Visit to Aagumbe Rainforest Research Station ~ December 2009

On arriving at Aagumbe I saw a Cherapunji Hotel at the bus stop and was reminded of having arrived at the wettest place in Western Ghats. The bus that got us from Bangalore extended its hospitality by 2 hours and a little more but the setting of the campus, room in particular and the wonderful breakfast made up for it. I missed meeting the team that was there for the radio telemetry project and had left a little earlier during the day. As I sat down in the room after breakfast I recalled having read Janaki’s email, of a few years ago, on the email based group regarding the research station, my discussion with Arpan over it, a chance meeting with Rom at Mumbai with Pankaj and of course the recent interactions with Gerry. I was to be here for 3 days in the pleasant Indian December.

I went for a long walk with an uncle accompanying as local trekker-guide. He showed a couple of plants, narrated their use and then cut a creeper. Pressing it he drew water and drank it; I too tasted the sweet water. This he said was put to use in the forest when water was out of reach. As we walked we heard wood peckers, squirrels and primates but could not see any of them distinctly. I took out the field-guide and we had a brief chat over the species. Forest department, I assumed, had marked trees with their names; being Latin I could not be-friend them and wondered how many did! The crux however, for me, lay in walking in silence wondering on how all this worked; collaboration with local trekkers, arranging visits and more. Memories of my earlier walk in Saiha floated across till the sight of stairs surprised me. They led to the culmination point of the hike. This point was a rock embraced by a small pool that allowed water to descend with a fall from a height.

I also visited the sunset point. It is pretty popular as apparent from the large number of people we came across including few of them selling variety of eatables. Besides the town of Udipi that is visible below, the view on clear days stretches right up to the sea. On this visit I came across a building that stood on pillars of no small visual appeal and prompted me to take a walk in the town. Besides the house that also appeared to have a beautiful and hidden centre-courtyard I came across a temple and school that shared a common field. Also standing near-by was a lonely looking structure in ruins. I found it interesting and walked inside to find children enjoy a session of carrom in the winter sun! Taking care not to disturb them I walked on. Aagumbe, at least in parts, seems to have stopped in time and beautifully so. Small wonder then that the classic Malgudi Days was shot here.

Radio telemetry of King cobras was being undertaken at the centre, an effort unique in itself. From what little I understand 2 King cobras are currently being monitored on a regular basis, each by a team of 3 enthusiastic people. What was all the more interesting was that natural history was observed and documented. So the outcome would be much more than graphs and points on Google Map! Team recorded how the fellows under consideration climbed trees, had food, moved to a crop field, crossed a stream, time at which each action was undertaken and more. It was invigorating to see how during their discussions M2 and M4, the 2 king cobras, evolved into their extended team! I recalled the amazing literature focussing on Mizoram’s natural history I have been lucky to access and read. However, as an individual attaching premium to his privacy, I wondered the extent to which the cobras would be impacted by reason of the intrusion.

Weather too was monitored as a part of action under the climate change project. I saw equipment that measured the weather indicators temperature and rainfall amongst others at regular intervals. The information generated was stored in the very equipment till it was transferred to a computer.

While the research station was put to use for research by my hosts they also invited organizations and individuals to take up projects. This I understand would help by way of generating synergies in terms of knowledge and thought processes. This of course besides allowing ideal usage of the resource-base the research station would need to optimize efforts. I have been pinched during a couple of recent gatherings on realizing how oblivious we are to actions of those within our small community, other than by way of papers, and this, if anything, not helping conservation. This was a model that could be looked up to. Also was invigorating to see how volunteers had stayed on or returned to be a part of the permanent team as also how the research station was managed.

Environment education programme was an integral part of the efforts. Gouri Shanker stated that they were called for snake rescue and each of this opportunity was also put to use to interact with people on conservation. They organized presentations and talks for children regularly and were also invited for the purpose. Education action focussed on villages and towns in Aagumbe’s vicinity. The relevance of staying at the field-base and being thorough with the local dialect was brought forth as was the perspective of looking at rescue and research actions also as steps leading to education.

The dinner – tea talks were held in the dining area with the team. The team also had volunteers ranging from Maharashtra to Punjab. As I discussed with Sanjeev, Dhiraj and others on what led them to the research station and actions they undertook here some of their enthusiasm rubbed on to me. Energy and ownership levels of this diverse team I found fascinating. Topics of our discussions ventured from actions at the research station to the muggers occurring in the middle of Baroda in Vishwamitri river and neer-dosas that were referred to as being endemic to Western Ghats! Since some of us had academics other than in wildlife biology we talked of our interests and manner in which we sought help from those familiar with the technicalities.

Vipul then explained the actions of the research station by way of a power point presentation. He shared of how research had documented king cobras exhibiting cannibalistic behaviour and also their interactions with pit vipers, the manner in which the team took care to not cause physical harm to the snakes that they rescued, how they were now working towards undertaking research on other species too and more. The still and moving images the snakes were eye-openers! Gauri talked of the Madras Crocodile Bank where she was based at and their proposed newsletter while Prashant mentioned a bit of his work in Western Ghats from Gujarat to Kerala. Sharmila whom I had interacted towards the visit I could not interact with.

I did not work on a bird or a mammal check-list for my visit but found it interesting that the team was observing even the geckos that they came across in the areca nut plantation. And yes, I loved being woken up by a Malabar whistling thrush.

The visit tinkled the usually dormant sense of jealousy!

Thanking Aagumbe Rainforest Research Station team.