Call for Volunteers: Minimising Pollution at Dabaguli Jatre – 2012

(Urigam Range, Hosur Forest Division, Tamil Nadu)

Dabaguli is a picturesque place on the banks of the Cauvery in the Urigam forest range of the Hosur forest division. An antipoaching camp of Tamilnadu forest department and a small shack housing a fisherman family are the only human presence for most part of the year. A small Nandi temple is the only relic from times long ago when Dabguli hosted a cattle patti (kraal).

This sleepy little temple sees a thin stream of visitors throughout the year. However once a year a huge crowd of about ten thousand people descend on this idyllic spot from surrounding villages in Tamilnadu and Karnataka for the annual Dabguli Jatre (festival) around the time of Shivrathri. This grand overnight event has various poojas, dramas, bon fire, illegal alcohol consumption etc.

This is a cause for concern as these environs are home to the highly endangered Grizzled Giant squirrel and a host of other wildlife including chital, sambhar, elephants, leopard, jackal and four horned antelope. The plastic litter left behind by this crowd is not only an eyesore but also a big environmental threat.

Last year Kenneth Anderson Nature Society (KANS) interacted with the organising committee of the Jatre to contain the environmental impact. The villager folk and the organising committee sincerely acknowledged the pollution caused by the event. KANS convinced the committee to use bio degradable arecanut leaf plates instead of plastic and thermacol plates to serve the 25000 meals that will be dished up during the festival. A part of cost of the plates was also given.A screening of the Kannada Version of ‘Tales from an Indian Jungle (the one about Nagarhole) was planned at the spot during the festival.

This year, the festival is marked to fall on the 4th and 5th of February, 2012, and KANS has invited Green Commandos to prevent the plastic entering the forests by scanning for any plastic items on the people visiting the festival and replacing them by cloth bags sourced by Green Commandos. Awareness about the ill effects of plastic and ban of plastic usage in the forest will be propagated by loudspeaker announcement and pamphlet distribution prepared by KANS into the participating villages by the forest department before the festival scheduled on 28th and/or 29th Jan 2012. Additionally local police have been requested to monitor the illegal Alcohol consumption. Volunteers along with the department staff will keep watch at the checkposts, patrolling etc.,
We require 40-50 volunteers during to carry out this program. The major task will be distribution of hand-bills, scanning of plastic bags and liquor, patrolling during festival and post-festival clean-up. The proposed itinerary is as follows:

Jan 28 and/or 29th 2012 (Number of volunteers – 6) – completed
1. Assemble at Silk board junction at 6am on 28th morning and proceed to Hosur DFO office, Mathigiri
2. Divide the team into 2, each team with the FD staff to visit the villages via the public announcement vehicle and oversee/distribute the hand-bills.
3. Return by evening 6-7pm
We need 6 volunteers for this activity who can speak either Kannada and/or Tamil fluently.

Feb 4th and 5th

Please fill the below form. You can access the same over here too. (Registrations closed. Please contact the numbers given above if you wish to volunteer)

Elephant Herding

Tuesday 3, 2012.    Sanamavu reserve forest, Hosur Forest Division.

Thillai called me around noon about some specialist elephant drivers brought in from Karnataka. We immediately decided to go and check out this novelty of imported elephant drivers and were joined by Shanmugam. They turned out to be people from Devarabetta. Beaters had also mobilized from Jawlagiri, Gullatti, Rayakota.

But it all seemed woefully inadequate when we were confronted by an army of flapping ears in the early afternoon sun. I could make out at least 4 adult tuskers with decent sized tusks and it was difficult to count the calves, juveniles and females. The count was rumored to be close to 70 elephants.

These elephants had been driven from Dakshin Tirupathi, close to NH7 and had already covered atleast 12kms and crossed a State highway. They were now resting in the heat of the day.

As the day cooled down a bit, and the elephants began to move. But it looked like the wrong direction! The thing about elephants is that they follow the contour of the land, so what looks like a march to the east may well end up in the west.

After a couple of aborted attempts to move out of the valley in which they were resting, it was dark by the time they were finally on their way.

