IAYP

Silver
Destination
BISILE
(Western Ghats, Karnataka)
A Photographic report
KALS 2011

Ramesh Belagere
 Contents
Acknowledgments 1
Preface 1
Day one
Environment education 2
Destination 2
Butterflies 4
Lunch in wilderness 5
Exquisite beauty 8
A Lesson on Avi-Fauna 10
Camping 11
Day Two
Workouts 12
Mind control 12
Bird watching 13
Day two breakfast and lunch preparation 17
The Trek 18
The rain forest 19
Fungal world 23
Trees 27
Bamboos 30
Water percolation 32
Scats, Dungs, hooves and Pad marks 33
Power of Observation 34
Reports & Discussions 34
The team 35
 Acknowledgements

Heartily thanks to Mrs. Gouramma Nanjappa the principal of Karaumbiah’s Academy for Learning & Sports (KALS), Gonikoppa, South Kodagu, for her
exquisite support and motivation extended towards the team of experts and students respectively, without which this programme would never have
happened, Mrs. Suma Kuttappa and Mr.Jeevan Kollimada.Kushalappa two extraordinary faculties of KALS who brought principal’s visions into practicality,
Team of experts who shared their knowledge and experience to prepare the next generation of green warriors. Last but not the least all six volunteers who
behaved extremely well during the programme and bagged the knowledge.

Preface

International award for young people (IAYP) the duke of Edinburg’s award has been a lesson in practical to all youngsters. The international award is an
exciting self-Developmental programme available to all young people worldwide equipping them with life skills to make a difference to themselves, their
communities and the world. Six IAYP volunteers of KALS, this time were out for a trek in Western Ghats rainforest in Karnataka, “Bisile” to know about
the rich diversity of evergreen environment. They were accompanied by a team of environment education activists, who trained and educated them about the
flora and fauna of the rainforests. Many other aspects were taught to the volunteer by the experts. A photographic report is presented here to give the details
of what happened during the programme

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Environment Education:
It is believed that Nature conservation cannot happen unless the knowledge about the Eco system and its elements is spread among human beings, create
awareness among them so that they can start conserving before they start consuming. Younger generations are the best targets that have to be trained for this
task. “Teaching the next generation is an investment” is what the principal of KALS Mrs. Gowramma says and she is true about this in every aspect.
Teaching about nature, its inhabitants and its conservation is definitely an investment that might save the mankind from extinction. Mankind is under a dark
shadow of Encroachment of forest area, De-forestation, Mining, Habitat destruction, poaching that’s leading us towards extinction without giving us any
clue about it. With a hope to create some awareness among the participants, an effort was put during this IAYP event to teach the students (volunteers) about
the basics of this complex eco system and its importance. Keeping this subject as one of the element in self development program of IAYP silver award, the
team of teachers with their students stepped into the rich Eco systems of Western Ghats complex.

Destination

Bisile Protected forest is a

3643 Hectare area covered by
lush evergreen forest having a
buffer zone of 451 hectares.

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Consisting of many endemic and rare life forms housed inside, this part of Western Ghats erects huge variety of sky scraping trees. Endangered fauna like
lion tailed macaque (Macaca silenus), Slender Loris (Loris lyddekeriannus) Chinge Koollie (kodava) and Indian Giant Squirrel or the Malabar giant squirrel
(Ratufa inidca) inhibit this area.

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Butterflies

Exotic butterflies decorate these forests. Butterflies are called as the indicators of a rich eco system. One who visits this place will surely experience this to
be true. Southern Birdwing, Paris peacock, Blue Mormon, Maps, Jays and many more large and vibrant butterflies are found at ease here.

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Lunch in wilderness. After searching a suitable place for lighting fire to cook, the team prepared to make lunch for the day. Students brought fire wood and
cooked food all by themselves under the watchful eyes of the instructors.
Photo: Suma Kuttappa

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 .

