Took off late in the morning of 7^th April from Bangalore after getting the necessary permission from the DFO. As I crossed Manjukondapalli and was heading towards the Kestur checkpost, a tractor laden with dry wood vroomed past me. I was unable to note down any details because of the dust raised by the tractor.

Few minutes later I reached the Kestur checkpost, where I found that the notice boards that KANS had sponsored and which I had seen intact just about a month back had been vandalised and completely defaced. This, I guess, was bound to happen sooner or later considering that though there is a checkpost, there is nobody to man it

Solemnly I rode the next 4 kms to Dabguli. The APC was locked and I was told by one of the persons (I think his name is Venkatasamy, an old guy who has left his family and has made Dabguli his home…he is fondly addressed by the guards and watchers as ‘Dadi’ owing to his long white beard) staying around, that the watcher, Narayan, had gone to his village in Belpatti  and would be back on the next day.  Anyway, I told him that I would be around for the next 24 hrs and he had the keys to the APC and he opened it and I kept my stuff inside and went out for a stroll.

Returned after a couple of hrs by when Narayan had also come back. When I asked him why he didn’t go to Belpatti, he said that he had seen me enroute and so he changed his mind and came back. Then I started chatting with him:

• Who were those people in the tractor who were driving away with dry wood?: Don’t know. But very obviously, they have taken it from the forest.
• Who are these people picknicking(These people had come in 2 vehicles. The elders relaxed  in chairs, the women folk sat on mat with food and refreshments ready and gen-x were playing in the river)?: Don’t know.

• Who are these drunkards?: Don’t know. They came the previous evening. They have brought booze and NV, both chicken and mutton. They cooked their food themselves and have been drinking continously since last evening.

• Where is the shop which was there last month?: He closed it after Ugadi and went back to his village. Why is this hut still here?: Seena and family have shifted to Uganiyam, don’t know why the hut is still here. The Ranger is not showing any interest in removing this. Even when the Ranger visits Dabguli, he hangs out at the hut instead of the APC and interacts with the fisherman and tries to extract information about us like when we come, where we go, what we do etc.
• But isn’t Anaiappan at Uganiyam?: No, some famlily problem  happened and he has moved out. Seena has got license to ferry from Karnataka FD.
• Then why are they staying in TN forests?: Don’t know. And its unfair because unlike like me where I am staying alone in forest and my family is in my village, these people are staying with their family inside forest! Is it not possible to transfer these forests to Government? (I guess that he was asking whether these forests can be made into PA)
• Why is there so mouch poultry here?: These have been brought by Seena’s family.
• What about the dogs?: The dogs here (2-3 around the APC) are mine and they are harmless. The other dogs (3-4) probably came here by following people who come for the jathre and since food was available here, they stayed back. But food is not there always. And because of this, they have begun to threaten the wildlife around. Just last week, I saw one of them running off with a leg of chital. (As I was speaking to him, the ‘other dogs’ tried making an attempt at one of the goats and Dadi had to intervene to drive them away).My dogs don’t do anything. Even if I am not here for 1-2 days they stay at the APC only and wait for me to come back and give them food.
• What about these goats?: These 2 goats here belong to a muslim person in Anekal and he has given it to Dadi for rearing. Otherwise, there are others who bring their goats. When Ranger visits, he imposes a fine of Rs.200 per goat head and if the shepherd cannot pay it, the onus comes onto us.
• How is plantation work going on?: Don’t ask. We have been working so hard but all our hard work is getting eaten by boars. We keep on working but there is no progress!
• Where is Selva?: He quit as watcher. First of all, he has not been getting his salary of Rs.800 for 4-5 months. He used to somehow manage by making some income from ferrying, but ever since this plantation work began, we are not able to do ferrying also since we are at the plantation all day.
• A different question. Where are GGS nests? : There are 3 on the way to Uganiyam and one towards our right.
• That’s all?: Yes, that is all what I have seen
• What else can be seen here?: Leopards! I have seen some huge pugmarks! And there are wild dogs.
• Really? Where?: Can’t pinpoint where they will be. Their scat can be seen in several places. There are 2 packs. One around 7 nos and the other around 15 nos. Its surprising that your CTs did not get them. We picked up one carcass few days back, do you want to see it??

He clambered up the roof of the APC and brought down  with him the carcass of a Chital with huge horns and some portion of its skin. I asked him why he is retaining these instead of discarding them in the forest and he said that the Ranger has told him to retain them. He has kept it on the roof because of the stench it causes. He said that there was another carcass he had found in the river that he has kept inside the APC. We went inside and he showed the skull and horns of another Chital which probably had gotten eaten up by a croc. I asked him what he does with all these collections instead of letting them be in the forest. He said that occassionally they get ‘picked up’ by the officers and what they do with it, he does not know.

