A Trip to Arki - crossing Chhoti Vilayat

(Part-1)

In the year 2016, amidst of August month, I was busy arranging my solo trip to the Arki area for wood sample collection. I assembled research gadgets so-called instruments like moisture meter, GPS, measuring tape, wood borer, chisel, hammer, etc from my concerned academic department. I also got an official node in the form of paper. That paper authorized me that I can extract wood samples from the standing live tree for research purpose. It was necessary because I was going to deal with the ‘Toon’ tree (Toona ciliata). “Toon is one of the valuable and good quality timbers, highly used in lower areas of Himachal. This Red Cedar tree of Mahogany family has been ingrained with strong heart-wood; it attracts woodworkers for its use”. As in Himachal, ‘Green felling ban’ was known to impose during 1996. Strictly, no disturbance to live tree for vulturous developmental activity was announced by the state government. This step was pivotal to Himachal Pradesh for forest sustainability. But this year 2019, in February, this law has been reconditioned by allowing green felling in some particular areas and on some particular species. Check here;https://indianexpress.com/article/india/supreme-court-green-felling-himachal-green-cover-5074665/

Nevertheless, I was on a research expedition. And moreover, to avoid objection regarding the collection, I’d to keep official paper (Certificate) with me. This proved that live sample collection is definitely for research purpose and extraction procedure will not interfere with tree life; or no any kind of harm to Toon.

After preparing all certificates, I entered HOD’s office for signature as consent. There was a group of four Ph.D. scholars sitting around the Head Sir’s table and were discussing a medicinal plant, named ‘Chanchla’. Among them, one was our Wood-Chemistry teacher. They were busy in discussing that Chanchla plant. I just heard that it is a medicinal plant and have no more details further. I really don’t know why biotechnology students were curious about this plant.

                       (If anybody knows about this plant, Please explore details in the comment section)

After completing all formalities, I ran from Forestry-college building toward the hostel. Tour journey was on my mind because it was going to be a solo tour. So I was planning it accordingly as the sequence was in my mind, but it did not go the way I was thinking. So, I called my junior and set the plans on the phone. My one research site coincides where she lived. And fortunately, she was at her place. 

Next morning, along with my instrumental bag, I was waiting for the bus at ‘Kranti chowk’ – it is a famous bus stop of Nauni Campus with a standing statue of Dr. Yashwant Singh Parmar (First CM of HP) in a circular raised grassy podium. A Nauni campus bus came for solan with Sirmauri nati (Folk song) was on in high volume. The driver turned the bus with the rhythm of Nati and the conductor was whistling backside to align the bus with the road. I am sure that whistling was unnecessary in malodorous folk song.

The bus stopped for 10 minutes in front of NCC ground. Passengers boarded the bus, mostly were students and bus moved toward Solan. Finally, I reached the Solan bus stand. Solan is famous for mushroom, hence it is called - Mushroom City of India. It is also known as the Hub of education in Himachal, because students from different districts, states, countries came here for higher study. The city Solan lies between Chandigarh and Shimla. It is like the twin sister of Queen Hill ‘Shimla’ which is about 46 km south of it.

I came out of the bus for a search of Arki-bus. I asked a private bus conductor, who was busy in counting money with a whistle in his mouth. He replied in his local tone that “Hanji, Bus to janni yai, per jayegi ‘Chhoti Vilayat’ tak, usi raste se” (‘yes, this bus is going to that side with the same route, but up to Chhoti Vilayat’ only)…                 He didn’t say Kunihar.

I asked, ‘Kunihar Bus-stand?’ He replied with a suspicious look- Haanji, Nam ni lena bus.

He added to attract passenger (me), ‘There is no direct bus for Arki right now. Take this bus quickly; either you have to wait for 45 minutes’.

I listened to him quietly, sat near the window seat. It was 9 AM and my tummy was famishing hard, as I couldn’t get breakfast in the hostel.

I looked around and bought some butter cookies to sleep my hungry tummy.  After 20 min bus driver got on the bus and start worshiping the goddess photo-frames hanged left of bus steering. As he started the bus, it vibrates with a regular frequency. I lost my activeness as my hunger calmed down and then I snoozed with my bag in arms.

After 2 hours, the bus reached Kunihar, I was very curious about this place as I heard a lot about this place. ‘Kunihar is anonymously known as Chhoti Vilayat. The reason may be it was looked like a foreign land with aesthetic attention during the old time. There is a story with a myth regarding the name of Kunihar. This place is also known as 'Bukha Maulakh' (the place of hunger people). Where local people say that if anybody calls its name in the morning he/she will stay hungry and thirsty whole day’…… Ridiculous! (My expression)

I had called this place ‘Kunihar’ name in the morning to break this myth. That’s why; I decided that I will buy some eatable things in Kunihar bus stand. As it was a myth to me, so I made my mind up to disgrace the old proverb. But truly speaking, I could not get there to eat.    

