Surendra Varma, a scientist at Indian Institution of Science, said he was happy to see the turnout during the festive season.
Bengaluru :
Heavy rain and Deepavali celebrations didn’t stop corporate communication professional, Danielle S, to attend an event organised by Friends of Elephants, an informal group dedicated to promote wildlife diversity. “I have attended previous events of this group. I was out of town and came back soon to attend it. These are good knowledge-sharing platforms,” she said, adding that she and her friends believe in celebrating festivals in meaningful ways like this.
Friends of Elephants conducts panel discussions and art and cultural activities on every fourth Sunday. Titled Elephants, Tigers and Lions (conservation and conflict), their last event on October 27 included movie screenings like Shanti Samsara by Ricky Kej, talks by Manoj Kumar, chief conservator of forests, Kodagu Circle, and Ravi Chellam, wildlife expert, and panel discussion with speakers and villagers from Bandipur. The forest officers shared their experiences of tackling wild animal attacks in estates and their translocation, while villagers shared how difficult their day-to-day life is because of animal attacks.
Surendra Varma, a scientist at Indian Institution of Science, said he was happy to see the turnout during the festive season. “We had organised one event during an IPL match in the city. There was no drop in the number of participants,” he added.Prabha Ramakrishnan, a resident of Indiranagar, said she always tries to attend the events. “We are a small group of women who are interested in nature and wildlife. We go for trekking, visit wildlife sanctuaries and attend events. Why should one miss such events in the name of festival?,” she asked.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Lesly Joseph / Express News Service / October 29th, 2019
Deputy Commissioner Annies Kanmani Joy has directed the assistant director of land records to shift the government offices from the Old Fort to the new building of Zilla Panchayat, before October 31, as per the court orders.
The Madikeri Fort, also known as Old Fort.
The orders by the deputy commissioner have come in the wake of the High Court direction towards taking up renovation work of the historic establishment. The work will be carried out by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
Annies Kanmani Joy said that the district administration had promised the Department of Archaeology of handing over the old building by October end.
As there are government offices inside the Old Fort, the department could not carry out the restoration work of the building. Also, there were demands to shift the government offices to the newly built Zilla Panchayat building.
As per the directions issued by the High Court, officials from the ASI visited the fort premises and inspected the condition of the Old Fort building.
The team of officials also furnished a report to the court, on the probable steps towards the repair of the building. Following the same, the officials from various government departments had agreed to vacate their offices.
While the repair work was going on in January, the roof of the palace in the Fort premises had suddenly collapsed.
The walls of the palace are discoloured and the soldiers’ quarters have totally collapsed.
The leaking roof of the main building was covered with plastic sheets as a temporary measure.
Glorious history
Mudduraja, a ruler of Haleri dynasty, had built the fort in the 17th century.
Tipu Sultan rebuilt the fort using stones later.
The fort was acquired by Dodda Veera Rajendra in 1790 and later came under the rule of British in 1834.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> State> Mangaluru / by Adithya K A / DH News Service, Madikeri / October 23rd, 2019
The new building of Kodagu Zilla Panchayat in Madikeri.
Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K S Eshwarappa and Housing and Kodagu In-charge Minister V Somanna inaugurated the new building of Kodagu Zilla Panchayat at K Badaga village, near Madikeri, on Friday.
The groundbreaking for the new building, constructed at a total cost of Rs 30 cr, was done in 2016.
Speaking on the occasion, Eshwarappa said that a grant of Rs 30 crore would be given to each Assembly constituency under Pradhan Mantri Grameen Sadak Yojana.
“Also, grants will be released for solving drinking water problem,” he added.
The minister meanwhile assured of providing Rs 20 lakh each to 28 gram panchayats towards solid waste management unit.
“Task Forces will be formed for ZP members and every task force will be granted a fund of Rs one crore”, he said.
“Floods have ravaged the state. The Central government has provided Rs 1,200 crore for relief measures and the state has already released Rs 1,500 crore. Another Rs 1,500 crore will be released soon. It has been decided in the Cabinet meeting to utilise Central government grants for compensating the loss of crops,” Eshwarappa said.
