Reading in the time of digital distractions

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-should-you-invest-early-reading-habits-your-kid-sargam-gupta/

Why should today’s youth embrace books. In the past couple of years, I have hardly come across my students who read books. In the present digital world, everyone prefers to watch videos or reels or scroll down endlessly on social media sites. What does reading offer vs watching a social media site? Well, reading has several benefits. 

Benefits of reading 

When you read a book, it builds your imagination and creativity, increases knowledge and vocabulary, improves writing skills, memory and concentration, stimulates the brain, helps in critical thinking, and contributes to overall personal growth. Successful entrepreneurs like Elon Musk and Bill Gates have been avid readers. They attribute their success to reading books which they say are a source of knowledge, ideas and helped them to incorporate them into their businesses.

Personal experiences 

My experience with reading is similar to the saying by George. R. R. Martin “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, a person who never reads, lives only once”. As a child, I remember reading Heidi. I visualized the mountains, grasses, flowers, sheep grazing, Alm-Uncle’s house and others. I felt I have seen the Swiss Alps where the story is set. It still remains one of my favourite books. The Diary of Anne Frank made me experience the lives of Jews and Ruskin Bond books made me feel the forest, rivers, mountains and railway tracks. R K Narayan books make me feel I know the fictional town Malgudi, its Sarayu River, Kabir Street, market, railway station, etc. Swami and his friends remind the happiness I derived in childhood through little things. My heart felt heavy for Anupama during her difficult times in Mahashweta. Birds, Beasts and Bandit: 14 days with Veerappan gave me a different opinion about the smuggler Veerappan and his survival strategies in the forest. Non-fictions like The Secret, Atomic Habits and Unposted Letter helped me shape my thinking, attitude, habits, relationships etc. What I experienced with a particular book might be completely different from what another person feels. My opinion about a book might be different from others. Every person’s viewpoint of a book is shaped by his/her life experiences, feelings, perspective towards life etc. Overall, books help us to travel to places and experience different occasions. Every book has a message, only our understanding of the message differs. 

Embrace digital reading 

The present digital world has provided an array of opportunities for readers. Digital books such as e-books and audio books are helping readers easily access books. Further, there are several sites that offer freely downloadable books either in pdf version or e-book reader formats. Earlier, I would buy books or borrow them from friends. Today also I do the same, but in lesser frequency. Now, mostly I download free books and read it on my kindle (e-book reader). There have been debates on reading from a hard copy vs soft copy. However, I feel we need to embrace the technology for out betterment and read from both hard and soft copy. Carrying an e-book reader during travel or anywhere, will make the book available for you to read at any time. E-book readers are like your digital library, you can download and store books. There are free and paid e-books on amazon also.

How to start reading? 

Now, it is easy to say, “READ BOOKS”🕮. But how are you going to begin? First of all, choose a book that interests you. It could be a fiction or non-fiction. You should only be curious to know the contents of the book. Begin with just one page a day. As reading one page a day becomes a habit, you can then increase it to two pages a day and so on. Once you begin to enjoy reading, it will naturally become a habit. Additionally, you could set a time and place to read every day and carry your book wherever you go. You can also join Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/), which helps you to mark books that you have read, wish to read, join the reading challenge, rate and review books etc. 

Once you begin to enjoy reading, you will appreciate the ‘Power of Reading’ and feel as Franka Zappa said, ‘So many books, so little time’. Happy reading!

The Hungry Caterpillar

My neighbourhood has several Pongamia pinnata trees, commonly known as Pongamia or Honge mara. The presence of these trees keeps my neighbourhood cool and shady. In the months of January and February, when the tree is in leaf flush, it offers a pleasant sight for the residents. Three to four years back, a Pongamia sapling started germinating in front of my house, the seed was from a nearby tree. I allowed it to grow, hoping it would provide shade to my car underneath it. This year, the young tree had reached a good height but was not providing enough shade for the car, as the leaves were being eaten away by some insect. When my husband had to take the car out, he found there were tiny black balls and the insect all over the car. On closer look, he found hordes of caterpillars feeding voraciously on the young leaves in the tree and the tiny black balls were the caterpillars’ fecal matter. The voracious eating caterpillars reminded me of the popular children’s book ‘The very hungry caterpillar’ by Eric Clare.

