LoveNature and ExploreNature

Longan – The mimic of Lychee & Mango flavor

2026-09-04T23:02:55.751-07:00

It was a peak summer weekend in the Punjab region when sun-boiled air molecules were difficult to inhale. After a whole day sitting in the AC, I came out for an evening stroll with family. That gap was for rest-time to the AC before the next night's batch. On the way, there was a sole tap water outlet with an underground pipe surrounded by the tree canopy of the avenue -Pterocarpus and Alstonia spp. It was a lucky thing, gaining blessings from commuters as well as players playing in the hot evening along the groundside.

Just 10 steps ahead, near the badminton court, a medium-height tree related to the lychee family was seen with hanging fruits in clusters.

Longan-dragon eye

This Longan fruit tree, botanically known as Dimocarpus longan is a subtropical evergreen tree of the Sapindaceae family native of South/South-East Asia. This tree is cultivated for its timber and, especially, for its edible fruit, which has a fragrance amalgamation of lychee and mango, and the sugar content of the fruit is quite high. Longan fruits are non-climacteric in type and therefore have to be harvested when properly ripe. These will not ripen during storage as lychee fruit does.

Dimocarpus longan

Its wood is considered as tough as for making shuttle pipes, bearings, textile-weaving stands and rifle butts, and sometimes for furniture and construction purposes. The seeds contain the chemical saponin that can be used as a soap substitute.

A complete review on ‘Extraction and pharmacological properties of bioactive compounds from longan (Dimocarpus longan Lour.) fruit' published by collaborative scientists around the globe – Yang, B., Jiang, Y., Shi, J., Chen, F., & Ashraf, M. in year 2011.

Raining And Reminder

2026-07-21T04:42:32.245-07:00

I am sharing this morning thought!

Fifteen years ago in our village, Himachal Pradesh, we had slate-mud houses where families lived together cheerfully. Every year, during the rainy season, we were involved in rainwater harvesting (realising its importance now). I still remember when rain precipitation was about to come down; how my father put on his long gumboots (who alone waits for the monsoon) and started preparing for water storage. Whatever, the empty cans inside the house had been gathered from the storeroom and placed sequentially under the roof slate in the yard where rainwater drips.

The big tin-tub always been positioned under the corner slates, catching the volume of water run down in good quantity from two sides of the slanting roof – like a fountain. Small clay pitchers having circular mouths with round bodies were arranged at the front of the slate roof. These were resting down with the support made from flexible woody climbers/stems; we Himachli called it as binna. The steady drips of falling rainwater create a rhythmic sound that matches the pace of the rain.

And we listened to it, sitting on the veranda with grandparents and waiting for the command of our parents to get out for a rainy bath in the muddy yard. That rainy shower with siblings was fun.

The huge tub filled with rainwater was like a mini multi-purpose reservoir for two-three days' usage for cleaning, washing purposes, and other household chores. At that time, there was hydrological integrity with nature. We have surely forgotten the traditional rain-catching habits and, in reverse, adopted the habit of using more water, its waste as well as contamination alongside.

For instance, the same amount of water is contaminated in a single round of washing or cleaning purpose. I must mention the technology of the washing machines, where we wash the extra clothes in a single run. Another huge amount of water we use to wash, rinse, and then for spin to remove the chemical detergent. Thoughtfully, we are contaminating the regular water every day knowingly, and the earth's percolation is filtering the gravitational water selflessly.

Another thought: why haven't technicians thought of circular water movement in washing machine where spun water could be utilized in the washing water column rather than pass through the drainage pipe, with an internal pipe setup to avoid adding water for the next washing batch?

This thought made me to embrace the rain more.

Save Water, Save Earth.

What are your thoughts?

Or what reminds you when rain clouds overcast your area?

You can share your memories or comments in the box below.

Kindle Voyage of Numbers & Figures

2026-02-08T04:22:00.000-08:00

Now my little one is growing, counting the language in numbers and figures, tracing tiny fingers for representation. His learning of 0-9 numbers along with companion figures, marches up to 50 with practising the pencils in hand.

For him, each maths notebook cell is for one figure. I saw him writing 10, one in the first cell and zero gently in another, but he is not aware of the sequence. Sometimes, he writes zero in the first cell and put 5 in next, there he calls it as 50 ‘fifty’ proudly.

He is curious to see the change, the sequence break after 9, 19, 29 etc. He has to change for the next level after the ninth figure. And with practice, accepting the change at 10th cell- ready to forward for the next line. Learning that things halt temporarily and then shift with change, though they move toward the future or proceed. They stop temporarily, and the rhythm restarts after a moment.

The same change: he is learning to ask me ‘mama g kitne baj gye?’ Mother, what time is it? Curiosity about the change in time is from his last year's routine. He is listening his father saying, ‘Good morning 'little uth jao aath baj gye! school jana hai!' From there, he is curious to see the clock with needle on ‘8’ number through his squinty eyes. And he is asking in routine- kitne baj gye?' at noon, in the evening, at night before sleep, and in the morning when he wakes up. and replying every time, 'Atth baj gye?'

Then, I showed him the clock and the second needle; moving with a tik-tik sound after a second and a sign of the time we humans measure. He saw the same numbers engraved in a circle as in the notebook, but in a single line. These are 1 to 12. He showed no reaction.

I asked myself, why has he not asked for the next number? Where is one-three ‘13’?

Maybe he is not aware of the sequence or is not judgemental at this age.

But his mother is waiting for this question to be answered.

Throwback migration of Spiti birds

2025-11-23T01:15:00.000-08:00

October is tagged as a beautiful among all months various in aged poetry. October mornings in Spiti Valley are reminiscent of beautiful mindfulness. I realized the importance of natural phenomena in the chaotic human world, which is how we humans are living under pressure in one corner of the world. On the contrary, birds roam with open hearts in the sky, over the forest cover, playing hide and seek in gardens/orchards, the point is they live fully each day in spite of having a trivial life span compared to human.

There in the same place with the same situation, I observe a dozen vibrant birds with my newly bought binocular -Cason, in the surroundings of Tabo village. Here, the local used term ‘Cha’ which means ‘Bird’ in Bhoti dialect.

Nature empowered me and shifted my vision more to observe it more and again. These positive vibrations are limitless and soothing for the soul. In bad times, I accepted I was struggling, and here I have recognised myself and my soul differently under the spell of nature and peace at the Spiti Valley.

In this blog, I am going to discuss the vibrant Himalayan Spiti birds that migrate from the lower Himalayan region to Spiti Valley during April and to escape the harsh winter, fly back during October and November.

Spiti birds captured through cason:

1. Chirippa, चिरिप्पा, The red-fronted serin- Serinus pusillus

This fire-fronted serin bird is a small passerine bird in the finch family Fringillidae and found in flocks up to August month and migrate from Spiti valley to escape the harsh winters.

CuC

2. Kungalapche - कुंगलापचे Turtle neck Dove

2. SN-Streptopelia turtur. This beautiful dove, a threatened Himalayan species, belongs to the family Columbidae. The bird acts as an alert-frontier against any danger for the flying buddies.

CuC

3. 3. Rip-chakoto, रिप-चकोटो – Long-Billed Thrush

The dull brown bird is Alpine accentor; SN is Prunella collaris, very timid and mostly found on far electric wires.

GI
CuC

4. 4. Chhilmo/Chilba,छिल्मो/चिल्बा -Long Tailed Thrush

The female known as Chhilmo and the term Chilba yagso, where yagso means male bird.

CuC

5. Chiru/Chiltu – चिरु/चिल्टु- House-sparrows

In the local name, Chi- चिल means bird, ल्टु/tu- small. House sparrows in flocks can be seen up to the month of November. Their return to lower altitude coincides with the return of autumn of the year. Captured image shows that sparrow trails are waiting on electric wire to feed on sunflower seeds.

CuC

6. Sercha, सेरचा -Himalayan oriole (Oriolus kundoo)

The Indian golden oriole, a vibrant, shy, and beautiful bird, is always found in pairs and usually seen swiftly flying from one tree crown to another in apple tree orchards during fruit setting.

(GI-Male) Brighter (GI-Female) Dull Green

1. 7. Tirpingcha- तिरपिंगचा, hoopoe bird (Upupa epops)

The morning bubbly bird with a beautiful crown and their calls can be heard during dusk and dawn in the Spiti Valley especially in summers when tourist noise is at its peak. The SN is Upupa epops, hardly found after September in Spiti valley. 'Tirping' in Spitian dialect means a bird having tap like beak and an elongated head.

8. Blue rock thrush (Monticola solitarius)

A solitary wanderer bird with a dark blue colour and a distinctive call-voice spotted far away on the Spiti riverside, rarely seen wandering in fruit orchards.

Clicked with the patience and static position of the camera and cason, as this bird is very alert

5 9. Yikki tik-tik यिक्की टिक-टिक- Common redstart - Phoenicurus phoenicurus

CuC
A common redstart sitting on big boulder near the Spiti River

(GI -Female) (GI- Male)

10. Chungak/Changche, चुंगक, चांगचे- Alpine Chough

The black crow-like bird with a yellow-orange beak is Pyrrhocorax of the Corvidae family. The bird can be spotted in extreme harsh winters. This bird is ket keystone avian species, as its digestive system helps to break the dormancy of hard seeds and is known to help in the germination of Juniperus spp., Rosa webbiana, Ribes orientale, and many more plant species whose fruit/seeds are eaten by Alpine chough.

CuC

11. Flycatcher - Muscicapa striata

This dull brown bird creates a camouflage effect like as desert soil, hence it is difficult to spot if it is sitting on the ground. This flycatcher is in search of insects and worms as it sits on a pole-wire near to a freshly hoed basin.

CuC

12. Horned Lark Eremophila alpestris

Songbird with hairy horn, usually found at an altitude above 4000 m in Kibber and Chicham areas during summer. This year, I observed its halt at Tabo village when I was in pairs, heading back to the lower area in November.

13. Shikra, शिकारा– the prey bird

SN is Tachyspiza badia is a bird of prey with eagle eyes in the family Accipitridae.

CuC

14. Mukku, मुकु – The Himalayan Pigeon

The scientific name (SN) for the pigeon, Columba livia, belongs to the family Columbidae. This bird is adapted to the Spiti winter and can be observed in flocks during the month of December.

15. Rock bunting- Emberiza cia

The passerine bird belong to family Emberizidae can be distinguished by having linear patches near the eyes and head. The flock has already migrated during August and minimal sightings were observed during September in the Tabo area.

16. Chukar- Alectoris chukar

This partridge family group of 10-12, along with babies, lives under a bushy shrub near the bank of Spiti River. Extremely shy, so I could not capture a single shot throughout the year as they hardly migrate. As I approach their home, they all jump away across the other bank of river with all flying efforts. So, I step back to not disturb family or interfere with their comfort zone. The picture shot is not as important.

Indicators-

CuC- Captured Using Cason and iPhone Cam. (5 and 15)

GI-Google Image- (for illustration)

At last, I thank Mr Thukten Gymzo for describing the local birds names by mimicking their calls.