He also assured of providing integrated funds towards the rejuvenation of lakes in Kodagu.
Lauding the job done by top officials of the district — Deputy Commissioner Annies Kanmani Joy, Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer K Lakshmipriya and Superintendent of Police Dr Suman D Pennekar, the minister said the district was peaceful as women adored all the key posts in Kodagu.
He also mentioned that he has four daughters and a son.
District In-charge Minister V Somanna said there had been loss of life, both human and animals, in the district due to floods.
Agriculturists in the district have incurred a huge loss. A package of Rs 532 crore has been announced to Kodagu out of which Rs 100 crore has been released. The problems of flood victims will be duly addressed, he added. Somanna meanwhile added that Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa was supposed to be take part in the programmes of handing over houses to flood victims and the inauguration of new building of the ZP. But the chief minister could not attend due to unfavourable weather conditions.
MLA K G Bopaiah urged the state government to provide 350 acres of ‘C’ and ‘D’ (categories) land to those who have lost their agricultural land in Mudigere, owing to landslides.
MLA Appacchu Ranjan urged the government to release Rs 1 crore for the restoration of historic Old Fort in Madikeri.
MLC Veena Acchaiah said the government should construct houses for flood victims of 2019 at a cost of Rs 9.85 lakh each, instead of Rs 5 lakh.
Instead of wood pulp, Bluecat Paper uses cotton, linen rags, coffee husk, banana fibre, mulberry, corn husk and flax fibre among other things
Kavya Madappa’s cabin at Bluecat Paper, a company that makes upcycled paper, overlooks a small verdant garden with a passion fruit vine and other plants. A black native dog sleeps on a thick sheet that is spread on a plush couch. It is not her pet. “He just likes to hang out here,” says Kavya from her desk. The office, located in Peenya, is airy, green and relaxing — it is unsurprising that Kavya also owns a spa resort in Coorg.
“I grew up in Coorg. Having a large backyard with lots of trees is something I took for granted,” she says. When she moved to Bengaluru, it took a while to adjust to the city’s traffic and bustle. Most conspicuous — and disturbing — to her, however, was the rapid felling of trees. She realised this when she happened to witness the large-scale production of paper at a mill.
Paper is mostly produced from wood pulp, which requires sawing of timber and removal of bark. Environmental activist Mandy Haggith, in her book Paper Trails: From Trees to Trash – The True Cost of Paper, writes: “The paper industry consumes 42% of all the wood felled industrially every year and its share of the world’s cleared forest is an area of about three million hectares annually.”
According to worldatlas.com, in the past four decades, the use of paper has risen by 400%. Roughly 26% of solid waste dumped in dumping sites is discarded paper and paperboard. A report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations says that by 2050, more than half of the world’s total demand for wood and wood products is likely to consist of paper and paper products.
Bluecat Paper products | Photo Credit: Sudhakara Jain
These numbers suggest that Kavya’s concern for trees at the paper mill wasn’t misplaced. She sought and found a way to make paper without wood pulp. For two years, she studied about paper, met papermakers and experimented with different methods. A 15-day hand papermaking course at the Kumarappa National Handmade Paper Institute in Jaipur equipped her to set up Bluecat Paper in 2018.
Instead of wood pulp, Bluecat Paper uses cotton, linen rags, coffee husk, banana fibre, mulberry, corn husk and flax fibre among other things to make paper. These raw materials, according to Kavya, are abundant. Even the quality of her “tree-free paper”, she assures, is as good as the ones made from wood pulp. But handmade papers are expensive as their production is labour- and time-intensive.
“Most machines are developed for rolls of paper, whereas handmade paper is made into sheets,” explains Kavya. She, however, hopes that “tree-free paper” becomes mainstream. “I had to scale it up because most of the hand papermakers I knew were making paper in their backyard or in small units. At Bluecat, we can make 5,000 to 6,000 sheets of paper a day,” she says. But this number is a trifle compared to the lakhs of sheets manufactured at a paper mill every day.
“Paper isn’t a big deal,” says Kavya, “It is use and throw. You don’t even think you are wasting paper because it is cheap… But it comes at a price for planet Earth.”