Caterpillars and their faecal matter.      

PC: Paramesha. M

A walk down the street revealed that the branches of other Pongamia trees were also invaded by the hungry caterpillars. We found that the caterpillars were of Common Banded Awl butterfly (Hasora chromus). Several times earlier, I had noticed the Banded Awl butterfly resting and moving around in the Pongamia tree.

Leafless branches of Pongamia.   
PC: Paramesha. M

Some of the neighbours were worried looking at the leafless branches and were also looking for options to spray pesticides. Well, there is nothing to worry about the caterpillars, as they are a part of the food web. Further, the trees will produce new leaves sooner or later.

Pongamia is a host plant for the caterpillar of Common Banded Awl butterfly. Host plants are plants on which the butterfly lays eggs, caterpillars feed on it and build pupa. Also, different butterfly species have different host plants.

Common Banded Awl butterfly
(https://butterflycircle.blogspot.com/2010/10/life-history-of-common-banded-awl.html?m=0)

Caterpillar and pupa of Common Banded Awl butterfly.
PC: Paramesha. M

Of the thousands of eggs laid by the butterflies, not all of them will make it to the adult stage. These caterpillars are food for crows, bulbuls, tits and other insectivorous birds. If we spray pesticides and get rid of the caterpillars, we will be disrupting the food web and insectivorous birds will be losing their food source. Nature has its way of maintaining ecological balance.

The happiest of the lot are the crows in my neighbourhood as they are feasting on the caterpillars for the last one week!!

S G Neginhal – The Urban Forester

 

S G Neginhal – The Urban Forester

(01 May 1929 to 01 May 2021)

PC: http://www.ypsbengaluru.com/event/wildlife-week-celebration/

After my Masters while I was volunteering for A Rocha India, I came across the book ‘Golden trees, greenspaces and urban forestry’ authored by S. G. Neginhal. Whenever I was in A Rocha office, I would search for the names of trees that I would see around. Later, while I was working in ATREE for compiling a field guide on dryland trees, I remembered this book and thought of adding it to the collection that our lab had. It was not available in stores. Finally, a friend Daniel Sukumar suggested that he knew the author and we could buy it personally from him. 

Daniel spoke to Neginhal sir and fixed and appointment. When I met Neginhal sir, he was in his 80’s, nevertheless when I said I was from ATREE he recollected meeting Savitha Swamy who had worked on urban parks. I was amazed that he still continued to write books despite his age. We were there for buying ‘Golden trees, greenspaces and urban forestry’ book but he said it’s out of print and showed two other books ‘Forest trees of the Western Ghats’ and ‘Sanctuaries and Wildlife of Karnataka’ authored by him. I was disappointed, I wanted golden trees book as I was compiling information for dryland trees of Karnataka. Upon enquiry if there will be a reprint, he said no and suggested the other two books are also equally good. We bought the other books for ourselves and extra copies for our friends. 

Over a period of time, I realized it is these field guides that help non-taxonomists to identify trees, unlike floras. The book ‘Forest trees of the Western Ghats’ immensely helped my colleague and friend Vimhaseno to identify Western Ghats plant species for her doctoral research.

Many of us know that Neginhal sir was responsible for greening of Bangalore with colourful flowering trees. With reckless cutting down of trees, we might end up seeing these trees in his book and not in the real world. Today we don’t have Neginhal sir amongst us, but his knowledge and experience has been transferred into these priceless books. Books that continue to fascinate youngsters into the natural world.

Garbage worriers and garbage warriors

A few days before the lockdown began, while returning from the flour mill, I saw Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP) garbage auto at one of the street corners. The two garbage collectors were segregating the collected garbage into wet and dry waste, as households had not done their job of segregation and had passed it on to the poor garbage collectors. Segregation by garbage collectors had to be done as the truck transporting waste would not take in mixed waste. Although there are rules specifying that households have to segregate waste, there seems to be certain places in Bangalore were it is not being done accordingly. Also, the BBMP has notified to penalise residents for not segregating waste. Looking at the two garbage collectors, my mind wandered off to people’s attitude towards waste and garbage collectors.