“Unseen and Unwelcome: Sand Flies Turning Spiti Evenings Sour”

2025-07-20T05:04:00.000-07:00

These days, evenings of Spiti summer have become more irksome and not as pleasant as earlier. The whitefly, a small insect, has started entering residents’ rooms frequently during the evening. Bites on the legs, ankles and feet, arms, and neck that occur from dusk to dawn—these flying creatures are so small and silent that they are almost impossible to spot or capture.

These notorious creatures are ‘sand flies,’ usually attracted by screen lights at night and human blood. Females are bloodsuckers, attacking humans for the need of blood to produce a new generation. Both male and female though feed on green leaves-sap/fluid for nutrition. Being a carrier of vector diseases, they are dangerous when carrying diseases like sandfly fever, which causes fever, headache, itching, muscle pain, and other flu-like symptoms.

Despite their small size (2-3 mm), sand flies pose significant public health and ecological concerns. The prominent dangerous vector is for Leishmaniasis disease, which in later stages is known as Kala-Azar- a parasitic disease caused by Leishmania parasites and transmitted by the bite of infected female sandflies. So, be careful and cautious about its presence.

Captured the attacker on the slide

Sand flies are weak flyers and have short flying patterns. Under the categories of Arthropods and insects, these tiny sand flies belong to the family Psychodidae of class- Diptera of suborder Nematocera, which means having two wings prominent and the other two being small or rudimentary.

Prevention is better than treatment

Effective repellent lotions contain either dimethyl phthalate or diethyl toluamide as the active ingredient. If the problem is severe and persists for a long time, some remedies can be helpful like antihistamines (tablets/pills or in the form of lotion on the skin) to reduce bite itching/swelling/redness. The intensely afflicted areas can also be soothed by topical medications like hydrocortisone or calamine lotion, which are available at chemist shops.

Dhuni/fumes of aromatic local herbs like Burse (Artemesia spp.), Chipcha (Oxytropis spp), Shukpa (Juniperus spp.) and burnt fumes from citronella oil or herbal candles help in keeping the sandflies away. You should refrain from scratching the bites if you are bitten, as there is a greater chance of a secondary infection later when the wound is open to the environment.

This information is petite yet significant—‘General public awareness is important before it becomes endemic or becomes a regular guest of Spiti evenings.

Embrace the dark- འོད་སྣང་ལ་འཁྱུད་པ།

2025-04-25T23:02:00.000-07:00

Embrace the dark

འོད་སྣང་ལ་འཁྱུད་པ།

The night is beautiful

Night has sparkling sky

You have seen ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ little stars

Shining like your beautiful eyes,

At night! Humans are less, so is noise

No one separates darkness from night

Nature’s miracles happen every night

As… my little-one is crazy for cars

Embrace the dark with Seven-Stars,

Let's have a look outside the balcony

Fireflies beautifying Mango trees

Under the moon, nocturnal roam and glows

Relaxing moments after the meal with fading shadows,

A night duty caretaker in Lychee orchard

Hungry dogs wandering below for the leftovers

A big bat ‘Manyah,’ just swiped over us right

I told you nah!

Embrace the dark; Miracles happen every night,

Don't be afraid; open tiny eyes

See your mother, listen to my rhymes

You, beautiful human, in my arms

And sticking to my left shoulder

Enjoying swinging and singing

Getting yawning while patting,

Surely love night for beautiful dreams

And it's a sign for deep sleep

Rhythm of the night is just the other side of light

So, my seven-month-old son

-Embrace the dark; following twilight.

This summer poem was composed after lori-lores singing for my son, who sensed the fear of darkness while going to sleep in my arms.

Bandana Dhiman

2024-12-19T04:26:00.000-08:00

خوشگوار ڈینڈیلینز – خواہش یا گھاس

Cheerful Dendelions- Wish or Weed

While bright sun plays in the green meadows

Dandelions dance along when fresh air flows,

Petals remain yellow radiant, resembling rays of light

When sweet, deep whispers invite

We remain hush to take a breath slight,

Flower of golden hope, opens in the morning sunshine

The laughter of naughty children fills the air with chime,

Free as air, they blow their wishes over fluffy hairs

Wind that carries flying seeds far away as smooth layer,

Each new dandelions bloom as a season treasure

Praying for early first blooms, hopping good crop and season

As new dandelions bloom, good enough for lucky reason,

Plebians each wish disappears

farmers worship each bloom in silence

While children's wishes come true in valence.

بندنا دھیمان

‘The first identification by my son’

2023-12-03T03:26:00.000-08:00

With every successive day, month and passing season, my little one is growing and turned toddler to running little human. Every time on my brief vacation from Spiti, we visited to and from my spouse's university to my home parent and in-laws. We usually travel in our mutually favoured Altroz (extended family member) and enjoy the trip as a foursome together.

My spouse is constantly driving, while Drishy and I sit on the other front side of the Altroz. I stopped driving after my son was born, or perhaps I have lost my driving curiosity and prefer to sit in other front-side while observing the little activities of my little one.

In the last month of the festive season of the year, Drishy turned two. Compared to his first birthday event, this one was compact, but still, we celebrated with plantation activities. As transplanted last year, a one-year neem sapling turned ‘two’ the same as him. Drishy assisted us this time with digging, planting, and watering the new plant together. – here we are trying to cultivate the sense and emotions with nature in little one.

Activities on Second Birthday

Coming from a Forestry background, I've always wanted my child to learn about nature. I tried first that he should identify different nature creatures. However, because this world is full of manmade artifacts, his first learning is the identification of vehicles. These moving objects tempt him and he falls for their dummy toys. Moreover, their precise visualization in Car videos, especially on YouTube. And now he recognizes the red icon on the phone very well.

He kept a close eye on the moving vehicles he saw during the traveling. Watching the large bus, truck, tractor, and another ascending vehicle with excavators which he had seen in videos made him very cheerful. If he notices his familiar object moving quickly on the highway, he shouts and stands up. Though I adore his innate yelling and cute expressions.

During the journey, once I lowered my head down to create a parallel view perspective with Drishy so I could see what he sees when he is sitting on my lap. At that parallel view, roads were not visible. But all I could see were fast-moving vehicles without actual visualization of rotating tyres. Here I was curious to know what a small human mind could be thinking about moving vehicle.

He broadens his focused eyes when a vehicle crosses slowly by our Altroz.

It was a realized moment when he stood up on my lap and thrilled especially in the traffic. There he could see the entire vehicle stuck in rows. He yelled "car," "gaddi" and made engine sounds with his cute facial expressions. Another if he sees something moving in the sky, he shouts "Eli-eli elicoptor,"

Maybe for him, every moving object above the ground is a helicopter. Once he pointed out wind wane's revolving wings and referred to it as an "Eli-eli elicoptor".

This is his first identification, no animal, no birds, no plant differences.

Is technology overlapping nature? The new generation is getting interested in what they perceive more from their surroundings.

Conserve Biodiversity –We must be the part of Solution

2021-09-07T06:38:00.000-07:00

If we expand the word “Biodiversity” it acknowledges as ‘Biological Variety’ on Earth, where ‘Biological Variety’ means each life on Earth including flora, fauna, and microorganism. All have the right to live on Earth. Nature has made a balance between every life to live sustainably. Among all living creatures, the human being has evolved with a sharp mind which can think beyond the Earth planet. So we can imagine the thinking limit of human who is solely responsible for creating a disturbance in nature’s balance and led to make biodiversity hotspot all over the globe with their disastrous activities.

This is one destructive side of the human mind. If we see another facet of the human mind, it has a tremendous capacity to make whole world diversity stable with ecofriendly deeds. So let’s live on earth mutually with this noble attitude to sustain biodiversity and make ourselves proud by being a ‘Part of Solution for Nature’. From there we could start our journey for the conservation of Biodiversity. And it is never too late to start it from now.

We should follow some eco-friendly routines individually and collectively to create a visible and viable impact.

ü Stop cutting trees. Everyone is aware of its consequences; still, we are in futuristic dreams of the fake reality of development. So let’s change our mind setup with planting trees at every celebration or festival.

ü Be Human always. Don’t become a nature destructor or shift to a poacher for greed.

ü Loss in species that are habitable for humans will cause a threat to human life in form of food security and disease spreading. And we have already faced the repercussion of the Corona Virus.

ü Stop overutilization of natural resources. As they are free (Plants, Water, Land, Clean air, etc). Don’t think they have your own possession. A human can never create them, only nature can. So respect nature.

ü Whatever and wherever possible, avoid or reduce the use of chemicals like fertilizer for agro-ecosystem; for cosmetics; medicines etc, use the herbal remedial measures as much as possible.

ü Commit yourself to protect and serve Mother Nature leaving all trivial religious conflict behind it.

ü Condemn any wrong activities affecting biodiversity, anywhere if it is in your family, village, society, friend group/colleague whoever is not aware of it. Tell them the importance as much as you can describe honestly about biodiversity and nature. This is especially for the students of Forestry background. Be an influencer for Planet Earth.

These are some points that came into my mind. I am sure you have the same to express. Express your thoughts or traditional solutions in the below comment box and show concern about biodiversity conservation.

Regards,

LoveNatureExploreNature

Himachali Kumahroos

2021-08-20T05:35:00.002-07:00

During Monsoon, red-brown worms with numerous tiny legs are common in soil. I remember, they were frequent in groups outside the kaccha houses (Mud houses). Now, these gangs are rare and hard to find after concrete development. Another reason could be soil pollution by the accumulation of agrochemicals. But still, we can meet them in the loose moist soil of crop fields or organic gardens. These creatures live in shallow soil and moist places specifically. They cannot survive in humid-less habitats. In the Pahari dialect, we used to call them ‘Kumahroos’. The reason could be anything but if I recall stories of my predecessors, they mentioned that these worms have intensive habitat in the areas where villagers working with clay soil and make earthen pots.

Village community whose profession is pottery, working with clay is ‘Kumar community’. These are hard-working people have a direct connection with soil which is their soul of living. In Sanskrit ‘Kumhar’ is Kumbhakar which mean earthen pots maker. Pottery is a unique creation and potters believed themselves as children of Lord Brahma. Creator of the Universe blessed them with the oldest human art i.e.,-pottery - to create something from the soil.

In surroundings of their houses and in their workplaces, these monsoon worms are found commonly. This is according to Pahari folktale which explains the way Kumahroos got their name. But no any scientific connection with the name genesis. So that’s how folks generate the local name which becomes famous and accepted by next-generation until they get facts.

Millipedes

Alright! I can tell the universal recognition of this creature. These innocent worms belong to phylum ‘Arthropoda’ having class ‘Diplopoda’– who have two pairs of legs on each fused-segments of the body. Well! They are called Millipedes (Milli-Millions, Pedes-Legs). Country people also called them ‘thousand-leggers’. Here its name is associated with myth as none of the millipedes have been explored with 1000 legs so far. Millipedes have numbers of species approximately 80000 and some of them are unidentified. Here I am talking about garden millipedes. They are not insects, so never relate them as ‘Kidda-makoda. That’s what we call an insect in Pahari.

