Archive for the ‘Palani Hills’ Category
Sky Islands in Mumbai
Snapshots from Mumbai, opening night on the red carpet.
In the spring of 2023, the idea of putting on an exhibition of photographs in Mumbai to promote and support the Center for Environment & Humanity at KIS was starting to gain traction. We had a collaborative model set up: the show would feature my black & white images to highlight the concept of the “Sky Islands” in the Western Ghats/Sri Lanka Biodiversity Hotspot (see previous post). The Development Office at KIS would help with marketing and promoting the show. We would use the show to raise funds for the center through the sale of the framed prints used in the gallery as well as limited editions of selected 20. We had identified the NCPA’s Piramal Gallery as an ideal location and set rough dates based on their other shows and key late-year holidays (Diwali, Christmas etc.). There is a spacious courtyard next to the gallery and we saw this as a potential location to have an evening event for alumni. There was just one slight hitch: the Piramal has a respected name, but it is slightly off the beaten gallery track, and we would need a way to pull in the audience. Without something to wow them our hopes of attracting a crowd were slim.
Make it Original, Make it Matter and Add a Little Masala
We had several key supporters in Bombay’s art circuit who were advising the team that what we needed was a dash of Bollywood glamor and glitz. Even with a fresh portfolio of work and a novel theme in the Sky Islands, they were not overly optimistic that we could catch the public’s imagination. Mumbaikars are busy people with lots to do and there are dozens of art openings and shows every night in this megacity. We needed a minor miracle to achieve lift-off. At that stage, we had no idea how a group of us- me from distant Colombo and the KIS team from a sleepy south Indian station- could cook up a celebrity event in India’s bustling financial capital.
Serendipity played an important role. It has been some time since the school did an outreach program in Mumbai and Kalyani Gandhi, Director of Development, saw the Sky Islands exhibition as a way to build bridges with the parent and alumni network in the city. She planned a gathering at the Willingdon Club in September to get a sense of the possibilities of supporting the CEH through a show of exhibition prints. The initial trial batch of prints that Chemould had framed were on display to give viewers a sense of what we wanted to do with the Sky Islands exhibition. Corey Stixrud (Head of School), Manjusha Ninan (alumni coordinator) and Kalyani shared the Sky Islands exhibition idea with about 40 individuals from different generations who had gathered to hear about their alma mater. Like members of the Kodai clan in other locations, the Mumbai alumni are enthusiastic about their Kodai heritage and friends. KIS alumni have had varied experiences in Kodai: some loved the boarding school experience, some found life’s purpose in their experiences, many never fit back into the places they came from. A few still bear emotional scars of experiences but there is genuine love for their time and friendships. By the end of the presentation, the audience was electrified and the Sky Islands theme had struck a chord with alums who could help us achieve lift-off.
Sky Islands preparations in October. Kalyani Gandhi and Stéphanie Cauvet from the KIS Marketing and Development offices are assisting with key logistical, design and marketing aspects of the show. We spent time in March and October lining things up, meeting key people and shuttling around the city. An initial batch of prints was done at Print Animation in Colombo. Ajeet Jha of Idea Creative (upper left) then produced most of the fine art exhibition prints that were exhibited. Both printers have been superb in helping to produce state-of-the-art pieces for the show. Bittu Sahgal (pictured with his wife Madhu, here) helped to garner publicity and support in conservation circles.
Pre-Exhibition Preparations
October was a hectic time as we went into overdrive in multiple locations. I used OSC’s mid-term break to work with Stephanie and Kalyani in Mumbai laying the groundwork for the show. Logistically it was easier to print the portfolio in Mumbai rather than Colombo. My key friend and support Banoo Batliboi and her photographer friend Rafeeq Ellias recommended Ajeet Jha, the printer at Idea Creative Solutions in Prabhadevi. He operates out of a rather compact space but produces world-class fine art exhibition prints. During my visit to Mumbai, Ajeet completed printing the portfolio such that we had 35 signed exhibition prints to give to Chemould before I left. We had a busy social schedule and met alumni and parents who were providing background support. Rustom & Tushna Kapadia (parents to Jehan), Bianca Nagpal (KIS ‘87) and Avantika Akerkar (KIS ‘83) were key Kodai contacts.
Trying to get a grip on the art scene in Mumbai over dinner with Bianca & Ashley Nagpal. Kalyani, her mother Kalpana, sister Kanchan and Stéphanie are also in the photo with Ian.
Keeping the focus of the Sky Islands exhibition on conservation themes was vitally important to me. Landscape photographs often conjure up dreamy ideas of natural beauty without meaning. In the exhibition I wanted to illustrate the landscape of the upper Western Ghats but within the context of an effort to promote understanding and conservation. Themes of land cover change, biodiversity threats, climate change and human impact in the Sky Islands landscapes were important themes in my design. We got in touch with Bittu Sahgal and the Sanctuary Nature Foundation team early in the year. They were already getting ready to publish my piece on restoration/rewilding in Sri Lanka and they offered full support of our enterprise. Bittu and his wife Madhu took Kalyani, Stephanie and me out to dinner at the Gymkhana club in October. We were able to pin him down to be our chief guest at the exhibition inauguration.
Zayed (KIS ‘97) and Malaika (KIS ‘99) Khan were two of the attendees at the September Willingdon Club Gathering. I’m not sure what it was, but something clicked for them, and they threw their full support into making the Sky Islands exhibition a success. At the end of my October visit Kalyani, Stéphanie and I spent an evening with them hammering out the plans to make the opening night an event not to be missed. They assured us that they would invite a bunch of their friends in the film industry and would handle all of the Sky Islands publicity through Tandem Communication, a multi-talented PR agency known as one of the best in the city. That evening we met Aashish Hermanik, at Tandem, Shruti Tejwal, the celebrity photographer and a handful of key friends. Thus, with the involvement of Zayed and Malaika we were on a path to crack the celebrity angle of the evening.
In October 2023, Stéphanie, Kalyani and I met with Zayed and Malaika Khan at their home in Juhu. They had first met at KIS in the late 1990s and shared a fond relationship for the school and its mission to be the school that the world needs. Zayed and Malaika became a key force in moving the Sky Islands exhibition into high gear. Their sponsorship of the PR and efforts to invite a diverse range of movers and shakers was an important part of the success of the show.
Assembling the Dream Team
In the fourth week of November, different members of our diverse team assembled in south Mumbai to put the final touches on the Sky Islands show and prepare for opening night on Thursday, November 23rd. The KIS point team, including Kalyani, Stéphanie, and Igor, led the way and handled the delivery of frames to the gallery. Raina and I took our personal days and an unpaid absence to be in Mumbai by Wednesday morning. Other KIS members followed: Manjusha, Iti, Natasha, Rajamanikam, Sheetal, Soumithra and Rebecca. Corey and the new academic vice principal Cindy Beals conducted the closing assembly of the KIS school year and flew to Mumbai. Several KIS students and young alumni also joined the effort.
The Piramal Gallery is an often-overlooked corner of the National Centre for Perming Arts (NCPA) at Nariman Point in south Mumbai. The team worked hard to convert the gallery and adjoining garden into a world-class exhibition and thematic evening for the opening night.
Unpacking the frames and getting ready to set them up at the Piramal Gallery on November 22nd morning.
Manjusha and Sharma leveling frames on Wednesday.
Sharma leveling and making final adjustments to the frames on Wednesday evening.
Ajeet printed a series of 16 color 15”x 15” highlighting key species from the Sky Islands that I have taken over the years. Twelve of these were displayed separately from the black & white images but helped give viewers a sense of the biodiversity of the Sky Islands landscapes. I also had my map of Sentinel imagery printed in large format. It didn’t really fit into the gallery, and we placed on the porch outside.
KIS team briefing by Kalyani & Stéphanie on Thursday morning. By this stage, all the pictures were hung and labels were up.
