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.

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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.

 

'Flame of the Forest'

 'Flame of the Forest'

It was all a long time about 9-10 years ago; I packed my bag to return to University after spending vacations at home. With the new sun rising at the crack of dawn, I was traveling in HP govt. Bus. To be precise, the bus was crossing the protected area of Pong Bird sanctuary near the Talwara Dam, the border area between Punjab and Himachal.

Sunlight was slowly changing its tinge from reddish to bright yellow. That miraculous phenomenon made surrounding vegetation striking green even more; fresh and rejuvenating new leaf buds were arranging their pattern for opening. That day was one of the last weeks of the March month with welcoming spring. My eyesight shifted to a far-standing medium-sized tree on a hillock. I couldn’t stick my vision over it as the bus was at the full pace without considering traffic in the early morning. Again, I saw the same plant species. This time, on another side of the previous one. After a bus turn, I missed that again. With the next turn, I notice there were a number of trees of the same species standing randomly and looked unique among all. These leafless trees were looking like having sharp orange ribbons tied and appeared as festoon overhead.

These trees were ‘Flame of the Forest’ aka Butea monosperma (Lam.) Taub (F- Leguminosae).  I saw that tree the first time but recognized it with its sole flower dominance in that stand. Moreover, the silvicultural description of this tree was there in my mind. Especially, it is a light demander tree of Dry Deciduous Forest, which emerges as fire over crown when spring shifted toward summers. Hence, named ‘Flame of the forest’. Its flower color is dedicated to ‘shade of love’, which symbolizes beautiful springs' arrival.

Butea monosperma
Flowering time - Jan to April
PC - Rohit Kumar (Forestry Scholar)

While all the deciduous trees were emerging with green leaf buds. Here, Butea monosperma stand bestowed the site with splendid orange-red ‘color of love, to welcome all new leaves of surrounding tree communities.

Terribly, this tree is also named as ‘bastard teak’. Whereas, in Hindi, commonly acknowledged as ‘Palash’ or ‘Dhak’. There is a proverb named ‘Dhak ke teen pat’ which describes the effortless work which remains the same with no result as trifoliate leaves of the tree remain same throughout the season before shedding. And very few people knew about the origin of its Hindi name ‘Palash’. It is linked with the battlefield Plassey, where Britishers decisively won the battle over the Bengal Nawab of that time. That area ‘Palashi’ was believed to be covered with Dhak forest, somewhere near the Hoogli River (WB). This tree is very closely linked to history with respect to its importance, uses, and with its attractive flowers. 

Earlier its dried flower powder was used as Holi colors. People used to pluck flowers and soaked them in the water bucket overnight to get colored water (yellow-orange color) to play Holi the next day. Nowadays, these colors are being sold with exorbitant price in the name of ‘Organic Holi Colors’ as skin-friendly. We are forgetting our Indigenous knowledge and companies in the name of trendy innovations taking the patents and foremost profits from natural resources without benefit-sharing to traditional users. Moreover, they are creating the world of bio-piracy by holding authority over natural resources.

Every part of ‘Palash’ is bound to offer different kinds of uses. Like tree pollard well and act as good fodder source for livestock. Leaves are used for making dona ‘Biodegradable serving plates/cups’ and bidi wrappers where forest dwellers generate their nominal income from it. The tree also acts as a generous host for many avian spp. for shelter and insects/bees for pollination. It is also recommended for culturing Lac insect commercially. Palash is a good coppicer; its wood is recommended for pulping and so far. Other NTFPs like gum (Bengal Kino), fibers for making strong cordages, and medicines from the bark can be extracted from it. Not only bark, other parts of trees have important medicinal values as well. All aspect like medicinal values, uses; Phytochemical constituent; Pharmacological activities can get from the given link https://www.ukessays.com/essays/biology/literature-review-butea-monosperma.

                   

                     Seed/Pod time - March onwards to May (After Leaf and Flower shedding)

                                                                                    PC - Rakesh and Vaibhav Malviya (Forestry Scholars)

If we talk about the varietal wealth of Palash, we will regret our livings with development. Same genera with different varieties (with different colored flowers) were known to exist abundantly earlier on the Indian subcontinent. Like Butea monosperma var. alba (White Palash) has white-colored flowers; another variety has yellow-colored flowers, are now limited and restricted to some parts of central India only. It is hard to find these varieties in the ‘Era of Concrete’ development where we had lost most of the rare indigenous tree varieties and still losing. To cease this upcoming threat, we need to use our potential in the cause of conservation of natural resources.