These tiny harmless worms are very timid and hide themselves forming circular-ring of their body against any external stimulus or danger. They do some Kind of coiling like mosquito coil where they hide their head at its centre. They seldom attack or respond in danger. Moreover, they are beneficial to garden soil by feeding on dead decayed plant matter and in return provide nutrients to the soil. Milli-compost is in vogue for gardeners practicing organic farming.

So don’t try to kill or drove them if they are engaged in digging garden soil. As they live in moist-damp soil where dead matters present, therefore least attack on garden vegetable or crop. They love to hog dead leaves of decayed litter. But if garden moisture dries with no dead material at all, only then they could approach your crop for their survival. If their count is more and you are noticing crop losses. Then this non-insect pest has to be removed with some control measures. Some of the physical control measures we can use to stop this creature to become horrid-pest. Foremost is to avoid their entry in the garden by removing moist debris and seal the crevices or more open cracks on the land surface. Maintain the well-drainage system in the field. For chemical control, spray can be done and found to be beneficial when millipedes are in groups (Use chemicals only when situation is out of control).

Study of Millipedes along with Centipedes is known as Myriapodology (Myriapods: Sub-phylum for both). Centipedes are different as bit-bigger and longer than millipedes, belong to class Chilopoda. They are also elongated, can coil, but have one pair of legs in each segment which counts 100 legs. I hope you have seen both of them during the rainy season.

I don’t know the other local name of millipedes in other parts of the country. Share the name in the comment box, if you are familiar with this amazing worm.

Fruit Bat - Keystone flying creature

2021-06-04T00:06:00.000-07:00

We wait eagerly for the evening when scorching summer is at its peak. Clear nights with cool breeze just after the sun drops beyond the horizon tempt us to roam outside, more preferably on the terrace. Reminiscing the older days, when I have lived with my folks (family and neighbors), who prefer to sleep outside under the twinkling sky when rooms were humid. All we know at that time there was no sign of air conditioners only fans were well known, and condition worse if light gone during the night. So sleeping outside was a paradise state. The precedent reason is more related to health. My father advised that sleep under the sky with a natural breeze is utterly healthy. And yes that’s true! Childhood sleep was really good.

Indian Flying Fox - Pteropus giganteus (Source -google)

By that time, we siblings used to count moving satellites and shooting stars. Universe chapter was one of my favorite chapters from Physics. When 90’s students were learning Universe, I am sure we all had the same dream like ‘Kalpana Chawla. Oh! what innocent fantasies we had, when we were connected with nature. Those were really great and fairy-tale dreams.

Another thing that captured my eyes was a medium-sized creature with large wings, flying just above the height of tree crown. When I asked my grandma about this, she said we call it ‘Mann’ehh’ (the unexplored folk name for fruit-bat). She explained about these night birds who return back to camp during dusk after collecting food or completing their daily duty. I believed, so name ‘Mann’ehh’ got fixed into my head with its appearance.

Evening Flight of Pteropus giganteus (Source -google)

Most of them were seeing as moving predominantly in one direction. Under moon-night, they looked like unique birds and little scary with grey color. That time I have never seen them flying in daylight, only regular birds. So I thought they left their colony in search of food toward the east before I woke up. Or maybe in the morning, I was not as focused as the night on the sky or busy getting ready for my school.

These are some of the memories we are leaving behind with unauthentic identification.

But later I got to know about this flying creature and surprised me as it is no more a ‘bird’ but a unique flying mammal having no tail at its posterior. It is ‘big bat’ or Indian fruit bat or Pteropus giganteus or P. medius of order Chiroptera. It also got its unique name as ‘flying fox’ after resembling its face shape as foxy. Cladistically, bats share most of the unique features like mammals having a somewhere common ancestor in deep past. They have forelimbs like us which have well-adapted wings. They are warm-blooded animals, who can regulate their body temperature. They give birth to a young one and later feed, nurse their young one like mammals.

Please don’t believe in the myth that bats are responsible for COVID-19

During the early stages of corona outbreak fruit bats were targeted with hate comments like as disease vector of Covid-19, even by various specialists without taking the research first. Just on the basis of historical events of the spread of the virus of corona family by bats. Rumors were spreading explosively when myths were added to un-reviewed facts. That is even worse.

Yes, it is true that coronavirus and bats are evolving together since a million years ago. But we need to be authentic for specific sources of viruses of the same family. A research was conducted by the French Research Institute where they decipher the genetic material sequence of existing viruses in bat. It was found to be a different virus (SARS and SARS-Cov-2) of the corona family irrespective of the current COVID virus.

We should accept the scientific facts and ignore the myth which already created hate toward bats which are incredible pollinator and insect pest eater. They are commendable in keeping the balance in nature. They help in seed dispersal and the natural regeneration of number of tropical trees. That’s why; they are referred to as ‘Keystone species’ for the Indian Ecosystem. These flying creatures prefer to roost gregariously on large trees. They live in a colony called a camp with different member capacity or colony size can go up to 1000 population. These frugivorous mammals select the fruit-bearing trees having grooves; strong lateral branches like trees belong to the Ficus family, Mangifera indica (Mango), Madhuca indica (Mahua), Eugenia jambolana (Jamun), Musa spp. (Banana), Dalbergia sissoo (Tali), Terminalia arjuna (Arjun), Eucalyptus spp. (Safeda), and also roost in busy Bamboos.

Moreover if we talk about zoonotic disease, these animals and birds are not responsible for spreading infection but we human are interfering in their wild domain, exploiting nature and natural balance.

'Flame of the Forest'

2021-04-04T05:03:00.002-07:00

'Flame of the Forest'

It was all a long time about 9-10 years ago; I packed my bag to return to University after spending vacations at home. With the new sun rising at the crack of dawn, I was traveling in HP govt. Bus. To be precise, the bus was crossing the protected area of Pong Bird sanctuary near the Talwara Dam, the border area between Punjab and Himachal.

Sunlight was slowly changing its tinge from reddish to bright yellow. That miraculous phenomenon made surrounding vegetation striking green even more; fresh and rejuvenating new leaf buds were arranging their pattern for opening. That day was one of the last weeks of the March month with welcoming spring. My eyesight shifted to a far-standing medium-sized tree on a hillock. I couldn’t stick my vision over it as the bus was at the full pace without considering traffic in the early morning. Again, I saw the same plant species. This time, on another side of the previous one. After a bus turn, I missed that again. With the next turn, I notice there were a number of trees of the same species standing randomly and looked unique among all. These leafless trees were looking like having sharp orange ribbons tied and appeared as festoon overhead.

These trees were ‘Flame of the Forest’ aka Butea monosperma (Lam.) Taub (F- Leguminosae). I saw that tree the first time but recognized it with its sole flower dominance in that stand. Moreover, the silvicultural description of this tree was there in my mind. Especially, it is a light demander tree of Dry Deciduous Forest, which emerges as fire over crown when spring shifted toward summers. Hence, named ‘Flame of the forest’. Its flower color is dedicated to ‘shade of love’, which symbolizes beautiful springs' arrival.

Butea monosperma
Flowering time - Jan to April
PC - Rohit Kumar (Forestry Scholar)

While all the deciduous trees were emerging with green leaf buds. Here, Butea monosperma stand bestowed the site with splendid orange-red ‘color of love, to welcome all new leaves of surrounding tree communities.

Terribly, this tree is also named as ‘bastard teak’. Whereas, in Hindi, commonly acknowledged as ‘Palash’ or ‘Dhak’. There is a proverb named ‘Dhak ke teen pat’ which describes the effortless work which remains the same with no result as trifoliate leaves of the tree remain same throughout the season before shedding. And very few people knew about the origin of its Hindi name ‘Palash’. It is linked with the battlefield Plassey, where Britishers decisively won the battle over the Bengal Nawab of that time. That area ‘Palashi’ was believed to be covered with Dhak forest, somewhere near the Hoogli River (WB). This tree is very closely linked to history with respect to its importance, uses, and with its attractive flowers.

Earlier its dried flower powder was used as Holi colors. People used to pluck flowers and soaked them in the water bucket overnight to get colored water (yellow-orange color) to play Holi the next day. Nowadays, these colors are being sold with exorbitant price in the name of ‘Organic Holi Colors’ as skin-friendly. We are forgetting our Indigenous knowledge and companies in the name of trendy innovations taking the patents and foremost profits from natural resources without benefit-sharing to traditional users. Moreover, they are creating the world of bio-piracy by holding authority over natural resources.

Every part of ‘Palash’ is bound to offer different kinds of uses. Like tree pollard well and act as good fodder source for livestock. Leaves are used for making dona ‘Biodegradable serving plates/cups’ and bidi wrappers where forest dwellers generate their nominal income from it. The tree also acts as a generous host for many avian spp. for shelter and insects/bees for pollination. It is also recommended for culturing Lac insect commercially. Palash is a good coppicer; its wood is recommended for pulping and so far. Other NTFPs like gum (Bengal Kino), fibers for making strong cordages, and medicines from the bark can be extracted from it. Not only bark, other parts of trees have important medicinal values as well. All aspect like medicinal values, uses; Phytochemical constituent; Pharmacological activities can get from the given link https://www.ukessays.com/essays/biology/literature-review-butea-monosperma.

Seed/Pod time - March onwards to May (After Leaf and Flower shedding)

PC - Rakesh and Vaibhav Malviya (Forestry Scholars)

If we talk about the varietal wealth of Palash, we will regret our livings with development. Same genera with different varieties (with different colored flowers) were known to exist abundantly earlier on the Indian subcontinent. Like Butea monosperma var. alba (White Palash) has white-colored flowers; another variety has yellow-colored flowers, are now limited and restricted to some parts of central India only. It is hard to find these varieties in the ‘Era of Concrete’ development where we had lost most of the rare indigenous tree varieties and still losing. To cease this upcoming threat, we need to use our potential in the cause of conservation of natural resources.

Winters and Makki di Roti

2021-02-01T07:55:00.000-08:00

Lately, in my 30s, I delved into a hobby and found that there is a cook inside me. After my marriage, I started working in the kitchen as was fascinated by Laboratory. I embraced spices-ingredients as Lab-chemicals. Each and every cooking was like my experiment going on with waiting for a perfect result. There was certainly variation in the taste if the quantity of spices bit changed for the same cooking. Not only kitchen chemicals are so-called ‘factors’ responsible for changing the taste of the specific cuisine.

But others like time of cooking, temperature level, water content, and of course your patient-level could affect the taste. All together add up taste to cooking. I observe if I am making any dish with a happy mood or listening to song, it certainly results in a perfect dish. Irrespective of with off-mood or in hurry, which could absolutely disturb the rhythm of cooking itself and resultant product will be less moderate. Hence, so obvious to say that cooking from the heart is tastiest of all. Or we can judge the mood of a person by just tasting the food.

Every cuisine has a specific cooking protocol for a specific taste. I got to know that different pulses require different times to cook, depending on the hardness of their seed coat or permeability for water. For a long time, I stymied myself from the cooking of thinking me a bad cook. However, with regular cooking, I felt like I can cook anything by watching the youtube-cooking tutorials. I too start hounding for new cuisine on YouTube like others. It pleased me when my family starts appreciating my progress in kitchen work. And I literally addicted to my new hobby. Yehhhhhh….!!!