We spent November 22nd hanging pictures and preparing the Piramal Gallery. Kalyani led the team with firmness and humor, barking orders in a mix of English, Hindi and Marathi. There was no time to go out for lunch or coffee that day. We were caffeinated with several thermoses of masala chai. A steady stream of chutney sandwiches from the NCPA canteen provided nourishment. I envisioned the display of frames in a way similar to my past exhibitions-geometric in layout, not too cramped with adequate space around each image. The NCPA’s designated gallery person, Sharma, was adept at lining them up. Iti worked with a team to design a display to provide information to visitors about the CEH. It was an important piece of the effort but at the sam,e time we didn’t want to alter the thematic black & white art exhibition experience and the CEH materials were kept on the porch of the Piramal. Rajamanikam and Iti planned a series of student activities and workshops that would be run as part of the Sky Islands exhibition.
Stéphanie Cauvet and Kalyani Gandhi at a preliminary meeting at the NCPA in October 2023.
Kalyani never sat still for the days preceding and after the exhibition opening. She was on the phone, running around and working logistics, ensuring that all was in order. Kalyani was the key bridge to Zayed, Malaika, and Tandem. Behind the scenes, she had worked to get sponsorship from Kodai Cheese, Grover Zampa Vineyards. Kalyani had carefully organized the necessary liquor licenses. There was also food to be catered; 200-300 guests were expected and all in all it was a huge operation. At the beginning of the week, we learned that our opening night fell on a state-temperance date! That offered an unexpected challenge for Kalyani but one that she was able to overcome with characteristic thunder, persistence and ingenuity.
Stéphanie Cauvet’s role was crucial to the success of the show. She worked with NCPA and various printers to ensure that all the accompanying panels and picture labels were created and completed in time. As a designer, she worked with me to conceptualize themes and colors for all the material. She taxied back and forth to Prabhadevi to work with Ajeet on final prints. A final task was the printing and framing of 16 color 15” x15” images that I had assembled to illustrate biodiversity in Sky Islands. These were planned as a distinct display separated by the partition wall from the black & white work. Stephanie also completed the accompanying website where visitors were directed with QR codes to learn more about individual images.
Sky Islands key team members from top, clockwise: Ian outside the Piramal by freshly installed exhibition posters, Raina helping Iti Maloney (CEH Director) prepare tote bags for guests, Igor Sitar (KIS Development office) on the way to the NCPA with exhibition tote bags, Ian with Mukesh Parpiani the director of the Piramal Gallery, Kalyani Gandhi (KIS Development officer) with the journalist Dia, Manjusha Ninan (KIS ’00 and alumni coordinator), Corey Stixrud preparing thank you notes before the opening (with Igor on phone), Stéphanie Cauvet (KIS Chief Marketing Officer).(photographs by Ian Lockwood except the top one by Igor Sitar).
Red Carpet Opening Night
By Thursday, November 23rd the pictures were hung, and all the labels and boards were up. There were large panels along the pathways approaching the staircase to the Piramal. The NCPA is a busy place and we needed to funnel our guests while filtering out non-invitees on the opening night. The garden was being set up with lounge chairs, bar tables, a mini stage and a large LED screen. A red carpet was set up alongside a lengthy panel with logos from KIS, CEH and High Range Photography (we had made an effort to make it a green carpet but that detail got too complicated and so red it was). Kelly assembled the KIS team to review the order of the evening and the different roles that needed to be played. I did several interviews with media connections that had been set through Tandem and the NCPA (see links at the end of this post). Important guests were in town. Most importantly, Raina had accompanied me from Colombo. My parents, Merrick and Sara Ann Lockwood came to Mumbai from South India. Five members of my graduating class came from various corners of the globe to be at the opening. Friends like Jayashree Kumar and Rajni George and come up from Kodai. We had advised alumni to be punctual and the clock was ticking as the NCPA had rules about closing down the gallery at 10:00. Then there were the A-list guests who came in slightly later.
Dr. Rajamanikam Ramamoorthy, a key member of the Center for Environment & Humanity (CEH) team lights the diya during the inauguration early in the evening.
The skies were clear and there was a cool breeze in the air as dusk set in on Nariman Point. The garden area, lounge and stage looked gorgeous. There were flowers on the bar tables, information about how to donate to the CEH and waiters ready to serve scrumptious snacks and serve a choice of wines and cocktails. I especially appreciated the Bo tree that shaded the stage and space. Several burly security men in dark blue outfits checked out the setting and stationed themselves at strategic points. We had a welcome desk to help usher in guests. Kalyani’s mother Kalpana supported the KIS team- she knew pretty much everyone who came to the show. Kanchan (KIS ’90), Kalyani’s sister, and one of my most important friends from KIS met other alumni guests who came through. Malaika, Zayed and their boys arrived to coordinate the PR efforts. My father Merrick cut the ribbon and we lit the diya around 6:20 before the main crowds arrived. Bittu was in attendance a chief guest in one of his trademark tiger t-shirts. Corey, Rajamanikam and Cindy also helped light the diya. Our other chief guest, the actress and UN Goodwill ambassador, Dia Mirza arrived a little bit later. It was an honor to have her helping to inaugurate the show.
Zayed & Malaika Khan, with KIS principal Corey Stixrud and the author on the red carpet.
Avantika Akerkar, her mother Jinx (far left), Dia Mirza and another guest at the Sky Islands show.
The rest of the night was a bit of a whirlwind. My task was to be available to as many guests as possible and to give VIP visitors a personal explanation and walk-through. I zipped up and down between the courtyard and gallery numerous times. At 8:00 we did a presentation on the garden stage. Iti was the MC with support from Zayed as a host of the evening. A video produced by Igor about the CEH ran in the background. There were short talks from Bittu, Dia and Corey. I spoke very briefly too- I kept it short and encouraged people to attend the two planned talks in the coming days. There was a contingent of paparazzi photographers and they were busy at the red carpet as Bollywood notables entered. Up in the gallery, guests moved around looking at the photographs and meeting friends. It was a happy, slightly crowded situation with good energy. The Tandem team, led by Shruti, set up a camera to record blurbs from the key celebrity guests. A key invitee was Amruta Fadnavis, the wife of Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister, Shri Devendra Fadnavis. Some of the snippets feature in Tandem’s polished short video (see link). We had to wrap things up because of the gallery rules and guests slowly (and reluctantly) started to leave. The energy from the opening was really good and we realized that the evening had gone fabulously well despite many uncertainties. The lights were turned off and we headed out.
Amruta Fadnavis, wife of Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister, speaking with Zayed, Corey & Ian. (photograph by Igor Satar,KIS).
The KIS Class of 1988 made a good showing and having them here was a highlight of the Sky Islands evening. From left: Ajay Kirloskar, Prasad Venkatraman, Bharati Pfulg, Ian & Raina, Jay Shah and Rustom Khandalavala.
This is the opening night video put together by the talented Shurti Tejwani and the Tandem Communication team.
The Dream Team (at least most of it) at the end of the evening on the red carpet. Standing from left: Cindy, Natasha, Stéphanie, Soumi, Kalyani, Corey, Zayed, Iti, Rajamanikam. Kneeling from left: Sheetal, Ian and Manjusha.
All Too Fast
Over the following days, Raina and I spent time at the gallery and followed up with contacts that we had made. I gave an illustrated talk around themes of the Sky Islands at the Bombay Natural History Society and then in the Piramal Gallery. This allowed me to deviate from the photography and talk a little about ideas of change and how we are studying this with satellite imagery and historic maps. The show stayed open until December 3rd. Iti and Rajamanikam led a series of well-received workshops and outreaches with Mumbai schools during the week after the exhibition. Mr. Parpiani the director of the Piramal Gallery seemed very pleased and suggested that this was the gallery’s top show of 2023. It was painful leaving on the 26th and heading back to Colombo while the show was still on. The KIS team took turns staying on and greeting guests and showing them around in the following week. On December 3rd they took down the frames, delivered pictures to buyers and packed up materials to go back to Kodai. They went on a well-deserved break. I had one last big field study to organize and I was soon tromping around in Sinharaja’s saturated rainforest with Amy’s large class while ideas of Sky Islands and Mumbai’s bright lights were still swirling in my head.
