Holocene year 3 issue 10 11 12

Year – 3/Issue – 10-11-12/ June - August, 2018

World after 5th Extinction Special Third Anniversary Issue of Exploring Nature

From Team Exploring Nature Editors’ Desk : Team Exploring Nature Title & Logo Design: Arijit Das Majumder Saikat Chakraborty Newsletter Design: Team Exploring Nature

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Editorial : World Environment Day – India is Global Host Story Room : Witness of The Ancient World The Solo Nature Voyager : Six Months in Four States (Part One) Exploration Camp : Diary of A Highland Scout – Part Three Expert Speaks : Introduction to Caves and Karts Bio - Enterprising: What can you do with a Zoology degree?

Cohabitation : Jumbo in Rail Track Theme Poster : End of A Day

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Story Room: Witness of the Ancient World!

By Priyanku Chetia Pator

North eastern forest of India are home of various endangered species including only species of ape, Western Hoolock Gibbon. This species is found in Assam, Mizoram, Bangladesh and Myanmar and china.

In Assam Hoollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary are famous for this ape family. The Hoollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary are also known as the Gibbon wildlife sanctuary is a evergreen forest located in Jorhat, Assam. The sanctuary was officialy rename in 1997. The upper canopy of the forest is dominant by the hoolong tree which is the state tree of Assam and the name “Hoollongapar” is also come from this tree. The foresthas been sorrunded by the tea gardens and small villages. With the Gibbon there are 7 different species of monkeys over here, and also famous for only nocturnal primate this is Bengal slow loris. The other primates include the Stump tailed macaque, Northern pig tailed macaque, Eastern Assamese macaque, Rhesus macaque, and caped langur and also found at the sanctuary are Asian Elephant, tiger, wild boar, three different type of civet, four types of squirrel, several types of snakes and more than 200 species of bird.

In Hoollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary there are 26 family of western Hoolock Gibbon are known to live in this forest.

They spend majoirity of their time up in the canopy, hanging from high branches they feed primarily on fig and other fruits, they consume water from tree holes. capable of their reaching speed upto 20km/hr, covering upto 6 meters in just one swing and they are the fastest flightless animal in the canopy and they acrobats of the forest. Spotting Gibbons are never easy as they are almost entirely arboreal and comes down to the ground only in some exceptional situation. They swing from tree to tree in a mode of locomotion known as Brachiation During the mating season they have been reports of them coming down to eye level.

Males and female gibbons are simililar to their size but males are easily identifies by the coloration their black fur in the body and a distinctive white brow, while the females are dark brown hair on the side of their face. Females are totally different in colour of their body. Gibbons are famous for their territorial call reverberate through the forest and used by individuals to attact mates. Females give birth to one offspring every 2-3 years and it remains within the family group for 810 years. In 2009 Gibbon was considered to be one of the 25 most endangered primates. The most threatened thing to the sanctuary is that a train track divided the forest into two different part for that the Gibbons family are also separate in two parts but after Assam Forest Department making a 2|Page

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Year – 3/Issue – 10-11-12/ June - August, 2018

bridge to connect the gibbon on either side of the train track that divides the sanctuary but this technique is not working till yet. It is known from the forest guard that 3 family are lives in one side and most of them are lives in the either side. The forest guard Bikash Boruah tell us that the gibbons of the either side are seen rarely and he also tell us the big problem of the sanctuary is deficit of water for that they make some artificial pond under the forest.

Day by day this beautiful creature of nature is threatened by human now a less number of them are left in the forest of Assam . Assam Government should make some strict rule for protecting this animal otherwise one day we will lost them all.

SAVE NATURE SAVE HOOLOCK GIBBON Photography by Priyanku Chetia Pator

Editorial: World Environment Day – India is Global Host

On 19th February of 2018 at New Delhi, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and Erik Solheim, United Nations UnderSecretary-General and Head of UN Environment, jointly announced that India will be hosting the global World Environment Day celebrations on 5 June 2018.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi May expressed his happiness over India officially hosting this year's World Environment

Addressing the nation on the 44th edition of 'Mann Ki Baat', the Prime Minister said, "On the 5th of June, our nation will officially host the World Environment Day Celebrations. This is a very important achievement for India and also a recognition of India's growing leadership in the direction of tackling climate change."

“Beat Plastic Pollution”, the theme for World Environment 2018, urges governments, industry, communities, and individuals to come together and explore sustainable alternatives and urgently reduce the production and excessive use of single-use plastic polluting our oceans, damaging marine life and threatening human health.

“India is excited to host the World Environment Day this year on June 5. Indian philosophy and lifestyle has long been rooted in the concept of co-existence with nature. We are committed to making Planet Earth a cleaner and greener place”, said Dr. Harsh Vardhan.

He added: “If each and every one of us does at least one green good deed daily towards our Green Social Responsibility, there will be billions of green good deeds daily on the planet.”

The Government of India has committed to organizing and promoting the World Environment Day celebrations through a series of engaging activities and events generating strong public interest and participation. From pan-Indian plastic clean-up drives in public areas, national reserves and forests to simultaneous beach clean-up activities – India will lead the initiative by setting an example.

“India will be a great global host of 2018’s World Environment Day celebrations,” said Erik Solheim at the announcement on Monday.

He added: “The country has demonstrated tremendous global leadership on climate change and the need to shift to a low carbon economy, and India will now help galvanize greater action on plastics 3|Page

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pollution. It’s a global emergency affecting every aspect of our lives. It’s in the water we drink and the food we eat. It’s destroying our beaches and oceans. India will now be leading the push to save our oceans and planet.”

According to Erik Solheim, the country has demonstrated tremendous global leadership on climate change and the need to shift to a low carbon economy. It is expected that India will now help galvanise greater action on plastic pollution. It’s a global emergency affecting every aspect of our life. It is in the water we drink and the food we eat. It’s destroying our beaches and oceans. India will now be leading the push to save our oceans and planet.

