Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
(see immediately-preceding post for human context)
Pictured is one of an enormous number of water lilies (not lotus) then blooming, pink, on the edges of Vembanad Lake and its backwaters.
”Pests” to rice-growers in and around Kumarakon, they have in recent years become tourism “gold”.
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Pictured above is yet another example of the most commonly-witnessed symptom/expression of our global “narcissism pandemic”.
It shows perhaps the most inane, virulent – and characteristic – form of “early 21st century” human behaviour.
Why bother to pay attention to any of the world’s wonders when you could, instead, go one worse than perpetually-peering into a mirror?
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South India’s large terrestrial mammals hog the limelight, but its insects, amphibians, birds and reptiles are equally worthy of appreciative human attention.
The non-mammals offer an enormously higher number of individuals and species, with a mind-bogglingly diverse array of shapes and colours.
Butterflies abound.
The pictured individual is a member of this region’s (probably) most oft-sighted butterfly species.
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On our recent travels in south India we saw wild Asian/Asiatic elephants many times.
As you can see, such encounters with Elephas maximus do not only occur inside national parks and other “reserves”!
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Circa 200 species of dragonfly and damselfly have been recorded in and around south India’s wetlands.
Some of them are permanently resident, but one dragonfly species is very probably the insect world’s greatest traveller.
Pantala flavescens – commonly/appropriately known as “the globe skimmer”, or “wandering glider” – undertakes nonstop, ocean-crossing flights to-from India and Africa.
Evidence is mounting that this species’ population (which exists on every continent, bar Antarctica) ought be considered as not merely “widespread”, but as a single, “global” population.
Discover its amazing, still-evolving story here.
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Today’s post is the first of several to feature a species that any wildlife-seeking visitor to south India’s Western Ghats can reasonably expect to see, easily – probably, often.
Bonnet macacques are endemic to this region.
Until last year these very sociable forest-dwellers enjoyed a “least concern” conservation status.
Their numbers are currently declining, and in 2022 the IUCN reclassified their status as “vulnerable”.
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You are looking at a member of the genus Trichosanthes, blooming in one of south India’s Sholas – high altitude forests which “punctuate” cooler, wetter parts of the Western Ghats.
Circa 2000 metres above sea level, this vine was discreetly thriving in a very small, very special national park.
Eventually, Kerala’s Pampadum Shola National Park will have its own multi-image post.
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Delightfully perky as is its “post-punk” crest, an adult male Indian flycatcher’s signature feature is the prodigious length of its “tail”/tail feathers.
Evidence suggests that here, size does matter: apparently, individuals with longer tail feathers enjoy greater breeding success.
Generally, extravagant tail feathers are a feature of promiscuous species, but the usually-monogamous Indian paradise flycatcher is a spectacular exception to this “rule”.
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In many respects, India’s south-westernmost state – Kerala – is India’s “best”.
By area, Kerala is just 57% the size of Tasmania.
By population, it exceeds Tasmania circa sixty times over; the entire population of Australia is less than 75% of Kerala’s.
Kerala includes both the lowest place in all of India and its highest point, south of the Himalayas.
Collectively, Kerala’s citizens are much more diverse, healthier, and more highly educated than are “average” Indians.
Keralans also eat some of the world’s most delicious food.
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