Back to where it all began. Ian with friends and a Western Ghats Portrait & Panorama poster at the BNHS on November 24th before the illustrated lecture.
Special Thanks to
Raina, Amy, Anna, Lenny, Merrick & Sara Ann Lockwood
Kodaikanal International School & CEH teams
Bittu Sahgal & the Sanctuary family
Zayed & Malaika Khan
Dia Mirza
Amrita Fadnavis
Ratan & Banoo Batliboi
Aashish Hermanik & Tandem Communication
Mukesh Parpiani & the Piramal Gallery at NCPA
Ajeet Jha & Idea Creative Printers
Adil Gandhy & Chemould Frames
Anish Andheri and BNHS team
Robin Vijayan and IISER Tirupati team
Vijay Ramesh, Amrutha Rajan & Mohanraj (Historical maps classification team)
Tamil Nadu Forest Department
Kerala Forest Department (Wildlife Division)
Palani Hills Conservation Council (PHCC), High Range Wildlife Association, Nilgiri Wildlife Association
Kodai friends (Billy, Koli, Bob, Jayashree, Pippa, Rudy, Hemma, Philippe, George, Vera, Israel & others)
DRAFT I POSTSCRIPT
The Sky Islands exhibition was a great success thanks to the efforts of multiple individuals and organizations. I have made an effort to highlight and pay tribute to these people and organizations in this post but I may have left out details and individuals. Any omissions are regretted.
SELECTED MEDIA LINKS
Dixit, Amit. “Photographer Ian Lockwood | On higher ground.” India Today. 10 November 2023. Link.
K, Hrishi. This Week at the NCPA 16. Radio One International. November 2023. Youtube Link.
Lockwood, Ian. “Sky Islands: A Personal Journey Through an Endangered Indian Landscape.” Sanctuary Asia. December 2023. Web.
Louis, Maria. “ The Hill View.” Open Magazine. 25 November 2023. Web.
Sky Island Pathways
Sky Islands flier for potential sponsors. Photographs by Ian Lockwood, Design by Stephanie Cauvet and the KIS Marketing Team.
This November I will be exhibiting a body of work at the Piramal Gallery, a part of the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) in Mumbai. The show is entitled Skyislands: An Endangered South Indian Landscape and is being produced in association with the Centre for Humanity & Environment (CEH) at Kodaikanal International School (KIS). In an age of colossal human impact and accelerating climate change, the exhibition highlights the concept of the Sky Islands in southern India with an overarching message of conservation. The initiative will raise funds for the CEH to address its mission of “offering innovative experiential programs and research opportunities for students, educators, organizations and agencies that lead to practical solutions for crucial human-environment issues.”
I last exhibited my photographs in Mumbai at the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) more than two decades ago. The Western Ghats Portrait and Panorama show in 2001 highlighted the landscapes and ecology of a mountain range that was often overshadowed by its taller northern neighbors. Thematically, the collection of hand-printed black & white images emphasized the role of the Western Ghats as a treasure trove of biodiversity and a vital player in water security for peninsular India. The 40+ images were printed in my darkroom in Dhaka after a period of learning and workshops with world-class fine-art printmakers. The negatives that were the source of the material were shot on medium format film. At the time, photographic material availability limited the size that I could print (a few 15”x15” or 8”x 20”, but mostly 10”x10” prints).
Now 22 years later I have fresh work to share in Mumbai. I have visited a broader swathe of the Western Ghats, explored Sri Lanka in-depth and focused on the higher elevation Sky Islands of the ranges. In the last few years, I have collaborated on several significant studies in the Palani Hills that have investigated the biogeography and change in land cover of the Sky Island habitats in the Western Ghats (see links below). Maps and satellite imagery help us understand the patterns and relationships of the landscape and I have been developing geospatial skills to better analyze changes in land cover and vegetation in the Western Ghats/Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot. I continue to write articles and produce photo essays for Indian-based publications though most of my energy is devoted to maintaining my blogs. My last exhibition was The Hills of Murugan at Dakishna Chitra, in Chennai (2018).
The Sky Islands exhibition focuses on the unique but threatened ecosystems above 1,400 meters- the Sky Islands or Shola Sky Islands of the Western Ghats/Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot (see my December 2020 blog post for a detailed review of the Sky Island concept in the Western Ghats context). With the advent of digital photography, photographic tools have changed completely- in how images are captured, in their printing and sharing. Thus, while staying focused on documenting the Western Ghats, my workflow is completely different than back in 2001. I still have a quantity of 120 negatives exposed after the BNHS show which I have been scanning and then printing digitally. The Sky Islands show will present fine art images printed on archival Hahnemühle paper and printed at larger sizes (20”x 20” and above) to emphasize detail and give viewers a richer sense of the landscape. As is usual in my exhibitions, there will be supporting information panels of annotated maps.
The exhibition is scheduled to open up on November 23rd and will be open to the public for the next 10 days. The Piramal Gallery is well known for promoting photography as art and is one of India’s premier galleries of photographic art. The goal is to engage with the conservation community, school groups and people interested in photography as art. The KIS alumni/parent community is a special group of people that we want to reach and we are planning a special showing and talk for them on Friday, November 24th. In the coming months I will be sharing much more information and hope that you can come to see the show in person!
REFERENCES
Arsumani, M. et al. “Not seeing the grass for the trees: Timber plantations and agriculture shrink tropical montane grassland by two-thirds over four decades in the Palani Hills, a Western Ghats Sky Island. PLOS One. January 2018. Web.
Dodge, Natt. “Monument in the Mountain”. Arizona Highways. Phoenix, Arizona: Arizona Highway Department. March 1943. (Wikipedia Link)(Sky Islands Alliance link)
Lockwood, Ian. “Palani Hills Sky Islands.” Ian Lockwood Blog. December 2020.Web.
Montanari, Shaena (& Prasenjeet Yadav). “Breathtaking Sky Islands Showcase Evolution In Action.” National Geographic. 11 August 2017. Web.
Shola Sky Islands. Web.
Vijayan, Robin, Anindya Sinha and Uma Ramakrishnan. “Ancient Geographical Gaps and Paleo-Climate Shape the Phylogeography of an Endemic Bird in the Sky Islands of Southern India.” PLoS ONE. October 2010. Web.
Vijayan, Robin. “Unexplored Areas: Sky Islands.” JLR Explore. February 2018. Web.
Palani Hills Sky Island Landcover Changes at the ATBC Asia Pacific
The opening ceremony of the ATBC meeting featured several cultural shows including this impressive fire dance.
Last September Sri Lanka hosted the Association for Tropical Biology & Conservation (ATBC) Asia Pacific chapter meeting at the MAS Athena center outside of Colombo. This was an important gathering, drawing scientists, conservationists and NGOS from across the country, South Asian region and globe to review different studies and approaches. The theme was “Bridging the elements of biodiversity conservation: Save, Study, Use.”
Earlier in 2019 I had met and interacted with Nimal and Savitri Gunatilleke, the distinguished Peradeniya University professors. They have been deeply involved with forest scientific studies and restoration efforts in Sinharaja and the rest of the island. We had enjoyed several conversations about similarities and differences in the Western Ghats/Sri Lanka biodiversity Hotspot. Nimal encouraged me to submit the findings of the grasslands group published in PLOS ONE. The idea of using satellite imagery to show the drama of land cover change in the WG/SL hotspot is a powerful tool for conservationists that is only just being realized (see the May 2018 blog post for details). After consulting with Robin Vijayan, Arasu and some of the other co-authors, I submitted a proposal and was invited to share the conclusions at ATBC in a poster display.
Poster designed by the author for the ATBC conference.
