Sahyadrica

Yeoor Hills, a trail on 17th July 2009 Yeoor is my backyard, where instead of discarding old goods I go to find some new goods. The goods include everything good, the Nature's work of art. Yeoor has taught me a lot of things - and butterflies were a beginning - back in 2006, with Krushnemegh Kunte's Butterflies of Indian Peninsula in one hand, I remember cautiously approaching butterflies to identify them. Yeoor has been and still is a better place. Whether budding naturalists or experts, everyone visits here and there is always a surprise waiting. For those who litter that place, and many other places, you are doomed. And for those of us who go to just enjoy the air, so are we. So to change that, let’s make an effort. That effort is to carry with you an ultralight-weight “garbage” bag - and pick the plastic that you see littering the forest floor. Be it a Paan Masala cache or a bisleri bottle. It’s worth the effort to bend down, as you just might to click a photograph. Hone...

Yeoor Hills needs no introduction now. It is a Butterfly Haven, a Paradise. But that’s not it. It is a Haven for all that is beautiful (Read Previous Reports on Yeoor Hills). I went Yeoor again, and came back with sightings all together different! Every new day brings out the life in it. We were there for not more than two hours, but that was sufficient for what was captured through the lens. Keeping it short, the sightings had been fairly constant with a few additions of a Tortoise Beetle (Hispinae), a Jewel Bug (Scutellegeridae), Preying Mantis (Mantodea) and a Granite Ghost (Anisoptera). The flowers were in full bloom, and butterflies, bees and flies visited them often. With nectar loving on the flowers, there were others of a notorious kind in search of us. The blood suckers. There were Horse Flies all around us. They are about the size of a Honey Bee, with a long sword-like proboscis – that’s the deadliest weapon – about twice their body length which is used to puncture the...