And that ridiculous expression laughed at me.                                           (To be continued……)

There may be various interesting stories about, why the place name should not be called in the morning?

 Let me know in the comment box…

Reflection of Heaven- ‘Habban’

         In the Forestry stream, none of any our educational trip has given the chance of boredom. For forestry batch-2012, forest visits were always being the exciting jaunt. It was one of the shiny mornings; we were on an educational trip to reserve forest of Sirmour area (H.P district) during the last semester of graduation. We were in the yellow college bus where students were singing and enjoying together. Two forestry professors were escorted for us to ensure that the trip should be in an academic manner. Also, they have the charge of our safety as we were 43 in the class. So they have to be alert during the journey. Our accompanied professors were sitting just behind the driver seat. Also, the bus driver was very professional and enjoying his driving with listening students singing Pahari Nati (Local dance song of Himachalis) in the behind seats.

         There, my focus shifted toward the striking beauty of the forest. It was pleasing my eyes, as shiny green trees were making me breathe more. I observed my mind was relaxing up and getting free from all constraints. On both sides of the road, the site was occupied by reserved superior Deodar (Cedrus deodara) trees; Deodar is a large evergreen coniferous tree and also known as Himalayan Cedar. It is the state tree of Dev Bhoomi Himachal Pradesh and considered to have a connection with the divine. It also believes that Deodar was the favorite site for Himalayan sages during ancient time.

That Deodar stand was looking likes ‘heaven’ with extreme clean visibility. It was refreshing clean air with an amalgamation of divine aroma. Denizens of this area usually say ‘it has the reflection of heaven every morning and evening. That’s why this area got its name as ‘Habban’.

Nurpur Forestry girls with Forest Staff and UHF Professors

           Yes we were there, at Habban Forest division of Nahan Circle (H.P.) There, we reach a Forest division office. We were instructed for corralling in a conference room by two forest guards, as we were scheduled for meeting with Amer Singh. With some forest officers, our professors were discussing the purpose of the visit and were probably busy planning the next schedule of the journey. Before their arrival, we were served with a soft drink and some local cookies. Our class was full of notorious students and was hogging cookies one by one. With this refractory behavior, we were not in the discipline. Some were roaming outside; others were exploring the adjacent rooms and peeping on hanging pictures of great politicians. And remaining were sitting tired straggly on the chair after bus travel. I was silent and slammed on observing them with thinking, how curious our class is?

         After a bit time waiting, two Forest-guards stood near the door and make a sign to keep silent. They were probably noticing student’s activities and asked us to bridge the gulf by sitting on chair sequentially.

         At the same moment, Amer Singh stepped inside the conference room with our professors behind him. Both guards welcomed them and helped for their sittings. He wished all students in strict alert voice and welcomed us. He was tall fit middle-aged officer with dark mustaches. Actually, he was one of the senior Range Forest Officer (RFO or RO) of that division and going to lead the class on behalf of DFO. Our professors sat just beside him with the confident smile. However, Amer Singh was scanning students to and fro like a pendulum. After eye contacts with every student, he started speaking. He surprised us with a great speech and we felt proud of being forestry students. First, he described the working of his division and how they are helping in preserving the concerned Forests. Then he started sharing his life journey from the very start where he selected as Forest officer. He told us so many tales regarding wildlife adventure and about the beauty of the forest.

Forestry Batch-2012:- Notorious Class with Dr. Bhupender Dutt 

         With the constant speaking, his roar voice turned slowly into humble. We were hearing him curiously without any movement. It turned out that he has devoted half of his life with serving forest and he is happy with his duty.

         Then he said in a low voice that I am taking care of these forest trees with my team. This beautiful land ‘Habban’ has a good seed stand of deodar. Our ‘Himalayan Deodar’ belongs to family Pinaceae known as ‘Tree of God’. Every third year is a good seed year in case of Deodar. He also aware us about its indicator plant species which are Indigofera and Desmodium spp (Both belong to Fabaceae Family). Indicator Species are those species (plant/animal) which tells the presence of other species and their habitat.

                            

              He added that Deodar tree is monoecious in nature where male-female cones grow on the same tree but they appear on a different branch. The male cones come first in the month of June and they wait for female cones, which comes later in August. He surprised us saying that male cone (Catkins) always set on lower branches. While the tree gives an honor position to female cones as they grow at the top. Yes, you see, nature also supports feminism and respect them. He said in a humorous way with nodding toward girl students. We also replied with nodding toward him.

