Chasing Wilderness - The Backyard Experience

My backyard - "my forest"

         When I was in college, doing my masters in Botany (about 10 years ago), I was obsessed with this idea of preparing a ‘flora of my home’ comprising all the plants of our backyard.  Even though I love plants, taxonomy has always been my least favorite subject but I somehow convinced myself that this is an important task which I should accomplish.  There was no apparent reason as to why I thought something out like that; it is difficult to explain. My eternal childishness, probably.

The view of my village as seen from the top of my backyard 

      We have about 10-acres of land for a backyard which is a portion of a hillock actually.  Our house is located on the corner of the plot, on the side of a PWD road that is traversing along the flank of the hillock.   The place was virtually a jungle up until recently when my father and uncles (who co-own the land now) decided to plant Rubber in 2010.  Now the wilderness has considerably reduced but back in 2005, it was full of wild plants and upon my weekend visits to my home (I was staying in hostel at that time), I used to collect as many plants as possible and would take them back to college so I could get them identified.  The project was going well and I even made a list of around 200 plants, but after finishing the college I lost interest and left it midway.

Naravelia zeylanica (വാതക്കൊടി )
 - A woody climber with anti-rheumatic properties

     

Streak- Throated Woodpecker; female

Chalavara, the place where I belong, is a small sleepy village lying in the south-west corner of Palakkad District (10.8244^o N and 76.2993^O E).  It is a typical mid-land village (Geographically, the State of Kerala can be categorized as high land, mid land, and coastal areas) with numerous small hills and sprawling paddy fields between them.  Needless to say all the hills were dense forests once upon a time (at least up until the 1950s), but as the time passed the hills became homesteads and the forests got thinned out and now most of them are nothing but shrublands if the owners have not planted coconut or rubber.   But I must say there are still places in my village, places which will give you the impression of a forest, woody and dark, where the lianas are still making love with the trees, and to me they are like portals through which I can escape to the wilderness at any time (our backyard was one such place).

The Clipper (Parthenos sylvia)

   

The Garden Lizard - Calotes versicolor

I have always been fond of my backyard (we still refer to it as forest).  As a kid, I used to spend countless hours roaming around the place, collecting seeds or feathers, picking up fallen mangoes in the summer, climbing up the trees, sometimes singing on top of voice (nobody was going to hear), or just sitting on the rocks on top of the hill soaking in the beauty of green that can be seen around, of the paddy fields and the well-wooded homesteads lying below.

Anangan Mala as seen from my backyard - Anangan Mala is a medium-sized hill situated in  Ananganadi Panchayath, a couple of kilometers away from our village.  The rocks of this hill are said to be rich sources of Shilajit (Kanmadam).

     

Gram Blue (Euchrysops cnejus) 

My grandfather brought this land back in the 1960s.  Half of the land is semi-vertical slope and the other half is flat ground, a portion of which is coconut field.  The land was well attended till the late 80s (cassava being the major crop), by then my grandfather could no longer continue farming due to health problems and the land was left barren.  Within a couple of years, the shrubs grew over and several portions became virtually impenetrable.  There were all kinds of trees, huge trees in fact, like that of Pterocarpus, Dalbergia, Teak, Xylia, Bridelia, etc., along with several mango trees and cashew-nut trees.  Several bamboo clumps were also there.  There were animals also, a whole lot of them, and of course plenty of birds.  Foxes were common and wild cats were plenty. Then there were porcupines, civets, mongoose, and even wild rabbits (If I didn’t mention snakes, it is only because I don’t like them much.  To say the least, it is quite unsurprising even now for the villagers to spot a python especially during the monsoon).

Owlet Moth - Spirama sps

Yellow billed babbler

         

Bracket fungi

But this was all 10 to 15 years ago.  The foxes have long gone, so do the porcupines and rabbits. I have not seen or heard about spotting a civet for quite some time now.  Mongooses have become extremely rare and snakes are also slowly disappearing.  Needless to say the number and variety of birds are also declining.  The Coucals and Mynas, once abundant, are now nowhere to be seen.  The handsome Paradise Flycatcher which used to be a regular visitor during the winter months gives us a miss this year also (I have not seen the bird for the last 5 years).  Quite surprisingly, some new members have appeared and I think they are going to stick around, wild boars and monkeys, and the farmers are having hell of a time dealing with them.  It is also interesting to note that the number of peafowl has increased considerably whereas they were very rare some 10 years or so ago.

The Monkey - They first came to our 'forest' around 15 years ago and now there is a colony of about 20 individuals

       

Paddyfield Parasol (Neurothemis intermedia)

Anyway, my hopes of documenting plants reappeared again in 2008 (when the trees were still around) when I purchased a camera soon after landing a job.  Since the documentation became easier with the camera, my grand project of ‘flora of my home’ suddenly seemed more realistic and I started taking pictures of all the plants around my home.  Again, I left it midway as I found it pretty difficult to get my focus back; and also I was travelling a lot during that time.  By the time I settled in and started working from my home (I work in clinical documentation) in 2011, both my camera and my project were sitting idle, gathering dust.   “Come on man, get up, put what you learned to some use” I would curse myself, but I could not pull myself together, I was lacking the drive.  I rarely ventured out to the backyard  and by then most of the trees were felled down to make way for rubber.  Anyway the trees have gone now and there won't be much to document, I thought to myself.