The garbage auto in my neighbourhood collects segregated waste unlike in some parts of Bangalore. Garbage man has divided  his auto into two parts, one for wet and another for dry waste. He stands in dry waste section and collects it, while we dump wet waste directly as this partition is towards the extreme end of the auto. Often, I have noticed that wet waste also had a mix of dry waste like shampoo sachets, toothbrush, bus tickets etc. Additionally, a few neighbours do not segregate their wet waste completely. Many a times, the garbage man yells at them for not segregating waste which has fallen on deaf ears till date. Well, I appreciate these neighbours were at least handing over their waste to the garbage collector rather than dumping it in empty sites or street corners like another neighbour. This particular neighbour feels handing over waste to garbage man is expensive because he charges Rs. 10/month! Even if you are not paying the garbage man he will still collect your waste because nowhere it is mentioned that garbage collector will not collect waste if he is not paid by the house owner. Some neighbours who give money grumble that garbage collectors also earn their salaries and are greedy for more. These households may not have given a thought to how much is the salary of a garbage collector, does he receive it on a regular basis and is it sufficient to survive in a city like Bangalore. This Rs. 10 being paid to the garbage collector has been same from when door to door garbage collection began in Bangalore, roughly 15 years back.  We still pay them the same amount, while prices of all other items have soared in the last decade.

Around three years back, before the garbage auto came into my street, a garbage cart pushed by an old lady (reminding me of my late grandmother) would collect waste. A neighbour living in first floor would throw her waste onto the road when the garbage cart arrived. The poor old lady had to pick it up and then put it in the cart, while other households would directly dump their waste into the cart. While some do not hand over waste, the ones who do, do it in a style!! The neighbour never realized that it was an old lady who was forced to work in spite of her age and that too physical hard labour job, pushing the cart around different streets and the cart gaining weight with entry into each street.  Although, the old lady would request the neighbour not to throw waste from first floor, again it fell on deaf ears. However, today this neighbour makes her way down to the garbage auto because if she happens to throw the waste from first floor, the garbage man will never pick it up, as he is already standing inside his auto and cannot afford to waste time to get off from it.

One family in the neighbourhood used to dispose all their waste into an empty site. Once their child turned a year old, they started handing over waste to the garbage collector. I still wonder what bought in this attitude change. A relative who shifted to Bangalore a couple of years ago, was full on blaming BBMP that they should not have made rules on waste segregation, instead composting at household should have been mandatory. ‘If it is mandatory will you do it?’ did not yield answers from her. When people cannot practice what they preach it is best for them not to suggest. A friend wanted me to have his composting bin which was freely distributed, as he felt I worked on something related to environment! So does it mean people working for conservation should compost and rest of them should not?

Lastly, I have the most hilarious story. It is a known fact that empty sites in Bangalore end up being waste dumps. But in the corner of my street atop a Pongamia tree a black plastic cover with waste was hanging for a couple of months. Someone from top floors must have flung their waste into an empty site which unfortunately landed up on the tree. It was later bought down when BESCOM staff were pruning branches that covered electric lines.

According to a study by T V Ramachandra and others from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (2018) per capita waste generation in Bangalore varies between 45.51 – 136.5 g/day of which organic waste is a major portion. If these garbage warriors did not turn up for even a week, can we bear the stink emanating from the waste? Their absence will only turn our houses into garbage yards. 

Waste segregation is very simple, it’s not a rocket science. Just keep two separate bins, one for wet and another for dry, rather than plastic covers for wet waste. Additionally, wet waste bin can be lined with paper to absorb moisture and paper can be discarded along with wet waste. It’s time we realize that we generate waste and need to dispose it off efficiently, otherwise we will end up being in a sea of diseases. Like someone said ‘garbage collectors are the cities doctors’, we need to treat them with respect and think over what would happen in their absence.

Blood donors vs blood suckers! An interaction with leeches in the wet evergreen forests of Western Ghats

For the last two years, my Ph.D. colleague cum best friend Vimhaseno (Vimha) and me together have been in field quiet frequently. During our work in the forests, our major problem was ticks in summer, while in the rainy season it was……… leeches! To avoid ticks in field we mostly used a scrubber and had dettol water baths. Ticks are much harmless compared to leeches (in my opinion!!). So, what is the best way to avoid leeches?…. just avoid rainy days for field work!! ha ha…. but when it became inevitable, we had go.

