“Unseen and Unwelcome: Sand Flies Turning Spiti Evenings Sour”

These days, evenings of Spiti summer have become more irksome and not as pleasant as earlier. The whitefly, a small insect, has started entering residents’ rooms frequently during the evening. Bites on the legs, ankles and feet, arms, and neck that occur from dusk to dawn—these flying creatures are so small and silent that they are almost impossible to spot or capture.

These notorious creatures are ‘sand flies,’ usually attracted by screen lights at night and human blood. Females are bloodsuckers, attacking humans for the need of blood to produce a new generation. Both male and female though feed on green leaves-sap/fluid for nutrition. Being a carrier of vector diseases, they are dangerous when carrying diseases like sandfly fever, which causes fever, headache, itching, muscle pain, and other flu-like symptoms. 

Despite their small size (2-3 mm), sand flies pose significant public health and ecological concerns. The prominent dangerous vector is for Leishmaniasis disease, which in later stages is known as Kala-Azar- a parasitic disease caused by Leishmania parasites and transmitted by the bite of infected female sandflies. So, be careful and cautious about its presence. 

 

Captured the attacker on the slide

Sand flies are weak flyers and have short flying patterns. Under the categories of Arthropods and insects, these tiny sand flies belong to the family Psychodidae of class- Diptera of suborder Nematocera, which means having two wings prominent and the other two being small or rudimentary.

Prevention is better than treatment

Effective repellent lotions contain either dimethyl phthalate or diethyl toluamide as the active ingredient. If the problem is severe and persists for a long time, some remedies can be helpful like antihistamines (tablets/pills or in the form of lotion on the skin) to reduce bite itching/swelling/redness. The intensely afflicted areas can also be soothed by topical medications like hydrocortisone or calamine lotion, which are available at chemist shops.

Dhuni/fumes of aromatic local herbs like Burse (Artemesia spp.), Chipcha (Oxytropis spp), Shukpa (Juniperus spp.) and burnt fumes from citronella oil or herbal candles help in keeping the sandflies away. You should refrain from scratching the bites if you are bitten, as there is a greater chance of a secondary infection later when the wound is open to the environment.

This information is petite yet significant—‘General public awareness is important before it becomes endemic or becomes a regular guest of Spiti evenings.

 

Embrace the dark- འོད་སྣང་ལ་འཁྱུད་པ།

Embrace the dark

                         འོད་སྣང་ལ་འཁྱུད་པ།

The night is beautiful

Night has sparkling sky

You have seen ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ little stars

Shining like your beautiful eyes,

 

At night! Humans are less, so is noise

No one separates darkness from night

Nature’s miracles happen every night

As…  my little-one is crazy for cars

Embrace the dark with Seven-Stars,

 

Let's have a look outside the balcony

Fireflies beautifying Mango trees

Under the moon, nocturnal roam and glows

Relaxing moments after the meal with fading shadows,

 

A night duty caretaker in Lychee orchard

Hungry dogs wandering below for the leftovers

A big bat ‘Manyah,’ just swiped over us right

I told you nah! 

Embrace the dark; Miracles happen every night,

 

Don't be afraid; open tiny eyes

See your mother, listen to my rhymes  

You, beautiful human, in my arms

And sticking to my left shoulder

Enjoying swinging and singing

Getting yawning while patting,

 

Surely love night for beautiful dreams

And it's a sign for deep sleep

Rhythm of the night is just the other side of light

So, my seven-month-old son

 -Embrace the dark; following twilight.

     This summer poem was composed after lori-lores singing for my son, who sensed the fear of darkness while going to sleep in my arms.

                                                                                                                   Bandana Dhiman

خوشگوار ڈینڈیلینز – خواہش یا گھاس   

Cheerful Dendelions- Wish or Weed

   While bright sun plays in the green meadows 

Dandelions dance along when fresh air flows,

Petals remain yellow radiant, resembling rays of light

When sweet, deep whispers invite

We remain hush to take a breath slight,

Flower of golden hope, opens in the morning sunshine

The laughter of naughty children fills the air with chime,

Free as air, they blow their wishes over fluffy hairs

Wind that carries flying seeds far away as smooth layer,

Each new dandelions bloom as a season treasure

Praying for early first blooms, hopping good crop and season

As new dandelions bloom, good enough for lucky reason,

Plebians each wish disappears

farmers worship each bloom in silence

While children's wishes come true in valence.  