Terming plastic a serious menace, Harsh Vardhan emphasised that the ministry itself must take the lead in discouraging the use of plastic. “It is the beginning of the end of plastic menace,” he said.

The minister invited people to take care of their Green Social Responsibility and urged them to take up Green Good Deeds in everyday life. Reiterating that Indians have learnt to live in harmony with nature from their ancestors, Harsh Vardhan emphasised that for India, environmental issues are not merely technical issues, but moral issues and a movement for the future generations.

India is emerging as a leader, given it has one of the highest recycling rates in the world. It can be instrumental in combating plastic pollution. By hosting World Environment Day 2018, the Indian government is accelerating its leadership on an issue of tremendous magnitude.

World Environment Day is a UN Environment-led global event, the single largest celebration of our environment each year, which takes place on June 5 and is celebrated by thousands of communities worldwide.

Since it began in 1972, it has grown to become a global platform for public outreach that is widely celebrated across the globe.

Most of all, World Environment Day is a day of everyone around the world to take ownership of their environment and to actively engage in the protection of our earth.

The Solo Nature Voyager: Six Months in Four States (Part One)

By Sutonuka Majumder My nature voyage and escapade from cosmopolitan life of metro cities, started in July of 2017 and revolved around four major states of North and North-East part of India at the footfill of Himalayas.

I am Sutonuka, not a writer or a photographer. I am just a simple girl from a very small town called Jamshedpur with lots of dreams. That’s my full time job – ‘to dream’.

Travelling keeps me alive, otherwise I work my ass off as an analyst at Bangalore with one of the multinational Banks, so that I can use all that I earn to see the world through my eyes.

When the whole world was moving towards being digital and close to being robot, I had dreams of mountains. When woke up, I had an urge of living for my dreams and not just to survive in the world of robots. I realised it’s high time to put some effort to become a bit useful to the people like me who have dreams and in short 4|Page

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wishes to live and not survive. Telling the stories of chasing dreams is what I wanted to do in order to bring that usefuleness in my simple “life full of dreams”.

My love for the mountains kept increasing day by day, I wanted to live a modest life in the mountains. This thought became stronger and stronger as the day passed by and I wanted to give it a try to see if that was just a thought or I would actually love staying in the mountains. I wanted to chase my dreams to find an answer to this question. So, I packed my rucksack and took off from the mundane city life on a sabbatical of 6 months.

I am here to tell my stories, on what I saw, what I learnt and what I felt – when, with proper planning and proper savings, I gave away my home, my belongings and took the road.

Here is how my journey looked like : Bangalore –—-Delhi —–Manali (Himachal Pradesh - HP)—–Spiti Valley (HP)—–Ladakh(Jammu & Kashmir – J&K) —–Dharamshala/Mcleodganj (HP)—–Jamshedpur (Jharkhand)—–Lohajung(Uttara Khand - UK)—–Rishikesh(UK)—–Dehradun(UK)—– Sankri(UK)—–Mussorie(UK)—–Jammu (J&K)—– Meghalaya—– Bangalore.

I visited beautiful villages in each of these places and each place had left an immense impact on me.

Spiti Village Trek Spiti Valley lies in the lahaul spiti region of Himachal Pradesh. I always wanted to visit that place, and also wanted to know whether I would enjoy the cold desert, barren lands as much as I enjoyed forests before. Hence Spiti was my first destination and I fell in love with that barren land, with that cold desert. Now, while writing this story, I am feeling as if I left a part of me there. I stayed in spiti for a month. In this one month I was working with Ecosphere Spiti, an organisation which ensures the sustainable development of the Spiti valley by establishing crucial links between local economies, conservation and development. I was volunteering with them, by running one of their café for two weeks, called ‘The Sol Café’.

Those were the two best weeks of my life, so far. Sol Caffe was my workplace in the month of July. What a transofrmation it was an analyst of multinational bank to an waitress cum keeper of a mountain village caffe. Sol Caffe is one of the most cozy café I had ever been before. There I met few amazing, interesteting, and wonderful people from all over world. I felt so rich being able to be part of their lives, and to be able to listen to so many stories, and most importantly - my another age old dream of owning a café got fullfilled. I would tell that story in more detail, later, but now I am going to talk about my village trek.

After two weeks of volunteering, I decided to trek between different villages in the valley. I was fortunate enough to find company for this trek. Two other volunteers, one from Romania - Andrea who was doing his research on Social Sustainability and the other one was an Indian Historian who was doing his research for his PhD thesis. Andrea wanted translators to help him interveweing local villagers and that’s when we stepped in and teamed up. It was an win win situation for three of us.

Our trekking route was Kaza---Langza---Hikkim---Komic---Demul---Kaza.

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We started from Kaza, the main and the only developed town in the entire valley, on 24th July. We got a ride till Langza which was not too far from Kaza, around 12 km. A small beautiful village located at an altitude of 4400meters (15400ft’) consisting of some 30 houses with a population of 140 people. There we got a nice homestay, the homestay was own by none other than the village coordinator. There was no hotel in that village, therefore staying at villagers’ house was only option. Each villager’s house is converted to a homestay and the house owners are trained how to interact with tourists, how to convert the extra rooms for comfortable acommodations for guest. That Langza Village Coordinator was actually one of the projects of Ecosphere, to enable the villagers to become self-sufficient and also create a source of income. There was another amazing and fantastic rule in the village. In order to curb competition, so that every villager gets a chance to earn money, there is a rotation system that is followed. In this system each villager will get chance on turn to host the guest. The village coordinator would decide whose chance it would be for a given month. If the guests or tourists are more in number , which cannot be accommodated alone in the assigned homestay for the month, then the next homestay in turn would be used. This is how the rotation system works in every village across spiti valley and it was done to ensure that everyone earns equally. I personally loved this system, and I could see how cordial and happy the villagers were with each other. There was no competition, no rat race like in the cities, I loved staying there.