Kavya steps out of her cabin to pluck a raw passion fruit. “A tree needs to grow at least 20 years before it can be cut for paper. But by this time, it has its own little ecosystem.But one fine day, you come and cut 50,000 trees at one go and say, ‘It is okay’… Come on, it’s ridiculous!”
(Bluecat’s products are available on bluecatpaper.com and leading e-commerce sites)
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Praveen Sudevan / September 26th, 2019
This is in response to the letter by Geologist Mrinmoy Chakraborty (SOM dated Aug.11, 2019) defending the views of the Geological Survey of India (GSI) published in SOM dated Apr.25. I write this to bring to light a few facts that go to show that Chakraborty has hastened to defend the warnings given by GSI a bit too early and to furnish some clarifications regarding the extreme events that wreaked havoc in Kodagu this August and perceptions arising out of them.
The series of landslides that devastated Kodagu in 2018 occurred mostly during the period 15th, 16th and 17th August. Some intriguing data on rainfall pertaining to this period tells the story. This data is from the rain gauge at Kudigana, a place near the border of the catchment of Harangi, which witnessed the worst kind of disasters in 2018.
Record rainfall
Till 6th August, the station had recorded about 5,500 mm of rain, and then on rainfall on the successive days read (in mm): 81, 250, 269, 90, 115, 121, 262, 295, 320, 461 (16th), 394, 197, 164, 95, the total for the fortnight amounting to 3,114 mm (Mysuru’s annual rainfall is 780 mm). Probably the 5-day extreme rainfall recorded then at Kudigana (1,686 mm) is the highest ever recorded in the rain gauging history of Kodagu (which extends for over 120 years now), the earlier highest being 1,462 mm in 1964 pertaining to the station of Bhagamandala.
On the other hand, the records at Kudigana for this year read thus: Total rainfall up to 1st August – 2,041 mm; then on – 30, 0, 16, 136, 183, 254, 312, 276, 298, 158, 90, 46, 35, 100 (15th), during the next 14 days – this is the period when the floods ravaged the district. The extremes here are just about 75% of last year’s and the total for season up to 20th Aug. is not even half of last year’s (nearly 4,090 and 8,614 mm respectively).
Once in 10-12 years
The highest one-day rainfall recorded this year has been reported from Bhagamandala, places around which contribute to flow in Cauvery and stands at 400 mm. The seven-day extreme for this year here has been 1,142 mm. Strangely, these values have return periods of 12 years and 10 years respectively.
This means, the type of flood-causing rain that fell this year occurs, according to data available, nearly once in 10-12 years. Even the flood magnitudes in the four rivers of the basin that were reported this year have return periods of 15 – 20 years.
On the other hand, the rainfall of 2018 that caused havoc in areas around Madikeri and in the catchment of Harangi shows a return period of over 50 years! This is the reason why even though Kodagu experienced severe floods this August, only just a couple of incidents of severe landslides have occurred.
Technical data
Very often, blockage of roads due to mud falls from tall and nearly vertical cuttings (Plate 1), many times triggered by uprooting of trees and washing away of the valley side road formations, are also termed as landslides, while the landslides of 2018 were removal of unimaginably large portions of hills, mostly in the valleys.
A large number of the over 150 landslides that occurred then got initiated far away from the highways and inhabitations (Plate 2), in total contrast to the common belief that tampering with nature and cutting land indiscreetly is the root-cause of landslides.
Many of these slides carried tens of thousands of cubic meters (like 200 m x 100 m x 2 m) of earth submerging hundreds of hectares of land downstream in mud (Plate 3 and 4). However, even earth falls of volume of a few hundred cubic meters (20 m x 10 m x 2 m) block roads and cause damage to houses — only one landslide of the former nature has been reported this year. It is not strange that extremes not quantified by measurements are blown out of proportion, painted colourfully and projected as catastrophes in this era of rampant use of mass and social media.