                                                                                    بندنا دھیمان

   

‘The first identification by my son’

With every successive day, month and passing season, my little one is growing and turned toddler to running little human. Every time on my brief vacation from Spiti, we visited to and from my spouse's university to my home parent and in-laws. We usually travel in our mutually favoured Altroz (extended family member) and enjoy the trip as a foursome together. 

 My spouse is constantly driving, while Drishy and I sit on the other front side of the Altroz. I stopped driving after my son was born, or perhaps I have lost my driving curiosity and prefer to sit in other front-side while observing the little activities of my little one.

 In the last month of the festive season of the year, Drishy turned two. Compared to his first birthday event, this one was compact, but still, we celebrated with plantation activities. As transplanted last year, a one-year neem sapling turned ‘two’ the same as him. Drishy assisted us this time with digging, planting, and watering the new plant together. – here we are trying to cultivate the sense and emotions with nature in little one. 

                                                     Activities on Second Birthday

 Coming from a Forestry background, I've always wanted my child to learn about nature. I tried first that he should identify different nature creatures. However, because this world is full of manmade artifacts, his first learning is the identification of vehicles. These moving objects tempt him and he falls for their dummy toys. Moreover, their precise visualization in Car videos, especially on YouTube. And now he recognizes the red icon on the phone very well.

 He kept a close eye on the moving vehicles he saw during the traveling. Watching the large bus, truck, tractor, and another ascending vehicle with excavators which he had seen in videos made him very cheerful. If he notices his familiar object moving quickly on the highway, he shouts and stands up. Though I adore his innate yelling and cute expressions. 

 During the journey, once I lowered my head down to create a parallel view perspective with Drishy so I could see what he sees when he is sitting on my lap. At that parallel view, roads were not visible. But all I could see were fast-moving vehicles without actual visualization of rotating tyres. Here I was curious to know what a small human mind could be thinking about moving vehicle. 

He broadens his focused eyes when a vehicle crosses slowly by our Altroz.

 It was a realized moment when he stood up on my lap and thrilled especially in the traffic. There he could see the entire vehicle stuck in rows. He yelled "car," "gaddi" and made engine sounds with his cute facial expressions. Another if he sees something moving in the sky, he shouts "Eli-eli elicoptor," 

Maybe for him, every moving object above the ground is a helicopter. Once he pointed out wind wane's revolving wings and referred to it as an "Eli-eli elicoptor". 

 This is his first identification, no animal, no birds, no plant differences. 

 Is technology overlapping nature? The new generation is getting interested in what they perceive more from their surroundings.

Conserve Biodiversity –We must be the part of Solution

If we expand the word “Biodiversity” it acknowledges as ‘Biological Variety’ on Earth, where ‘Biological Variety’ means each life on Earth including flora, fauna, and microorganism. All have the right to live on Earth. Nature has made a balance between every life to live sustainably. Among all living creatures, the human being has evolved with a sharp mind which can think beyond the Earth planet. So we can imagine the thinking limit of human who is solely responsible for creating a disturbance in nature’s balance and led to make biodiversity hotspot all over the globe with their disastrous activities. 

                                 

This is one destructive side of the human mind. If we see another facet of the human mind, it has a tremendous capacity to make whole world diversity stable with ecofriendly deeds. So let’s live on earth mutually with this noble attitude to sustain biodiversity and make ourselves proud by being a ‘Part of Solution for Nature’. From there we could start our journey for the conservation of Biodiversity. And it is never too late to start it from now. 

We should follow  some eco-friendly routines individually and collectively to create a visible and viable impact.

Like

ü  Stop cutting trees. Everyone is aware of its consequences; still, we are in futuristic dreams of the fake reality of development. So let’s change our mind setup with planting trees at every celebration or festival.

ü  Be Human always. Don’t become a nature destructor or shift to a poacher for greed.

ü  Loss in species that are habitable for humans will cause a threat to human life in form of food security and disease spreading. And we have already faced the repercussion of the Corona Virus.