Throughout the day we used to interview and speak to the village coordinator, luckily we were at his house so it worked out pretty well.

The day we reached Langza, it was very cloudy so we were fortunate to see double rainbow. We walked around the village speaking to the villagers, getting to know them, understanding their ways of life. There was a huge Buddha Statue which was visible from far away, we walked till there. Post which me and Rose (another volunteer friend) returned to the homestay and rested for sometime, while our other two trekker friends went on and experienced a ritual which the ‘La’ of the village performed. Each village has a ‘La’ (as they are called), they are normal human being but the villagers believe the God or the Deity or Devta (as they say) comes onto their Body and are capable to remove all the negative energy. They have some exceptional powers, and are able to heal people. Apparently the God or Devta selects a person whose body they can use to communicate with the villagers or anybody in need. If it’s a female body then they are called ‘Cho yo’. My two trekker friends were fortunate to experience one such ritual in which the ‘La’ was performing (to heal a local villager) and once they were back they narrated us the story and also we had a long discussion on the Ancient Beliefs.

Irrespective of moderan world’s beliefs, villagers have their own tradition and culture which they have been following since ages, scientic rationale of which, accepted to modern world, are yet to be established. Along with a ‘La’ there is an ‘amchi’ in every village. ‘Amchis’ are Tibetan Doctors, they heal people using Herbs growing in the region. We helped coordinator’s wife in making dinner, we had an amazing local dish called thukpa made by them and spent the night star gazing for some time before we fell in sleep after a hectic day.

The Buddha Statue of Langza with my fellow treckers

Besides folklore and simplicity of Lazang village, another most important aspects of my nature voyage in Langza village was viewing Chau Chau Kang Nilda Peak also known as 'Guan Nelda' or 'blue moon in the sky' is a mountain in the western Himalayas. It lies in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. The mountain located 13 km northeast of Kaza, the main town in Spiti, in the district of Lahaul and Spiti district. Chau Chau means little girl or princess, Kang is a snow-capped 6|Page

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mountain, Ni or Nima means sun and Da or Dawa means moon. So this is the princess mountain on which the sun & moon shine. There is a folklore on Chau Chau Kang, as I read in Spiti Through Legend And Lore by Kishore Thukral and then heard variations from locals in Spiti, years ago Langza village used to get its water from this mountain’s stream so every summer someone was sent to check the stream and remove any obstacles. They also had to watch over the stream through the season. One day Landup was sent to check the stream. Landup was a lazy man and rather enjoyed playing his flute. So off he went to the base of the mountain, after he had checked the stream he sat down by it to play his flute and was soon lost in its music.

After finishing his piece he opened his eyes to find a beautiful woman standing before him. She stared at him transfixed and slowly said. ‘Landup I love your music would you play for me again.’

Landup couldn’t say no to such an ethereal beauty so he started to play again.

The beauty told him after he finished that she was the Chau Chau Kang Nilda fairy and she would like him to come often and play. Landup agreed and left at the end of the day. From then on he kept trying to get the job to check the stream. Over the season they fell in love and continued to see each other during the summers that followed.

It was during the winter a few years later that a drunk Landup was lazing about. His wife saw this and reminded him of some work he had to do. Drunken Landup got upset and shouted back that he rather be with the Chau Chau Kang Nilda fairy who didn’t ask him to work. To this his wife asked him to stop Chau Chau Kang Nilda Peak- This peak is clearly seen from Langza dreaming but by then Landup had passed out. In the morning Landup woke up covered in boils and pain. He then remembered what had happened the night before and also remembered that the fairy had asked him never to mention her.

Now he was really worried, the boils marred his handsomeness and he tried everything through winter to be rid of them. But nothing worked. As soon as summer came and he was no longer house bound he ran to the stream. He played his flute, called out, cried and even screamed but the fairy didn’t come. He never saw her again. And every time he went near the mountain the weather turned nasty and he had to turn back.

Even today when a man tries climbing up Chau Chau Kang Nilda the weather turns nasty. It is said the fairy is still nursing her broken heart and will not let any man come near her.

Langza Village (At an altitude of 4400mts)

Next day, we started late around 11.30 am, bid farewell to Rose, as she did not want to continue the trekking, thanked the Homestay owners for their hospitality and headed towards Komic via Hikkim.

Komic is around 10 km from Langza and Hikkim comes half way. We had decided to stay in Komic as we had to interview the Head Lama of the Monastery in Komic. The trekking trail was beautiful and being a desert there was hardly any tree. We reached Hikkim around 1’o clock in afternoon.

There are two options of getting to Hikkim, the first is to hire a taxi from Kaza. The second option is to take the local HRTC government bus from Kaza to Hikkim, which runs twice a week on Tuesdays and Saturdays and departs from Kaza at 2 pm. It’s advisable to recheck the bus schedule a day prior to the journey. The bus ride takes around 70-90 minutes to reach Hikkim and is the most economical way of getting to the village. At first glance, Hikkim can be easily mistaken as an extension of either Komik or Langza since the village has a very similar bowl shaped setting and is located between these two high altitude villages.

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The houses in Hikkim are built out of stone and mud with the outer walls painted in white and have Buddhist prayer flags hung around the house to symbolise the Buddhist influence in the village. The houses in the village are all clustered close to each other just below the road. It is a steep 65 degree inclined walk down to the village houses. The village monastery is located at the far end over looking the entire village. The village also has a Hindi medium co-education government school till the eight grade which was started in 1965.

The lower flat plains of the village are where the villagers grow their crops. Since the land is barren and the weather is dry, cultivating crops is extremely hard but just like the rest of the valley, the villagers from Hikkim have managed to do the impossible and cultivate potatoes, spinach and cabbage. Yaks are used to plough the field and traveller will get a glimpse of this through the day.

