A Malabar Giant Squirrel, a distinctive two-toned mammal endemic to the Western Ghats, pauses on a tree branch. Continue reading “Squirrel on the Scent”
Tag: western ghats
Vernal
The Wagtail Waits
Moss in the Afternoons
Morning in the Ghats
Seven Days, Seven Photographs: Sunset in the Ghats
Apologies for the nearly-seven day gap till the second day of my ‘seven photographs in a week!’. I begin again on Day 2 with new resolve to actually post a photograph every day for the next… five.
Continue reading “Seven Days, Seven Photographs: Sunset in the Ghats”
Gaur Among Tea
Tales of Shieldtails
Shieldtails are primitive burrowing snakes found mostly in southern India and Sri Lanka, with only one species ever reported elsewhere – from the Eastern Ghats, on the other side of India. So named because of their flattened tail – resembling, you guessed it, a shield – we spotted this still-unidentified individual on a cool, leech-infested morning in the Western Ghats.
The Night Roads
We ride the night roads
looking for leopards:
our hearts in our mouths,
our minds lost to the dark,
wind humming in our ears,
whispering songs of eyes
and the hunt, our lights
ever stalking the black.
At night, the forest comes alive in ways one cannot see in the whiteness of day. You swing your flashlight around – and there are eyes, staring curiously back, or quickly running away – mousedeer and flying squirrels and civets and hares, the denizens of these dark paths.
somewhere up a tree 