ü  Stop overutilization of natural resources. As they are free (Plants, Water, Land, Clean air, etc). Don’t think they have your own possession. A human can never create them, only nature can. So respect nature.

ü  Whatever and wherever possible, avoid or reduce the use of chemicals like fertilizer for agro-ecosystem; for cosmetics; medicines etc, use the herbal remedial measures as much as possible.

ü  Commit yourself to protect and serve Mother Nature leaving all trivial religious conflict behind it.

ü  Condemn any wrong activities affecting biodiversity, anywhere if it is in your family, village, society, friend group/colleague whoever is not aware of it. Tell them the importance as much as you can describe honestly about biodiversity and nature. This is especially for the students of Forestry background. Be an influencer for Planet Earth. 

These are some points that came into my mind. I am sure you have the same to express. Express your thoughts or traditional solutions in the below comment box and show concern about biodiversity conservation.

                                                                                               Regards,

                                                                                              LoveNatureExploreNature

 

 

 

 

 

Himachali Kumahroos

     During Monsoon, red-brown worms with numerous tiny legs are common in soil. I remember, they were frequent in groups outside the kaccha houses (Mud houses). Now, these gangs are rare and hard to find after concrete development. Another reason could be soil pollution by the accumulation of agrochemicals. But still, we can meet them in the loose moist soil of crop fields or organic gardens. These creatures live in shallow soil and moist places specifically. They cannot survive in humid-less habitats. In the Pahari dialect, we used to call them ‘Kumahroos’. The reason could be anything but if I recall stories of my predecessors, they mentioned that these worms have intensive habitat in the areas where villagers working with clay soil and make earthen pots.

Village community whose profession is pottery, working with clay is ‘Kumar community’. These are hard-working people have a direct connection with soil which is their soul of living. In Sanskrit ‘Kumhar’ is Kumbhakar which mean earthen pots maker. Pottery is a unique creation and potters believed themselves as children of Lord Brahma. Creator of the Universe blessed them with the oldest human art i.e.,-pottery - to create something from the soil.

In surroundings of their houses and in their workplaces, these monsoon worms are found commonly. This is according to Pahari folktale which explains the way Kumahroos got their name. But no any scientific connection with the name genesis. So that’s how folks generate the local name which becomes famous and accepted by next-generation until they get facts.

Millipedes

Alright! I can tell the universal recognition of this creature. These innocent worms belong to phylum ‘Arthropoda’ having class ‘Diplopoda’– who have two pairs of legs on each fused-segments of the body. Well! They are called Millipedes (Milli-Millions, Pedes-Legs). Country people also called them ‘thousand-leggers’. Here its name is associated with myth as none of the millipedes have been explored with 1000 legs so far. Millipedes have numbers of species approximately 80000 and some of them are unidentified. Here I am talking about garden millipedes. They are not insects, so never relate them as ‘Kidda-makoda. That’s what we call an insect in Pahari.

    These tiny harmless worms are very timid and hide themselves forming circular-ring of their body against any external stimulus or danger. They do some Kind of coiling like mosquito coil where they hide their head at its centre. They seldom attack or respond in danger. Moreover, they are beneficial to garden soil by feeding on dead decayed plant matter and in return provide nutrients to the soil. Milli-compost is in vogue for gardeners practicing organic farming.

So don’t try to kill or drove them if they are engaged in digging garden soil. As they live in moist-damp soil where dead matters present, therefore least attack on garden vegetable or crop. They love to hog dead leaves of decayed litter. But if garden moisture dries with no dead material at all, only then they could approach your crop for their survival. If their count is more and you are noticing crop losses. Then this non-insect pest has to be removed with some control measures. Some of the physical control measures we can use to stop this creature to become horrid-pest. Foremost is to avoid their entry in the garden by removing moist debris and seal the crevices or more open cracks on the land surface. Maintain the well-drainage system in the field. For chemical control, spray can be done and found to be beneficial when millipedes are in groups (Use chemicals only when situation is out of control).

    Study of Millipedes along with Centipedes is known as Myriapodology (Myriapods: Sub-phylum for both). Centipedes are different as bit-bigger and longer than millipedes, belong to class Chilopoda. They are also elongated, can coil, but have one pair of legs in each segment which counts 100 legs. I hope you have seen both of them during the rainy season.