  Leech (Haemadipsa sylvestris)   PC: www.gettyimages.in

We knew leeches come up during rains and hence would go prepared usually with a odomos (repellant). But during 2017 summer field work in Makutta, when I least expected leeches, one of them crawled upto my knee and I did not know about it until my pant was soaked with blood. Next day, again I had another leech bite in the same place. Forest guards Mr. Ashik and Mr. Manohar told it was because the leeches could smell the wound or rather blood, and hence the bite. This year while working in Beedahalli in Pushapagiri wildlife sanctuary, we encountered leeches again, as it used to rain every night during our stay. An interesting thing about leeches is they are mostly found on the forest paths and rarely inside the forest (that is away from the forest path). During our first day in Beedahalli, we applied oil on our legs but still leeches had their way and crawled up our legs. Worst was when I had a bite on my thigh and as usual I got to know about it only after my pant was blood soaked. Second day, we smeared salt, and carried a box of salt into the field. But it was tricky, we had to frequently rub our shoes and socks with salt, and in case we find a leech, we had to either sprinkle salt or remove it with a stick. Along with this, the previous day we had folded up our pants so that we can pull out the crawling leeches. This had given us quiet a few scratches from the bushes. Rubbing salt on the legs now was like the adage ‘rubbing salt into wounds’!!

Without much options, we continued rubbing salt daily during our field work in Beedahalli. From Beedahalli, we reached Cherambane in Kodagu for my field work. The first thing that we did here was to buy a bottle of dettol and apply it on our wounds and take bath with dettol water. By now our leech bites were drying off but were itchy and leaving their marks behind. We joked that “we can never be models because of these bites!” Back to Bangalore, Vimha did some online research for avoiding leech bites and concluded salt was best. In our subsequent field visit to Marigudi in Pushpagiri Wildlife Sanctuary, we carried odomos and dettol, salt we could anyway borrow in the antipoaching camp (APC). On our first day, we applied loads of odomos and dettol on our legs, shoes and socks. We folded up our pants, so that leeches were more visible if they were crawling up. Since it had been raining continuously in the last few days, the number of leeches were enormous. Just in the initial few meters, leeches began crawling up our shoes, and we felt we could not continue with this field work at all. For Ph.D. students some situations are like do or die, and hence we decided we should go ahead with the field work come what may. Again, we found that leeches were mostly in the forest path and quiet less in the thick of vegetation.

This time fortunately, forest guard Mr. Shivaram had a unique way of getting rid of leeches. He had made a salt ball tied to a stick, and used to dab it around his shoes and legs frequently to avoid leeches. We found this interesting and tried, it worked. A leech would loosen its hold from the skin, if the salt ball was dabbed on it. We decided the next day, each of us would carry an individual salt ball and asked Shivaram anna to make one for each of us. He readily agreed to make it. Well, that was for the next day, but we had to work the present day with only one salt ball which we would borrow from Shivaram anna every now and then. Just when we completed our work and were making our way back to the APC, it began to rain heavily. We trekked back for around 20 minutes in the rain along with the crawling leeches. For the first time I saw so many many leeches on the forest path and all of them waiting eagerly for their prey! Whether I walked fast or ran, leeches would some how climb up my shoes. At one point I had like ten leeches sticking to the corner of my shoe, apart from this a couple of them where crawling on from other sides as well. I called out to Vimha for help but even she was busy removing leeches from her shoes. Again faced with the do or die situation.. I quickly removed the leeches with my fingers. Wait, I removed leeches with my fingers! My leechphobia was gone. After reaching the APC, we still removed leeches that were stuck inside our shoes. Next day, we again applied odomos and dettol liberally on our legs, shoes and socks and each of us carried the salt ball which Shivaram anna made for us. We frequently dabbed the salt ball onto our shoes, socks and legs. Even then, leeches would crawl up. But this time we neither panicked or bent down to remove them. Instead we would just touch those leeches with our salt ball. Lo and behold, the leeches would drop down. The salt ball was such a blessing, it helped us to work without worrying much about the leeches. All thanks to Shivaram anna for his uniqure way of avoiding leeches in the field.

By the way…. what is salt ball?! Salt ball is rock salt wrapped in a piece of cloth. Preparing a salt ball is very easy. Take some rock salt into a cloth and tie this tighlty to a stick. Wet the salt ball and dab it onto your shoes/socks and get rid of leeches!