I was able to get PD time away from normal teaching duties that allowed me to attend the opening and first day of ATBC events. There were some fascinating presentations and interactive workshops. Maithripala Sirisena, the president of Sri Lanka at the time (and also the minister for Environment), was the chief guest. The main thrust of his talk was the remarkable legacy that Sri Lanka’s farmers have with producing abundant food surpluses without endangering the country’s wildlife (both historically and to some extent today). The keynote talk by Sejal Worah from WWF-India on adapting to rapid change to better protect biodiversity. Madhu Verma, from the Indian Institute of Forest Management, spoke of environmental economic and how putting environmental value on ecosystem services is a key step to more effective conservation. There were a whole series of shorter talks and workshops over the next three days. I went to interesting talks by Nimal (on restoration in fern lands) and later on presentations by representatives from ATREE the French Institute of Pondicherry. I enjoyed several excellent session on Wednesday morning. Anjali Watson& Andrew Kittle’s (Wilderness & Wildlife Conservation Trust) “cat talk” about their work with leopards in the Central Highlands was a highlight.
Cover from ATBC journal and copy of page 243.
FURTHER READING & REFERENCES
Arsumani, M. et al. “Not seeing the grass for the trees: Timber plantations and agriculture shrink tropical montane grassland by two-thirds over four decades in the Palani Hills, a Western Ghats Sky Island.” PLOS One. January 2018. Web.
Association for Tropical Biodiversity & Conservation (ATBC) Asia Pacific . Proceedings Book. Web.
Land cover changes. (* posts are in chronological order)
Aerial & Terrestrial Snapshots of the Southern Western Ghats
Madurai airport publicity with classic Coaker’s Walk view (misidentified as Theni). (January 2019)
Southern India and Sri Lanka’s winter months provide unique opportunities to look deep, across ridges and forested valleys to ranges of hills that are normally obscured in clouds and haze. The retreating North East monsoon leaves the hills lush and the air washed clean just as temperatures drop to relatively low levels. People unfamiliar with the area can sometimes be surprised at the grandeur of the southern Western Ghats and neighboring Central Highlands of Sri Lanka. Viewpoints and high mountain peaks in Kodaikanal, Ooty, Nuwara Eliya and other places are the best terrestrial places to take in the landscape. Timing is everything and most of these same places mist up while dust and pollution on the plains rises up in the afternoons.
An ideal way to appreciate the mountains in this biodiversity hotspot is to fly over or alongside the mountains. My family and I had the good fortune to be on a London-Colombo flight on January 1st just after the sun had risen over the Nilgiri Hills. Our plane crossed southern India just north of Cochin (Kochi) and then traversed the Cardamom Hills giving the left side a fine view over the High Range and Palani Hills (see flight path image below). Just 24 hours later I flew on a different flight to Madurai for a short visit to Kodaikanal and the Palani Hills. The snapshots in this post were taken from the flights and this short trip. Later on the month I led students to the Central Highlands – the subject of an upcoming post. I also worked on processing several raw Sentinel data files last year of the same area (used in the Hills of Murugan exhibition). The common denominator of these experiences was the crisp clear air and unique opportunities to appreciate and document sublime landscape.
Aerial shot looking east through a not-so-clean window to the Malabar Coast and Nilgiri Hills. The Camel’s Hump mountains are in the far left. The Bangitappal ridge and other points in Mukurthi National Park were distantly visible on this clear morning ! (1 January 2019)
Aerial shot looking north at key points in the Palani Hills and High Range from the UL 508 flight at about 10,000 meters. Note the fire in Eravkulam’s grasslands and key points such as Cloud Lands Peak and Pampalam Malai (Kukkal). (1 January 2019)
Screen shot of the airplane map monitor as we were over the Cardamom Hills looking north to the High Range and Palani HiIls. (1 January 2019)
Southern escarpment of the Palani Hills looking south towards the flight path that I had been on a few days earlier. (4 January 2019)
Sky Islands as seen from the southern escarpment of the Palani Hills. The distant ranges include the Highwavies (Megamalai). The Agamalai range is just over the Vattakanal-Vilagavi ridge.
Sentinel imagery from February 2018. Processed by the author for the Hills of Murugan exhibition at DakshinaChitra in July 2018. Click on image for A3 150 dpi image
Flying back to Colombo from Madurai with views to the Ashambu Hills on the border between Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The Tuticorin and Gulf of Mannar coastline is visible in the lower image. (5 January 2019)
REFERENCES & FURTHER READING
Lockwood, Ian. “Palani Hills from the Air.” Ian Lockwood Blog. 22 April 2010. Web.
On the Kurangani Valley Rim
Panoramic view of the Kurangani valley as seen from “inspiration point” on the western edge near to Top Station and the Yellapatty estate (part of the Kanan Devan Hills Plantation Company). (July 2018)
The Western Ghats, host numerous areas with unique biodiversity and play a key role in the peninsula’s hydrology but for stunning landscapes one of my favorite places is the confluence of ranges and their cliffs and valleys that surround the small hamlet of Kurangani. My relationship with the area has, thus far, been from the western-most Palani Hills though I had visited Top Station and Meesapulimalai (the 2nd highest peak in the Western Ghats) in the 1990s. Over the last 35 or so years I have been privileged to explore and hike the last vestiges of shola/grasslands in the Palanis. Along the edge of the Palani Hills boundary with Theni district and then Kerala we looked into the Kurangani valley and across the slopes and peaks near Kolukkumalai and Meesapulimalai. On several epic treks with my father and friends we witnessed the South West Monsoon breaking across Kerala. The rain-laden clouds billowed over the ridge of the Cardamom Hills only to be brought to an abrupt halt at where the lip of the Ghats drops into the pancake-flat, semi-arid valley surrounding Bodinayakanur and Theni.
The Hidden Hills. The last of the shola/grasslands habitat in the far west Palani Hills with clear views to Meesapulimalai, Kolukkumalai and the Kurangani valley. The Bodi plains are int he far left. Taken with a Noblex 120 panoramic camera and KodakT-max film. (June 2002)
In recent years there has been a growing interest in this area and Kurangani and Top Station have become a popular center for trekking and camping. The awesome landscape, with steep slopes of montane grasslands studded with occasional Rhododendron trees, and valleys of dense shola are classic Western Ghats. Most of the trekking and camping happens in Tamil Nadu but the base of operation has been from Munnar in Kerala where the exponential growth of tourism has opened up areas outside of major protected areas (Eravikulam, Pampadum, Chinar etc.). Some camp site and trails are in private estates bordering the Kurangani valley-places where some tea companies are looking to diversify their sources of income. The growth of outdoor providers has been rapid, catering to a new demand by a mobile, affluent generation eager for outdoor experiences. The interest in outdoor and environmental experience is a welcome development but one that has risks when not planned carefully. Kurangani became infamous earlier this year when a group of hikers were tragically killed by a fast moving brush fire on the grassy western slopes overlooking the valley. The trekking community, camp providers and forest department in Tamil Nadu were forced to do a good deal of soul searching to ensure that similar accidents are avoided.
Gecko (Hemidactylus sp.) to be fully identified shortly at Betweenpatti (Bodi).
Circumnavigating the Palanis
This summer, the summer of the Kurinji flowering, I returned to the High Range to look for rare flowers, meet old friends and reconnect with a landscape that had shaped my worldview. I did this over two relatively short trips and on the first one I was able to bring our son Lenny along to share in the experience. The floods that would devastate so much of the state of Kerala had not started and these journeys were characterized by happy reunions, nostalgic reminiscences and encounters with rugged Western Ghats landscapes and species. During the first visit I combined family visits with my own landscape and ecology explorations. We were initially based in Kodaikanal, where the Kurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiana) flowers had burst into flower in mid-June. On the five day trip we used a hired car to drive to Bodi to spend time with our friends Bruce and Tamar Dejong at their delightful home. There were many highlights for all of us and we were given an intimate introduction to Euphorbia sp. both in Bruce’s garden and on the road up to Kurangani. Bruce has become one of the most knowledgeable experts on this interesting genus of plants native to South America, southern Africa, South and South East Asia. He pointed out numerous individuals as we drove up the road surrounded by the awesome cliffs of Kolukkumalai, Top Station and Akka and Thankgachi (the same “Twin Peaks” in many of my medium format black & white images).