Fortunately, I have gone with full exposure to explore my cooking during lockdown 2020. Throughout the year, I cooked, baked, and learned with subsequent seasons by experiments with seasonal vegetables. Moreover, my chapatis start getting in shape, becoming angle-less and less oval. I felt I am at my advanced level of cooking.

But here winter comes with Kharif season crops. And during winter, we have another source of carbohydrate i.e., Maize or Makki (Zea mays)in our north Indian region. We consume it as corn-bhutta, pop-corn, and makki ki roti along with Sarson ka saag (cooked Mustard-leaves) or with Karru (spicy fried curd) with the regional recipe. There is a folk rhyme…

Makki di Roti… Sarounada Saag…

Mirch Marodi… Aya swaad…

... which means here is a symbiotic taste combination of saag along with Makki ki roti only. And if we add chilli (hot-pepper) in saag, the taste will enhance after expanding of taste buds.

With this folklore related to cuisine-combinations, we are still connected to our ancestors.

I could not understand the logic behind the binding properties of maize flour. So, I searched about it on youtube. After a glance, it looks easy enough to make dough and roti without using chakla-belana (Traditional rolling pin and base). Though, I had seen my mother making makki ki roti on traditional mud-chulha. But nowadays we are prosperous with fumeless cooking appliances - LPG. It is actually easier to adjust fire temperature with knobs on the gas-stove. Traditionally, on mud-chulha, this part was done by shifting burning billets with bare hands.

Anyhow, I took a handful of maize flour for practice. But I couldn’t perform in the right way in my first attempt. It was sticking more on hands and lots of check-cracks over it while trying to make it round. It would be a great struggle if you are naive. So, I decided myself take the second attempt where I took guidance from one of my senior colleagues. She guided me with an easy trick. I am here sharing this culinary trick with those who are still wondering about it.

For this, we need a clean plastic sheet. Spread that sheet on a plain surface or on circular-chakla. Place the small rounded peda (dough-ball) on the sheet and press it with your palm and try to beat softly so that peda (ball) moves in rotation without breaking edges. With each rotation and beat-pressure, it will start to spread and become round. There you will get round roti with an accurate thickness. Then flip that round flattened roti on the palm from the sheet as you’ll see roti will neither stick-on the plastic sheet nor on the hands. Then place it on a hot pan slowly. Don’t just throw it on the pan otherwise it will create cavities between the pan and roti. And roast it slowly with medium flame as a regular procedure.

This was my first experience with Makki di roti and succeeded in 4th attempt.

What’s your experience?

Looking forward to your comments.

2021-01-07T05:33:00.007-08:00

Tree Canopy

Everyone knows about Tree-benefits from its different parts. Lets us talk about upper branchy part of tree. Technically it is termed as ‘Crown’ as it is top part of plant. Clubbed tree-crowns form a cumulative canopy which enhances its benefits. Different characteristics of crown like shape, size, color, density are species-specific and have direct benefits as well as indirect benefits not only for humans but also for animals, birds, insects, etc for both food and habitation/nesting.

Canopy-print on land-surface convey information about forest cover or forest area, recorded by FSI after every two years. The tree canopy has health benefits as it obstructs direct sunlight or reduces the insolation of IR and UV radiations which has damaging effects on human skin. You will notice little run-off or erosion of top-sheet soil in the areas having abundant tree canopies. Another, important benefit of tree canopy in violent-windy plain areas is to divert the wind direction & lower down the wind strength. So we can say, canopies act as green windbreaker as well.

Trees with heavy dense canopy preferably planted for shade purpose. Among them, I could recall is Pongamia pinnata (an evergreen dark heavily foliage tree), locally called Sukh-chain (Peace & Felicity). I realized the significance of its common name and function during one of my forestry practicals when I got under its canopy on a scorching sunny day. There I felt shade effect which was tremendously different and relaxing.

Pongamia pinnata

People who have grown shade trees around their house have experienced less Air Conditioner (AC) expenses, which is obvious. How economically beneficial tree canopy is?; can be understood by seeing vendors and sellers; they usually sit and fix their stalls under the tree-shade in urban streets. These canopies act as business exchange sites. Vendors expand their business with the expansion of the crown/canopy. In the urban concrete areas, if luckily any cluster of tree canopy got to establish, the area will have different pleasant micro-climate. There will be clean air; biodiversity and filtered noise from highways. People also used to grow heavy crown trees for dual purposes, especially for fruit and shade. Overfilled crown with vibrant flowers chases everyone’s heart with its beauty. For example, Blue and Red flowers of Gulmohar trees planted at walkways unfurl their aesthetic beauty.

Talking about habitation, shade tree used by birds for roosting. They acquire permanent house over it. Reminiscing my childhood (about 15 years ago), there was a big Simbal tree (Bombax ceiba) the far side of my home where the vulture committee used to interact there every evening after a hunt or feed on the barren landfill with carcasses remnant. Committee sat together on big Simbal branches after every thanksgiving dinner. That tree was big enough to provide space for a dozen vultures. The remaining friends lived on the big tree near that barren area. At dusk grunt screams of giant Gyps scared me. But with time those scavengers start disappearing because that tree got cut by the field owner. That was a single big tree on that farm boundary. From that time, I never saw a single vulture in my village. Maybe, they had been rehabilitated for a new home.

Later, there was news about declining vultures due to biomagnifications of NSAID diclofenac-[https://frontline.thehindu.com/environment/conservation/researchers-find-that-vultures-in-india-are-still-in-danger-from-the-nsaid-diclofenac/article33280321.ece] and for this reason, India banned the veterinary use of this drug in 2006. Another frequent usage of agrochemicals in low fertile agro-ecosystem is a probable reason for decreasing the biodiversity in form of evolving new diseases or epidemics [http://www.fnbnews.com/Top-News/health-hazards-in-the-wake-of-a-mysterious-disease-in-eluru-andhra-pradesh-61841]

Another important reason is a subsequent scarcity of tree canopy due to deforestation which we ignore unknowingly. Canopy serves as habitat not only to our indigenous avian species but our migratory guests also feel tree canopies as home and comfortable there.

Recent Scenario...

When I got married and came to Nagrota, I visited the most awaited site - Pong Lake (Bird-Sanctuary). It is a Ramser wetland famous breeding site declared under the Ramser convention for migratory birds in the year 2002. I noticed their regular flight towards the lake every morning (twilight) and back flight (in groups) at dusk in the opposite direction of the lake. I asked about this to my husband, why don’t guest birds just live near the lake? They cross the Nagrota area twice a day and move toward the hilly site.

Being brought up and more familiar to this area, he explained gently, ‘they went back to have rest on tree canopies at night. Those hilly areas with tree canopies; away from human habitation; provide them shelter against predators as well as protection against natural ecological factors’.

But unfortunately, this Wetland site is cordon-off temporally as we heard the news of the spread of Avian-flu H5N1 (caused by Influenza Virus with high mortality rate). At the end of the last year 2020, infected migratory birds reached the breeding sites all over the Indian sub-continent. And they have shown symptoms and signs, just in the consecutive month of New Year, 2021.

Check this video for detail -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPiqja323Tw

This is really sad for our biodiversity, as another virus outbreak amidst ongoing Corona Epidemic.

I remember, last week of December 2020; when I was in my home town Nagrota for three days. I heard the gushing voice of birds, at every three midnights. It was really unusual to me as I didn’t notice this voice last year winter. I discussed with my partner in the morning that it was like bar-headed geese fighting each other at the Pong site.

I didn’t realize or see this bird flu is coming or already with the incubation period. We came back to our work-place in Punjab; then heard the news of Pong Lake along with news of bird-flu around the other states (India) and countries. We felt sad. And I am sure that pain wrecking sound was bird’s suffering (breath-shortness), they were somewhere near the lake during those nights and fighting with pain and aches. I guess they literally didn’t have strength in their wings to return to their home canopy.

Number of birds died and we ‘Humans’ are responsible for their fate directly or indirectly.

Pong Lake Kangra (H.P.)

2020-10-02T04:45:00.000-07:00

Heritage Village and Heritage Plant

Nowadays, tourist places with traditional structures are more in focus. Replicas and artifacts are supposed to be displayed for the visitor’s curiosity along with leisure time. Albeit, these models have values and utilization in present life. Our ancestors might have prayed their existence for coming generation. But displayers act as innovators by showing heritage exhibition to generate income. Visitors appreciate the ancestral efforts and offer sympathies at that conditions of their time. All these realize visitors that they are having a good time with comfort life. With all these leisure, they depict a great passage of time toward convenience and urban development. Some of the visitors have obviously thought of the natural richness in proximity during that time which is now as a ‘lacuna’ in managed urbanization. So, visitors enjoy their present time close to nature, even if they have to spend money. They start feeling relaxed by differentiating comfort change both during visiting hours and afterward the visit over.

Well! I am discussing about the traditional structure and heritage pieces, especially for tourists/visitors.

There in Palampur, I got a chance to visit ‘Heritage village’ with my lab mates.

I presumed it as ‘Haveli’, like the concept of depicting Punjab’s culture. That’s what I thought wrong until I reached there.

Yes! Again, our journey started from CSIR-IHBT. Riding on scooty (Feminine form of Scooter), we crossed Palampur market and numbers of green compact tea gardens. For “Tea Gardens” a great thanks to Dr. Jameson who was the pioneer of growing tea gardens here in wet temperate region. After that, we crossed a bridge alongside the ‘Saurabh Van Bihar’ (an amusement park proximity to Neugal River). My scooty rode the hilly roads with a great effort noise and its pace got slow with every bit of curvy height. But it was awesome to move with full acceleration against gravity.

There at Roadside, we saw a sign-board showing the direction of our destination. There we shift from main-road to an undulated local kachha road with sharp U-turn downside toward ‘Heritage Village’. Finally, with lots of effort, we rode our scooty on that stony path and reached to ‘Heritage village’: a very attractive home-stay and well planned holiday destination. It is in Kandi village, at the bank of one of the streams of Neugal river which is a tributary of the majestic Beas river. The time, when we were parking our vehicles, we heard sound of running water. At entry point, first we encounter a beautiful wooden structure which was more like a restaurant. Then we moved toward a park. An artificial water-tank cum waterfall structure was surrounded by sitting benches under the shady trees in that park. We sat there and relaxed for some moments.

From there we took a glance on beautifully built mud mixed wooden houses of Una, Barot, Kangra, and Khaniyara style.

Beautiful Heritage structures of Himachal Pradesh

Well! We could get chance to scan them from outside only. As those were already booked by families or married couples. Later we took rounds of houses, both from front to backyard. While roaming in backyard there we saw kitchen garden set up with green vegetable. Probably they used to cook natural herbal vegetable to serve their guests. There I noticed some big leaves of Colocasia at one side of garden grown toward the streamside. It reminds me of my hometown and grandmother's dish of monsoon. Every Himachali has tasted it, locally called Patrode, Patra, and Beth. In other parts of the Indian region where it is known by Arvi, Venti, Alu etc. Other local names like Taro, Gabi, Talo, Dasheen referred outside India. Among them ‘Taro’ is renowned English name which is more prevalent across the world.

