I am always fascinated by the sheer strength and persistence of wild ferns, mosses and lichens and other small flora in the steep hill slopes and plateau grasslands of the Eastern Ghats, Western Ghats, Satpuras and the Himalayas. I wonder if there is a good field guide to the ferns and mosses of the Indian mountain systems. There are a number of fern species and they do come in various sizes. Some are endemic to certain hill ranges while some occur through the Indian Subcontinent. Most of these varieties and species have been cultivated and their variegars are good garden plants.
I had accompanied my daughter to Yercaud, a hill station above Salem in Tamil Nadu. We wandered about the Shevaroy hills over a couple of days, and were amazed to see the diversity in ferns, mosses and small flora. The flowering season seemed to have just gone by, but the absolutely glowing greenery made up for it entirely. All along the slopes and in the inner forests, the strength of the small flora was very obvious.
This photograph was taken near the botanical gardens, and along the roadside. This patch was just next to the local parking lot and shanties vending various food items. It was a very disturbed location and could have easily been without any vegetation. However, the small ferns and other small flora were quite pugnacious and were able to make their own way in spite of the disturbance, exhaust fumes and shanty kitchens nearby.
The city of Mumbai and its adjoining suburbs are no longer a metropolis. It is now a megapolis. The two divisions of Mumbai district, and the 18++ cities north of the district, in Thane and Raigad districts are one of the world's largest urban conglomerations. Perhaps, it is the world's largest ever in terms of population density, total population and ground area coverage. Moreover, this is also the world's fastest growing urban area, with buildings growing taller and small mini-cities becoming more intensely dense. Some buildings have about 12-15 floors of parking, before one can reach the apartments.
Thane, Kalyan-Dombivili and Ulhasnagar are, to use the cliche, choc-a-bloc, next to each other. One pavement belongs to one city, while the other pavement of the same road belongs to the other. These suburban areas, now major cities on their own right, have hill ranges around them, and within them. This is something that Mumbai does not have adequately. The entire water for Mumbai comes from dams in the Western Ghats beyond Thane city and along the Thane-Pune-Nashik ridges. But, if one would have planned right, and understood the drainage patterns and aquifer strength of the hills and watershed within Thane and Kalyan areas, the sustainable strength of these hills would have been clearly known.
Today, one can actually see huge pipelines transporting water past the suburbs of Thane and the outskirts of Kalyan, with huge housing colonies in the shadow of some of the best water catchment and storage potential areas. Thus, it is the rural and forest communities elsewhere who have to discard their rights over their forest lands in order to store water for the new and rapid growth of urban clusters of Mumbai and Thane. Remember, all well meaning activists and residents of Mumbai who get worked up over the destruction of environment - every single apartment building and institution in the megapolis survives by drowning the Sahyadri forests and slopes. Every single one.
There is a delightful motorable road behind Lonavala, after Walvan and Nangargaon towards the Pawana Dam. This road goes below the Mumbai Pune Expressway and climbs suddenly, very rapidly and alarmingly, through an abrupt escarpment. Before you know it, you are at the most delightful mountain pass that you would never have expected, if you are a regular traveler on the expressway or on the Mumbai Pune highway. Most trekkers and climbers on the Western Ghats know this pass, and they do encounter it with happiness when going towards the Malavli fort.
I first came up on this pass in late 2007, just after becoming a resident at Nangargaon in Lonavala. After that sudden encounter, I have come to love this road, driving through to Dudhiware village, and to the Vittal Rukmini temple called 'Prati Pandharpur' and on to Kolwan village, where the Chinmay Vibhooti ashram is located, managed by the Sri Chinmayananda group or trust. From Kolwan, you can get off the road and proceed to the Girivan hill resort, that is nearly 300 feet higher than Lonavala. And before Kolwan, one can drive slowly along the Pawana lake banks, and take a million photographs, depending on the time of the day.
The Dudhiware Khind, or the Dudhiware Pass, as it is called, is just before the Dudhiware village. The word 'Khind' is meant to signify a 'sacred pass'. This would probably because there could have been a battle of some sort, and some local warriors would have achieved martyrdom. Thus, a mountain pass becomes known as 'Khind' in the Western Ghats. Immediately after the pass, one can drive up or walk or cycle up to the Malavli fort, and get a good local family to provide for the best cuisine that one can enjoy, but, of course, thats another story.
The Bhimashankar temple on the Western Ghats is one of the twelve Jyotirlinga temples in India, on the pilgrimage path to Shiva. High up on the escarpment of the Western Ghats, one can reach it from the Pune-Nashik Highway, or from the west, via Murbad from Kalyan. My second visit to the temple was sometime in September 2009, with Dr. Neetin Desai and Dr. Amar Supate and others. We reached at night, nearer to Bhimashankar and stayed in a rest house on the plains, and later, on the morrow, early up, drove right to the temple area. Four of us managed to get in queue to offer the Laghurudrabhishekam. But, thats' another story.
As we came back, trekking up to the parking area, through the forests of the Bhimahshankar wildlife sanctuary, we passed through different stalls that sold medicinal plant parts. Most were labeled very neatly, and there was one that also said that the vendor was the Secretary or President of the ayurvedic vaids assocation of the area. I stood around nearby, and waited to see if people were stopping and enquiring about the medicines. None did.
This must be a dying trade and medicinal form. Most ayurvedic medicines are now mass made in good manufacturing 'factories' and the niche for these traditional and hereditary ayurvedic collectors, processors and medicine manufacturers must be dying out very rapidly. I spoke to some of them but they said that they usually end up collecting some medicines in larger quantities and selling them to known persons only, for these would need to be consumed for 1-2 years to effect a cure. That trade was enough to take care of their survival.