Accommodation in Hikkim is limited to a couple of extremely basic home stays which provide nothing more than a mattress to sleep on. The home stays are very clean and also provide all three meals to travellers. Food served in the home stays is a home cooked Spitian meal which consist of the local Spiti bread which is a round shaped fluffed up roti made from wheat served with jam, butter and the previous day’s dal. Lunch and dinner generally includes rice, rajma (kidney bean) dal, roti and a mixed vegetable dish.

Hikkim is famous for having the highest Post Office of the world. This post office is at an altitude of 4440mts (15400ft). The post master was very friendly and happily helping us and few other travellers with the stamps. I had bought some postcards and written to my friends and family, which I posted from that post office. Later came to know that except my parents (In Jamshedpur) everybody had received those. A lot of people was sending postcards to themselves as it is an amazing feeling to get a post card from world’s highest post office, when you are back in your city life, it brings back all the wonderful memories you acumulated during your stay there and its not everyday that one get to send a post card from the highest post office in the world.

Along with the post office I happened to see some fossils, which a little girl was carrying and was showing to us. Langza, Hikkim, Komic these villages are famous for fossils and it’s interesting to see how the evolution happened. Fossils of marine creatures and plants are found in plenty under the sedimentary rocks in these villages. These fossils are around millions of years old. Although possession and collection of fossils are illegal in India, the locals in the village sell these collectibles to the travellers visiting their village. Rising tourism has defintely contributed to the erosion in Spiti valley, which paleontologists say is the “museum of Indian Geology”. Many tourists are aware of the availability of fossils here and offer to buy them in large numbers, spurring locals, including children, to identify and pick fossils at various sites.

Young kids can be seen running around the village collecting and playing with these fossils trying to persuade the travellers to buy them in return for money.

The local name of fossil here is ‘chaudua’ and can be easily found in and around the village. The fossils are Cephalopoda. The easiest way to find these fossils are to go higher around the mountains in Langza and to look for them under the rocks. The Spiti valley contains almost a continous succession ranging from the Cambrian (between 542 million and 488 million years old) to the Cretaceous (between 145 million and 65 million year old), making it a popular destination for palaeontologists. It was first reported by Gerard in 1827 to the Royal Asiatic Society, London. Subsequently, many visited this Trilobite Fossil: Pic courtesy The Hindu fascinating area, including F. Stoliczka in 1865 and H.H. Hayden in 1904.Triassic fauna in the Spiti valley has a parallel in the Alps, in Oman and Timor.

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There are also two high altitude lakes around Langza namely Tsonyeti and Chumo Tso. These lakes are around 3-4 hour hikes from the village which could be difficult for travellers, owing to the low oxygen and high altitude of the region. Langza being located at a high altitude, one can spot many endangered species such as snow leopards, Tibetan wolf, Himalayan griffon, etc around the village during the winter months of December and January. While walking around the village at any given time of the year one will see yaks and sheep roaming freely in herds or with the shepherds. The yaks plough the fertile fields which is refreshingly different.

After spending some time with the postmasters and the kids in Hikkim we continued towards Komic which was 4 kms away. The sun was on our head and it was a very hot day, but luckily we got a ride from a traveller till Komic. Upon reaching Komic we had our lunch and visited the Monastery. The head Lama was supposed to meet us around 5 pm, as we had still some time, we went down to the village and kept our bags in one of the homestays and freshened up. Around 5 pm we entered the monastery and was very lucky to be part of the evening prayer and post which the Head lama sat with us and we spoke for long. He told us similar things, about the ‘La’, the ‘Amchi’ and how the government is helping them and how the monasteries function. An interesting fact we discovered was, apparently each household has to send Komic Monastery-One of the oldest monastery in spiti their youngest son or daughter to the Monastery or the nunnery to become a Monk or a nun. This rule was made mandatory to bring each house closer to the monastery or the nunnery. Also, to ensure that the monastery never has scarcity of people in order to run it.

I witnessed a beautiful sunset from the sunset view point and then headed back to the homestay.

The days in the mountains or villages finishes early. People their finish their days with the sunset, so did we, had a nice dinner and went to the terrace for Star gazing. Komic is also famous for its beautiful sky and visuals of the milky way. I didn’t have a DSLR to capture it but I captured it through my eyes and will never forget those nights and called it a day as next morning was waiting for us with a long day trek, which we need to start early.

Next day, 26th July, we woke up early, had a good breakfast, packed our lunch and started our trek towards Demul, next village. Demul is 18 kms from Komic. We reached Demul at around 3.30 pm as we rested a lot in between, then we took a nice 1 hour detour from the trail. The trek was amazing and challenging as breathing at this altitude was very difficult, and there wasn’t any tree anywhere. I loved this trail and the terrain, as it had a lot of uphill, meadow walks and a lot of downhill as well. We for some reason didn’t want to reach Demul early so we decided to take a detour and we explored around the meadows and beautiful gorges. On reaching Demul A Greenhouse in making we put our bags and freshened up in one of the homestays (as per the turns). Also met few travellers and Volunteers building a green house. We spent some time with them as well.

During their journey lot of trekkers assist the local community in construction of solar bath/greenhouse. The volunteers participate in the actual construction of the solar bath and the setup of a solar water geyser (Evacuated Tube Condenser) or a greenhouse and get assisted by dediacted team of qualified mason. The activity entails physical activity and construction period could be 7 – 8 days. The greenhouse projects are of special significance in Spity since the region is devoid of green vegetables. Most of the supply comes from the neighbouring Fellow trekker making greenhouse cities of Shimla and Manali which takes 2 days. This excessive transportaion makes the vegetables both expensive as well as high in their carbon footprint.

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Moreover in the 6 month long winters there is no availability of green vegetables as access to neighbouring regions is cut off. The greenhouse developed by trkkers enable locals to cultivate vegetables not only in the summers but also in the winters at temperatures is low as -25o centigrade. These greenhouses contribute to better health for the locals, reduction in carbon foot print and also in providing them with an additional source of income.

