Launched Nisarga on World Environment Day.

Wow feeling so relaxed after launch of "Nisarga". Full credits to Dinesh Naik who worked tirelessly for the first edition.

Nisarga, a monthly e-zine in Kannada covering topics about nature, environment, Flora, Fauna, places anything and everything related to mother Earth. The number of people who read kannada has come down, and to add fuel to this there's a huge shortfall of quality literature about nature and environment in the present scenario. This initiative of releasing "Nisarga" in kannada was a very discussed and debated thought. This also ensures that people will develop a habit of reading kannada if we provide interesting topics. With "Nisarga" we make a sincere attempt to kindle the reading passion and also spread a message about nature and conservation.

Please do send in articles, pics anything you want to share and we will see how best we can accomadate it in the release.

As we wanted to release it on the World Environment Day, thie edition had some errors and we apologise for it. Will make sure this does not happen next time.

nisarga.maasika@gmail.com is the address you need to write tooooo..............

Some Pics.......

More Plains, JK, India

Thought of posting some pics link of my previous trips..........
1) Road trip to North East - Oct 19 - Nov 14, 06. 4 guys on 3 bikes rode from Bangalore thru AP, Orissa, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya. Rode a exciting 5435Kms and came back by train frm Guwahati. Will post the details some time........HERE

2) Ride to khardungla - Jul 05 - 5 guys 5 bikes on a 2600kms journey to Khardungla thru one of the most picturesque landscapes. Bilaspur, Manali, Rohtang, Barlacha, Tanglang la, Leh, Khardung La, Chang La and finally defeated by the weather :-( @ Chang La came back without completing Marsimik La and Pangong..........HERE

3) Trip to Ranganthittu, Mysore and Silver cloud estate (Gudlur)......HERE

4) Lost Heaven - Trip to Devkaar .........HERE

5) Mulliangiri - Never ceases to amaze....HERE

6) One & only Durga.......HERE

For the interested & keen:-), all the pics................................HERE

Kanchenjunga, Tashi View point, Sikkim, India

Since a Week.....

It's been a week after my Naturalists training camp @ JLR Bannerghata. This camp has been an eye opener. Not that i was dumb before, just that it has thought me to look into details, observe, recognize things, document etc etc. It was also a great place, made new friends got to meet some wonderfull guys like Karthik and Anaconda Ashwin, naturalist @ Dubare. The first day first hour in camp was really boring with those intro sessions and do's n don'ts. Then fun started post lunch session with actual intro to birds and the nature walk was a icing on the cake. Believe me after this the days went so fast, it was like a flash, two and a half days seemed like a moment. Felt real bad as the training ended, actually wanted to stay more, learn more but all good things have to come to an end. Neways for a person who thought all birds are relatives of either the crow or the sparrow it was certainly a Great experience. One bad experience though, lost most of my pics as I accidentally formatted my Data bank, though I tried to recover this using some third party software but could not recover the majority :-(

????? Arborea

Karthik in action

Reflections

Scop's Owl taken by Ashwin


Nature Walk

??????

Today morning went birding to Hebbal lake , trying to keep the momentum rolling :-) . Joined by Deepak and Prashanth. Spotted around 20+ birds. Details here>>

Niri

My First post

Kaakana kote - One of my favourite movie. Lokesh plays the protagonist Kaka in this movie penned by Masti Venkatesh Iyengar.

A little on the subject - Kaakana kote (Kote = Fort in Kannada) Kakanakote is situated at a distance of 73 km from Mysore in karnataka in the midst of the Nagarahole forest (aka Rajiv Gandhi National park......this name sucks). There are no huge ramparts or walls to make it look like a fort, it's actually a place with dense vegetation and looks impenetrable. This acted as a natural fort for the forest dwelling Kuruba tribe. This place was christened as Kaakana Kote by the Maharaja of Mysore who was impressed by the bravery of this tribe's leader named " Kaka ".

Masti has beautifully depicted the haadyas (group of dwellings) ,lifestyle of the Kuruba's, the oppresion of the Hegde clan against these tribals, the shrewdness, planning and bravery of Kaka intertwined with the love story between Kaka's daughter and the son of Hegde. Hegde's are the palegaars (local chieftains) working for the Mysore kings and collect taxes in form of honey, ivory tusks and other forest produce from these tribals in the forest region. They misuse the order of the King and collect more from the tribals but give the King only the stipulated amount, pocketing the rest themselves (Now we know where our policitcians and babus learnt all the corruption from....). Kaka in his growing up years worked in the royal stables of Mysore and knows the ways of the corrupt officials. On his return to his village He proclaims himself the Chieftain and refuses to pay taxes to the Hegde. This prompts the Hegde to use muscle power to bring down the uprising. The clever Kaka attacks the Hegde's camp at night and kidnaps his only son. With his only Son held @ ransom the Hegde does not dare to attack kaka. In this the Hegde's son falls in love with the daughter of Kaka. When there's resistance for their marriage they decide to runaway and get married. Meanwhile Kaka sends an emissary with a letter written by the priest seeking intervention from the Maharaja but is disappointed as the emissary does not get an audience with the king. As a last resort the Hegde decides to attack putting his son's life in jeopardy. The King shows up at the last moment and "All's well that ends well".

The movie has been entirely shot in the forests with soulful songs "Nesara nodu" "Kari Haidha" composed by Ashwath.

All in all it's a treat to watch this simple movie.

Niri