Hope this will be useful to many forest researchers who are fighting off leeches in the field!!

PS: Our aim was not to kill leeches but to avoid their bites.

Thanks to our enthusiastic team for supporting us in field. 

EVERY TREE MATTERS!

In the beginning of 2017, I was accompanying my friend and Ph.D. batch mate Vimhaseno Neikha to her field site Makutta located in Brahmagiri wildlife sanctuary of Kodagu district for her study on vegetation across different elevations. In the field, my routine was to assist Vimha in laying her plots and enter tree measurement data in her field notebook. Vimha would call out the tree name followed by measurements while I religiously noted down. For the species that she was unable to identify, forest personnel Mr. Ashik and Mr. Manohar were there for our rescue. During one such activity, in one of the plots at 100m elevation, I asked for the name of a tree that was about to be measured. Ashik told it was Aame mara! I was surprised by the name and instantly guessed that this tree must have some connection with the tortoise because in kannada language aame means tortoise. Immediately, Manohar told us that flowers and fruits are borne on the tree trunk and are fed by tortoises. Now I understood the connection between aame and aame mara, the tortoise tree!

A full bloom Baccaurea courtallensis 

PC: Anurag N Sharma

We also found a tortoise shell indicating the presence of the animal here

PC: Vimhaseno Neikha

Aame mara, scientifically called Baccaurea courtallensis usually flowers after the rains. We were in the field site after the summer showers and I wondered if we could find any tree in flowering. Fortunately, we happened to spot a tree in flowering in our very next plot!! 

Baccaurea courtallensis trunk covered with tubercles 
PC: Deepthi Narasimhaiah

Flowers of Baccaurea courtallensis 

PC: Vimhaseno Neikha  

Baccaurea courtallensis belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae. It is an evergreen tree, grows upto 15 m tall and is found in evergreen and semi-evergreen forests of India and Sri Lanka. Leaves are simple and alternate. The most striking feature of the tree is bearing flowers on its main trunk called cauliflory inflorescence. The trunk usually has swelling or knobs called tubercles. Crimson colored flowers appear in bunches on these tubercles. Fruits are red in color and hang all over the trunk making it easier for the ground dwelling tortoises to feed upon them. Ripe fruits can be eaten raw and are sour in taste. It also has medicinal properties.

A close up of flowers
PC: Deepthi Narasimhaiah

Inflorescence arising on the trunk called cauliflory
PC: Deepthi Narasimhaiah

During our subsequent visit in April 2017 we found aame mara in fruiting. Though flowering and fruiting of aame mara is an annual cycle, we were excited to see it in both the stages because of its typical inflorescence 'cauliflory'.

Fruits of Baccaurea courtallensis 

PC: Navendu  

I thank Vimhaseno Neikha for giving me an opportunity to accompany her and forest personnel Mr. Ashik and Mr. Manohar for giving insights on aame mara, the tortoise tree!

Darwin Scholarship Programme: feeling evolved!!

About the same time, last year I attended the ‘Darwin Scholarship Programme’ at UK organised by Field Studies Council (FSC). First time I was flying abroad and I was excited for two things, firstly as it was going to be all about Charles Darwin, the great biologist and secondly after the course I would be visiting my cousin Vijaya and delivering the goodies sent by her family. Darwin Scholarship Programme is held annually in two places, Brazil and UK. I chose UK because, in UK, the programme is held in FSC’s field centres located in Shrewsbury (which is birthplace of Charles Darwin) and also in Dorking. Although the programme selects 25 participants globally, there was considerable representation from India last year, standing upto its name of being the second populous country in the world! The programme focuses on Darwin’s life, his ideas and thinking, along with identifying, monitoring and communicating biodiversity.

The journey in UK began in Manchester from where I took a train to Shrewsbury town. The ride was amazing, mostly through the country side, huge farmlands with large cows grazing in them and uniform houses. The English country side was just as beautiful as the memories I had of reading about it in books. On my arrival at the Shrewsbury train station, Ms. Jenni Duffel, our course administrator picked me up and we headed towards Preston Montford Field Centre through Shrewsbury.