Winters and Makki di Roti

Lately, in my 30s, I delved into a hobby and found that there is a cook inside me. After my marriage, I started working in the kitchen as was fascinated by Laboratory. I embraced spices-ingredients as Lab-chemicals. Each and every cooking was like my experiment going on with waiting for a perfect result. There was certainly variation in the taste if the quantity of spices bit changed for the same cooking. Not only kitchen chemicals are so-called ‘factors’ responsible for changing the taste of the specific cuisine.

   

    But others like time of cooking, temperature level, water content, and of course your patient-level could affect the taste. All together add up taste to cooking. I observe if I am making any dish with a happy mood or listening to song, it certainly results in a perfect dish. Irrespective of with off-mood or in hurry, which could absolutely disturb the rhythm of cooking itself and resultant product will be less moderate. Hence, so obvious to say that cooking from the heart is tastiest of all. Or we can judge the mood of a person by just tasting the food.

    Every cuisine has a specific cooking protocol for a specific taste. I got to know that different pulses require different times to cook, depending on the hardness of their seed coat or permeability for water. For a long time, I stymied myself from the cooking of thinking me a bad cook. However, with regular cooking, I felt like I can cook anything by watching the youtube-cooking tutorials. I too start hounding for new cuisine on YouTube like others. It pleased me when my family starts appreciating my progress in kitchen work. And I literally addicted to my new hobby. Yehhhhhh….!!! 

     Fortunately, I have gone with full exposure to explore my cooking during lockdown 2020. Throughout the year, I cooked, baked, and learned with subsequent seasons by experiments with seasonal vegetables. Moreover, my chapatis start getting in shape, becoming angle-less and less oval. I felt I am at my advanced level of cooking. 

     But here winter comes with Kharif season crops. And during winter, we have another source of carbohydrate i.e., Maize or Makki (Zea mays)in our north Indian region. We consume it as corn-bhutta, pop-corn, and makki ki roti along with Sarson ka saag (cooked Mustard-leaves) or with Karru (spicy fried curd) with the regional recipe. There is a folk rhyme… 

 Makki di Roti… Sarounada Saag…

 Mirch Marodi… Aya swaad… 

                    ... which means here is a symbiotic taste combination of saag along with Makki ki roti only. And if we add chilli (hot-pepper) in saag, the taste will enhance after expanding of taste buds. 

    With this folklore related to cuisine-combinations, we are still connected to our ancestors.

    

 I could not understand the logic behind the binding properties of maize flour. So, I searched about it on youtube. After a glance, it looks easy enough to make dough and roti without using chakla-belana (Traditional rolling pin and base). Though, I had seen my mother making makki ki roti on traditional mud-chulha. But nowadays we are prosperous with fumeless cooking appliances - LPG. It is actually easier to adjust fire temperature with knobs on the gas-stove. Traditionally, on mud-chulha, this part was done by shifting burning billets with bare hands. 

    Anyhow, I took a handful of maize flour for practice. But I couldn’t perform in the right way in my first attempt. It was sticking more on hands and lots of check-cracks over it while trying to make it round. It would be a great struggle if you are naive. So, I decided myself take the second attempt where I took guidance from one of my senior colleagues. She guided me with an easy trick. I am here sharing this culinary trick with those who are still wondering about it.

 For this, we need a clean plastic sheet. Spread that sheet on a plain surface or on circular-chakla. Place the small rounded peda (dough-ball) on the sheet and press it with your palm and try to beat softly so that peda (ball) moves in rotation without breaking edges. With each rotation and beat-pressure, it will start to spread and become round. There you will get round roti with an accurate thickness. Then flip that round flattened roti on the palm from the sheet as you’ll see roti will neither stick-on the plastic sheet nor on the hands. Then place it on a hot pan slowly. Don’t just throw it on the pan otherwise it will create cavities between the pan and roti. And roast it slowly with medium flame as a regular procedure.

     This was my first experience with Makki di roti and succeeded in 4th attempt.

     What’s your experience?

      Looking forward to your comments.

 

Tree Canopy

Everyone knows about Tree-benefits from its different parts. Lets us talk about upper branchy part of tree. Technically it is termed as ‘Crown’ as it is top part of plant. Clubbed tree-crowns form a cumulative canopy which enhances its benefits. Different characteristics of crown like shape, size, color, density are species-specific and have direct benefits as well as indirect benefits not only for humans but also for animals, birds, insects, etc for both food and habitation/nesting.

        Canopy-print on land-surface convey information about forest cover or forest area, recorded by FSI after every two years. The tree canopy has health benefits as it obstructs direct sunlight or reduces the insolation of IR and UV radiations which has damaging effects on human skin. You will notice little run-off or erosion of top-sheet soil in the areas having abundant tree canopies. Another, important benefit of tree canopy in violent-windy plain areas is to divert the wind direction & lower down the wind strength. So we can say, canopies act as green windbreaker as well.