Night inside the APC was hot. I walked towards the temple to see how the night activities there are. There are about 4-5 tubelights that are on all night. Even the APC has drawn a line from the pole  and they use it to light up the APC. I got all lights inside the APC to be switched off. But there was one tube just outside the APC that was sufficient to cater to the adjoining hut where Dadi and our watchers have dinner. One of the 5 temples was playing bhajans from radio. I don’t know till how late in the night this lasts.

Night sleep was broken regularly, by heat but more by the barking by the dogs for the slightest disturbance they felt. I feel that the dogs have to be removed from here, and in the most humane manner. Earlier in the evening when I was chatting with the watcher, he said that that he has got instructions to kill the dogs by any possible means. He is clueless about what means to adopt and was asking me if I could get some dog catchers from Bangalore to capture these ‘near-feral dogs’.

Morning of 8^th April…woke up around 6am. Had a quick wash and I went out and spent a good 2 hrs trekking, saw roughly 20-25 chitals, a wild boar, a huge raptor…altogether had a good time which I ended with a safe dip in the Cauvery :D

Immediate things to do with FD:

• Send proposal to the DC for checkpost at Kestur and Balagada
• Re-activate the checkpost at Manjugondapalli
• Send proposal to the DC to declare Dabguli as plastic-free and sound-free zone
• Remove all illegal huts from Dabguli and Uganiyam
• Evict all people residing illegally at Dabguli and Uganiyam
• Remove all domestic animals from Dabguli
• Ensure presence of atleast 1 watcher at Dabguli at all times

Apparently,the temple does not allow cooking within its vicinity and because of this,the visitors happily cook on the vast stretch of forest land that is available at their disposal.

A shop has come up close by. This was put up in Feb 2012 during the Jathre and the owner has continued to stay put there to make some earning from the marriages, smaller jathres and other people who visit the temple.

A fisherman has been staying with his wife and carrying out unlicensed fishing and ferry services for around couple of years. I noticed few chicken also clucking around and couple of goats and sheep and dogs lazing around. Of wildlife, I could not see anything around, which is pretty obvious since there is so much of human presence here.

The stone idols that have been put up at the river bank are still there despite the FD’s assurance that they would remove it.

Heard from the dabguli watcher that considerable progress had been made on the FD’s grand plans to grow elephant fodder and so I rode towards Uganiyam to check this out. The place has been nicely cleared and some portions had been ploughed and planted with what I was told were some varieties of grass and jowar and horsegram.

Went further to Uganiyam APC and met our friendly watcher Chandu. I congratulated him on the progress at the plantation and he rued that cattle and livestock have been devouring the fresh saplings.
The APC is being made more luxurious with the addition of a kitchen to the existing 2 rooms. An APC with 1 bedroom, hall and kitchen for 1 watcher…Chandu must be one happy dude!

It was past lunch time by now and I made my way back to Dabguli and to Bangalore. Since it was almost 2pm by the time I left from Dabguli, I was hoping that atleast by now someone would have come to man the Kestur checkpost. But it was still open to all and sundry who want to visit the temple or picnic on the banks of Cauvery and do ‘jolly’!

Sanjeev will be speaking about the conservation issues in Melagiris at the Trek Polamaa event on behalf of KANS. The talk is scheduled for 4 PM on 10th. There are a lot of other interesting topics over 2 days. Please do attend.

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Volunteers on the beat

The mammal survey conducted at the Hosur Forest Divison also popularly known as Melagiris has entered its third year of joint survey with Kenneth Anderson Nature Society.

This year around 70 volunteers ,  participated in the Block count Synchronized mammal Survey for 2 days. Volunteers as far as Coimbatore and a batch from local NGO working at Satyamangala forest also attended the survey. The entire operation of arranging the logistics, forms, travel and food was being taken care by the handful of KANS co-ordinators. Krishnagiri and Hosur ranges had to be dropped due to shortage of volunteers.

Orientation program

Registration and an orientation session was arranged by KANS at the DFO office in Mathigiri. Sanjeev took the volunteers through a PPT explaining the bio-diversity of the Melagiris, do and don’ts during the mammal survey and precautions to be taken when on field

Leopard Scat

Block count survey aims at counting the mammals in a given block, here called beats through direct and indirect sighting such as pug and hoof marks and scat and dung and scrape marks on trees and ground.

Guar spotted at Denkanikota

This year around the survey showed increased Gaur sighting in several ranges. Indirect signs of Leopard have also markedly increased. The elephant sighting on par with last year was much less since the larger herd had already migrated.

Survey team

Some of the interesting sightings were : Barking deers, Four Horned Antelopes, Sambars and Otters. ACF Padma who talked to the volunteers at the end of the survey thanked the volunteers for participating in the survey.

Observations:

Forest Fire

Illegal Bamboo extraction

Illegal Sandalwood extraction

The exciting sightings however were over-shadowed in many ranges by forest fires set by miscreants ,large density of cattle grazing in places that has cleared all the grasses and undergrowth, illegal bamboo and timber extraction, excessive tamarind harvesting and the death of a female elephant .