With Jenni Duffell with her botanist husband Mark Duffell     
PC: Shrikant Gund

Shrewsbury is a town in Shropshire with River Severn flowing through it. Multi-coloured flowers at the entrances of houses and along the streets add beauty to this town. From top of the Shrewsbury castle a bird view of the railway station and part of the town can be seen. Shrewsbury still houses the place were Charles Darwin was born and the Shrewsbury school were he studied. 

Victorian style buildings in Shrewsbury

Colourful flowers along the streets of Shrewsbury

The initial seven days of the Darwin Scholarship Programme was spent in the Preston Montford Field Centre and rest four days at Juniper Hall in Dorking with field excursions in between. Our first field excursion was to Cwm Idwal, Snowdonia National Park in Wales and we were accompanied by Adrian Pickles, Michael Roberts and Ian. Darwin visited Cwm Idwal on a horse carriage for his geoglogical explorations.. The tiny streams with crystal clear water trickled down from the mountains towards the centre of the valley forming a shallow lake Llyn Idwal, Cwm Idwal is definitely a mesmerizing place. All through our hike it was windy and drizzling. Cwm Idwal has made a special place in my memory not only because of its beauty but also it being the best hike in rain which probably only a hiker who loves rain can understand the feeling.

Cwm Idwal PC: Sandeep

The next field excursion was to Llanymynech rocks which are vertical (almost perpendicular to the ground!) and almost 200ft tall. A limestone quarry till a few decades ago, the quarrying has been stopped, and the area has been restored naturally and is home for floral diversity. Dr. Mark Duffel, botanist and horticulturist identified various plants and elaborated upon its history and uses. Probably, it was the flowering season and the beauty of the small colourful flowers only made the visit more worthwhile. 

Vertical rocks at Llanymynech

We visited Down House, the house where Charles Darwin lived the last 40 years of his life. Currently, it is a museum with a good collection of things used by Darwin and his family. The audio guide helps in touring and understanding the various locations in the house. Overlooking Darwin’s room was the lawn where he performed many experiments. The kitchen garden and the green house set up by Darwin are still being maintained by the authorities. There was a tennis court in which Darwin’s children played, the shape of the court was like an hour glass which was the shape of original tennis court. Although people criticize Darwin’s research saying his father was rich and could afford to lend him money to buy a house along with so much of open space, but his dedication and commitment towards research eventually helped him to conduct experiments and explore many things. Personally, I feel there could be other contemporaries to Darwin in similar positions but not everybody would have thought of experimenting or exploring like Darwin.

Colourful flowers at Llanymyynech rocks

Down House: Charles Darwin's house

Sandwalk: Darwin walked here every day and reflected about life around him 

PC: Shrikant Gund

Our next visit was to the Natural History Museum in London, one of the finest museums in the world. It houses everything from the tiniest to the largest organism on earth, natural processes, geology, fossils and lots and lots more. Darwin centre inside Natural History Museum attends to public queries of identifying species and also conducting trainings. It has a huge collection of insects and plants, neatly stacked in specially designed cupboards in temperature controlled rooms.

Plants and insects collected by people in earlier days as a hobby or interest have also made their way to Natural History Museum. Over 5000 beetles of this kind were yet to be sorted out. There were lots of herbarium samples that were collected decades ago and still need to be identified. All these collections helps in educating people who are actual custodians of these species. This botanical section is open for volunteers to help staff segregate and identify herbariums. The museum holds a huge treasure which cannot be experienced in one day. 

Largest larva (of a beetle) on earth

Herbarium collection which are yet to be sorted and identified at Darwin centre in Natural History Museum

Our next excursion was a hike to the Box hill close to Juniper Hall accompanied by  Ian and Adrian Pickles. Box Hill had many visitors as it is a popular tourist spot which provides them an amazing view of the countryside. We explored the floral diversity of the area with the field guides developed by FSC. There were also natural play trails that made the hike exciting.

Apart from learning about Darwin and field excursions, we also learnt about insects, small mammals, birds and bats. Dr. Ian Cheeseborough and Dr. Nigel Jones led the insect session. We learnt to use different insect trapping methods such as shaking and beating method, nets, malaise traps and pan traps. Trapped insects were later identified in the laboratory with the help of field guides. Similar to insect trapping methods, small mammal trapping also has a variety of methods. We learnt to prepare longworth trap from Dr. Debbie Alston and left it overnight around the field centre. Out of the entire traps only myself and Willian Chan were able to trap successfully a wood mouse and a vole respectively. 