Euphorbia antiquorum in the Kurangani valley floor. Looking west to the Kolukkumalai estate and Meesapulimalai (in clouds).(June 2018)
Akka and Thankgachi (Twin Peaks) from the road to Kurangani.(June 2018)
Lenny on the Kurangani Valley edge next to Yeripatta malai to the east of Kolukkumalai tea estate.(June 2018)
Suryanelli & Munnar
Lenny and I continued on our own to Munnar via Boidimetu and the Suryanelli estate. An overnight stay at the windy Black Eagle camp gave us a chance hike up to “sunrise point” and to look down at Kurangani and across to Ullam Pari. The Kurinji was not yet in bloom but the monsoon was active just to the west in the High Range and Cardamom Hills. Looking towards the Kolukkumalai estate, home to the “world’s highest grown tea” I appreciated the cliffside grasslands/shola but also noted with alarm the steady invasion of the grasslands by wattle (Acacia mearnsii).
Near to “sunrise point” at Kolukkumalai estate looking east to Yeripatta malai. (June 2018)
Our next two nights were spent in Munnar, which was experiencing the full force of the South West Monsoon. The rains would continue for the next two months and contribute to the overflowing rivers and dams giving rise to unprecedented flooding. During our visit at the end of June Munnar was wet and enveloped in clouds but not dangerous. Lenny and I made a courtesy call on Ms. Lexshmi R., the new wildlife warden at Eravikulam National Park and spent a morning dodging rain and photographing tahr at the Rajamalai tourism zone. Facilitated by Jayashree Kumar in Kodai we also reconnected with my friends at the High Range Wildlife Association-Jojo Thakurta and Mohan Varghese (see blog post from September 2014). Our discussion eventually played a role in me revisiting Munnar- something that will be the subject of the next blog post.
Nilgiri Marten (Martes gwatkinsii) at Pampadum Shola National Park east of Munnar. We had a surprise encounter with a group of three crossing the road in front of our vehicle. (June 2018)
Boundary between a non-native eucalyptus plantation and shola at Pampadum Shola national park.
Top Station/Yellapatty Estate/ Pampadum National Park
A highlight of the circumnavigation was taking a day trip to Top Station and Pampadum National Park. I first had looked down on the dense shola canopy of Pampadum from Vandaravu in 1985 during the annual 80-Mile Round hike. Seven years later, Merrick and I rode our trusty 100cc Hero Honda on the old Goshen Road to Munnar through Pampadum. At the time it was a wild, forlorn area with a veritable river bed for a motorable road (“the highest south of the Himalaya,” many old timers will remember). There was no formal protected area and the forest was known as a hotbed of illegal plantation activities and smuggling. We returned several other times (the images above are from the 1997 trip to Munnar, Chinnar and Eravikulam). Today Pampadum is one of seven national parks in Kerala and offers visitors a chance to experience exemplary shola ecology. Pampadum is located in the rain shadow of the South West monsoon (like Top Station and the Palani Hill) and is significantly drier than Munnar. We had excellent sightings of animals (Nilgiri langur, gaur, Malabar Giant Squirrels etc.) and shola birds on a short drive through Pampadum towards the Vatavada exit. A delightful experience was having three very rare Nilgiri Martens (Martes gwatkinsii) cross in front of our vehicle while we were paused on the road. Pampadum, it turns out, is one of the best places to see this endemic weasel-like species.
12-part composite image of the emblematic shola tree at “inspiration point” near Top Station and Yellapaty tea estate. A very large file reduced for this presentation… (July 2018)
Just before Top Station, if the weather is clear, one has a chance to experience a sublime, classic Western Ghats landscape. In fact this vista has been widely photographed and it is widely published . Variations of the view appear in the backdrop of the film Before the Rains. The view east from Yellapatty estate over the Kurangani valley is sublime, bringing to mind a Western Ghats version of Yosemite’s Inspiration Point. On my four previous visits (between 1993 and 1997) to Top Station, Yellapatty and the view had always been mired in fog. On the June trip Lenny and I got a taste for the magic of the viewpoint. While Munnar had limited visibility and torrential rain, the Top Station area was bathed in sunshine. We explored the area and figured out several good angles but I ended up getting my best images in early July when I was back in Munnar briefly.
In Murugan’s Footsteps
We returned to Kodai via the northern route and Palani, the town that gives the hills their names and is famous for its Murugan temple. In fact, in the mythology of the much-adored Murugan (also known as Kartikeya north of Tamil Nadu), he and his brother Ganesh are challenged to circle the world three times. The reward is a divine mango giving knowledge. Murugan embarks on an adventurous journey around the world only to return to find that his brother has won the bet by simply walking around his parents, Siva and Parvathi. In spite of not winning this challenge, Murugan is remembered as an adorable, divine child.
Murugan temple at Palani overshadowed by the hills that take their name from the shrine.
Northern slopes of the Palani Hills looking to the setting sun and the very distant Anamalai Hills. The importance of the hills as a source of life-giving water for the drier plains is clearly illustrated here.
Our trip was far less arduous. Lenny and I left Munnar going north to Marayur and into the Chinnar (Wildlife Sanctuary) Valley. The Chinnar river crossing, where KIS’s Manjampati Tahr Camps trek emerged after three amazing days in the forest, is more developed with a few shops catering to the Muduvan and Paliyan groups that maintain villages in what is now the Anamalais Tiger Reserve. Across to the east, we could see the distant peaks above Kukkal caves that had been the point of previous explorations. On the plains at Amarvathi Dam we used small roads to cut alongside the northern edge of the Palani Hills before ascending to the refreshingly cool air of Kodaikanal.
REFERENCES & PUBLICITY
ARKive. “Western Ghats.” Web. (note the authorship on several of the key landscape photographs taken in the Top Station/Vandaravu area)
Manupriya. “Getting to know the Nilgiri Marten, a rare small mammal from the Western Ghats.” Mongabay. 10 April 2018. Web.
Poorvaja, S and Aravind Kumar. “The ember of Kurangani.” The Hindu. 17 March 2018. Web.
“Pampadum Shola National Park Official Website.” Kerala Forest Department. Web.
Hills of Murugan on Display
Amer and Mohan skillfully putting up some of the last of the 32 frames in the Varija Gallery at DakshinaChitra on the morning of July 6th.
DakshinaChitra’s Vajira Gallery hosted The Hills of Murugan from July 6th-30th. The solo exhibition highlighted themes of changing landscape and vegetation patterns in the Palani Hills as seen in photographs and satellite imagery. The choice of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu, for this show was important. I expected that most visitors would be familiar the Palani Hills as a site of the popular hill station of Kodaikanal but that few of them would be aware of the degree of ecological change taking place in this sensitive Western Ghats landscape. The exhibition received good press coverage and seem to appreciate the choice of black & white fine art prints and conservation-centric approach.
The idea that significant ecological change is happening in our own lifetimes was an important message to share with the audience. The choices of images highlighted undistributed aspects of the Palani Hills, scenes of tree ferns and water and shola/grasslands systems. These were followed up with images of non-native timber plantations agriculture, hill station expansion and other signs of modern human impact. The final images emphasized scenes of hope: restoration work by the Vattakanal Conservation Trust and the tenacious shola species taking seed under a canopy of eucalyptus.
My principal medium continues to be black & white imagery and in the Hills of Murugan the main gallery featured 32 fine art prints originally exposed on film and digital cameras. Karthik V’s superior printing helped deliver the kind of exhibition print experience that I had envisioned after my training with George Tice at the Maine Photographic Workshops. Focus Gallery did a fine job with the framing and presentation. I supported the educational objectives of the show with a second gallery of color images, annotated maps and illustrated information posters. The maps were created on ArcGIS using a variety of data sources including Sentinel 2 and Landsat data as well as high-resolution elevation models. I included a poster highlighting the work of the montane grasslands group and, in a sense, the exhibition was a visual experience highlighting the themes of this study.