Ready to cook

Taro Leaf smeared with besan Paste

And if I mention its botanical name then it is Colocasia esculenta. I can say it is a sibling of Elephant foot yam (Zimikand: Zamin (Soil) + Kand (Roots), which mean roots/tubers from the soil). Both underground vegetables belong to Araceae (Arum family).

Technically their roots are corm (modified roots). Taro corms are good source of starch for human and act as remedy for body ache. In African countries its corms act as staple food or substitute for Aloo (Potato). This plant is naturally found on pond or stream shoreline and in some countries act as an aggressive weed.

Colocasia has big irregular heart-shaped green leaves with arrow-head known for a great number of nutritive components Along with good nutrition; it also possesses some non-nutritive components like oxalates which could be removed after washing with water. Nutrients like Fe, Cu, Mg, K & Zn are common with a large amount. Being a vegetable cum perennial medicinal plant, it has various kinds of properties for the ailment of the stomach and liver. Therapeutic properties like antidiabetic, antihemorrhagic, neuropharmacological are prominent in series.

It is believed that boiled leaves act as a good heart-healthy diet for hypersensitive people. By boiling in hot water could remove oxalate, tannin, and saponin which probably consider as non-nutritive content. As various food processing strategies like soaking, cooking, boiling etc can significantly reduce the anti-nutritional contents it carries. After boiling in water, pasting with spices and besan (gram flour), then dish is supposed to fried in mustard oil to make it crunchy. The more it fries, more it gets crunched and ultimately tasteier. That’s Patrode, every Himachali enjoy it during monsoon season.

Another, its leaves and stems contain a natural dye that gives rusty color (brownish) after oxidation or with air contact. Exuded transparent fluid from base of leaf petiole can turned to brown red color by oxidation on any material, either skin or cloth fibers. This natural biodegradable dye can be used for dying raw wool and silk.

Lots of available research papers on traditional uses of Colocasia leaves show that this plant have immense potential to act as heritage food with medicinal values.

This was my visit to ‘Heritage Village’ and small insight to one of heritage plant i.e., Colocasia esculenta. If you want know more about this plant- Check out some links/DOI

https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajb/article/view/60344

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodchem.2006.02.014

10.4103/2231-0738.84188

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF01091966

And For Heritage Village of Palampur (H.P). Click here -https://www.himachalheritagevillage.com/

2020-07-23T01:24:00.000-07:00

'Tomorrow in Birni Hills'

The word ‘Tomorrow’ is for futuristic hope. It acts as a relaxing speech-word in the hectic disputed work-load. Thoughts become lighter and dissolve which were entangled earlier. In reality, ‘tomorrow’ concerns delaying work and makes things unorganized. In the same context, it hinders the quick response and tries to slow down the pace of regularity. But many a time, its comfort state can apart person from misery just only for momentarily.

Ohhh!!! It’s all about esoteric philosophy.

It was the time when we were under the burden of project assignments assigned by our PI aka ‘Boss’ who was out of station for a week. This felt like a long weekend for us. We were hoping for free time the same as waiting for the first monsoon rainfall. We were more relaxed and worked care-freely. Subsequent days were diving in the same way with commence of procrastination.

For me, every-day was exactly the same where I have to check in medicinal field first before Lab. I parked my scooty on the stand at the ‘Chandpur garden’. Scooty’s inclined direction always in the bow position to the snowy mighty ‘Dhauladhar’.

If I throw the preview of my medicinal field of Valeriana’s location, the frontal view appeared as snowy entry to the herbal garden. One side of the field was surrounded by a fossil plant Ginko biloba which was arranged in a systematic pattern of different spacing. Another side was occupied with Drake tree (Melia azaderach) plantation with turmeric at its under-storey; researchers have tried an agroforestry system. And backside was over-captured with thorny shrubs and weeds. All sides of Valeriana field were enclosed with a green net at its boundary-line that could possibly separate Himalayan medicinal plants from other plant species. Almost every morning, the same green net boundary was always found tattered by the sneaking practice of night riders. These riders were giant Nilgai (an Asian antelope aka wild cow) and naughty rabbits. Continuous pug marks on field ground highlighted the direction of their movement. And last sunken jump to get out of the field showed their exit point after engulfing plant leaves.

Valeriana field: one sector of Chandpur Garden

If my field premises were one-quarter of the circular area of Chandpur garden, the scented pink rose was another quarter up to its perimeter, the other two sectors were planted with lemongrass tufts and sweet Stevia (Madhupatri) plants. This was the pattern of the managed herbal garden which was once the eloquent garden of the queen of Chandpur. Locals say that at night Chandpur garden still shines with twinkling fireflies activities all over the area which glorify it like a Hindi phrase ‘Char Chand Lagana’.

After reviewing the field I joined my lab-mates to get status for today’s tracking plan. We resumed the tracking for that day as mid-day was already over. So we had only last day ‘Tomorrow’ of accidental opportunity.

We will go tomorrow. That’s what we had decided finally.

But still, the plan was not fixed at all.

The next morning, we forced each other to get along to track Birni Hill’ of Palampur (H.P). At last, we six finally agreed to utilize the last day without worrying tomorrow.

We rode to Birni Temple from Chandpur with our own scooty/bike by crossing beautiful pahadi villages. First, we visited a wooden furnished Birni temple from where our track started for hill. Our guide (Babhit) was well aware of routes. Crossing through mixed Himalayan Forest toward clean pastureland under a blue sky was an amazing journey. Enjoy-full journey intensified more by sharing thoughts and discussions with each other. We got to know each other even more under real-world ‘Nature’. Moreover, our problem was the same ‘Pending Project assignments’. It was like we were a group of exhausters venturing out the Himalayas for solution.

Considering the fate of luck and our decision, we got rejuvenating time away from project work. Finally, we reached a top hill of Birni. At that zenith point, we forget our daily affair sorrows. We were so into the present. The live mountains of Dhauladhar were much closer than our Chandpur garden. Their crown was covered fully with pride snow. Staring them constantly was like a booster for youngsters like us. Another moving sun in the clear sky was maintaining the temperature of adjoining snowy hills. The continuously changing position of Sun towards the west was a realization for the next day ‘Tomorrow’. For us tomorrow was the end of holidays full of pending assignments. But this track gave us enthusiasm for work. And we completed the pending works of two threes days within 5-6 hours. This is the power of rejuvenation after nature walk in the Himalayas.

Hill tracking is phenomenal where you interact with diverse innate of ecology, feel the essence of ecology, and recognize you as a part of it.

Covered track realizes that tomorrow is just an extension of longing today with the shade of night.

We should be live with the eyes of the present without fear of tomorrow.

2020-02-16T02:56:00.003-08:00

Kareri - The unmatched Himalayan frozen lake

Tell me! When someone asks you, what is the most challenging journey for an adventure to do? What comes first in your mind? …

Yes! One thing prompts in our minds. We ‘Himachali’, obviously think of the hill trekking. Isn’t it so? …

I opened the Google map on the laptop to see the location of ‘Kareri’. It amazed me when the map switched to the satellite mode. The whitish-green patch with hoary branchy-streaks popped up on the screen.

I exclaimed silently, wooohooo!!! Are we going there?

Kareri Arial View Source - GoogleMaps

My project colleagues made this adventure site as a secret to throw a surprise. But I got it secretly (unknowingly) from someone in a discussion. And that incited me to check its location.

The next morning I made it a hint of not knowing the trip location. Our jolly discussion was still open. Where are we going…….‘Yaarr’? We were guessing sites one by one and raised conundrum. I guess everyone was hiding the first option ‘Kareri’ inside themselves. But neither of us was sure about it. However ‘hint turbulence’ was inside me. Since I was self-assured on ‘Kareri’ but couldn’t manage to speak out. Hidden clue turned to reality when our trip-arranger hired a cab from Palampur to ‘Ghera’ village.

At ‘Ghera’ we were approximately 20 Km far away from the lake. There, we bought some necessary eating stuff from the village market. It was a small market with lots of traffic clumped at the bus stand. Most of the school students were waiting for the bus. We made two groups to collect the stuff (fruits, crunchy chips, chocolates, chewing, bandage and water bottles) to access the time and convenience. Moreover, we were with some home-made stuffed ‘pranthas’.

At ‘Ghera’ we were shifted to old Mahindra jeep to cover upcoming rugged roads. We had crossed Sari and Reoti village to reach Kareri village. That journey was not easy as we were already instructed by the driver. But it was a full-filled overjoyed adventure. That Jeep driver was a well-experienced village driver. He was driving fearlessly on single-way tough terrains. Those dangerous-curvy roads could be covered only by tuff motor jeep and further heading toward tilted roads. The slant ridge was on one side and a deep gorge of river another side. Nevertheless, that shiny morning view was spectacular. On another side of the river, the landscape was covered with a mixed forest of Pine and Oak trees. “Beauty of Western-Himalaya”.

After, achieving a bit elevation, green vegetation turned yellow with shrubby grasslands. At that moment, we were distant from the river. Again, the Chir-Pine stand (Pinus roxburghii) was visible when the road turned more toward the river-side. And finally, we entered a village. It was just like a dream village.
Peace’ was there.

All Set - Ready for trekking

We landed on the side of the village (a small stop) with our camping bag. Jeep driver asked to inform when you all trek-down tomorrow. (Communication is inaccessible near the Lake). At the start of the odyssey, we marched upward and start losing mobile network gradually. Up to 2.5 km we rambled on the metalled road surrounded by deodar trees. It was like a pre-trekking warm-up. We covered that metalled road singing and barefoot with shoes in our hands. It was an amazing feeling. With full of energy, we reached the actual trekking point. There were 2-3 small temporary shops. Near to this, an old bridge over a nallah (small rivulet of Nyund River) where colorful cloth-flags were tied on it. A small conversation with the shopkeeper confirmed our way. There was no signboard for lake direction. They assured and instructed us to move upward opposite the river flow. First, we had crossed earthy natural steps and then a flowing river.

Before the river crossing, we decide to take rest and sat on a big flat single stone. We ate our lunch- ‘stuffed-parantha’ with pickles and rested for fifteen minutes. About 2-3 groups of trekker crossed us which were behind us. We also encountered with returning trekkers, who had tracked a day before. Happy and energetic returning people boosted us. It was fun to cross the river on a big stone like rocks were arranged to form a bridge. Returning people were diving and enjoying the natural flowing cold.

Chandpur gang at the excursion in the Himalaya

At mid of journey, we saw a lot of sheep herds and bravo black dogs. All were accompanied by Gaddis. They usually use this path as a pass the same as their descendants for crossing Chamba. Gaddis from the Chamba region come down during extreme winters to Kangra to get favorable climatic conditions. Subsequently, they use nearby pasture areas for grazing their pets. Gaddis have sumptuous life in the lap of pure beauty. They use their vernacular calculation in managing umpteen sheep.

Pearls of Gaddis

Wooden Bridge - Half way over

It was 6 hours journey to reach Kareri lake through a nondescript path. Real feel of hunger during walking shows how your body,s energy is proportional to food. When you are in the lap of nature you don’t think of luxuries but count breath which feels you are alive in a blissful moment. I haven’t seen any plastic thrown during the entire journey. I guess every trekker was taking the wrapper with themselves on returning. This was the reason, I like this trek ‘the most’. Moreover, my friend circle was a green panther.