He said today we will visit two sites viz., Site 1-RF 16 which is known as Dalamun dev ki kalar which has an area of about 27 hectares. And the next site 2-RF 17 named as ‘Dalamun’ only with an area of 27.05 hectares.

        The visit was too informative and pleasurable with pleasant weather. We learned a lot and observed practically there. Our forests are incredible, so to avoid the illicit felling, encroachment, illegal transportation, wildlife killing, and medicinal plants smuggling, there have Forest police stations (Van Thana) been set up. Here is FOR (Forest Offense Report) irrespective of general FIR. The investigation acts run as a team by RO, DFO and other officers. Penalty for illegal cutting of tree varies with species on the basis of their volume, sale tax, transportation, etc. Civil police also help to Van Thana. If the quantity of seized timber is huge, it has to given to sale depot and to holding corporations. If the captured quantity is less, the sale is done by DFO through a process of simple auction. A daily activity file is filled by Munshi of Van thana. 

         We saw jail (prison) of Van thana, which was an old empty unfurnished room with a solid lock on rusted iron rods. I have never seen a prison before. I really felt crazy on watching this in reality with no prisoner inside.
    A voice from inside came and laughed at me saying, 'Why are you so happy on this?, it's not a Real Jail'.

I silently smiled and replied to myself.

                      
                   Whatever, Jail to jail he…… as crime is crime……. !!!

Exploring Unknown Nature of Nature

After having hostel supper, I was in my room with my laptop, searching old files and folders, and deleting the one no longer in use. Rihana’s song 'What's my name' was playing and I was trying to imitate her voice, my fingers were busy in deleting useless files. One of my hostel mates knocked at my door and said, “Tomorrow, we are going on a trek to Karol Tibba, {Solan (H.P.)}. Do you want to join us?”  I muted my song and replied, “Trekking? Yes, but early morning!” She assured me that there will no need to worry, as the arrangements had been already done by my classmate and she left.

 I am very passionate about nature and so could not say ‘No’ to this opportunity. This was the first time that I was going to trek with strangers, although some of them were familiar faces that I had seen in UHF campus (Nauni). I trusted her and so I agreed to her invitation. At midnight, I packed my bag and went to sleep thinking about which dress to choose for the next day adventure. I decided and set up my mind to wake early so that I should not be late.

Every morning of Nauni valley is very refreshing and invigorating and affirms my faith for precious life and beautiful nature. I am a student of Nauni University very close to nature, love to see vibrant phenomena of nature every day and night. I find myself very lucky to be born in the lap of Himalayas and fortunate to be studying forestry subject. I usually keep peeping outside my window to get an eyeful panoramic beauty of nature, it gives me the strength to start my work. 

Sunset in UHF Nauni

                 Today I have to trek Karol Tibba of Solan, famous as Pandava gufa. Six of us started our journey around 7 A.M. after buying fruits and vegetables for cooking lunch at the top. It took more than 2 hours to reach the Pandava gufa. It was an amazing underground, moist dark cave with lots of bats inside. Their screeching and moist slippery rocks of the cave gave us thrills. I was trying to make my way in the dark and absorbing the incredible feel of that moment. Sound of water drops from the crevasse of the rock, the noise of bats, all seemed different and made me pause to think about nature’s creation. We were beneath the surface, so came out after fifteen minutes after watching narrow tunnel inside the gufa. (Local people believe that Pandavas from Mahabharata lived in this long tunnel of about 28 Kms and its end lies in Pinjore, Haryana). Above this gufa was a temple adjoining to a small wooden house. I guess there was no other house nearby, as we tracked the remaining journey through a dense forest. We found an old lady outside the house with two dogs, which looked very healthy and active. We visited the temple and after that sat near the house to interact with the lady as we were very curious to know how she lived amidst the dense forest. She told that her spouse went down every day for work and returned back in the evening. We lived happily together with two dogs. Many a time, during the night, we sensed the presence of leopard but have not been attacked so far. From so many years we didn’t get any harm, so it’s like nature’s harmony and we love this place. She added further that during the day time, many visitors and trekkers come to like you, so I passed my day time interacting with them.