Demul is a very well organised village and soon will be a model village. It has around 52 houses and has a population of 279 people, and is one of the populated villages in Spiti Valley. I loved Demul as its very well organised, the houses are clean, built in an organised manner with proper boundaries. Most houses had greenhouses where they grew their own vegetables.

There are shops, small stupas, monasteries and everyone is so cordial with each other. Every morning after breakfast everyone goes far away to collect dry grasses, to irrigate their farms, and collect pea which is the main crop there apart from barley. Barley is the most important crop there, hence each household make their own Beer called ‘Chang’ and the distilled Homestay at Demul version is called ‘Arak’. The chang is yummm and tastes amazing. It’s healthy too and since it is a by-product of Barley so it’s made at every household.

Chang and Arak tastes different in every house. Everyone once they are back home in the evening, have it with their dinner. We were invited by the post master of the village, also he had to be interviewed. He gave us some amazing Chang and we had a great time talking to him and his family. We had our dinner at our homestay and called it a night.

With this my spiti village trek came to an end and next day we started for Kaza in a shared Taxi.

This was one of my favourite and memorable treks, as it was very different from others, and also I enjoyed knowing each village through the people and loved being a part of their lives.

Photography by Sutonuka Majumder

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Exploration Camp: Diary of a Highland Scout

By Arnab Basu along with Craig Round and John Grierson Part Three - 10th October, 2017: Coast and Storm

10th October at 9:00 AM, we started our exploration of day three.

In the morning we got some lovely views of two Crested Tits near the Steading, and there were masses of Goldcrests in the trees as well as small flocks of Redwing flying over as we loaded the vans to head for the west coast. The drive took us through some great scenery which only got more mountainous as we pushed on west with some dramatic rain showers and a rainbow over Loch Glascarnoch, where we found two newly arrived Whooper Swans asleep at the head of the loch and a few Redwings in the trees.

Moving on, first we went to Rongia Falls and then to Corrie ShallochGlascornoch and then to Guinard bay or Guinard noch and to 1st and 2nd Coast. We made a stop on the coast overlooking Gruinard Bay, where we found a smart summer plumaged Great Northern Diver and also a single Black-throated Diver, Black Guillemot and a few Shags, as well as nice views of a pair of Stonechat which were perched nearby.

Scanning out across the bay our luck was in and we also got great views of two or three Otters which were feeding just offshore! From there we drove around the coast and stopped to watch lots of Common Seals hauled out on the rocks below, Gannets are plunge diving for fish just offshore and we also saw a single Red-throated Diver in winter plumage as well as more Shags and a single Razorbill. Our next stop was near Laide for some lunch overlooking the coast and where there was some shelter from the strengthening wind. During our lunch there both 11 | P a g e

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Curlew and Redshank flew past and there was another Great Northern Diver and Red-throated Diver offshore.

After lunch sadly the weather took a turn for the worse, the winds got even stronger, approaching gale force and rain started to fall heavily as we headed around the coast, seeing several Curlew, Redshank and Oystercatcher along the shore as well as a female Red-breasted Merganser. Our last stop of the day was around at Mellon Udrigle where we braved the elements and took a walk down onto the beach. A flock of 20 Ringed Plover, a Curlew and a single Dunlin were roosting on the rocks there and we got nice views through the telescopes before, with time getting on, we started to head back.

That night, instead of having dinner at our base accommodation in Steading, we stopped at a local Scottish inn at Grunard bay for dinner with sumptuous Scottish food with wine and scotch.

Species Spotted on Day Three: Birds: Red-throated Diver, Black-throated Diver, Great Northern Diver, Gannet, Cormorant, Shag, Grey Heron, Whooper Swan, Mallard, Eider, Goldeneye, Red-breasted Merganser, Common Buzzard, Kestrel, Pheasant, Oystercathcer, Ringed Plover, Knot, Sanderling, Curlew, Redshank, Black-headed gull, Common Gull, Lesser black-headed gull, great black-headed gull, Kittiwake, Guillemot, Razorbill, Black Guillemot, Rock Dove, Woodpegion, Meadow Pipit, Grey Wagtail, Pied Wagtail, Northern Wheatear, Robin, Stonechat, Blackbird, Redwing, Mistle Thrush, Goldcrest, Coal tit, Blue tit, Great tit, Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Raven, Hooded crow, Starling, House Sparrow, Goldfinch, Redpoll, Bullfinch.

Mammals: Otter, Mountain Goat, Red deer, Common Seal Photography by Arnab Basu

----- to be continued

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Year – 3/Issue – 10-11-12/ June - August, 2018

Expert Speaks: Introduction to Cave and Karst

By Vrushabh Borkar When you hear the word “cave” what do you think of? Darkness? Being trapped? Bats? Being lost?

Or maybe you have been in a cave and you recall beautiful flowstone, cave bacon, delicate crystals, and other speleothems.

Do you know what karst is? When you hear the word “karst” what do you think of? Do you think of sinkholes? Disappearing streams? Catastrophic collapse?

Whatever you think of, this knowledge center is meant to address your fears and misconceptions about caves, as well as enhance your understanding of cave and karst systems.

Let’s get started. View the topics below to learn more.

Cave Basics What is a cave? This is a very good question. The Federal Cave Resource Protection Act of 1988 defines a cave as “any naturally occurring void, cavity, recess, or system of interconnected passageways beneath the surface of the earth.” The Natural Cave Conservation Association describes caves as naturally formed underground cavities large enough for a person to fit through.

The term cavern is often used interchangeably with the word cave.

Caves exist worldwide and come in many shapes and sizes. A cave may or may not have an entrance at Earth’s surface. Sometimes caves are filled with air; sometimes they are filled with water.

Caves are unique, sensitive environments that house fragile mineral formations, rare flora and fauna, irreplaceable artifacts, and distinctive fossils. They also record Earth’s history and climate and are natural laboratories for modern research.