Predictions fail
Dr. H.S.M. Prakash, Director General of GSI, is reported to have explained (SOM, 25th April) thus: “There are indications of excessive downpour happening in five phases just like last year …”; “likewise, three to four more similar downpours are likely to be experienced… The rainfall in August is likely to result in floods”. Yes, one spell of rainfall has resulted in floods. But what about the rest? It is a common experience that any astrologer, once approached, would point out a number of cases in which his predictions have gone perfectly right, hiding others! The fact is that rainfall in Kodagu this year has been very poor except for that one spell — even after that week of deluge, the total seasonal rainfall for the year remains 25-40% lower than the normal (except in small pockets of Virajpet), while the last year it was about 25-50% higher than the normal.
Strong low pressure
It is claimed by Chakraborty (SOM, 11th Aug.) that the predictions for this year have been those based on “evidences”. Dr. Prakash had explained: “There is a possibility of heavy rain being caused due to volcanic eruptions in Hawaii and Mauritius. And, as if an indication, it has already started raining in Kodagu (in April)”.
It is utterly sad that an agency with a legacy of 200 years has fished out evidences for the floods in August, in the excessive rainfall of April! It is well established that the pre-monsoon rains of April and May are a phenomenon occurring due to local convections, while the monsoon rains in Kodagu are due to the global circulation, aided by strong low pressures in North/ Central India and the local orography (high rising mountains) of the Sahyadris.
It is now popularly known that the excessive rainfall of the ten days of August this year has been due to a strong low pressure that developed in the Odisha coast, and experts from GSI claim it to be due to excessive heat of magma in Mauritius!!
Better to err on safer side
Being half correct about events not known of is one hundred perfect in Statistics — probably the messengers, the people at the helm of affairs, believe that it is better to err on the safer side than on the other. Sweeping and arbitrary long-range predictions are not only unwarranted, but are also dangerous.
Rather, there shall be healthy introspection and debate on why even extreme events of smaller magnitude have been resulting in excessive damages in recent days. Further, very little of the Hydrology of this region has been understood, much remains to be done. It is hoped that the agencies concerned take a more pragmatic and purposeful look at the recent events and use them to learn about the region.
– Yadupathi Putty, Mysuru, 3.9.2019
You can also mail us your views, opinions, and stories to voice@starofmysore.com
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Voice of the Reader / September 16th, 2019
India’s first environment school — World Environment School — is all set to be opened in Coorg, Karnataka. It will also be the first school in entire South Asia to take a leading role in promoting and delivering environmental education with sustainability at its core. Spread over a hundred acres across the beautiful hills of Coorg, the school’s focus will be to build strong environmental and moral values among its students.
Mobius Foundation, a non-profit organization working towards environmental sustainability, in partnership with the UK-based Whitgift School announced the launch of this initiative at International Conference on Sustainable Education.
“WESc will be operational from 2021 for Grade 6 to 12 students from India and around the world. The school will cater to the parents who want the next generation to be actively involved in the protection and sustainability of the environment apart from a world-class education,” said Pradip Burman, Chairman, Mobius Foundation.
WESc will offer an international curriculum with affiliation from Cambridge Assessments and International Baccalaureate.
“The need for environmental education is growing rapidly as the degradation of the environment is taking place at a fast pace and we have taken a lead role in this direction by launching India’s first environment school,” said Chris Ramsay, Head Master, Whitgift.
source: http://www.dailypioneer.com / The Pioneer / Home> India / by PNS, New Delhi / September 12th, 2019
Isha Foundation Chief Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev at the launch of ‘Cauvery Calling’ campaign, at Talacauvery in Kodagu, on Tuesday. Actors Rakshith Shetty and Diganth took part in the rally.
Cauvery Calling, a campaign conceptualised by Isha Foundation was launched in Talacauvery, the birthplace of River Cauvery, on Tuesday.
Isha Foundation Chief Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev rode a motorbike himself to arrive in Madikeri on Sunday. Film actors Rakshith Shetty, Diganth and Shashi followed him.
A puja was offered at the ‘Theerthakundike’ in Talacauvery, earlier to the launch event.
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev said that through the campaign, there is an aim to plant 242 crore saplings on the banks of River Cauvery.
Trees help to increase the capacity of soil to retain water. Isha Foundation will work towards getting the necessary assistance from the government, he said.
