Preface-This essay was originally a submission for VCN essay competition. While this essay has been presented as a single adventure in one day, it is actually an accumulation of multiple exciting encounters over several days.
The day started with a particularly foggy morning with the mist shrouding any signs of the road. The place was the always picturesque Nilgiris in the Western Ghats. Another day of fieldwork for habitat plots beckoned. A misty December morning, driving 30Km. in the winding Western Ghats with low visibility! It was not the easiest route! As we neared our site, we had to drive through the narrow forest animal path. The route bisected the mountain at a point so high that the staggered slopes hugged the route on one side and the gaping valley on the other. The marvellous matrix of grass and rolling forests(which looked like faraway green fur) presented itself in the view- a unique ecosystem like none other -Sholas at its finest-islands of the heavens!
A typical shola patch-a green matrixThe route however was very precarious indeed! One wrong turn and a horrible death awaited! As I went deeper into the forest with my Field Assistant, a raspy rustling sound on the side pierced the chirping of the forest. What was that!? Intrigue and Fear gripped me. As I quickly turned in the direction of the sound, I saw a spatter of yellow with black spots streaking inside the forest from the road. Instantly, the head of the creature reared itself to me, revealing the spine-tingling sight of a leopard! It all happened so quickly that I froze on the spot. A wave of fear and excitement caught me, as it was the first time I had seen this animal in the wild. Then as I recovered my senses, the adrenaline surged through my veins, and with an instinctive response, I started to turn back. But to our relief, the leopard gave a short growl of warning and disappeared into the understory! We moved on with bated breath deep in the forest this time on foot. Once we started doing our regular work of plant sampling, it was business as usual. But not for long! I heard a grunt and saw a massive black horned shadow in the growth some feet ahead. This meant only one thing in the western ghats- Gaur! The big bovine is usually shy in the wild but can be aggressive when provoked.So, we had to watch our next movement very carefully indeed. I didn't have much experience in such tense situations before,so I looked at my assistant who was well versed in such situations. The gaur was looking straight at us, intent on charging us! Its ears flickered, maybe with irritation with this unwanted intrusion on its territory or maybe just due to the heat. Its menacing horns could deliver a crushing blow to any body part it touched.
Here is the imposing Gaur,in a more anthropological settingMy mind became blank , my face went pale and my legs seem to be stuck on the ground as panic struck. We had to act fast to be safe! He told me to immediately find a shaded spot on an incline. I managed to find a safe spot in a bamboo bush, hidden away from the site. Sitting there in some fear and some relief I thought, this must be what smaller mammals must be doing when faced with such circumstances too. We were retaining some ancestral habits from the post-cretacious past I suppose!
In Rome do as the Romans Do! After
initially trying to search for us, the Gaur finally went along its way.
Thankfully, the presence of mind of my field assistant avoided a potentially dangerous situation. But what was I to know that this
wouldn't be the only dangerous situation I was going to get stuck into for that
day!
Now making our way towards the plot, it was a long
winding walk as we reached the tea plantations surrounding the plot. I removed my jacket in the sweltering heat. We finally reached the
plantation after 15 minutes of a tiring, steep walk.
As we made our way through the plantation and finally reached the forest edge, A chestnut-headed bee-eater whirled in the faraway trees, exploring the trees for signs of its six-legged food, reminding us that the forest was near. A Tickell's Blue flycatcher stood serenely on a tree nearby. As I stooped in the thick canopy I felt a chill. The temperature dropped suddenly as I went inside. The expansive canopy cover was acting as a shield, not permitting the sunlight to pass through to the forest floor. Entering the forest was like going into a dark cave as if the cave roof was a tree canopy. It became even darker as we ventured inside.
The forest started becoming darker once we neared the plot
White-bellied sholakili,a shola endemic ,as the name suggests(Photo Credits-Dhanesh,Field Assistant, Nilgiri Ecology Project)We finally started doing our plot. After completing the one-hectare plot we ventured to the left side of the forest. As we came out of the forest,I saw a sharp transition from the Montane forest to open grassland. Now we had to traverse this steep terrain to reach to the four-hectare plot.
It was as if we had entered a different world!
The chill of the forest now changed to the harsh heat of the scrub. As we trudged up the hill in the scrub I
suddenly came across a plant which was
going to be a massively pesky nuisance all the way till we reached the four-hectare plot. There it stood, in numbers, ominously staring at me from the path. “Goddamn gorse”
I swore ruefully. Our journey was going to get prickly indeed. I slowly tried
going travelling the path, trying to carefully dodge the sharp thorns of the plant so that they won’t
pierce my shirt or worse, my skin. But the route was infested with these
invasives so however hard I tried the plant still managed to make its mark. As I
somehow struggled up the path, a few bloody scratches bore witness to the struggle.
But this is normal for field work in the forest!
Cursing my wounds,I went up to finish the 4-hectare plot and the way was about to get bumpier. To exit the scrub back to the plantations we had on the way down- I took my time to walk down. Then, I lost sight of my partner going down from the scrub to the dense forest. Somehow, I managed to “acoustically ‘’ estimate his location downhill by calling out and hearing his responses. Just as I started descending the forest, a slippery slope beckoned. Suddenly, I lost balance making the nontrivial mistake of an imbalanced straight step instead of the side step. Down I went, screaming with horror fearing the worst. I needed something to stop my slide, else at the minimum, some fractured bones awaited. I only just managed to stop myself from banging my head on a boulder as I picked up speed. Thankfully I held on to a grateful branch of a tree to break my fall and didn’t get hurt. Had it not been for this tree, I would have descended many meters down on the forest floor with bloody repercussions. Finally, I came out of the forest after a hellish ride and found my fieldwork partner. Where have you been? He exclaimed, and I had to reveal I had fallen off the slope . He looked back at me with exasperation which turned into a quizzical look- What is wrong with the stick? I responded with a hint of surprise-“ What stick?” I looked at the measuring stick.” Oops “I realized, it had just three parts instead of the regular 4 parts. It must have got lost in the forest when I fell I explained.But by somehow doing a “jugaad” with a natural stick, I finally measured the tree canopy with the refashioned stick. At last, we finished the plot and went back. Phew! What a day! But like many days on the field, uneventful ones are a rarity.
As I sat back resting in the comforting warmth of the fireplace in my room,I thought how many close shaves with danger I had gotten through that day! A rollercoaster adventure of a day in which I was lucky to come out relatively unscathed. A real wild ride! But it is these exhilarating times which make me live for field visits.It is with the same sense of wonder that the great naturalists in history –Darwin, Wallace, and Attenborough made their expeditions in dense forests, raging oceans and steep mountains overcoming some tricky encounters along the way. Without these adventures, none of the discoveries in natural history would have happened. I only hope to follow in these massive footsteps, with the same excitement, skirting dangers along the way in an endless quest to unravel nature’s enigmatic mysteries.