We thanked that lady and took her to leave. On returning from the gufa, we collected dry fuel woods and shrubs for fire. We found plain grassland where we decided to cook lunch. That view was heaven, we were surrounded by clouds, and the floated wind was playing with our hair, the sun seemed to move so fast behind the clouds that we could observe its movement with naked eyes. We cooked our lunch which included rice and paneer sabji, behind the shrubby ridge as the wind blew aggressively. Finally, we had our delicious lunch, interacted with one another and started becoming friends. We enjoyed with group singing, photo session and laughing together. We were at an altitude of about 2000 mts and felt cold at midday, covered neck with a muffler. The above blue sky was covered with patches of the clouds and a circular ring was moving from east to west, the adjacent green mountains were covered by Deodar and Pines forests. Farsight visibility was low, as floating clouds spread whiteness. While descending, we came across a herd of cows and goats on that grassland with shepherds. I collected various unknown Himalayan plant shrubs for identification during my return journey, because that’s what foresters do during any visit.

"Cooking is like unifier and Food is symbolic of love"

Next morning I went to my Forest Products Lab, with a sequence of work plans in my head. On the stair near the Lab, I met with Dharmu uncle who is a renowned taxonomist of our department and a commendable plant identifier. I showed all the collected samples to him for identification. I was really impressed when uncle mentioned the genus (Initial word for any scientific name) of all plants specimen which I had collected from Karol Tibba. He commanded me to come to his office for clear identification. Uncle opened an old yellow-paged book with lots of plants detail with identification key in it. He observed the leaves shape, veins, color, flowers so curiously and identified species (next word to genus for any scientific name) by using that book and gave me one by one with mentioning their names; “This is Indigofera pulchella, another Jasminum humile, then Cotoneaster microphyllus and so on…… all were new to me, so I wrote the plants’ name at the upper right edge of the paper and folded them between the sheet with regular intervals in a rough notebook. Some of the live samples that I could not collect, so I showed their images to uncle from my phone. Uncle tried to identify them and said in low voice, “Whenever you need to identify the plant, try to bring live samples with its flower. Do you want to see real samples and learn how to do identification in the field in real sense?  “Yes I do, let’s go ‘I shouted in excitement.

Uncle and I went to the medicinal field near the university cafeteria, where I noticed a Kapoor tree standing at the entrance. There was a small wooden shed where field lady staff was busy in crushing some plant seeds. I finally entered the field of medicinal plants; most of the plants were in the blooming stage. Uncle pointing toward a flower, he asked me to bring it to him. I identified it as a Hibiscus flower with purple color and gave it to uncle.

What is its family? How did you identify? He asked.

I said, ‘I remembered’.

‘Ohoooo rata hi lagana, inn professaro ne baccho ka beda gark kiya he’. He shouted furiously.

I said, ‘then how?’ reciprocating his tone. He handed over that flower to me for description.

See the flower carefully, observe what you see and tell me, he said politely.

I grew numb at his reaction and didn’t know what to say. I was thinking if I know this plant from my knowledge, and identify it to tell people that ‘this is Hibiscus’. Then what’s wrong in it. I thought so hard on this and could not think of other criteria for identification.

Uncle said, “Don’t cram image of the plant and never fill your head with color and shape only, this plant belongs to Malvaceae family because its flower has fused male and female part. Remember always”. He showed me fused characteristics of three different flowers of the same family and request to observe under the microscope for enlarge view.

He showed me another plant and asked again to identify it; I said Lily as its image was in my mind. He said, ‘Yes good, how?’

I was speechless again and tried to speak in a low voice, “Six Petals and white flower”

Then uncle clarified that Lily family has different colored flowers also with different shape, even Asparagus belongs to Liliaceae family. You can identify it with 6 Petals and 6 anthers.

I was shocked to learn that the green shrubby Asparagus belongs to Liliaceae family.

                  “Amazing nature” I sighed with thinking and noted down all information on my notebook.

All this identification aroused my curiosity further and I asked uncle to tell me more. Uncle replied, “Enough for today, search more about them from your Google Baba but confirm from books also. Library has very old and good books on Himalayan Plants with key identification. Visit there and spend time with them. You can also ask me any time within one week as after that I am going to retire from the University”.

“Where do you go after that? (Looking at uncle’s phone, which was not as smart as the uncle was in his subject). Can I contact you through whatsup or facebook?” I asked.

He said, “Lots of job offers are coming, but I want to gulp rest for a while from work, so not thinking about joining any place shortly. But I will come to the Department when in need. During this conversation, his phone rang and he remarked humorously, “See how busy I am!” And I laughed vigorously at it.

I thanked him and came back to the hostel for lunch. On my way back I thought of making my own herbarium by collecting Himalayan shrubs and grasses and compiling them together. After lunch, I went inside my room and placed all plant samples between newspapers for drying and kept them under the mattress to make them ready for the herbarium.

From there I start making my Herbarium and still working on it.

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After a year:-   Pending work…………. Procrastination, Why this is so???

                                                                                             Answer Please…