Sahyadrica

There is more to life than just yourself, your own family, or your own kind – Lawrence Anthony My date with monsoon was as unexpected as the date of its arrival. I think, if it were not for our reliance on monsoon, it shouldn’t be predicted at all. So this year I stayed away from the news flashing its arrival, although I sneaked some information from discussions with, literally, everyone I met. And just as unpredicted was the place where we’d meet – on a Friday evening on the way home from work. If anyone saw me smiling they had no idea if it was for the last day of the week, or for getting my shoes wet in the first monsoon showers of the year. After all the days spent waiting desperately for the rains to arrive, the monsoon sure does surprise everyone with its pre-monsoonal heavy downpour. People forget the scorching heat of the summer, and get a new reason to complain about wet clothes and muddy roads. Although greeting monsoon in the city was unexpectedly pleasant for me, I wo...

When the clouds do not hinter the sun from baking the ground all day, it is said that the monsoon is set to leave. On one such day, we went to explore a nearby Protected Area, the Tungareshwar Wildlife Sanctuary. I had not visited this place in three years, and I was waiting in anticipation for the time to come, which did come on the last weekend of the monsoon season of 2011.  Tungareshwar Wildlife Sanctuary Tungareshwar is a sanctuary that I’ve talked about in brief in my very first post, and also as the very last escape for many animals in Revisiting Nagla Block , that mainly focused on Nagla Block being a corridor joining Sanjay Gandhi National Park with Tungareshwar Wildlife Sanctuary. And if SGNP is the lung of Mumbai, Nagla Block is the heart, and TWS is the last leg – one that does not lead any further, except into villages and vast fields of rice and other crops. The north of TWS is devoid of any forestlands for miles save for small pockets, until we reach a few rema...

Tungareshwar Wildlife Sanctuary, 13th June 2008 Tungareshwar was declared a Wildlife Sanctuary in 2003. It is about 85 km sq of forestland. It is located on an altitude of about 2177 ft. It is well known amongsts trekkers and nature enthusiasts and must be visited in the monsoons and winters. For more information, visit here - http://www.wheremumbai.com/article_archives.aspx?id=265&catid=11 I had gone on a trail to Tungareshwar WLS when the monsoon just set it. And this is the best time when one sees swarms of butterflies mud-puddling, and a variety of other critters. This year, the rain set in quite early, and brought to life a lush green world of nature. The birding was amazing, althought I'm not an avid birder, and the bug hunting was worth it. The terrain of Tungareshwar reminds me of Himalayan foothills, with those li'l bushes and shrubs and flowers on the meadows. The landscape was full of Hill Turmeric - Cucurma pseudomonata , Edible Chlorophytum - Chlorophytum tub...