Raina, Lenny and Amy and I were there a few days ahead of time to pick up the frames and get things organized. We enjoyed being part of the DakshinaChitra community and participating in the ebb and flow of their days. DakshinaChitra’s team worked hard to get the space ready and then hang the show. Sharath Nambiar, the deputy director helped organize our accommodation and the repainting of the gallery. The final picture hanging was completed by Amer their multi-talented gallery supervisor. The opening on the 6th proceeded on schedule, though we were disappointed not to have Rom Whitaker to help inaugurate the show (he and Janiki were stranded in Chengalpattu when their car broke down the morning of the exhibition). There were, however, several friends working in conservation who joined us for the opening. Robin Vijayan and his team of students and friends from the nascent Bombay Shola field station hosted at KIS were in attendance. That included Arasumani the principal author of our grasslands study. Vasanth Bosco from the Nilgiris, who was with me on a memorable Kukkal adventures features in the show, came out. Karthik V., who did the fine art printing and his colleague Suresh Menon were in the audience. We lit a lamp, said a few welcome notes and then I gave an illustrated talk on the themes of change in the landscape and ecosystems of the Palani Hills.
Information posters: Landscape, Ecology & Change.
We stayed at DakshinaChitra for several days and then headed out to Mizoram to be with family. The frames came down at the end of July. The feedback from visitors was positive. I would have liked some of my friends in the TN Forest Department to make it out and have realized that I need to share the show further and in other venues in order to reach a wider audience. Some of the framed images have now gone to Focus Gallery (who did the framing) and Karthik’s new photo studio in Neelankarai. The annotated maps and information posters are going to Kodai where they will be a part of a new Palani Hills/Sky Islands interpretation center being set up on KIS’s Swedish House property. The work of educating people better about the ecological changes is only just beginning…
REFERENCES & PUBLICITY
Lockwood, Ian. “Fine Art Photography as a tool for Education & Conservation.” Better Photography. 2 July 2018. Print & Web.
Lockwood, Ian. “The Hills of Murugan.” Sanctuary Asia. August 2018. Print & Web.
Nath, Parshathy J. “It is the urban visitor who ruins hill stations, says photographer Ian Lockwood.” The Hindu. 9 July 2018. Web(not sure if I have been quoted correctly here…but you get the idea)
Saju, MT. “Shooting the changing scenes on Palani Hills.” The Times of India city. 6 July 2018. Web. (well timed, but not all factually correct)
Exhibition poster fo the Hills of Murugan.
The Hills of Murugan: An Exhibition on the Palani Hills
Hills of Murugan (Horizontal poster)
In a few days I am getting ready to put on an exhibition of fine art prints and annotated maps at Chennai’s DakshinaChitra gallery. The show is entitled The Hills of Murugan: Landscape, Ecology & Change in the Palani Hills and will be open to visitors from July 6th-30th.
The exhibition is a compilation of nearly 30 years of documentation and 48 years of experience exploring in the Palani Hills (see list of related publications below). My past exhibitions in India focused on the broader range of the southern Western Ghats and this is a more narrowly focused series of images that emphasize one range. In the Hills of Murugan I highlight themes of changing landscape and vegetation patterns in the Palani Hills as seen in photographs and satellite imagery. Seasoned readers of this blog know that these are ideas that I have explored in published articles, exhibitions and posts on my blog. My work attempts to bridge science with art and conservation and I am mindful that it should not be confused with picturesque approaches to beautiful locations in India.
Samples of the 20″x 20″ prints fresh from Karthik’s printer and just signed. These are printed on Canson Infinity Rag Photographique 310 GSM, the leading papers for monochrome printing. They will be part of the main gallery of roughly 30 black & white fine art prints in square, rectangular and panoramic format.
The upcoming show marks an important step forward with my photographic printing. For the last 15 years I have been struggling with how best to print and share my work. For the Drik and IIC exhibitions in 2000-02 I showed work that I had completed in a traditional wet darkroom. Even though I was using medium format film that produced detailed black & white negatives, the print size was limited by the availability of photographic paper (carried from the US in luggage) and the tray sizes. My largest prints were 16”x 20” and most were 10”x 10”. With the digital revolution and the advent of digital printing my darkroom was mothballed and I tinkered with learning new skills to make black & white prints. Printing has been straight forward in Colombo’s commercial labs but the paper quality was not up to my old darkroom standards where I employed fiber-based archival paper. It has been easier to communicate my photographic work on electronic media-my blog, website and in occasional published articles. However, I’m still a believer in the idea that the photographic fine art print is the ultimate expression of the process.
For the Hills of Murugan show I was able to make contact with V. Karthik, India’s leading fine art printer. As someone with a long record of working in photographic the industry and specializing in archival restoration and printing, Karthik has developed a refined knowledge and work flow with printing fine art photographic prints. He knows the different papers, the printers and has a special appreciation for black & white work. Two weeks ago I met Karthik and we worked together with my files. Based on his guidance I had 32 different images printed that will be on display at the exhibition.
Family friend, Indian snake man and Padma Shri awardee Rom Whitaker will be inaugurating the show on July 6th at 4:30. Rom was a natural choice-he grew up in the Palanis and did some his early snake catching there. His years at Kodai school in the 1950s overlapped with my parents, Merrick and Sara Ann. My uncle, Charles Emerson, was Rom’s roommate when he was keeping snakes under his dormitory bed and I have strong memories of outings with Rom to go fishing and looking for snakes during m school years in the 1980s. DakshinaChitra is on the same East Coast road as the Croc Bank, the site that was a key part of Rom’s work with reptiles. The team at DakshinaChitra, with guidance from curator Gita and support from Sharat Nambiar and Debbie Thiagarajan has helped facilitate the show after I proposed the idea in January. I had an affiliation with DakshinaChitra through my uncle Dr. Michael Lockwood who has contributed antique brass pieces to the galleries. I have gained a new appreciation for DakshinaChitra’s vital role in preserving and sustaining key aspects of south India’s rich cultural heritage. The Hills of Murugan has an ecological rather than cultural focus. However, through the choice of images one can better understand that the landscape and ecology provide a foundation for the livelihoods of the people living in the Palani Hills. My wife Raina and children Lenny and Amy are putting up with me during this busy time and providing advice on the images and how best to arrange things.
The main exhibition is composed of 32 black & white fine art prints. These framed prints are designed to be a body of work that stand alone but that illustrate the themes of landscape, ecology and change in the Palani Hills. In DakshinaChitra’s side gallery I have compiled a series of annotated posters, maps and mini posters highlighting key species from the Palani Hills landscape. The goal here is more ambitious: it is designed to be educational, such that visitors come away with a better sense of the area’s biodiversity, ecology and hydrology. Through annotated maps and posters I make references to recent history and ecological change. The theme of ecological changes resulting from non-native plantation efforts are presented and there are suggestions on the important work that needs to be done to protect the Palani Hills in the future.
The Hills of Murugan opens on July 6th at 4:30 and the show is open until the 30th of July (Tuesdays are holidays). I hope to see you there!
Palani Hills selection of shola/grasslands species. These are printed as A2 posters to accompany information posters in an adjoining room next to the main gallery.
For the exhibition I produced a series of new maps to accompany the information side of the presentation. This is a map depicting the earliest Landsat image of the Palani HIlls area. It is printed as an A1 size poster that will be in a smaller gallery next to the main hall of fine art prints.
The elevation map is based on a digital elevation model of 30 meter data that I have processed from NASA raw data. I have also added key points and settlements but have left out roads and other human impacts so as to emphasize the topographical features of the Palani Hills landscape.