Trees with heavy dense canopy preferably planted for shade purpose. Among them, I could recall is Pongamia pinnata (an evergreen dark heavily foliage tree), locally called Sukh-chain (Peace & Felicity). I realized the significance of its common name and function during one of my forestry practicals when I got under its canopy on a scorching sunny day. There I felt shade effect which was tremendously different and relaxing.

Pongamia pinnata

People who have grown shade trees around their house have experienced less Air Conditioner (AC) expenses, which is obvious. How economically beneficial tree canopy is?; can be understood by seeing vendors and sellers; they usually sit and fix their stalls under the tree-shade in urban streets. These canopies act as business exchange sites. Vendors expand their business with the expansion of the crown/canopy. In the urban concrete areas, if luckily any cluster of tree canopy got to establish, the area will have different pleasant micro-climate. There will be clean air; biodiversity and filtered noise from highways. People also used to grow heavy crown trees for dual purposes, especially for fruit and shade. Overfilled crown with vibrant flowers chases everyone’s heart with its beauty. For example, Blue and Red flowers of Gulmohar trees planted at walkways unfurl their aesthetic beauty.

Talking about habitation, shade tree used by birds for roosting. They acquire permanent house over it. Reminiscing my childhood (about 15 years ago), there was a big Simbal tree (Bombax ceiba) the far side of my home where the vulture committee used to interact there every evening after a hunt or feed on the barren landfill with carcasses remnant. Committee sat together on big Simbal branches after every thanksgiving dinner. That tree was big enough to provide space for a dozen vultures. The remaining friends lived on the big tree near that barren area. At dusk grunt screams of giant Gyps scared me. But with time those scavengers start disappearing because that tree got cut by the field owner. That was a single big tree on that farm boundary. From that time, I never saw a single vulture in my village. Maybe, they had been rehabilitated for a new home.

Later, there was news about declining vultures due to biomagnifications of NSAID diclofenac-[https://frontline.thehindu.com/environment/conservation/researchers-find-that-vultures-in-india-are-still-in-danger-from-the-nsaid-diclofenac/article33280321.ece] and for this reason, India banned the veterinary use of this drug in 2006. Another frequent usage of agrochemicals in low fertile agro-ecosystem is a probable reason for decreasing the biodiversity in form of evolving new diseases or epidemics [http://www.fnbnews.com/Top-News/health-hazards-in-the-wake-of-a-mysterious-disease-in-eluru-andhra-pradesh-61841]

Another important reason is a subsequent scarcity of tree canopy due to deforestation which we ignore unknowingly. Canopy serves as habitat not only to our indigenous avian species but our migratory guests also feel tree canopies as home and comfortable there.

  Recent Scenario...

         When I got married and came to Nagrota, I visited the most awaited site - Pong Lake (Bird-Sanctuary). It is a Ramser wetland famous breeding site declared under the Ramser convention for migratory birds in the year 2002. I noticed their regular flight towards the lake every morning (twilight) and back flight (in groups) at dusk in the opposite direction of the lake. I asked about this to my husband, why don’t guest birds just live near the lake? They cross the Nagrota area twice a day and move toward the hilly site.

            Being brought up and more familiar to this area, he explained gently, ‘they went back to have rest on tree canopies at night. Those hilly areas with tree canopies; away from human habitation; provide them shelter against predators as well as protection against natural ecological factors’.

But unfortunately, this Wetland site is cordon-off temporally as we heard the news of the spread of Avian-flu H5N1 (caused by Influenza Virus with high mortality rate). At the end of the last year 2020, infected migratory birds reached the breeding sites all over the Indian sub-continent. And they have shown symptoms and signs, just in the consecutive month of New Year, 2021. 

Check this video for detail -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPiqja323Tw

This is really sad for our biodiversity, as another virus outbreak amidst ongoing Corona Epidemic.

            I remember, last week of December 2020; when I was in my home town Nagrota for three days. I heard the gushing voice of birds, at every three midnights. It was really unusual to me as I didn’t notice this voice last year winter. I discussed with my partner in the morning that it was like bar-headed geese fighting each other at the Pong site.

            I didn’t realize or see this bird flu is coming or already with the incubation period. We came back to our work-place in Punjab; then heard the news of Pong Lake along with news of bird-flu around the other states (India) and countries. We felt sad. And I am sure that pain wrecking sound was bird’s suffering (breath-shortness), they were somewhere near the lake during those nights and fighting with pain and aches. I guess they literally didn’t have strength in their wings to return to their home canopy.

Number of birds died and we ‘Humans’ are responsible for their fate directly or indirectly.

Pong Lake Kangra (H.P.)