He pointed out that the River Cauvery has become thinner by 39% in the last 70 years.
“The groundwater level in the river catchment area has been depleting drastically. Due to excessive deforestation in the catchment areas of the river, water is not flowing further and the river is getting dry even before reaching the sea. As a result, a drought-like situation has been arising during the months of April-May itself. This has created repercussions in terms of droughts in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Around 47,000 farmers living on the banks of River Cauvery have ended their lives in the last 10 years. It is noteworthy that the places of massive landslides have been due to excessive human interference. It is the need of the hour to wake up to the warning sign,” said Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev.
Udupi-Chikmagalur MP Shobha Karandlaje said that the Central and the state governments will support the ‘Cauvery Calling’ campaign.
This month, the state government will sign a memorandum of understanding with Isha Foundation in this regard, she said.
MLA K G Bopaiah strongly felt the need to conduct a scientific study so as to know the reason behind massive landslides in Kodagu. He also demanded action against those who have encroached the government lands.
Air Marshal (retd) K C Nanda Cariappa and sportsperson Ashwini Nachappa were present during the programme held at Crystal Hall in Madikeri.
PM tweets
Replying to a tweet by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted at 4.13 pm on Tuesday, conveying his wishes to ‘Cauvery Calling’ campaign.
“Happy to know about your effort. It will surely add to the endeavour of harnessing Jal Shakti and preventing unnecessary wastage of water,” said the prime minister.
He also wished Sadhguru on his birthday saying, “Also wishing you a Happy Birthday! Praying for your long life and best health!”
15-day bike rally
The motorbike rally organised as a part of ‘Cauvery Calling’ campaign will pass through Hunsur, Mysuru, Mandya and Bengaluru. Public functions will be held in these places. The rally will reach Bengaluru on September 8.
The bike rally will traverse a distance of 1,500-km in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and will culminate in Chennai on September 17.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> State> Mangaluru / by DH News Service, Madikeri / September 03rd, 2019
Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa releases the handbill on ‘Cauvery Koogu’ campaign.
Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had a discussion with Isha Foundation’s Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev on ‘Cauvery Calling’ campaign which will commence on September 3 from Talacauvery in Kodagu district.
The latter met the chief minister in Bengaluru on Thursday, in connection with the campaign, and sought coordination from the state government.
Responding positively to the request made by Sadhguru, the chief minister said that the state government will extend necessary cooperation.
Speaking on the occasion, Udupi-Chikmagalur M P Shobha Karandlaje lauded the ‘Cauvery Calling’ campaign led by Isha Foundation under the guidance of Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev and called upon the people to join hands with the movement for a better tomorrow.
The ‘Cauvery Calling’ drive will be flagged off from Talacauvery, the birthplace of River Cauvery, on September 3, proceed through Thiruvaroor and will culminate in Chennai.
‘Cauvery Calling’ is a part of ‘Rally for Rivers’ campaign conceptualised and implemented by Isha Foundation.
The journey covers a distance of 1,500 km. Public awareness programmes will be held along the course of the campaign, stressing on the need to undertake steps to conserve River Cauvery.
Many celebrities, sportspersons, political figures and entrepreneurs have already associated themselves with the campaign, which has gathered an immense response from the general public, especially from the farmers.
The drive also focuses on planting saplings along river banks and improving the economy of farmers. ‘Cauvery Calling’ campaign will support farmers to plant 242 crore trees to rejuvenate River Cauvery.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> State> Mangaluru / by Adithya K A / DH News Service, Madikeri / August 29th, 2019
Unexpected wonders abound when immersed in the Coorg culture of southern India.
A thunderclap heralds the first, early rains of the monsoon season minutes after my arrival in the misty highlands of Coorg in southern India. From the deck of the Taj Madikeri Resort and Spa, cantilevered over a seemingly infinite valley, I have a dress-circle view of the approaching stormfront and rolling peaks silhouetted to the horizon. Swallows pirouette as front office manager Anant Marwah describes the coming wet season, when clouds billow into the open foyer and pass through the body like shivers. “You should see the monsoon — it’s amazing,” he says. “Mother Nature does most of the work here.”