About forest fires:

“Largely mistaken as natural fires the forest fires in India are almost always man-made. The fire that was seen spreading across vast regions together with cattle grazing has played a significant role in clearing all the ground storey species. All the regenerated seedlings from last year have perished in the fire. Such continuous fire year after year don’t only mean a stagnant forest with no new regeneration but also gives way to fast spreading Lantana, Eupatorium and Parthenium species that inivetably dry up in summer and add fuel to the fire when torched. Although all large mammals escape the fire the ground dwelling birds, insects and helpless little ones of all species perish in the fire. These fires either set up by the department as control fire or mostly by miscreants who put fire to encourage growth of grass for their cattle.”

Forest fire

A few things that were observed by KANS during the Jatre of 2011 were:

1. The major problem seems to be alcohol consumption
2. The major chunk of pollution are the food plates and the vendors selling plastic bags/cups

This year around KANS 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 paper bags sourced by Green Commandos.

Pre-festival announcement – 28^th Jan 2012

Hand-bill distribution

Hand-bill distribution

 Handbills written in Tamil and Kannada were circulated in all the villages (around 40 villages were covered) surrounding Dabguli by KANS volunteers and FD staff.

Public announcement 

Announcements were also made via the public announcement system warning people that plastic must not be used within the forests; Alcohol and such items will be confiscated at the check-post; Felling of trees is prohibited and Entry from the checkpost after 6pm will be restricted due to elephant movement.

On the festival at Dabguli – 4^th Feb 2012

The KANS was divided into 3 teams one at the Balagadapallam checkpost, one at Kestur checkpost and the rest at the temple.

Check-post : Regulation of plastic and Alcohol 

 Plastic and alcohol monitoring at the Kestur checkpost 

 Confiscated Alcohol

 Confiscated Plastic items

 KANS together with the FD confiscated all alcohol and plastic items at the checkposts. The teams stayed until 10pm in the night and a total of 240 liquor items were confiscated and several Kgs of plastic items in the form of bags, coverings, cups were confiscated. The Vendors were compensated by providing paper bags replacing plastic bags and paper cups replacing plastic cups.

The people were generally supportive of the initiative to disallow plastic usage within the forests. However the vendors who were to set up shops and people who turned up with liquor provided some resistance parting with the items.

Plastic control at the temple 

 Banner being put up near the pit

 The team stationed at the temple area put up several banners discouraging people on the plastic usage and indicating the general direction of the dugout pit to dispose the areca leaf food plates.

 Distribution of baskets for waste collection

 Several waste baskets were provided to the shop keepers to dump the paper and bio-degradable waste generated.

 Exchange of plastic items with paper cups and bags

Volunteers who toured the entire area took away any plastic cups/bags from the vendors and replaced them with equal quantity of paper cups and bags sourced by KANS. However the waste generated by packaged material in form of chips etc., could not be controlled.

 FD patrolling the temple area

Local police and Forest Department staff further made a note of the vendors selling items in plastic despite the prior announcement and gave a stern warning. They also patrolled regularly keeping a lookout for illegal activities and alcohol consumption.

By night fall the crowd had swelled to unmanageable proportions and plastic cups and bags were seen strewn around.

Post festival clean-up – 5^th Feb 2012 

 Volunteers cleaning up the temple area

 Cauvery banks and temple area after the festival

 The following evening of the 2nd day the last of the crowd had left and the shops were packed. All the banners were stolen and the lone pit overflowed with the leaf plates. The amount of waste in the form of plates, discarded food , paper and plastic waste was phenomenal. The volunteers who started early by afternoon could only finish 1/5th of the debris.

With lack of transport to take away the plastic waste and clear the remaining place, the committee was again reminded to clear the place by themselves.

 Overall the Dabguli 2012 event went smoothly and was a great success. Almost 80% of plastic and alcohol control was achieved. The 25 volunteers who participated the event coming from Chennai, Coimbatore, Hosur and Bangalore did a tremendous job!

The wildlife census of Hosur Forest Division is being organised on the 25th and 26th of February 2012. I hope you will be able to take part in this exercise and explore the beauties of Melagiris and help the cause of conservation.

The brief program is as follows:

24th February 2012:
1:00-2:00 PM Mathigiri cattle farm – Lunch
2:00 to 4:00 PM – Orientation
4:00 to 4:30 Tea
4:30 : Departure to respective areas.

25th February
5:00 AM – Wake up call
6:00 AM Census begins

26th February
2:00 PM Census ends.

If you wish to participate, please fill in form below. Please feel free to forward this email to your friends who might be interested. We look forward to seeing you.

(Please register only when you are sure of attending as dropping out in the last minute creates a lot of confusion!)

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dENXMHMxdVdvbGlFcGxfRml5ZnM3QXc6MQ

Warm Regards

Sanjeev Kumar S R +919362321000
Kenneth Anderson Nature Society.

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