The culprit was farmer, who was secretly heading them off by bursting crackers when they turned in the direction of his beans plot which was about 100 mtrs off the path of the elephants. The stubborn farmer stripped down to his blue shorts and stood his ground refusing to move even with the elephants headed in his direction.

It was well past sunset when we got to know that the elephants had crossed the first road and were on their way to cross a railway track and Kelamangalam-Rayakota state highway.  Thillai, Shanmugam and I finally landed up at Jakkeri beyond Kelamangalam with three forest guards. DFO Ulaganathan was already at the expected crossing point with Ranger Sukumar.

This point was a road with gradual slope from water and some cultivation beyond which ran the railway line about 500 mtrs away from the road. Behind the railway line were low hills and Sanamavu RF.  The other side of the road had a few houses and open cultivation.

Shanmugam spoke to the AE of the Electricity department and they responded immediately by shutting off the streetlights in that stretch. We stopped the traffic on both sides and waited for the arival of the elephants being driven by beaters. The Railway department was instructed to reduce the speed of all trains on the track to 20 kmph.  A few years ago, 5 elephants were run over by a train not far from this place.

Soon we could now see the beams from the elephant torches and could plainly make out crackers going off. Two trains chugged along a few minutes after the elephants crossed the track. But it took an agonizing wait of nearly 45 minutes when the beaters ran out of crackers and the elephant torches died down before the elephants crossed the road and went over to the other side. The restless crowd did not help matters. Finally, there was open ground between elephants and Denkanikota reserve forest which was still another 7kms away.

DFO, ACF Padma and I drove over to the place where the elephants had crossed and were examining the foot prints. We then spent about ten minutes with the DFO and ACF giving further instructions and orders to wind down the operation and send everyone home. I wanted get back to my car and drive further down the road and pick up Thillai, Shanmugam and other guards who were at the other end of the road.

There was a half moon skipping in and out of clouds lighting up the entire scene as we stood on the road.  I became aware of a continuous rustling sound. It took me a fraction of a second to locate the sound as coming from my left behind the ACF.

I saw what I thought was a final group of beaters making their way back towards us. The funny thing was they seemed to be moving as one, all closely huddled to together about 20 feet from us. I think my mind refused to accept them as elephants even though it was plain as day that is what they were. I remember saying “Madam what’s that? Madam what’s that?”. Some one shouted “yaane odu” and I found myself sprinting along the road with all the other people.

We pulled up after a few meters and someone shone a torch I counted five elephants abreast of us on the other side of the road. The laggards got together and shuffled away towards Denkanikota RF. We were all laughing in releif.

The elephants were intent on getting across the road and did not bother to go after us. A motorcycle parked where we were standing was knocked down by the adult female. How they got so close to us across open ground with at least 20 odd people around with torches astonishes me.

The first lesson of Elephant Herding : Always expect the unexpected.

Thurday 5^th January 2012

I was surprised to hear from some friends expressing concern about my well being.  I did not know that a news article (http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/article2776413.ece) had appeared in The Hindu about our narrow escape.  I went back again today check out the place of our close call.

The elephants had walked through some low crop, which made the slithering sound. If it was not for that we would have never heard them. At least I would not have.

Within a week of this incident, a software engineer from Bangalore, Mr.Ramesh died unfortunately when he went to take photographs of group of ten elephants being driven back into the forest near Anekal.  One can never be sure of where elephants are especially when they are in big numbers, and extreme caution is always warranted.

At the Aiyur celebration of International Year of Forests

Tarsh, Vijesh and I went on the second day of the Tamil Nadu Forest Department/Hosur Forest Division celebration of the International Year of the Forest. We had a very enjoyable time, indeed.

We had a chat with the ACF, Padma, and the ASP, Ramya, both of whom we found interested in wildlife and conservation.

As a housewife, I was wondering how everyone was going to be fed at lunch time, so I was very interested in the preparation of lunch! Here are a group of people cutting up vegetables, grinding the coconut, and so on (Lunch was delicious!)

We found the teachers who came with the children, a dedicated and hard-working group. They spoke with great sincerity on various aspects of forest conservation. Here are some of them with some of us:

The Forest Department also distributed tees with the IYF logo to all the children:

After the documentary was screened, and lunch was served, the children were taken to the Spider Valley viewpoint. On the way, this Social Spider web was apt for the name of the valley in which some of Ken Anderson’s adventures are set!

