square kms area. It has a high density of leopards with an estimated 50 to 60 individuals. Most of this land is privately owned with resorts in the core are...

 I hadn’t expected to find a forgotten Ottoman graveyard in a small town in Rajasthan. Yet there it was — quiet, neglected, and holding stories from a war fought more than a century ago. Sumerpur, a small town in the Pali district of Rajasthan, lies on the north bank of the Jawai River. Established in 1912 and named after Maharaja Sumer Singh of Jodhpur, it is today better known as a base for the leopard safaris of Jawai. Few visitors, however, are aware that this unassuming town once housed a prisoner-of-war camp during the First World War. In 1915, at the request of the British government, the Maharaja of Jodhpur permitted a POW camp to be set up in Sumerpur to hold Ottoman prisoners captured during the war. The camp stood on a vast plain bordered by rocky hills and intersected by the Jawai River — a river that ran dry in summer, before the earthen dam (constructed between 1946 and 1957) transformed the region’s water supply. According to historical records, the camp held o...

 On a recent visit to Delhi, I found myself with some time on my hands before a dinner engagement with a former medical school classmate, now a renowned surgeon in the city. I decided to visit the nearby Lodi Gardens, where I spent a happy couple of hours rambling through its sprawling expanse—a walk I have narrated in a previous blog. On my way back, I passed the Meteorological Observatory and the rather officious-looking Mausam Bhavan on Lodi Road. Its walls, however, were enlivened by a pleasing collection of street art. Among the paintings was even a rainy-day scene at CST station (the erstwhile Victoria Terminus) in Mumbai. Street art has always fascinated me; apart from its aesthetic appeal, it adroitly conceals layers of grime and dust, making the locality appear more cheerful and colourful. It was a cold, foggy evening in early January, with the temperature hovering around 11°C. Though well protected against the chill, I had worked up a healthy appetite after my walk i...

  During a recent visit to Delhi , I was fortunate to be put up at the India Habitat Centre , a multi-purpose building that was built with the aim of bringing together individuals and Institutions working in diverse habitat and environment related fields. Located a stone’s throw away from Lodi garden, it gave me the perfect opportunity to spend a few hours exploring one of Delhi’s most historic green spaces before a dinner engagement with a college friend. The Lodi garden in New Delhi is a large artificially created park spread over 90 acres, making it a significant green lung in the heart of Lutyen’s Delhi . It was created in 1936 in the village of Khairpur by relocating the villagers and was named Lady Willingdon garden after the wife of the then Viceroy of British India, Lord Willingdon . Following India’s independence, it was renamed Lodi Garden, a more fitting title given that it serves as the final resting place of several kings of the late Delhi Sultanate . The present l...

 Nal Sarovar is a large freshwater lake of about 120 sq kms, located 64 kms west of Ahmedabad and is during winter, home to more than 250 species of birds, many of them water birds that migrate long distances from the frigid northern parts of Asia and can be viewed at close quarters in the many boats that used to ply on the lake. It was declared as a bird sanctuary in 1969 and was included as a Ramsar site in 2012. I had been wanting to visit Nal Sarovar since long but it was only recently that I managed to do so as part of a meticulously planned trip by Nature India under the able leadership of Adesh Shivkar. Nal Sarovar had always been a tourist hotspot as it is proximate to Ahmedabad, with delightful boating on the expansive lake and outlets that serve delectable Kathiawadi cuisine. Serious birding has been a latter development, fuelled by the growing numbers of birders and by the proliferation of numerous professional guides who take their work most seriously. I was a ta...