Lake is also known as Kumarwah Lake It lies at the south of the Dhauladhar range with an altitude of approx, 2900m. A Shiva temple has been constructed at the top hill near this base camp.

We reached the top of the hill when the Sun was almost set. The first look on a frozen white lake beneath the shiny sky full stars amazed us. It was breathtaking both lake beauty and chilled wind from the lake.

We all were shivering instantly. Jaws get more activated and our speech interrupted at such a low temperature. Our first task was to get a suitable site for a tent. But dew was already at ground grass. Then we start looking for the fire-woods for a bonfire. It was hard to initiate fire at dew grass. There we went to the temple to borrow the already burned sticks from a priest. He was watching our activities from the very first we came. After some conversation we got sticks.

Rare click in the evening - Lake was going to freeze

The fire took time to set furiously. The multidirectional blowing air was making fire unstable. In the light of the fire, we set our tent, keeping entry in the direction bone-fire and opposite to the lake. That tent direction saved it from blowing off. The wind from the frozen lake with falling dew was hindering fire performance. After all set, we cooked ‘Maggi’ and enjoyed together.

This is a small excerpt from Kareri visit. There is still a lot to write. But I want you to make your own memories with nature. Explore nature but don’t disturb it for the sake of ‘want/need’. We are already under its debt.

LOVE NATURE EXPLORE NATURE…………

Memories collection...

2019-11-02T03:41:00.001-07:00

Prashar Lake: Tranquil beauty in Mandi hills

At the verge of the fall of winter, I got the opportunity to visit Mandi. It was IIT- Mandi (Indian Institute of Technology, Kamand) where I was attending the National Conference. Three days conference was organized with the theme ‘Rural upliftment through science and technology’. A month ago, I have been registered for the conference along with my project colleague ‘Suru’ at Palampur. It was going to be a three days trip to Mandi. So, we already had thought of visiting Prashar Lake within these days. A day before the conference, we started our journey at noon from Palampur-IHBT Gate no. 2 by HRTC-Bus. Through crossing the Jogindernagar city, we reached Mandi bus-stand nearby at 4 O’clock in the evening. The bus-stand the area from inside to its perimeter was conducive clean and organized. And why shouldn’t be? Our chief-minister belongs to this area.

After waiting an hour, a local bus came for Kamand village with a front route-board highlighted with ‘IIT-Kamand’ on it. We traveled with the Kamand denizens toward the hilly village after a long wait. That village is surrounded by large mountains adjoining ‘Uhl-river’ (Tributary of Beas) on its base. Like all other IITs across the nation, Himachal had laid the stone for IIT in district Mandi, during the year of 2009. Institute is situated within a beautiful village ‘Kamand’ at Prasher road with its two campuses, North and South campus. We got our stay in the newly constructed hostel at the bank of the fanatic noisy Beas River. That noise was intense at night and set us in calm sleep. Whenever we were there, those nights were relaxing therapies for us to beat regular afflicts.

Prashar Lake and Temple

The next day was with the cold serene morning. We duped our warm dresses which have been already decided for each day. Then we moved toward the conference site. At the entrance of the auditorium, the registration team was busy instructing delegates. We registered and interacted with other research scholars of various Institutes. That first day was an interactive and introductory session about the theme of the conference. An inaugural ceremony of the conference was held under the shadow of some local ministers and administrators. The first day was the same as that of every other conference. They highlighted the works in enthusiasm to impress the audience. After that the whole concept changes in between or with the ongoing days. At the end of the first day, the tired audience had already sat down in auditorium for the dinner. In the last, the valedictory day was sulky for the certificates and prize conflicts.

I was there to visit and explore the pure beauty of the hills. The whole time Prashar Lake was in my mind, sneaking in my daydreams during the conference. That epic picture of a blue lake with a floating island near the temple was fixed in my head as I read a lot about it. Three years ago, I was trying but didn’t get any chance to get there. But this was a chance of a lifetime. The next morning, Surbhi and I walked out of the campus after attending an inexplicable speech. We started moving toward the campus entrance gate which took 15 minutes by walking.

There at dabba (tea cum food stall), we asked for the bus to Prasher Lake. Dabba-bala was making alu-parantha (boiled-crushed potato-filled chapatti) in dhesi ghee. The ghee smeared bursting potato allured us. We ordered it with dahi (curd) and were waiting for the bus. He started making parathas and his wife was chopping vegetables for lunch.

He replied while filling potato in handful dough, ‘Madam, there is only one bus for Prasher’. And trekking is another way which is impossible right now...

After listening to him that we have only one overloaded bus with no chance of space. And thinking of 16 km impossible trekking at midday for Prashar, we had lost our hope.

Immediately we got our order - alu paratha with fresh dahi. We ate it for energy with dreamy hope for Prashar Lake. That was fortune when we were hogging paratha and a car stopped near to dabba. A young married lady recognized Suru and asked for the lake visit. She was with her husband, moving to Parashar also. They were localities of mandi and had attended the yesterday conference session with Suru. We finished our parantha immediately. There, we shared the car with a wonderful couple. That gentleman was adventurous and caring, driving with his 7-month pregnant lovely wife. They told about their love story and marriage

We had crossed many small Pahari villages with different folk lifestyle. As we were moving toward height, we saw a gradual change in culture and vegetation. The road was with twists and turns consequently after one. We were leaning in the car right-left like the shape of the snake. With every turn, we were crossing the forest canopy. Dominant tree crowns were highly distinguishable when viewed from the above road. That road was naturally roughed path surrounded by striking green foliage conifers. After every 5-6 turns, tree stands were changing with different species. Up to the Prashar, it was the whole set of vegetation together which was changing with altitude. That time, I remind my Forestry and Silviculture concepts. Finally, it was grassland at the top of about 2700m amsl, Seghali village (near to Kulong village) after crossing coniferous vegetation. The Landscape was turned yellow because top-soil and grasses were drying.

All land turfs were yellow where Prashar lake and the main temple were prominent. Sky color was reflecting on the lake water surface making it blue. A rotating small land piece was in the lake with grass on it. The whole lake is preserved using iron grills and colorful flags were waving on it at some distance. The lake depth is still unmeasured. Earlier pilgrimages collect this lake water as prasad (Blessing) as they considered it as an elixir.

Three storied wooden temple side view

A reflection of wooden Art on deodar wood

Then we entered the deodar wooden temple where ‘Maharishi Prashar Muni’ did meditation and worshiped Maa Tunga (a form of Durga Maa). It was the divine feel inside the temple. Three storied pagoda style temple has been built with a single deodar tree (Cedrus deodara). A beautiful carving has been done on wood with inscriptions of old facts. There is no record of the date of its establishment. The priest gives a random amount of rice on Pooja. If the count holds odd number 3,5,7…. which symbolize that wish will be fulfilled by Prashar Muni. According to mythology, Prashar muni was the grand-grandson of the Universe creator- Brahma ji. He was the son of Shakti muni whose father was Bashist muni. It was believed that Prashar muni stayed for 12 months in her mother’s womb. Isn’t it amazing!!!

Prashar muni was the wise sage of that yug (era) and emerged as a writer of Jyotish Sashtra which describes the natural and human changes with time/age. This holy script also contains ‘forecasting methods’ based on planets and stars calculation to know the information on past, present and future time. Locals say that the temple was constructed by local king Ban Sen. People gather here during ‘Fagni’ fair for the blessing of Rishi Muni. The colorful cultural fair attracts tourists around the world.

Floating island (Phumidi) at the bank of the Prashar lake

It was the time where hill vegetation was ready to feel the snow. Lake surrounding flora turned yellow before the commencement of snowfall. Most of the grasses and herbs were unidentifiable and were in dormancy already. In the shrub patches, red-colored flowering plant - Potentilla atrosanguinea was identified. Its outer foliage morphology looks like wild cherry. After a search on Google, it was found that this plant contains a unique enzyme Pa-SOD which is a superoxide dismutase. This enzyme control oxygen toxicity arising out of oxidative stress in any living system.

For more details- Go to Research Gate ...

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268982068_Engineering_a_thermo-stable_superoxide_dismutase_functional_at_sub-zero_to_50C_which_also_tolerates_autoclaving

Potentilla atrosanguinea

A trip to Arki (Part-2)

2019-08-03T04:21:00.001-07:00

A trip to Arki (Part – II)

It was neither the realism nor the magical power in the proverb. These were subsequent situations which pushed my mind to believe falsely truth ‘as an incidental proof’. That time the bus was overloaded with so many commuters hanged in the middle of the aisle. I too stuck in the middle seat of the bus toward the closed window to my left. Outside rain was dancing in every direction with the flow of wind and moreover, the rain shelter was far away. With lots of effort, I breathe out middle of the crowd, step down and ran toward Arki bus. I got on the bus quickly which was full of passengers too. The full overloaded bus started promptly as it was waiting for me only. Raindrops were tapping from my hairs and sliding down wetting my dress. This time I was so aware and still holding the rod of a back seat with the bag in my one arm. Though, I was famishing and couldn’t get to eat there in Kunihar. On that way, curvy single roads were frequent. However, I enjoyed the tumbling journey to Arki.

The rain was stopped almost as the bus reached to Arki (a next big station after Kunihar). Local people also don’t take the name of Arki in fear of hunger whole day. What the fuzz is all about it!!!

After a critical analysis that ‘Hunger’ proverb came with the absolute myth. Remember, if you are going to interact with the local Arki people on this myth. I am telling you, it is an un-argued statement. So it is better to respect their culture and old folk proverbs. That’s what I did.

A landscape view of Arki captured from the hill-top of Lutru-Mahadev

Arki is famous for the majestic fort with having ancient marvel and historical significance of course. But it has been ruined with time. This fort is believed to be built somewhere between the 17th-18th centuries when Rana Prithvi Singh was the kinglet of that time and Arki was the capital of the Baghal state (A princely hill-state). Later it was ruined by Ranas and Rajputs and then conquered by Gurkhas (who came from Nepal). They (Gurkhas) used Arki area as a base camp to spread their entity in Himachal by giving blood of brotherhood and set an example of bravery. A proverb regarding Gurkhas famous in Arki area is; Jo Ghurkhaya te bache so bache. It means that Living are they who lived when the Ghurkhas left. But after Anglo-Gurkha war which was fought in 1815 A.D. and led to Gurkha expulsion back to Nepal and finally freed the Baghal state. The history details are somewhat ambiguous in different sources, so for more detail go for the Book- The Wonderland by Jag Mohan Balokhara.