Photo: Suma Kuttappa

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Tears due to smoke and onions, sweat due to heat and humidity, finally “Hard earned lunch tasted good”…..

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Exquisite Beauty
It was to our surprise that during the burning hot summer, under humid conditions of the rain forest we were greeted with thunder showers early evening.
Sun setting on one side and accumulating clouds on the peak of pushpagiri made an amazing view. The crack of thunder was deafening and the light sent a
chill down the spines of all participants

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After shower dusk paints the sky with soothing colors of red pink and purple. Students prepare for a interactive session of learning with the team of
instructors who had planned to teach them identification of birds and the importance of birds in the eco-system.

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Lessons on avi-fauna: Tired yet interested, the participants learned their first lessons of birdwatching. Power of observation
and skill of identifying birds were taught during the pre dinner hours. Students were asked to make
their own observations about the surroundings which they will see on the next day.
Photo: Jeevan

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 Photo: Suma Kuttappa

Camping: After a hard day filled with lot of travel, work and excitement the camping brought smiles on all faces. Four tents, one for the ladies and three for
men were pitched. A small session of songs, and all were fast asleep since they had to wake up at 5AM next day.

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DAY TWO:
Workouts: It was to the surprise of the instructors that the participants woke up earlier than them and gave them a wakeup call. The team of experts
felt happy and was motivated to put more effort in teaching such enthusiastic volunteers. One hour of body warming exercise session was handled by
the adventure expert Mr. K. Krishnamurthy, who also taught the students about mind control

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Bird watching: Soon after the warm up session the group was split into three teams, each led by a trainer and started the bird watching session. Knowledge
about the feathered bipeds was shared by the instructors with the volunteers. This session was held for one hour.
A small checklist of identified birds during the event is given below
Common Name
Asian Paradise flycatcher
Black shouldered woodpecker
Bonelli’s Eagle
Golden oriole
Grey wagtail
Indian pond heron
Indian robin
Little egret
Loten’s sunbird
Malabar Grey Hornbill
Median egret
Plum headed parakeet
Pompadour green pigeon
Racket tailed drongo
Red vented bulbul
Red whiskered bulbul
Red wattled lapwing
Scarlet minivet
Small bee-eater
Small blue kingfisher
Spotted dove
White bellied drongo
White cheeked barbet
White-Bellied treepie
Yellow wagtail
Scientific name
Terpsiphone paradise
Chrysocolaptes festivus
Hieraaetus fasciatus
Oriolus oriolus
Motacilla cinerea
Ardeola grayii
Saxicoloides fulicata
Egretta garzetta
Nectarinia lotenia
Ocyceros griseu,
Mesophoyx intermedia
Psittacula cyanocephala
Treron pompadora
Dicrurus paradiseus
Pyenonotus cafer
Pyenonotus jocosus
Vanellus indicus
Photo: Iyaraj
Pericrocotus flammeus
Merops orientalis
Alcedo atthis
Streptopelia chinensis
Dicrurus caerulescens
Megalaima viridis
Dendrocitta leucogastra
Motacilla flava
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 Photo: Suma Kuttappa
Jewels in the air

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Deforestation is increasing at a very alarming rate! And a as an evidence to this the volunteers saw pile of wood and cleared out forest area around the
place where they saw the above mentioned birds. The home of such birds is in great danger due to mans overutilization of resources……

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 Photo: Suma Kuttappa
The birds-watchers also happened to see many butterflies during the trail and happened to capture some of them in their cameras

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Day two breakfast and lunch preparation!.. after deciding to prepare lunch along with breakfast so that they can trek more the team cooked pulao for lunch
and vermicelli for breakfast.