REFERENCES (Key articles by the author on the Palani Hills)
Lockwood, Ian. “Metamorphosis of a Landscape. ”Nature in Focus. January 2017. digital story format
” . “Plantation Paradox.” Frontline. November 2015. (PDF)
” . “Breathing Life Back into the Sholas.” Frontline. 20 April 2012. (PDF)
” . “Fragile Heritage.” Frontline. October 2009. (PDF)
” . “The Next Big Thing” Sanctuary Asia, June 2006. (PDF)
” . “The Palni Hills: On the Danger List. ”Frontline. August 2003. (WEB)
also
Arsumani, M. et al. “Not seeing the grass for the trees: Timber plantations and agriculture shrink tropical montane grassland by two-thirds over four decades in the Palani Hills, a Western Ghats Sky Island. PLOS One. January 2018. Web.
Kurinji Flowering in the Southern Western Ghats-Anticipation
A collage of four images taken of Strobilanthes kunthiana (Kurinji) flowering in the remote Palani Hills during the 2006 mass flowering. These were taken on 6×6 cm medium format color negatives and then scanned.
2018 is an important year in the high reaches of the southern Western Ghats. The gregarious flowers of Strobilanthes kunthiana* or Kurinji plant (also Neelakurinji) is set for its once-in-12 years mass blooming. The Strobilanthes genus is widespread in tropical Asian forests where most of the 350+ species are found in forest understory systems. They have unusual flowering cycles and they experience mass flowering, dieback and then regeneration. Amongst these, there are very few Strobilanthes species that exclusively occur in grasslands habitats. Strobilanthes kunthiana* is native to the montane grasslands that are an important part of the shola/grassland mosaic in the southern Western Ghats. Every twelve years the flowering of Strobilanthes kunthiana and the extent to which they flower is an excellent gauge of the health of montane grasslands.
Unfortunately, as has been recorded in this space before, shola/grasslands ecosystems in key ranges such as the Nilgiri and Palani hills are under assault from a number of anthropocentric factors. The clearing of grasslands for timber plantations, agricultural fields and residential developments in Kurinji habitats is a significant cause of loss of habitat. Interestingly (and tragically) the grasslands habitat that Kurinji thrive in was long categorized as “wasteland” an unfortunate categorization that still persists in many vegetation maps of hill areas in the Western Ghats. In the Palani Hills, most of the plateau area’s montane grasslands have been replaced by timber plantations (see Arasumonai et al.). Now the unplanned spread of non-native plantations species threatens Kurinji habitat on the difficult-to-access cliff and escarpment edges. Thus, the next task for conservationists and the Forest Department is to give priority to protecting these last bastions of a vanishing landscape and ecosystem.
Kurinji flowering in 2018 is expected in areas with healthy shola/grasslands habitats. The least disturbed montane grasslands systems in the southern Western Ghats are in Kerala’s Eravikulam National Park (NP), Mukurthi NP and the Anamalais Tiger Reserve (both in Tamil Nadu). However, pressure on these protected areas is significant and there is a worry that a flood of visitors will damage the sensitive grasslands habitat. For an experience of Kurinji, the popular Coaker’s Walk in Kodaikanal should be a good place to view the flowering during the months of the South West Monsoon (June-September).
Strobilanthes kunthiana (Kurinji) flowering in the remote Palani Hills
Frontline spread with Kurinji Crown article (2006). Click on image for PDF copy.
Kurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiana) flowering on Coaker’s Walk in Kodaikanal with Perumalmalai in the background. July 2006.
One of the easiest places to see Kurinji flowering in Tamil Nadu is on Coaker’s Walk in Kodaikanal. The slopes below the walkways used to have a variety of montane grass species and bloomed with Kurinji every 12 years. Today they have been invaded by non-native trees species and weeds. The Forest Department has made an effort to plant Kurinji in sections near to the walkway. This picture is from the 2006 flowering.
A NOTE ON “PALANI” vs “PALNI”: In this and other posts I have used the spelling of “Palani” based on linguistic recommendations made by Dr. Clarence Maloney. Other organizations such as the PHCC and individuals continue to use the “Palni” version. I’m not aware of an ultimate authority on the correct English spelling of Tamil locational names, but the town of Palani is so named and Dr. Maloney is quite adamant that this represents the closest English translation of the name of the hill/mountain range.
*NOTE: In recent scientific literature kunthiana now seems to be replaced by kunthianus (see Catalog of Life link below), a change I need to verify before I adjust my usage here.
REFERENCES & FURTHER READING
Arsumanoi, M. et al. “Not seeing the grass for the trees: Timber plantations and agriculture shrink tropical montane grassland by two-thirds over four decades in the Palani Hills, a Western Ghats Sky Island.” PLOS One. January 2018. Web.
Botanical Survey of India. ENVIS Centre on Floral Diversity. Web.
Carine, Mark A. et al. “A Revision of the Strobilanthes kunthiana-Group (Phlebophyllum sensu Bremekamp) (Acanthaceae)/” Kew Bulletin. 2004. Web.
Catalog of Life. “Strobilanthes kunthianus.” Web.
EFloraofIndia. “Strobilanthes kunthiana” Web.
Lockwood, Ian. “Kurinji Crown.” Frontline. August 26-Sept 8, 2006. Print and Web.
Mukherjee, Pippa. Flora of the Southern Western Ghats and Palnis: A Field Guide. Niyogi Books, 2017. Print.
Sharma, Manju et al. “Reproductive strategies of Strobilanthes kunthianus, an endemic, semelparous species in southern Western Ghats, India.” Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 2008. 28 April 2008. Web.
Landcover Changes in the Palani Hills-A Spatial Study
Lenny & Prasen on Dolphin’s Nose with Perumal peak in the far left. A panoramic composite image from January 2016.
The grasslands mapping project that took shape at the plantations conference in Kodaikanal in December 2014 produced a report that was published earlier this year. This is important work and represents the combined efforts of several disparate individuals, organizations and funding agencies. The preliminary visual assessment of Landsat imagery by the author showed that satellite data held spatial evidence of dramatic land cover change in the Western Ghats and Palani Hills but that it needed to be quantified. Robin Vijayan of ISER Tirupati put into motion a study in 2016 with key field work and spatial analysis being done by M. Arasumani and Danesh Khan. Further academic guidance was provided by Arundhati Das, Milind Bunyan and several others. Bob Stewart & Tanya Balcar, of the Vattakanal Conservation Trust, provided key insights on shola regeneration in plantations-the topic that originally brought everyone together. INTACH and ISER Tirupati helped provide funding of the field work. The Tamil Nadu Forest Department was an important stakeholder and helped provide permissions for the field work. Prasen Yadav joined the project to document the work and produce a video of the findings. The study was peer reviewed and published in January 2018. It is publicly available on PLOS One, including access to all the tables of data and charts (see link below).
My involvement with the grasslands mapping brings together several interests and is the latest chapter in my ongoing interest and love affair with the Palani Hills. An alarming conclusion of the study is the great extent to which the montane grasslands have been taken over by non-native trees and weeds. Those of us who have been walking in the hills have had a sense of this but the satellite images providing damning proof. It is also clear that the plantations have spread far beyond the original boundaries that they were originally designed to be in. Most of the southern escarpment has a fire line etched into its grasslands and now plantations species are spreading beyond this boundary and down the steep slopes of montane grasslands. This leads to clear conclusion that where possible efforts need to be made to preserve these last remaining vestiges of montane grasslands. The challenge is that, in spite of the surprising resilience of shola tree species, the last montane grasslands are being steadily consumed by plantation (and some shola) species.
Our study concludes:
- Identify and conserve core grasslands: Core grassland areas consist of a few to many hectares of grassland encompassing hillocks, streams, marshes and rock outcrops. These areas, even when nestled in a plantation matrix, should be protected and form the core around which grassland restoration efforts should focus.
- Check invasion in sparsely invaded grasslands: These areas are often characterized by young plantations located in grasslands where grass cover is still extensive. Here, we recommend physical removal of invasive species. Forest departments often have access to significant funding through the Compensatory Afforestation (Bill passed in 2016) funds and these could be utilized for these activities. Such funds could be used for the restoration of marshes, existing grasslands and to manage the invasive plantations.