In addition, Arki fort displays the Rajput and Mugal Architectural style which impinged with Rajasthani visuals. Nowadays the fort is a private property of Raja Rajendra Singh’s descendents where they had agreed to convert it as grandeur heritage resort. Arki is also famous for hill caved temple i.e., Lutru and Mataru Mahadev and another for its Sair fair. To know more about Arki, check this site-https://www.nativeplanet.com/travel-guide/arki-fort-the-wondrous-artistry-from-the-bygone-era/articlecontent-pf24775-004837.html

At the bus stand, I bought a bottle of water and butterscotch cornetto-cone to get instant energy. I still remember that was the most satisfying ice-cream of my life. I filled with energy and enjoyed licking it so softly. I called my junior, she was on the way. Meanwhile, I spent the spare time rambling on the bus stand with scrumptious cornetto-cone. It was a small bus stand with full of 'Pahari passengers' roaming at random. I also noticed a group of Bihari people, who came here for their livelihood. Their ladies (dressed in colorful sari) and wimpy children were sitting in a group on the floor of bus stand, whereas men were standing close by ladies group. They were busy in their small gossip and sharing happiness.

There I sat on a bench and got busy in enjoying my melting cream embedded with cashew & almonds. Suddenly she jumped at my place from the back and surprised me. She is Krishna. She took me to her village, all the way through a beautiful green road surrounded by slant cliffs. We enjoyed maggi (Nestle-Noodles) and tea, the hospitality was so gratifying. Their local dialect was quite similar to Kangri, but the entire tone was different. After a catnap, we started our journey with her mother for wood sample collection. We walk toward hills, outer of the village, to find Toon tree. In a dense shrubby-grassy way, we had spotted a bright red flower of Kalihari (Gloriosa superba). Striking red color on a green background was much noticeable from far sight.

It was Glory Lily. The genus Gloriosa means full of glory and Superba reflects superiorly awesome beauty. It is the national flower of Zimbabwe and state flower of Tamil Naidu. Being a state flower of Tamil Naidu, it has got its fame among farmers which is seen growing in some pockets of state. It is known to contain 24 alkaloid compounds and 10 non-alkaloidal compounds (Alkaloids are plant-based nitrogenous organic compounds, mostly are colorless oily liquids, but some are colored e.g., the yellow alkaloid -Berberine in Berberis aristata). This plant is toxic as it contains colchicines, a toxic alkaloid, simultaneously plant at the verge of extinction due to the illegal trade of seeds and tubers for its numerous medicinal uses.

It was the first time I saw this endangered medicinal plant in its natural habitat. Furthermore, the flower was printed on the medicinal book cover. So, it was truly fascinating to see this plant in the wild. Then after, we extracted toon wood samples and took tree measurements for research purpose. Her mother was with us at every practical activity and keeps on briefing about the local flora. Krishna and I were memorizing their scientific name and discussing their medicinal values. It was a productive practical conversation. We were surrounded by a mixed clump of forest trees and shrubs at hill; periphery was occupied by ghasni (grassland). Another opposite side of hill area was covered with long turf grass and big scattered cactii. So we had been encountered with numerous unknown floras, never seen before. After sample collection of toon tree and all measurements, we came down from the hill crossing hedgy and spiny shrubs. Her father brought some Jamun (wild fruit of Syzygium cumini) in a cloth bag; we enjoyed their taste of freshness.

The opposite aspect of the village hill

At the extreme of the evening when the sun was setting at the horizon, we chose to walk outside. On the way when we were walking, the crocking sound of frogs was moving with us. She showed me her village. It was so green and narrow paths were enclosed at both sides by a folk medicinal plant Vitex nigundu (Vanna in kangri dialect) and other bushes. In Hindi, the plant is also known as Nirgundi. It is believed that on planting Vanna outside the house keeps the mosquitoes and pests away. Also, it is known to use in various herbal medicine from ancient time. In the lower districts of Himachal, it is used by local baids and chelas (a disciple of local village deity) to drove away negative spirits.

I captured the village beauty in my mobile camera. We had played and shared knowledge of local flora. There we made the herbal-tiara with leaves and flowers were interwoven together. I will never forget this amazing creation of us. It was literally fun on that evening. We returned to home at dusk and took our meal. It was so delicious and finally, I get over with my hunger.

our evening fun - selfie

Next morning after all samples collection, her family bid adieu to me. At the bus stand, I took a cornetto-cone again. During the back journey, that ice-cream in drizzling weather made me thoughtful. It was awesome to meet different cultured people in different areas. I left my footprint in Arki and return brought lots of memories and knowledge.

2019-07-14T05:10:00.002-07:00

A Trip to Arki - crossing Chhoti Vilayat

(Part-1)

In the year 2016, amidst of August month, I was busy arranging my solo trip to the Arki area for wood sample collection. I assembled research gadgets so-called instruments like moisture meter, GPS, measuring tape, wood borer, chisel, hammer, etc from my concerned academic department. I also got an official node in the form of paper. That paper authorized me that I can extract wood samples from the standing live tree for research purpose. It was necessary because I was going to deal with the ‘Toon’ tree (Toona ciliata). “Toon is one of the valuable and good quality timbers, highly used in lower areas of Himachal. This Red Cedar tree of Mahogany family has been ingrained with strong heart-wood; it attracts woodworkers for its use”. As in Himachal, ‘Green felling ban’ was known to impose during 1996. Strictly, no disturbance to live tree for vulturous developmental activity was announced by the state government. This step was pivotal to Himachal Pradesh for forest sustainability. But this year 2019, in February, this law has been reconditioned by allowing green felling in some particular areas and on some particular species. Check here;https://indianexpress.com/article/india/supreme-court-green-felling-himachal-green-cover-5074665/

Nevertheless, I was on a research expedition. And moreover, to avoid objection regarding the collection, I’d to keep official paper (Certificate) with me. This proved that live sample collection is definitely for research purpose and extraction procedure will not interfere with tree life; or no any kind of harm to Toon.

After preparing all certificates, I entered HOD’s office for signature as consent. There was a group of four Ph.D. scholars sitting around the Head Sir’s table and were discussing a medicinal plant, named ‘Chanchla’. Among them, one was our Wood-Chemistry teacher. They were busy in discussing that Chanchla plant. I just heard that it is a medicinal plant and have no more details further. I really don’t know why biotechnology students were curious about this plant.

(If anybody knows about this plant, Please explore details in the comment section)

After completing all formalities, I ran from Forestry-college building toward the hostel. Tour journey was on my mind because it was going to be a solo tour. So I was planning it accordingly as the sequence was in my mind, but it did not go the way I was thinking. So, I called my junior and set the plans on the phone. My one research site coincides where she lived. And fortunately, she was at her place.

Next morning, along with my instrumental bag, I was waiting for the bus at ‘Kranti chowk’ – it is a famous bus stop of Nauni Campus with a standing statue of Dr. Yashwant Singh Parmar (First CM of HP) in a circular raised grassy podium. A Nauni campus bus came for solan with Sirmauri nati (Folk song) was on in high volume. The driver turned the bus with the rhythm of Nati and the conductor was whistling backside to align the bus with the road. I am sure that whistling was unnecessary in malodorous folk song.

The bus stopped for 10 minutes in front of NCC ground. Passengers boarded the bus, mostly were students and bus moved toward Solan. Finally, I reached the Solan bus stand. Solan is famous for mushroom, hence it is called - Mushroom City of India. It is also known as the Hub of education in Himachal, because students from different districts, states, countries came here for higher study. The city Solan lies between Chandigarh and Shimla. It is like the twin sister of Queen Hill ‘Shimla’ which is about 46 km south of it.

I came out of the bus for a search of Arki-bus. I asked a private bus conductor, who was busy in counting money with a whistle in his mouth. He replied in his local tone that “Hanji, Bus to janni yai, per jayegi ‘Chhoti Vilayat’ tak, usi raste se” (‘yes, this bus is going to that side with the same route, but up to Chhoti Vilayat’ only)… He didn’t say Kunihar.

I asked, ‘Kunihar Bus-stand?’ He replied with a suspicious look- Haanji, Nam ni lena bus.

He added to attract passenger (me), ‘There is no direct bus for Arki right now. Take this bus quickly; either you have to wait for 45 minutes’.

I listened to him quietly, sat near the window seat. It was 9 AM and my tummy was famishing hard, as I couldn’t get breakfast in the hostel.

I looked around and bought some butter cookies to sleep my hungry tummy. After 20 min bus driver got on the bus and start worshiping the goddess photo-frames hanged left of bus steering. As he started the bus, it vibrates with a regular frequency. I lost my activeness as my hunger calmed down and then I snoozed with my bag in arms.

After 2 hours, the bus reached Kunihar, I was very curious about this place as I heard a lot about this place. ‘Kunihar is anonymously known as Chhoti Vilayat. The reason may be it was looked like a foreign land with aesthetic attention during the old time. There is a story with a myth regarding the name of Kunihar. This place is also known as 'Bukha Maulakh' (the place of hunger people). Where local people say that if anybody calls its name in the morning he/she will stay hungry and thirsty whole day’…… Ridiculous! (My expression)

I had called this place ‘Kunihar’ name in the morning to break this myth. That’s why; I decided that I will buy some eatable things in Kunihar bus stand. As it was a myth to me, so I made my mind up to disgrace the old proverb. But truly speaking, I could not get there to eat.

And that ridiculous expression laughed at me. (To be continued……)

There may be various interesting stories about, why the place name should not be called in the morning?

Let me know in the comment box…

2019-06-13T04:14:00.001-07:00

Reflection of Heaven- ‘Habban’

In the Forestry stream, none of any our educational trip has given the chance of boredom. For forestry batch-2012, forest visits were always being the exciting jaunt. It was one of the shiny mornings; we were on an educational trip to reserve forest of Sirmour area (H.P district) during the last semester of graduation. We were in the yellow college bus where students were singing and enjoying together. Two forestry professors were escorted for us to ensure that the trip should be in an academic manner. Also, they have the charge of our safety as we were 43 in the class. So they have to be alert during the journey. Our accompanied professors were sitting just behind the driver seat. Also, the bus driver was very professional and enjoying his driving with listening students singing Pahari Nati (Local dance song of Himachalis) in the behind seats.

There, my focus shifted toward the striking beauty of the forest. It was pleasing my eyes, as shiny green trees were making me breathe more. I observed my mind was relaxing up and getting free from all constraints. On both sides of the road, the site was occupied by reserved superior Deodar (Cedrus deodara) trees; Deodar is a large evergreen coniferous tree and also known as Himalayan Cedar. It is the state tree of Dev Bhoomi Himachal Pradesh and considered to have a connection with the divine. It also believes that Deodar was the favorite site for Himalayan sages during ancient time.

That Deodar stand was looking likes ‘heaven’ with extreme clean visibility. It was refreshing clean air with an amalgamation of divine aroma. Denizens of this area usually say ‘it has the reflection of heaven every morning and evening. That’s why this area got its name as ‘Habban’.

Nurpur Forestry girls with Forest Staff and UHF Professors

Yes we were there, at Habban Forest division of Nahan Circle (H.P.) There, we reach a Forest division office. We were instructed for corralling in a conference room by two forest guards, as we were scheduled for meeting with Amer Singh. With some forest officers, our professors were discussing the purpose of the visit and were probably busy planning the next schedule of the journey. Before their arrival, we were served with a soft drink and some local cookies. Our class was full of notorious students and was hogging cookies one by one. With this refractory behavior, we were not in the discipline. Some were roaming outside; others were exploring the adjacent rooms and peeping on hanging pictures of great politicians. And remaining were sitting tired straggly on the chair after bus travel. I was silent and slammed on observing them with thinking, how curious our class is?