Pea Blue - Lampides boeticus

Anisochilus carnosus 

      But I was proved wrong as I found out on a fine morning in 2013 when I decided to go for a walk in the backyard.  Obviously, most of the trees had gone then but the place was still full of plants.  The undergrowth was so dense that

Moth caterpillar (Areas galatina)

Indian skink

it was difficult to spot the rubber saplings.  Though it was mostly Lantana and Chromolaena, it was a pleasing sight.  I was delighted when I saw the vigorous sprouting of Clerodendron, Ziziphus, Desmodium among many other herbs.  It was a fine morning, the sun was bright and shining, and the clouds were not to be seen even though it was June and they were ought to be present.  I was at the far corner of the field, walking around the coconut trees, feeling happy for no apparent reason and content.  As I was tottering around absentmindedly, I noticed some movement on the ground.  I first thought it might be a skink, but it was a garden lizard, a female, and she was deep red in color.  I could say for sure it’s a female because she was laying eggs.  I watched it with amazement as I haven’t seen such a bright-colored one before; I have seen plenty of them before but always in dull colors (later I managed to capture one in green).  As the lizard was busy burying the eggs with its tender fingers, I was cursing myself for not taking my camera along.  It could have been a wonderful frame, a bright red lizard sitting on top of its eggs, only if I cared to take my camera.  Wary of my presence, the lizard was eyeing me suspiciously, standing above the eggs, now buried in the mud, and suddenly I thought of my old project.  “No, you are not going to lose an opportunity again” my inner-self proclaimed loudly, “now, these plants are still around and you are going to document them….”

Bamboo Tree Brown - Lethe europa

Rat snake

        Thus, I renewed my excursions to my backyard, this time with my humble camera, meticulously capturing all the plants around. I was a little uncertain as to how I could identify them, but Facebook came to my help as I found that there are plenty of forums in Facebook where experts are always ready to help, all I have to do is post the pictures and request help for identification. Everything was going well and I was so happy and relieved that at last my project is getting done. Since I work at night, I have all mornings to myself to explore my backyard and I was making good progress. I calculated that with this pace I could wind up my project within 3 months. Well, now it is 2016 and I have been exploring my backyard regularly for the past 2 years (sometimes 7 days a week) and guess what, I am still nowhere near finishing “the flora of my home.” Instead, I have almost finished “The Lepidoptera and Odonata of my home” and the idea of making a biodiversity register for the entire village looks a lot more promising.

Water Snow Flat (Tagiades litigiosa)

Common Sailer (Neptis hylas)

        It was none of my faults, I tell you. I was pretty resilient when the butterflies started hitting on me, yeah they made the first move. I tried hard to dodge their winks and stares but they were so adamant and irresistible that I ended up surrendering myself, meekly and completely. “You fool, you are not going to get a decent picture of them with your stupid camera, come back here, take the pictures of these plants” my sensible inner half shouted as I fumbled with my camera, desperately trying to capture the winged beauties. I thought, okay there might be some 20 of them at the most and once I capture them all I could get back to plants. I was literally in cloud nine when I captured my 50th butterfly. It didn’t end even there as the place turned out to be a treasure trove of butterflies and the number has now reached 108 (when I photographed Zebra Blue a couple of weeks ago). Again, there are another 6 species which I have not been able to capture yet, taking the tally to 114. And the dragonflies, how could I forget them; the mighty dragons and the cute damsels, I have had a great time flirting with as many as 43 species of dragonflies so far. Undoubtedly, the most amazing experience of my life.

Chocolate Albatross (Appias lyncida)

Caesalpinia mimosoides

Giant Wood Spider  (Nephila pilipes jalorensis); male(the small red colored one) and female; once the monsoon is over, you can't walk around without getting tangled in their golden webs

     

The blue Mormon (Papilio polymnestor); the second largest butterfly of India

 I am the kind of person who loves to dream even when awake, loves to be alone, has little or no connection with reality. "You are stick thrown up in the air," my mother always snaps at me, and that is the best way to put it. It is not that I hate reality, only that I can't be realistic. I tried hard to change my ways but failed miserably, and now I am not bothered anymore. After all, it is a wonderful way of existence. But there is a problem to it that you will end up mixing dreams with reality. You will find it difficult to say for sure whether you experienced it or if it is just an imagination. Of course, as far as you are concerned, it won't make any difference but it will put you in embarrassing situations especially if you try to communicate. That is, after a while, if someone asks me whether I have seen all these butterflies and dragonflies from my backyard, I may not be able to convince them. I am thinking of writing a paper but being the laziest man one could possibly come across, I don't really know when I am going to do that. Until then, I am going to use this platform to chronicle my observations.

Banded Blue Pierrot (Discolampa ethion)

   And yes, I am still continuing with my excursions to the backyard. I have no intention to stop my outings, you know, after all I have a project to complete, "The Flora of My Home."


Click here for more photos from my backyard