Despite its name the resort is not, in fact, in Madikeri, the hill-station capital of Coorg district in Karnataka state. This is frustrating because I’d hoped to be staying in the heart of the land eulogised by Irish writer Dervla Murphy for its sacred forests and coffee-scented hills. But my disappointment is short-lived. The property, 1200m above sea level and 9km from Madikeri down a broken road flanked by rice paddies and the odd azure kingfisher, turns out to be a microcosm of Coorg culture.
A guestroom at the Taj Madikeri
Its 63 cottages and villas, carefully built over seven years to minimise disruption to the landscape, sit cloistered in 12ha of rainforest and coffee plantations. Constructed from recycled timbers and bricks made on-site from marsh soils (the quarry is now a pretty lake between the herb garden and main pool), the cottages’ external walls are coated in natural mud paint so as not to disturb wildlife. Pitched-roof interiors feature vast, screened windows over the semi-wilderness, fireplace snugs and fish-trap decorations woven by local tribal people. Barking deer stalk the grounds at night.
But it is the indigenous Kodava staff who give the hotel its strongest character and meaning. Colonel Pattamada Muthana, retired, commutes daily from Madikeri to the hotel’s onsite “conservatory”, a compact museum where he shares his people’s story with guests. Displays depict Coorgi dress, marriage rituals, faith and other traditions.
Dressed in camel corduroys, braces and impeccably polished boots, his kind face framed by specs and a faintly regimental moustache, Colonel Muthana explains how the Kodava view themselves as a distinct tribe, despite not being recognised as such by the Indian government.
“For some reason we were not scheduled, maybe because nobody knows our origin,” he suggests. But many Kodava suspect their ancestors were followers of Alexander the Great, who fled here after the Macedonian king’s failed bid to conquer India.
Guide Amaanda Pradhan Poovanna, known as Pradhan, picks up the Kodava creation story during a dawn hike to the top of Nishani Peak.
“It’s still believed we don’t belong to India, that we are descendants of Persians,” he explains as we pass by tiger pug marks, perhaps a week old, on the track.
The Kodava language, a hybrid of southern tongues and about 200 Persian words, and their distinctive features set them apart from other Indian peoples. “The ladies are fairer and they have blue eyes. The men have broader noses and curly hair, and most of them are from the warrior race.”
Coconut refreshment station at the end of a nature walk.
Kodava men often seek army careers. “If there are two sons, one will definitely be in the army,” Pradhan explains. “The other will be in sports. I am the only son, so my parents didn’t let me join the army. But I play hockey, for 15 years now.”
The cries of jungle fowl and yellow-throated bulbuls greet us as we emerge from a shola grove on to a grassy summit with a mesmerising sweep of highland scenery.
“What you are breathing is the purest oxygen, totally unpolluted,” he grins. I learn so much from Pradhan about life in Coorg (also known as Kodagu in post-colonial India), from the timing of the harvest calendar — cardamom in October, arabica coffee berries and rice in November-December, robusta berries in January, pepper in March — to the local diet of smoked boar meat and booze.
The Kodava are keen and resourceful drinkers, making wine out of everything from coffee to bird’s-eye chillies. “Without liquor and meat nothing happens in Coorg,” Pradhan assures me.
Privileged access and insights into local traditions are hallmarks of my 10-day, tailor-made swing through South India with Adventure World Travel. Even if I had been staying in the heart of Madikeri, I can’t imagine understanding the region as well as I do within the confines of the Taj resort.
Every aspect of the hotel is steeped in Coorgi culture, from ritual gudda baths of wood-heated local water rich in minerals and fragrant with lime leaves, to the seasonal and regional menus of executive chef Jose Thachil. Hel hails from neighbouring Kerala so is well versed in South India’s spice bounty of pepper, cloves, cardamom and kokum that has lured Roman, Greek and Arab traders to the Malabar Coast since ancient times. He prepares fish steamed in cardamom leaves and pork slow-braised in a cocktail of spices and laced with syrupy black kokum vinegar, a staple Kodava condiment so tart it makes the cheeks flinch.
