Sahyadrica

Yeoor Hills - 24th July 2009 This was a fourth trail at Yeoor Hills. If you tread across all the four trails, you will find a considerable difference in the sightings. It was an interesting trail and as usual, we learnt more as we discovered. Photographs: Orthosiphon rubicundus : A tall herb with beautiful inflorescence, it is used in medicines in India. It attracts a lot of butterflies. Above is the photograph of the entire inflorescence, and below is an image of a single flower. Impatiens minor - Also called Lesser Balsam, it is one of the monsoon flowering shrubs growing hardly 10 - 15 cm. The flower is very small but dots open forest surfaces in white and Purple shades. Justicia procumbens - Another tiny beauty that dots the forest floor at Yeoor, it is also commonly called as Water Willow. Polyrhachis sp.? - This image was taken on 21st June (Yeoor - Day 2 Report). I identified it as a Polyrhachis sp. According to a website dedicated to Insects, "Polyrhachis is

Matheran - 11th and 12th July 2009 Introduction I have already written twice about Matheran during August 2008. I visited this place again this year, just to enjoy and learn what Monsoon brings with her. Matheran literally means “a forest on top”. It is a small hill station, smallest in the northern Western Ghats, about 7.2 sq. km in area. It is well connected from Mumbai as well as Pune – and hence attracts a lot of tourists. It is a place developed long ago by the British, and since then it is an escapade for holiday goers, trekkers and naturalists. Matheran comes under the Ecologically Sensitive Area, it is a category of conservation areas that is more flexible and open than present day Protected Areas (Wild Life Sanctuaries and National Parks); which face pressures beyond their resilience power and thus are vulnerable to ecological degradation. It does not prohibit livelihoods except from hazardous industries. The Matheran ESA encompasses 214.73 sq. km area, in and around