- Review indiscriminate removal of mature plantations: Mature plantations often have native shola forest regenerating under them and lack native grass cover. Grassland restoration here is likely to be very resource-intensive. Conservation efforts should focus on sparsely invaded and pristine grasslands. In mature plantations, we recommend conducting experimental or controlled studies (like at Vattavada, Munnar Kerala), perhaps also examining the role of fire, and monitoring soil and moisture conditions in these areas. Moreover, removal of mature plantations could stimulate regeneration of plantation species from saturated soil seed banks. Monitoring of these areas is important to assess the effectiveness of plantation removal.
- Contain agriculture: Our field surveys indicate that paddy cultivation has been discontinued in some marshes. Given the critical role of these marshes in regulating local hydrology, efforts should be made to contain agriculture to the current extent and restore these marshes using a community-led conservation effort.
Several other writes have reviewed the PLOS article in the popular press and I have listed articles in the Wire by Janaki Lenin, Mohan Rao in the Hindu and Pendharkar, Vrushal in Mongabay.
This year is a special year since it marks the cycle of Kurinji (Strobilanthes kunthianus) blooming that only happens every 12 years. Kurinji plants, more than any other grasslands species, are closely associated with healthy montane grassland systems. The extent of this year’s flowering will be a good gauge of the health of the grasslands of the Palani Hills.
My next personal chapter in this process to better understand the landscape and ecology of the Palani Hills is to present and share an exhibition of photographs and annotated maps at DakshinaChitra, Chennai this July. The next post will highlight this significant endeavor.
Southern escarpment on a very clear day looking west to the Agamalai range and beyond. January 2016.
REFERENCES & FURTHER READING
Arsumani, M. et al. “Not seeing the grass for the trees: Timber plantations and agriculture shrink tropical montane grassland by two-thirds over four decades in the Palani Hills, a Western Ghats Sky Island.” PLOS One. January 2018. Web.
Lenin, Janaki “You’d Think Cutting Kodai Plantations Will Save Its Grasslands. It Won’t.” The Wire. 19 September 2017. Web.
Lockwood, Ian. “Mapping Montane Grasslands in the Palani Hills.” Ian Lockwood Blog. August 2016. Web.
“ “Land Cover Changes in the Palani Hills: A Preliminary Visual Assessment.” Ian Lockwood Blog. 4 April 2014. Web.
Montanari, Shaena (& Prasenjeet Yadav). “Breathtaking Sky Islands Showcase Evolution in Action.” National Geographic. 11 August 2017. Web.
Pendharkar, Vrushal. “Palani Hills: Where have the grasslands gone?” Mongabay. 20 February 2018. Web.
Rao, Mohan. “Missing the grass for the trees in Western Ghats.” The Hindu. 17 January 2018. Web.
Yadav, Prasenjeet. “Save our Shola Grasslands.” YouTube. Web-Video. 16 September 2017.
A Song of the Sholicola
Sholicola albiventris singing in Bombay Shola, Palani Hills. Photographed with a D-800 and 600 f/4 lens. (April 2018).
South India’s shola forests (and their companion grasslands mosaic habitat) continue to be a source of hydrological importance, a site for scientific investigation and a place for sheer wonder. The clumps of moist evergreen forest that were historically found in the folds and deep valleys of the highest ranges of the Western Ghats are recognized for hosting startling biodiversity. We know from various studies that the lofty highlands of the Western Ghats were isolated from lower areas by altitude and rugged geography for long periods of time. It is not surprising then that a host of species evolved unique to these “sky islands.”*
There are several notable species that are confined to sholas and whose populations are closely allied to healthy shola habitat. The White Bellied Blue Robin (Sholicola albiventris), formerly known as the White Bellied Shortwing (Myiomela albiventris), is a Western Ghats endemic bird species that perhaps best reflects the state of healthy sholas. I’ve been watching and listening to the bird for several decades and this short post highlights a few facets about Sholicola albiventris, provides some background reading and shares a portfolio of images that I have been working on for several years.
Sholicola albiventris tends to be a sulky bird that spends its time in dark thickets of the shola understory. It can be difficult to spot since it has dark features and is usually only active at dusk and dawn. Novice bird watchers would be forgiven for confusing it with the Nilgiri flycatcher (Eumyias albicaudatus) or White Belleid Blue Flycatcher (Cyornis pallidipes)-both which have overlapping habitats/ranges. The musical songs of the Sholicola albiventris, (mixed in with calls of laughing thrushes, scimitar babblers, barbets, jungle fowl and other birds) in the early mornings is a defining feature of sholas at certain times of the year. I have observed and listened to Sholicola albiventris singing incessantly in the sholas of the Palani Hills in the months before the monsoon. It is also found in adjoining gardens in settlement areas-as illustrated by some of the images in this post. According to scientists studying Sholicola albiventris, the Palani Hills individuals seem to call at times different than other populations (in the High Range and Anamalais). Could the onset of the monsoon and the fact that the Palani hills are in the rain shadow of the South West Monsoon play a role in this behavior?
When speaking of the White Bellied Blue Robin, it is impossible not to mention the long-term work of V.V. Robin. It is a happy coincidence that Robin bears the name of the bird that he has worked so hard to study and better understand. Robin is an evolutionary biologist with an in interest in biogeography and conservation initiatives, especially in the southern Western Ghats. He frequently collaborates with his wife Nandini Rajamani (see links below). I had the good fortune to bump into Robin in the Carin Hill shola (Nilgiri Hills) many years ago-he was collecting DNA specimens and I was trying to see what would later be renamed as the Nilgiri Blue Robin (Sholicola major). Robin is now an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education & Research (IISER) Tirupati. He was the key person that organized a disparate group, including this author, to map grasslands in the Palani Hills (see PLOS for our article). Robin’s work on the biogeography of the White Bellied Shortwing, using genetic data, led to a split in the original species into three different species. His list of publications, some of which are included below, illustrates his prodigious efforts.
Sholicola albiventris in a garden adjoining Bombay Shola (April 2017).Photographed with a D-800 and 600 f/4 lens. (April 2018).
Looking for Sholicola albiventris and other shola species in the heart of Bombay Shola.
*Sky Islands is a term first used in the south West United States and defined as “isolated mountains surrounded by radically different lowland environments.” The concept has appropriate relevance to the high Western Ghats (from approximately 1,500-1,800 to 2,695m) and has been used in popular, as well as scientific publications. I was first introduced to the concept by V.V. Robin through conversations and his website. The INTACH book on the Palani Hills utilized the term and our friend Prasenjeet has incorporated it into his August 2017 National Geographic article and photo essay.
REFERENCES & FURTHER READING
Arsumani, M. et al. “Not seeing the grass for the trees: Timber plantations and agriculture shrink tropical montane grassland by two-thirds over four decades in the Palani Hills, a Western Ghats Sky Island.” PLOS One. January 2018. Web.
Grimmett, Richard Carol Inskipp and Tim Inskipp. Birds of the Indian Subcontinent, Second Edition. London: Helms Field Guide/Oxford University Press, 2011. Print.
Montanari, Shaena (& Prasenjeet Yadav). “Breathtaking Sky Islands Showcase Evolution In Action.” National Geographic. 11 August 2017. Web.
Rasmussen, Pamela C. and John Anderson. Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide. Volumes 1 &2, Second Edition. Washington DC: Smithsonian, 2012. Print.
Robin, V.V. and R. Nandini. “Shola habitats on sky islands: status of research on montane forests and grasslands in southern India.” Current Science. December 2012. Print & Web.
Robin, V.V. Anindya Sinha and Uma Ramakrishnan. “Ancient Geographical Gaps and Paleo-Climate Shape the Phylogeography of an Endemic Bird in the Sky Islands of Southern India.” PLOS One. October 2010. Web.
Robin VV et al. “Two new genera of songbirds represent endemic radiations from the Shola Sky Islands of the Western Ghats, India.” BMC Evolutionary Biology. January 2017. Web.
2017 Taxonomy update for Indian birds. E-Bird. 24 August 2017. Web.