Karst Basics Karst is a type of typography formed on limestone, gypsum, and other rocks that dissolve in natural acid. Karst describes landscapes characterized by caves, sinkholes, and underground drainage. In this kind of landscape, streams disappear into the ground and reappear elsewhere as large springs.

Valleys, plateaus, towers, pinnacles, and ponds are all surface features in regions with karst. Below the surface are caves, fractures, and partings—all components of a drainage network. The “type locality” of karst is a limestone plateau in the Dinaric Alps of northwestern Yugoslavia and northeastern Italy.

Cave and Karst Locations Karst landscapes are found just about everywhere on Earth: frigid tundra, dry deserts, and tropical jungles. Worldwide this is 25% of the land surface! If you live in an area underlain by carbonate rocks or evaporite rocks, there is a good chance you are familiar with karst, especially if it’s a warm, humid area where erosion via dissolution is rapid. Karst can also be found in arid terrains, however, where sulfuric acid can form large caves, such as Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico.

A fifth of the landscapes in the United States are karstic. Major karst areas occur in 20 states, and smaller karst regions occur throughout the nation. Many major cities are underlain in part by karst, such as Saint Louis, Missouri; Nashville, Tennessee; Birmingham, Alabama; and Austin, Texas.

The majority of caves are found in karstic landscapes, but not all caves are. There are caves that form in rocks other than carbonate and evaporate rocks. Every state in the United States has caves.

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Tennessee has the most caves. Kentucky has the world’s longest cave, and Hawaii has the world’s longest and deepest lava tubes.

Types of Caves The longest cave is Mammoth Cave in Kentucky with 349 miles (563 km) of passageways. The deepest cave is Krubera (Voronja) Cave in the Republic of Abkhasia at over 5,600 feet (1,710 m) deep, recently explored to this depth in 2001 (Gee 1994). The largest cave chamber is in Sarawak Cavern in Sarawak, Malaysia. This room is approximately 2,300 feet (700 m) long, 1,400 feet (425 m) wide, and 390 feet (120 m) high. The vast majority of caves form in soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, gypsum, and marble, but caves also form in other types of rock.

There are at least 23 types of caves. We’ll discuss some of them here. Select a type of cave to learn more about it.

Ice Cave The term ice cave requires some clarification because it has been applied to caves that form in ice and caves that form in rock. Ice caves that form in ice are also called glacier caves. Meltwater moving through glaciers forms this type of ice cave. Caves formed in rock that contain ice all year round are also referred to as ice caves; they are also called frozen caves. These caves may contain very large crystals of ice that form on the floors, walls, and ceilings of the cave.Ablation Zone Lava Cave Lava caves or tubes are hollow spaces beneath the surface of a solidified lava flow.

Sandstone Cave Early people used sandstone caves for shelter. These shallow alcoves were more comfortable than deep, limestone caves because they were not as wet, cold, or dark.

Sea Cave Sea caves are clefts or cavities in the bases of cliffs at the edges of large bodies of water, typically the sea but also large lakes. Sea caves are usually at sea level and are affected by tides.

Solution Cave Naturally acidic waters form these caves by dissolving rock along and adjacent to joints and fractures. Physical erosion by groundwater is also involved.

Talus Cave Rockslides and rockfalls produce piles of debris. The rocks of the collapse - called talus - are large boulders with irregular shapes, which don't fit nicely together. Hence, spacious chambers may form in the talus piles producing a cave-like configuration. Rocks may also fall or slide into narrow fractures or canyons, which confine the rock piles, forming caves through which streams may flow.

Talus caves are also referred to as breakdown caves.

Tectonic The action of earthquakes form natural cracks in rock that can be considered caves. Typically the passages are narrow (less than five feet [1.5 m] wide) but may plummet hundreds of feet (meters) below the surface.

Cave and Karst Formation Typically we think of caves forming in carbonate rocks, such as limestone and marble, and other types of rocks that dissolve. Carbonate rocks are highly susceptible to the action of carbonic acid in rainwater and groundwater. Lowering the land surface by carbonation is a comparatively rapid process in areas underlain by limestone and marble, and where rainfall is abundant. Sulfuric acid is also known to form caves, particularly noteworthy in arid regions. Similar sulfuric acid reactions also operate in humid regions but tend to be masked by carbonation (Berger 1995). Other processes are at work forming caves in areas not underlain by carbonate or evaporite rocks.

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Tectonic movements that cause earthquakes and uplift mountain ranges also help create caves and karst. Earth movements cause cracks to form in bedrock. These cracks, called fractures and joints, are natural pipes for water to seep into the ground. Then with the help of natural acids—such as carbonic acid from decaying plants and sulfuric acid from hydrogen sulfide derived from a methanegypsum reaction—rocks such as limestone are dissolved. The dissolved rock is carried away in water, and hollow spaces remain. Where these hollows are dissolved large enough to allow human entry, they are called caves. Acidic groundwater moving through fractures may ultimately create large passages and many interconnected conduits.

Most formation and enlargement takes place at or just below the water table. The circulation of water and the dissolution of bedrock are greatest here because fractures are connected and most open. Cave passages created in this zone are generally horizontal and form along bedding planes.

In contrast, passages formed above the water table are vertical, as acidic water moves downward through fractures in bedrock. Caves above the water table serve as tributaries of water to caves below the water table.

As water tables gradually fall, previously formed upper-level passages and rooms are drained, and new caves are formed at lower elevations. Older, higher caves are relatively dry except for dripping water and an occasional stream making its way from the surface to the water table. Water dripping or flowing into passages may deposit speleothems.

Collapse Collapse is part of cave formation and evolution. Ceilings of cave rooms and passages collapse when they become too wide to support the bedrock overlying them. In addition, the potential for collapse increases when water drains out, and its buoyant force is no longer present to help support a cave's ceiling.