Tarsh and Vijesh checked their cameras:

Here they are, clicking at the view point:

Ms. Padma also was clicking!

The forest guards were all on duty:

The scenery was very beautiful:

Even a tiny wildflower was exquisite:

We then took the children to Sami Eri, looking serene in the evening sunshine:

Here’s the watchtower:

I spotted an ants’ nest in a tree nearby:

I found that Sanjeev, Tarsh and Vijesh all had fatigues on, and the IYF tees…so it was looking like a KANS uniform!

The evening sky and the clouds looked lovely…

We did some scat analysis for the children:

We showed them how we could gather information on what animal the scat belonged to, what it had eaten, and when it had passed by:

Sanjeev pointed out the deer fur in the scat:

The children were very intersted in everything we showed them, and asked a lot of questions, too, which we answered to the best of our ability.

We returned with the children to the Aiyur Forest Guest House:

ACF Padma came walking with them, too:

Vijesh went back to Hosur with Sanjeev, and Tarsh and I drove back through the sunset:

Thank you, KANS, for a great opportunity to interact with schoolchildren and spread the message of conservation!

KANS helps to celebrate the International Year of Forests

On the 27th and 28th of December, 2011, KANS joined hands with the Tamil Nadu Forest Department and the Hosur Forest Division, in celebrating the Internation Year of Forests, with a double event: A “vana vizha” (forest festival) on the 27th, and a Student Awareness campaign on the 28th. Some of the KANS volunteers were present on the 27th, and I went with Tarsh Williams and Vijesh Chinnadurai, on the 28th.

We reached the Aiyur Forest Guest House and found that slowly, the children from the different schools were coming in. All of them were from Government schools in the Hosur and Denkanikotta areas. There was a total of 150 children. Some of the teachers from the schools had also accompanied the children.

Some of the schoolchildren, teachers, volunteers, and Forest Department personnel:

As the children assembled in disciplined, orderly fashion, the Assistant Conservator of Forests, Ms Padma, addressed them, talking about the occasion, and how the United Nations had designed the logo of the International Year of Forests. The Assistant Superintendent of Police, Hosur, Ms.. Ramya Ravi, then inaugurated the event by unveiling the logo.

Both the ladies are very keen on conservation and wildlife, and spoke enthusiastically to the children about respect and concern for the world of Nature. At their invitation, some of the children, too, spoke about the various things depicted on the logo, such as plants, animals, herbs and medicines, and said that preserving and planting trees would give many benefits.

Tarsh, ACF Padma, ASP Ramya, and Vijesh:

After a delicious lunch was shared by everyone alike, the children filed into the hall and some of the teachers, and a retired Forest Range Officer, Mr Madhaswamy, spoke about various facets of forsts and tree. We found that the teachers were very committted to the cause of conservation, and spoke with conviction and passion.

Some of the teachers with KANS volunteers:

Following this, the documentary, “The Truth About Tigers”, made by Shekhar Dattatri, was screened for the children. In spite of the power failing for a while, the children watched with rapt attention for a while. Tea and snacks were served to everyone.

After the documentary, the children were all taken to two locations in the nearby Aiyur Forest range…first, to the viewpoint at Spider Valley, and then to the watch tower at Sami Eri.

Some of the children at the Spider Valley viewpoint:

On the way, the KANS volunteers pointed out various points of natural interest to them. The children, for example, were fascinated to know that dung is not a dirty thing in nature…that it can give a lot of information about what the animal was, when it has passed that way, what it has eaten, and in fact, the dung can even provide a rich source of nutrition for various insects and mushrooms.

Ms. Padma enthusiastically walked back along the trail with the children, and they all assembled back at the Aiyur Forest Guest House, and tea and buns were distributed to the children, who unanimously said that they had enjoyed themselves very much. The KANS volunteers also felt that the message of conservation of the forests had been satisfactorily disseminated to the children, and everyone dispersed in an atmosphere of happiness and goodwill, as the evening, and the year of 2011, drew to a close.

Deepa Mohan. (I’ve taken the photos, too )