On a nature walk through some of the resort’s 70ha green belt, Pradhan shares his ancestral knowledge of forest medicines.
Wild tobacco is used on the skin as a leech repellent during the monsoon. Peppercorns and basil are blended into a paste to “keep the throat clear”; Brahmi leaves are considered very good for children’s hair and memory. “If you eat one Brahmi leaf, one basil leaf and one neem leaf every morning, you will stay away from all the diseases,” he says.
There are thousands of wild elephants in these hills, though we see none. Leopards also prowl the highlands, and king cobras, the world’s largest venomous snake, come in XL sizes here. The biggest one discovered to date was 8m long.
A Malabar flying frog. Picture: Alamy
Above us, flying lizards, frogs and squirrels have adapted to life in the treetops. Frogs thrive in the annual six-month monsoon, from May to October. The Malabar gliding frog is just one of more than 40 species, which include dancing frogs and purple frogs. Mushrooms are abundant too, including a fluorescent green fungus that switches on and off like a light. Only four of the 400 types are edible and Kodava children are taught to tell them apart from an early age.
We trace the boundary of a sacred grove where a temple dedicated to the fearsome Kali, goddess of destruction, protects the wilderness from trespassers.
These devara kadu, or “forests of the gods”, were once common across India but succumbed gradually to agriculture and development. They persist in the south, particularly in Kerala and Coorg, where, says Pradhan, “we value the importance of the wildlife and forests because they give us food, oxygen and rainfall”. He opens my eyes to Coorg’s charmed surroundings. After dinners I sit outside my jungle house in the blackness as fireflies blink brightly all around me.
Insect orchestras with frog percussion sections serenade me to sleep each night. The sweet song of the Nilgiri coucal and the dirge of the tone-deaf Malabar whistling thrush wake me at sunrise.
On the last morning, bags packed and waiting for a jeep to collect me, I’m taking one last, deep draught of my surroundings when something crashes into the tangle of branches outside my windows. I step closer to see what it is and stand eye-to-eye with a Malabar pied hornbill. It looks as shocked as I do to find itself so close to such an exotic creature, and stays frozen in a bid to blend into its surroundings. This is not easy when you are a large black bird with an enormous yellow bill and casque, so we just stand there, staring at each other, in a fitting farewell to an adventure defined by unexpected wonders.
Kendall Hill was a guest of Adventure World Travel and Taj Madikeri Resort & Spa.
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Madikeri Hitharakshana Vedike members with Bag Palace owner E J Peter (third from right).
A trader in Madikeri has handed over more than 350 valuable bags to rain-affected people.
His act comes close on the heels of a Kerala merchant donating dress materials to the flood victims.
The humble act by E J Peter of Bag Palace on College Road in Madikeri is well-appreciated by many.
Madikeri Hitharakshana Vedike members had posted on collecting relief materials on Facebook and WhatsApp. More than 20 members of the Vedike had been visiting shops and business establishments. They have been collecting essential commodities like clothes, umbrella, rain coat and medicines and supplying it to the relief centres.
Responding it, Peter handed over all the bags in his shop. “It has given me the satisfaction of helping those in distress. The financially well-off should support the education of children who are in distress,” said Peter.
“When we visited Peter’s shop, he lauded our efforts and handed over school bags and hand bags,” said Vedike member Acchandira Pavan Pemmaiah.
Vedike president Ravi Gowda said, “Many have come forward to help those who are in distress. Many are unaware of how to reach materials to the relief centres. The Vedike is bridging the gap and is helping reach relief materials to the needy at the relief camps.”
Shop-keepers have helped by donating textbooks, notebooks, pens, bed, clothes, vessels, rice, jaggery, sarees, sweater, oil and other essential commodities, he said.
Pavan Pemmaiah said, “The collected commodities have been distributed among rain victims at Nelyahudikeri, Valnooru, Tyagathooru, Moornadu, Dubare, Theppadakandi, Balamuri, Siddapura, Kattimadu and other areas.”
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> State> Mangaluru / by DH News Service, Madikeri / August 19th, 2019
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