Sandstone Caves Sandstone caves form through differential weathering along a shale-sandstone contact. Massive, cliff-forming sandstone can contain soft, erodible beds of shale. Water readily percolates down through sandstone but is trapped and cannot pass through shale beds because their pore spaces are so small. The groundwater is forced to move laterally along the contact between the two rock units until it seeps out on the face of the canyon wall or at the back of an alcove, creating a spring or seep. The prolonged flow of water along these spring and seep zones ultimately dissolves the calcium carbonate cement and loosens individual sand particles and blocks of sandstone, thus forming a void that enlarges with time.

Lava Caves When molten, fluid lava flows out of a volcano, it works its way downhill. In contact with air, the surface of this lava stream cools and hardens into a crust. The lava inside remains molten, however, and continues to flow downhill. When the molten lava eventually drains out of the interior of the hard-crusted passage, a lava tube or cave remains.

Sea Caves The action of waves pounding against rocks that line the shores of oceans and large lakes form sea caves. Sea caves form preferentially along natural lines of weakness in easily weathered rock. Wavecarried sand and gravel enhance the erosive power of waves and modify and enlarge sea caves.

Inside a Cave A famous French speleologist, Norbert Casteret, described going into a cave as leaving the world he knew - of bird songs and blue skies - for a mysterious world of blackness filling him with mystical enthusiasm.

Will you see a mystical place when you enter a cave? Or a smelly dirty guano filled hole infested with bats? What you see in a cave is up to you.

Select a topic to find out more about cave environments.

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Unlike a wilderness above ground, the cave wilderness cannot be explored without the aid of artificial light. You may have heard this anecdote but it is actually true: in the dark zone of a cave, you really cannot see your hand held up in front of your face when the lights go out. Cave animals called troglobites live their whole lives in total darkness. This may seem strange, or even threatening to us, but with proper precautions - such as carrying three sources of light while caving - dark wonderlands have been and remain to be discovered. These worlds without sunlight are important for challenging our assumptions about ecosystems and life, providing a sense of discovery, and opening up new avenues in research and science.

Silence In general, caves are silent worlds. Very few critters live in caves, so noise is rarely produced by scampering animals. And, of course, in wild caves, clocks aren't ticking, machines aren't clanking, and refrigerators aren't humming. All you may hear in a cave is the sound of dripping water.

In addition to feeling air currents, in some caves you might hear wind blowing. As cavers say, "If it blows, it goes," meaning air currents indicate space beyond. For example, Lechuguilla Cave was discovered initially because of air blowing out of a pile of rubble.

Temperature During the heat of the summer tourist season, billboard and road signs for public caves entice travelers to come underground to cool off. If vacations were also common in the winter, these signs could be flipped to read come underground to warm up. Caves are pleasantly cool in the summer and far warmer than the surface in the winter. Daily and seasonal temperature fluctuations that occur at the surface tend to diminish as heat moves down through bedrock into caves. In short, cave temperatures are nearly constant throughout the year. Cave temperatures are approximately equal to the average annual temperature at the surface.

Surface temperatures and associated cave temperatures are determined by latitude and altitude.

Cave temperatures in lower latitudes and higher altitudes are cooler. The amount of water that a cave receives also affects its temperature. Water is more efficient than air in transporting heat.

Hence, the temperature effect of a stream extends much further into a cave than air currents. Also, if a cave receives large quantities of snowmelt, then its temperature will be much lower than other caves at the same altitude and latitude.

Relative Humidity Seeping water moistens a cave's ceilings, walls, and floors. It is not surprising then that the air in most caves is nearly saturated with water vapor, that is, the relative humidity is close to 100%.

Constant temperature at the inner part of a cave permits high humidity to be maintained indefinitely.

Near the entrances to caves, however, the humidity may be lower than the interior portions of caves. This is because cave entrances are the interface between the surface and underground.

Outside humidity is usually lower than in caves, and cave temperatures differ from outside temperatures. A fall in temperature will increase the relative humidity; a rise in temperature will decrease it.

Air Currents Have you ever followed the wind underground? Caves are places where you can do this. In fact, Wind Cave in South Dakota was discovered because of the air currents blowing out of it.

The exchange of air between a cave and the surface is a function of changing pressure of the outside atmosphere. Changes occur from day-to-night and result from changes in the weather, such as a storm front. Caves typically consist of many small, interconnected passages with relatively small entrances. Because of this, a considerable amount of time may be required to move air through a cave and equalize cave pressure with outside air pressure. The air in most caves, therefore, is constantly in motion, adjusting itself to surface changes.

Usually air currents in caves are so slow that they can be detected only with instruments. In constricted passages or at small entrances to large caves, however, air currents can be felt as breezes on your face.

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Year – 3/Issue – 10-11-12/ June - August, 2018

Stronger cave winds, some of which are veritable gales, usually occur in caves with two entrances one higher than the other. Cave winds normally have an annual cycle in which air blows out of the lower entrance all summer and out the upper entrance all winter. These caves are called blowing caves. In a few caves the cycle is shorter - the air moves inward for a few minutes and then outward for a few minutes. These are called breathing caves.

Continued………

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Year – 3/Issue – 10-11-12/ June - August, 2018

Bio - Enterprising: What can you do with a Zoology degree?

By Katrina Sutherland

Is a question I’ve been thinking a lot about recently.

I went into the final Bio Enterprise and Employability workshop, the Careers Café, hoping to gain some answers to this question. The Careers Cafe was an opportunity for us to hear from a panel of Bangor Alumni (Bangor University is a Welsh university in the city of Bangor in the county of Gwynedd in North Wales. It received its Royal Charter in 1885 and was one of the founding member institutions of the former federal University of Wales. In 2012 Bangor was ranked 251st among the world's top universities. According to the Sunday Times University Guide 2012,it is rated top in Wales for teaching excellence and is among the top 15 universities in the UK in this category.), to see what they’re doing now, how they got there and any tips they had for us.