Successful small mammals trapping experiment posted on twitter by Debbie Alston

Dr. Debbie also had interesting hands on activities to teach us about population ecology. Debbie also mentioned that there was a Poo Musuem in UK (you read it right all about poo).

On one of the evenings we went around Preston Montford field centre accompanied with Dr. Mike Castle and Dr. Pete Marshall to identify bats and we had instruments to record the bat calls which helped in identifying the location of bats. Dr. Pete mentioned about this amazing bat in Poland which is 43 years old and eats 3,000 insects every night. Bird territory mapping technique was yet another interesting field activity where we mapped the territory of different birds in Preston Montford with Dr. Richard Burkmar. Dr. Rebecca Farley’s class on developing effective field guides was the best because she had animal-shaped chocolates and candies for her activities which were later relished by us!!  Dr. Adrian Pickles classes taught effective communication through hands on activities and brain storming.

The Young Darwin Scholars Programme (for children <18 years) was coming to a close and each of us were tagged with one Young Darwin Scholar for interaction. It was an interesting to interact with them and also learn how they wished to be a part of conservation. 

Being a foodie I thought this was my opportunity to try new cuisine. Food mostly consisted of fried egg, bread, baked beans, salad, potatoes and the mouth watering cheese cake for dessert. Food was less spicy and sometimes few of us would borrow chilli powder from the cook. Well, I forgot to mention there was meat also, since I am a vegetarian, I didn’t bother to explore that part. On days that we had field trips, we would pack sandwiches for lunch. I was poor at making sandwichs and my friend Kashimana had labeled my sandwiches as ‘disaster’!

Variety of tasty food served during Darwin Programme

Every evening after dinner, we presented our work that each of us carried out in our home country. Each of us was working on a different species but we have a common goal… CONSERVATION!!.

Darwin Scholars  2016 - Born to conserve!     
 PC: Shrikant Gund

I thank Adrian Pickles, Jenni Duffell and Ian for making this a successful and memorable programme. Being a Darwin Scholar, I look ahead for success and look backward for confidence i.e, ‘Darwin Scholarship Programme’ . 

Beauty and the Bees!!

For my Ph.D. I am studying the ecosystem services of riparian forests along river Cauvery in three different landscapes: coffee-agrosystem, agricultural land and protected area. My recent field work in the coffee-agrosystem of Kodagu was exciting and also challenging!! Here I wish to share some insights from the field.

Field notes: A field researcher's most important asset. PC: Vimhaseno Neikha

Kodagu is a hilly region with most of its economy based on agriculture, plantations and forestry. It is one of the largest coffee producing regions in India. It is also the birthplace of river Cauvery, a lifeline to many parts of southern India; used for irrigation, domestic and industries.

Coffee in bloom. PC: Vimhaseno Neikha

Riparian forests (forests adjacent to the river) along river Cauvery provide many ecosystem services out of which pollination is an important one. Since, studies suggest coffee pollination by external agents like bees and other insects increase fruit set, I started looking at how and to what extent riparian forests along river Cauvery supported bee colonies and coffee pollination.

Beyond the waters: Riparian forests along river Cauvery. PC: Deepthi Narasimhaiah

During my visit to the Madikeri region in early summer, I observed that, coffee flower blooming was mostly concentrated in specific plantations as they had been irrigated. This resulted in attracting more number of bees than during mass flowering that occurs after the summer showers. Preliminary field observations showed that riparian forests supported bee colonies, and coffee plantations adjacent to these riparian forests had high frequency of bee visits. This shows that the riparian forest along river Cauvery in Kodagu provides ecosystem services such as habitat for bees (supporting service), coffee pollination (regulating service), honey (provisioning service) etc. Therefore, I am trying to understand the ecosystem services (such as pollination, carbon storage, timber, fuelwood, food, recreation etc) and conservation aspects of riparian forest along river Cauvery in other landscape settings; such as agriculture and protected area.

Beauty and the Bees: Honey bees pollinating coffee flowers. PC: Vimhaseno Neikha

I thank Jeevan and Vimhaseno for accompanying me in this lovely field journey.