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The Trek: Soon they were out in the wilderness. Starting to Trek inside the dense rainforest, preparing to capture every precious moment

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The Rainforest: Dense canopy cover allowed very little light to reach the floor of the forest and competition by the floral world to reach the life
source was clearly visible and made a beautiful sight…

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Stepping on the dead and decaying
vegetation the team moved slowly and
watchfully trying to learn about every event
that was happening in that rainforest

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A Walk in the wilderness is equal to years in the library

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Lessons about the life
cycle of trees and
giant creepers were
given to volunteers

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The fungal world
that existed on the
dead, decaying life
forms made an
interesting subject
for the learning
team

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Different colors, different size,
different shapes and huge
mass of mushrooms were seen
during the trek

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Some looked like leaves of the
huge creeper that went meters
away from the forest floor

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The fungal world looked
equally beautiful as the floral
fantasy itself

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Rainforest or tropical forest grow
near to equator where it is hot
and humid. Here the
temperatures are about 20-25°C
and the rainfall in a year is heavy.
The heat, humidity and rain form
a perfect mixture of a fast
growing and fast decomposing
agents. Huge trees that cover
the forest canopy fall down and
turn to forest flour within few
day.

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 Photo: Harsha

Trees: Most of the rain forest flora has thorny outfits to drain out
the rain water fallen on them soon to protect themselves from
getting rotten 28
Some of the trees were made up of fancy looking outer On its way back to soil this decaying tree is used as a
cover they looked like army outfits source of life for a bunch of fungi

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Bamboos: Malabar tropical forests homes many verity of bamboo the team passed through many such bamboo grooves as they advanced during the trek
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A fresh water stream in humid environment makes a refreshing pit stop
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Water percolation: Evergreen, moist and wet these kind of forests are the main source of water for every life form. The process of water
percolation was taught to the volunteers and after seeing the fresh water streams running every where they were feeling the importance of the
forests and conserving them for their future wellbeing.

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Scats, Dungs, Hooves and pad marks: Bear scat, elephant dung and
pad marks proved the existence of the fauna in good numbers in this
area. Langoor droppings, gaur hoof marks and evidences of salt licks*
were found during the trek and information about these animals was
given to the volunteers by the wildlife enthusiasts. Animals need salt
and many other minerals to nourish themselves properly.

*Soil consists of many minerals and salts this makes the animals lick
the soil where the contents are more, this is called as “salt lick”

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Power of observation
The forest always whispers and never talks. Every animal in the forest relies on its acute sense of sight, smell and hearing more than any language. Even the
slightest of Sound might disclose their presence to a predator or might take away the prey from them. It is said to be a “Roman” when you are in “Rome”. If
we develop an acute sense of hearing, seeing and smelling the environment around us without talking the chances of learning about what we see, hear or feel
will be more. A very old saying “A very good listener is a very good learner” and listening is a part of observation. So observation leads us to understand
what we see, hear and feel.

Reports & discussions

Students were asked to write down the observations and submit the report to the IAYP award leader. First pages of the reports submitted by each volunteer
are given bellow. The detailed report is available with the IAYP award leader Mrs. Suma Kuttappa

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Each volunteer made 24 points of observation per day and had presented two day’s observation in words to the trainers. This session went on till 1AM in the
morning of the last day which tested the dedication of the training team which did not loose patience.

Photo credit: All photos unless mentioned are by Ramesh Belagere

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 The Team

Anitha, 10th Grade IAYP volunteer Harsha K.B, 10th Grade IAYP volunteer

Iya Raj, Expert tour coordinator, Jeevan Kollimada.Kushalappa, Faculty, KALS

Swarna Bhoomi Education Trust, Bangalore.

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 Kaariyappa B.L, 10th Grade IAYP volunteer Karthikeya, 10th Grade IAYP volunteer

Photo: Suma Kuttappa

Krishnamurthy, Adventure expert from Himagiri Rajath H.K, 10th Grade IAYP volunteer
Adventures Bangalore

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 Photo: Suma Kuttappa

Ramesh Belagere, Wildlife enthusiast and photographer, Suma Kuttappa, Award leader IAYP KALS
Bangalore

Supreeth Muthamma, 10th Grade IAYP volunteer

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Photo: Suma Kuttappa