The panel consisted of five Bangor graduates:     

Bethan Wynne Jones (2014 graduate, completed a masters Wetland Science and Conservation). Ecosystem and Climate Change officer at the Snowdonia National Park.

Graham French (completed a Marine Biology degree in 1998, then a PGCSE in Outdoor Activities and Science in 2000). Lecturer in Education at Bangor University.

Nia Jones (2003 graduate, completed an MSc in Ecology). The Living Seas manager at the North West Wales Wildlife Trust.

Jon Cannon (1998 graduate, studied Marine Zoology). A Process Manager at Dŵr Cymru (Welsh Water).

Rhys Morgan (2012 graduate, completed a Masters in Zoology). The animal care technician at Bangor University.

Each speaker talked about their career after finishing studying at Bangor University, and gave advice about our future careers.

One common theme throughout their talks was the importance of volunteering. I discovered that volunteering has helped all of them before and during employment. I was happy to hear that they valued volunteering, as I do it when I can and feel it gives me valuable skills.

Overall, this was an enjoyable event (with the added bonus of free biscuits and coffee), which has given me a lot of possible career paths to think about. It was nice to see the variety of careers a zoology (or zoology-related) degree can lead to.

Although the Careers Café did not narrow down my career ideas, which I thought it might, it has broadened by horizons. I think doing a PGCSE degree at some point would be a useful asset for my career. I was slightly surprised when Graham French mentioned you could integrate an outdoor education aspect into a biology-based PGCSE at Bangor University, which is an aspect I feel I would enjoy.

At the moment, I’m writing assignments and revising, so career planning is on hold. However, this event may shape it in the future.

In the meantime, I’ll bear Errant Science’s advice in mind.

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Year – 3/Issue – 10-11-12/ June - August, 2018

Cohabitation: Jumbo in Rail Track

By Koushik Mondal North Bengal is synonymous for mountain, river and forest – Garumara National Park, Jalda Para National Park and Bauxa Tiger Reserves are most famous among the widespread forest and mountain of this region, and forest means wild lives – Asiatic Elephant, Gaur (Indian Bison), Leopard, Chital (Spotted Deer), Barking Deer, Hog Deer, Sambar Deer, Wild Boar, Giant Squirrel, Civet etc. are mostly found mammal species in the forest of North Bengal. We can find more than 20 different species of snakes over here – Python, King Cobra and many other venomous and nonvenomous species. Forests of North Bengal are also habitats of birds like Hornbill, Hill myna, Pea fowl and many other species. Also there is no dearth of butterfly species in the forest and adjacent areas of North Bengal – more than 350 to 400 different species are generally spotted here. Overall the whole Dooars and forest area of North Bengal has a wide range of healthy and pleasant biodiversity – which attracts lots of tourists from all over world.

Being a local chap of Jalpaiguri district of North Bengal, I have always been privileged to get opportunity to travel extensively in Dooars and other parts of North Bengal. But, now I am 25 and can see a significant difference in the environment of today’s North Bengal and what it used to be in ten years back. Development, human population growth, tourism system development – these all in one hand, perhaps strengthened the sources of income in this area, but also has damaged environment and biodiversity on the other hand, in great extent. Many of you must have heard that lots of trees were uprooted in recent past, in the name of development, in Bichabhanga area of Garumara – it was absolutely unnecessary in an area which is designated as Elephant Corridor.

Although, the positive part is quite a few NGOs are working on these issues to protect forest and lot of people from different parts of society have joined hands together to fight against forest destruction.

Now, let us focus on the main topic, I wanted to discuss here – Elephant is my favourite animal, therefore I will talk more about how elephants are getting affected by this “so called development”. Elephant – Human conflict in North Bengal is getting increased day by day – wherever there are movement of elephants in this area, and this problem is leading to harm for both man and animal – be its property damage, crops destruction, death of people or elephants – all are because of our greed and unsustainable development plan. We are encroaching in their (wild lives) habitat, creating obstructions in their crossing path, reducing their food in forest to meet our necessities and eventually keeping no options for them but coming out to local villages and farm land for food.

Electrocution of Elephants in this area is another major concerns – when elephants come to local farm land to eat paddy or maze, which are their natural diet, and electric fencings of those lands become threat for their lives.

Photo courtesy Sunil Singh Rajput The biggest problem for forest in North Bengal is railway line crossing through wildlife crossing zone – in last five years, lots of wild lives have been killed in these areas – most of them are elephants (20-25 in last five years), snakes, and many other small and big animals – which are largely falls under endangered categories. This conflict has taken lives of 8 – 10 local people also, in last five years. Although, few initiatives and cooperation of Forest and Rail Department has brought down this problem to some extent, but this is just starting of “peeling the onion”.

One more issue related to elephant population of North Bengal is becoming a major concern in recent times – finding traces of plastics in elephant dung. This is primarily happening because of their growing dependency on food and crops from farm land and grazing in adjacent 19 | P a g e

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areas of local villages. This could be lethal for elephant population in North Bengal. The news of Poaching is also more heard nowadays in news channel and social media – The Tusk of an elephant is both blessing and curse for elephants; similarly there are lot of news on killing of other animals by poachers – Rhinoceros, Leopard, Deer for horn, skin, meat etc.

In many cases poachers are getting arrested but by that time the damage is done, the lives are lost. Rather than being reactive to such incidents, the need of the hour is being more vigilant and more innovative to focus on conservations.

The light at the end of tunnel is, lot of social working groups and individuals are now coming up to protect forest and wild lives, local tribal and forest dwellers are lot more conscious and cooperative to save forest and natural resources of this area.

Forest and wild lives are pride of North Bengal, to keep North Bengal away from danger of extinction, we have to keep this pride protected. Otherwise we will always be answerable to our next generation.

Photography by Koushik Mondal

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Year – 3/Issue – 10-11-12/ June - August, 2018

Theme Poster: End of A Day by Ashim Talukdar

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