After a bit time waiting, two Forest-guards stood near the door and make a sign to keep silent. They were probably noticing student’s activities and asked us to bridge the gulf by sitting on chair sequentially.

At the same moment, Amer Singh stepped inside the conference room with our professors behind him. Both guards welcomed them and helped for their sittings. He wished all students in strict alert voice and welcomed us. He was tall fit middle-aged officer with dark mustaches. Actually, he was one of the senior Range Forest Officer (RFO or RO) of that division and going to lead the class on behalf of DFO. Our professors sat just beside him with the confident smile. However, Amer Singh was scanning students to and fro like a pendulum. After eye contacts with every student, he started speaking. He surprised us with a great speech and we felt proud of being forestry students. First, he described the working of his division and how they are helping in preserving the concerned Forests. Then he started sharing his life journey from the very start where he selected as Forest officer. He told us so many tales regarding wildlife adventure and about the beauty of the forest.

Forestry Batch-2012:- Notorious Class with Dr. Bhupender Dutt

With the constant speaking, his roar voice turned slowly into humble. We were hearing him curiously without any movement. It turned out that he has devoted half of his life with serving forest and he is happy with his duty.

Then he said in a low voice that I am taking care of these forest trees with my team. This beautiful land ‘Habban’ has a good seed stand of deodar. Our ‘Himalayan Deodar’ belongs to family Pinaceae known as ‘Tree of God’. Every third year is a good seed year in case of Deodar. He also aware us about its indicator plant species which are Indigofera and Desmodium spp (Both belong to Fabaceae Family). Indicator Species are those species (plant/animal) which tells the presence of other species and their habitat.

He added that Deodar tree is monoecious in nature where male-female cones grow on the same tree but they appear on a different branch. The male cones come first in the month of June and they wait for female cones, which comes later in August. He surprised us saying that male cone (Catkins) always set on lower branches. While the tree gives an honor position to female cones as they grow at the top. Yes, you see, nature also supports feminism and respect them. He said in a humorous way with nodding toward girl students. We also replied with nodding toward him.

He said today we will visit two sites viz., Site 1-RF 16 which is known as Dalamun dev ki kalar which has an area of about 27 hectares. And the next site 2-RF 17 named as ‘Dalamun’ only with an area of 27.05 hectares.

The visit was too informative and pleasurable with pleasant weather. We learned a lot and observed practically there. Our forests are incredible, so to avoid the illicit felling, encroachment, illegal transportation, wildlife killing, and medicinal plants smuggling, there have Forest police stations (Van Thana) been set up. Here is FOR (Forest Offense Report) irrespective of general FIR. The investigation acts run as a team by RO, DFO and other officers. Penalty for illegal cutting of tree varies with species on the basis of their volume, sale tax, transportation, etc. Civil police also help to Van Thana. If the quantity of seized timber is huge, it has to given to sale depot and to holding corporations. If the captured quantity is less, the sale is done by DFO through a process of simple auction. A daily activity file is filled by Munshi of Van thana.

We saw jail (prison) of Van thana, which was an old empty unfurnished room with a solid lock on rusted iron rods. I have never seen a prison before. I really felt crazy on watching this in reality with no prisoner inside.
A voice from inside came and laughed at me saying, 'Why are you so happy on this?, it's not a Real Jail'.

I silently smiled and replied to myself.

Whatever, Jail to jail he…… as crime is crime……. !!!

2019-05-13T12:20:00.001-07:00

Exploring Unknown Nature of Nature

After having hostel supper, I was in my room with my laptop, searching old files and folders, and deleting the one no longer in use. Rihana’s song 'What's my name' was playing and I was trying to imitate her voice, my fingers were busy in deleting useless files. One of my hostel mates knocked at my door and said, “Tomorrow, we are going on a trek to Karol Tibba, {Solan (H.P.)}. Do you want to join us?” I muted my song and replied, “Trekking? Yes, but early morning!” She assured me that there will no need to worry, as the arrangements had been already done by my classmate and she left.

I am very passionate about nature and so could not say ‘No’ to this opportunity. This was the first time that I was going to trek with strangers, although some of them were familiar faces that I had seen in UHF campus (Nauni). I trusted her and so I agreed to her invitation. At midnight, I packed my bag and went to sleep thinking about which dress to choose for the next day adventure. I decided and set up my mind to wake early so that I should not be late.

Every morning of Nauni valley is very refreshing and invigorating and affirms my faith for precious life and beautiful nature. I am a student of Nauni University very close to nature, love to see vibrant phenomena of nature every day and night. I find myself very lucky to be born in the lap of Himalayas and fortunate to be studying forestry subject. I usually keep peeping outside my window to get an eyeful panoramic beauty of nature, it gives me the strength to start my work.

Sunset in UHF Nauni

Today I have to trek Karol Tibba of Solan, famous as Pandava gufa. Six of us started our journey around 7 A.M. after buying fruits and vegetables for cooking lunch at the top. It took more than 2 hours to reach the Pandava gufa. It was an amazing underground, moist dark cave with lots of bats inside. Their screeching and moist slippery rocks of the cave gave us thrills. I was trying to make my way in the dark and absorbing the incredible feel of that moment. Sound of water drops from the crevasse of the rock, the noise of bats, all seemed different and made me pause to think about nature’s creation. We were beneath the surface, so came out after fifteen minutes after watching narrow tunnel inside the gufa. (Local people believe that Pandavas from Mahabharata lived in this long tunnel of about 28 Kms and its end lies in Pinjore, Haryana). Above this gufa was a temple adjoining to a small wooden house. I guess there was no other house nearby, as we tracked the remaining journey through a dense forest. We found an old lady outside the house with two dogs, which looked very healthy and active. We visited the temple and after that sat near the house to interact with the lady as we were very curious to know how she lived amidst the dense forest. She told that her spouse went down every day for work and returned back in the evening. We lived happily together with two dogs. Many a time, during the night, we sensed the presence of leopard but have not been attacked so far. From so many years we didn’t get any harm, so it’s like nature’s harmony and we love this place. She added further that during the day time, many visitors and trekkers come to like you, so I passed my day time interacting with them.

We thanked that lady and took her to leave. On returning from the gufa, we collected dry fuel woods and shrubs for fire. We found plain grassland where we decided to cook lunch. That view was heaven, we were surrounded by clouds, and the floated wind was playing with our hair, the sun seemed to move so fast behind the clouds that we could observe its movement with naked eyes. We cooked our lunch which included rice and paneer sabji, behind the shrubby ridge as the wind blew aggressively. Finally, we had our delicious lunch, interacted with one another and started becoming friends. We enjoyed with group singing, photo session and laughing together. We were at an altitude of about 2000 mts and felt cold at midday, covered neck with a muffler. The above blue sky was covered with patches of the clouds and a circular ring was moving from east to west, the adjacent green mountains were covered by Deodar and Pines forests. Farsight visibility was low, as floating clouds spread whiteness. While descending, we came across a herd of cows and goats on that grassland with shepherds. I collected various unknown Himalayan plant shrubs for identification during my return journey, because that’s what foresters do during any visit.

"Cooking is like unifier and Food is symbolic of love"

Next morning I went to my Forest Products Lab, with a sequence of work plans in my head. On the stair near the Lab, I met with Dharmu uncle who is a renowned taxonomist of our department and a commendable plant identifier. I showed all the collected samples to him for identification. I was really impressed when uncle mentioned the genus (Initial word for any scientific name) of all plants specimen which I had collected from Karol Tibba. He commanded me to come to his office for clear identification. Uncle opened an old yellow-paged book with lots of plants detail with identification key in it. He observed the leaves shape, veins, color, flowers so curiously and identified species (next word to genus for any scientific name) by using that book and gave me one by one with mentioning their names; “This is Indigofera pulchella, another Jasminum humile, then Cotoneaster microphyllus and so on…… all were new to me, so I wrote the plants’ name at the upper right edge of the paper and folded them between the sheet with regular intervals in a rough notebook. Some of the live samples that I could not collect, so I showed their images to uncle from my phone. Uncle tried to identify them and said in low voice, “Whenever you need to identify the plant, try to bring live samples with its flower. Do you want to see real samples and learn how to do identification in the field in real sense? “Yes I do, let’s go ‘I shouted in excitement.

Uncle and I went to the medicinal field near the university cafeteria, where I noticed a Kapoor tree standing at the entrance. There was a small wooden shed where field lady staff was busy in crushing some plant seeds. I finally entered the field of medicinal plants; most of the plants were in the blooming stage. Uncle pointing toward a flower, he asked me to bring it to him. I identified it as a Hibiscus flower with purple color and gave it to uncle.

What is its family? How did you identify? He asked.

I said, ‘I remembered’.

‘Ohoooo rata hi lagana, inn professaro ne baccho ka beda gark kiya he’. He shouted furiously.

I said, ‘then how?’ reciprocating his tone. He handed over that flower to me for description.

See the flower carefully, observe what you see and tell me, he said politely.

I grew numb at his reaction and didn’t know what to say. I was thinking if I know this plant from my knowledge, and identify it to tell people that ‘this is Hibiscus’. Then what’s wrong in it. I thought so hard on this and could not think of other criteria for identification.

Uncle said, “Don’t cram image of the plant and never fill your head with color and shape only, this plant belongs to Malvaceae family because its flower has fused male and female part. Remember always”. He showed me fused characteristics of three different flowers of the same family and request to observe under the microscope for enlarge view.

He showed me another plant and asked again to identify it; I said Lily as its image was in my mind. He said, ‘Yes good, how?’

I was speechless again and tried to speak in a low voice, “Six Petals and white flower”

Then uncle clarified that Lily family has different colored flowers also with different shape, even Asparagus belongs to Liliaceae family. You can identify it with 6 Petals and 6 anthers.

I was shocked to learn that the green shrubby Asparagus belongs to Liliaceae family.

“Amazing nature” I sighed with thinking and noted down all information on my notebook.

All this identification aroused my curiosity further and I asked uncle to tell me more. Uncle replied, “Enough for today, search more about them from your Google Baba but confirm from books also. Library has very old and good books on Himalayan Plants with key identification. Visit there and spend time with them. You can also ask me any time within one week as after that I am going to retire from the University”.

“Where do you go after that? (Looking at uncle’s phone, which was not as smart as the uncle was in his subject). Can I contact you through whatsup or facebook?” I asked.

He said, “Lots of job offers are coming, but I want to gulp rest for a while from work, so not thinking about joining any place shortly. But I will come to the Department when in need. During this conversation, his phone rang and he remarked humorously, “See how busy I am!” And I laughed vigorously at it.

I thanked him and came back to the hostel for lunch. On my way back I thought of making my own herbarium by collecting Himalayan shrubs and grasses and compiling them together. After lunch, I went inside my room and placed all plant samples between newspapers for drying and kept them under the mattress to make them ready for the herbarium.

From there I start making my Herbarium and still working on it.

After a year:- Pending work…………. Procrastination, Why this is so???

Answer Please…