I don’t know the other local name of millipedes in other parts of the country. Share the name in the comment box, if you are familiar with this amazing worm. 

Fruit Bat - Keystone flying creature

We wait eagerly for the evening when scorching summer is at its peak. Clear nights with cool breeze just after the sun drops beyond the horizon tempt us to roam outside, more preferably on the terrace. Reminiscing the older days, when I have lived with my folks (family and neighbors), who prefer to sleep outside under the twinkling sky when rooms were humid. All we know at that time there was no sign of air conditioners only fans were well known, and condition worse if light gone during the night. So sleeping outside was a paradise state. The precedent reason is more related to health. My father advised that sleep under the sky with a natural breeze is utterly healthy. And yes that’s true! Childhood sleep was really good.

Indian Flying Fox - Pteropus giganteus (Source -google) 

By that time, we siblings used to count moving satellites and shooting stars. Universe chapter was one of my favorite chapters from Physics. When 90’s students were learning Universe, I am sure we all had the same dream like ‘Kalpana Chawla. Oh! what innocent fantasies we had, when we were connected with nature. Those were really great and fairy-tale dreams.

Another thing that captured my eyes was a medium-sized creature with large wings, flying just above the height of tree crown. When I asked my grandma about this, she said we call it ‘Mann’ehh’ (the unexplored folk name for fruit-bat). She explained about these night birds who return back to camp during dusk after collecting food or completing their daily duty. I believed, so name ‘Mann’ehh’ got fixed into my head with its appearance.

Evening Flight of Pteropus giganteus (Source -google) 

 Most of them were seeing as moving predominantly in one direction. Under moon-night, they looked like unique birds and little scary with grey color. That time I have never seen them flying in daylight, only regular birds. So I thought they left their colony in search of food toward the east before I woke up. Or maybe in the morning, I was not as focused as the night on the sky or busy getting ready for my school.

These are some of the memories we are leaving behind with unauthentic identification.

But later I got to know about this flying creature and surprised me as it is no more a ‘bird’ but a unique flying mammal having no tail at its posterior. It is ‘big bat’ or Indian fruit bat or Pteropus giganteus or P. medius of order Chiroptera. It also got its unique name as ‘flying fox’ after resembling its face shape as foxy. Cladistically, bats share most of the unique features like mammals having a somewhere common ancestor in deep past. They have forelimbs like us which have well-adapted wings. They are warm-blooded animals, who can regulate their body temperature. They give birth to a young one and later feed, nurse their young one like mammals.

Please don’t believe in the myth that bats are responsible for COVID-19

During the early stages of corona outbreak fruit bats were targeted with hate comments like as disease vector of Covid-19, even by various specialists without taking the research first. Just on the basis of historical events of the spread of the virus of corona family by bats. Rumors were spreading explosively when myths were added to un-reviewed facts. That is even worse.

Yes, it is true that coronavirus and bats are evolving together since a million years ago. But we need to be authentic for specific sources of viruses of the same family. A research was conducted by the French Research Institute where they decipher the genetic material sequence of existing viruses in bat. It was found to be a different virus (SARS and SARS-Cov-2) of the corona family irrespective of the current COVID virus.

We should accept the scientific facts and ignore the myth which already created hate toward bats which are incredible pollinator and insect pest eater. They are commendable in keeping the balance in nature. They help in seed dispersal and the natural regeneration of number of tropical trees. That’s why; they are referred to as ‘Keystone species’ for the Indian Ecosystem. These flying creatures prefer to roost gregariously on large trees. They live in a colony called a camp with different member capacity or colony size can go up to 1000 population. These frugivorous mammals select the fruit-bearing trees having grooves; strong lateral branches like trees belong to the Ficus family, Mangifera indica (Mango), Madhuca indica (Mahua), Eugenia jambolana (Jamun), Musa spp. (Banana), Dalbergia sissoo (Tali), Terminalia arjuna (Arjun), Eucalyptus spp. (Safeda), and also roost in busy Bamboos.

Moreover if we talk about zoonotic disease, these animals and birds are not responsible for spreading infection but we human are interfering in their wild domain, exploiting nature and natural balance.