An irrigation tank in Madanapalle

Madanapalle has numerous wetlands in the form of irrigation tanks, some of which are centuries old, and are traditionally managed by the village communities. These tanks provide habitat for a variety of life forms. Such as frogs, waders, snakes, bird of prays, insect larvae etc. wetland flora is also very rich. I visited one such tank in November and I saw birds, insects, plants, frogs... 

My friend Raghu observes water birds of an irrigation tank in a November morning

A panoramic view of Madanapalle town.

This hilly and undulating semi-arid landscape has mostly thorny scrub with patches of dry deciduous forests. The hills form the broken ranges of the lower Eastern Ghats that connect to the Western Ghats. Most of the water tanks are home to a variety of waders.

A short-toed snake eagle soars above a man made tank on a sunny day in November.

A short-toed snake eagle perches on the ground in Madanaplle

A short-toed snake eagle gazes into the photographer's lens. This bird of prey, a resident about the height of a small goat is very common in the open scrub lands. Looking for a snake and the snake was…

The Green Sandpiper in Madanapalle.

Green sandpiper is a small wader. It breeds across Europe and Asia and is a migratory bird. Feeds on small invertebrate items picked off the mud as this species works steadily around the edges of its chosen pond.

A wood sandpiper (Juvenile) in Madanapalle

The sweeping color of sea and sky, blue is a common thread in nature. This juvenile wood sandpiper forages by probing in shallow water or on wet mud, and mainly eat insects and similar small prey. This bird is usually found on freshwater during migration and wintering.

Black winged stilt and a coot

A flock of black-winged stilt's (adults and juveniles) rest and a coot swims in an irrigation tank in Madanapalle.

Red-wattled lapwing.

The did-he-do-it bird ! The red-wattled lapwing is a lapwing or large plover, a wader.

A lark behind the grass

A bird trying to conceal from me. Their dull appearance camouflages them on the ground, especially when on the nest. They feed on insects and seeds.

A tiny, narrow-mouthed Frog frog, microhyla ornata.

Frogs are a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians. I saw this stout-bodied one on the bank of a irrigation tank in Madanapalle. Don’t know the name of this frog- need help!

Green Pond Frog, euphyctis hexadactyla

Green may be the most common color found in nature—it's everywhere from leaves, grass, and moss to snakes, butterflies, and even the northern lights. Green represents life, vitality, nature, and, of course, environmentalism.

Stratus clouds in Nilgiri valleys

Stratus clouds seen in one of the valleys of NBR (Photo P.A. Vinayan)

Clouds form in a valley mostly related to the temperature inversion. Mountain areas often produce morning valley fog after a clear night where air near the damp ground has cooled by radiation. As the cool air is heavier it stays in the valleys, leaving the tops in clear warmer air. The sun will normally destroy this effect within a few hours of rising.

http://www.fellwalk.co.uk/page54.htm

Neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiana) bloooms

Strobilanthes

Neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiana) is a shrub that used to grow abundantly in the shola grasslands of the Western Ghats. An unphilosophical claim is often made that the 'blue mountains' of 'nilgiris' descend their name from the richness of this plant received on these terrains. I saw bees burst with happiness and pollen. They are so happy because, they get huge quantity of scrumptious nectar from these lurid purple flowers.
Neelakurinji that blossoms gregariously only once in 12 years so now this can't be a gregarious flowering! This is August 2012, last gregarious flowering happened in 2006 so... I don't know..

Blue mountains- Photo Vinayan. P. A.

Orographic clouds

Classic orographic cloud

On July 11 of 2012, I was traveling towards Kochin through the Palghat gap of the Western Ghats. I saw this wonderful phenomena that the clouds are being attracted and trapped by mountains. Orographic clouds form when humid air blows over the top of the mountain. The air must rise to go over the mountain range. When the air rises it reaches its lifting condensation level and clouds form. This happen when the air temperature at the peak is colder than the dew point of the air then the moisture in the air condenses into visible clouds when the air rises around and above the peak. The lifting condensation level (LCL) is the point where the water vapor begins to condense and is visible as clouds.

Thanks to John Walton, who helped me in the identification of the cloud. He is a  Professor, Dept. Civil Engineering  University of Texas.

John Walton's website http://windowoutdoors.com)

Kabani River

There are three East flowing rivers in Kerala. Kabani is one of the tributaries of east flowing inter state river Kauvery. About 6 km north of Panamaram, the Kabini takes birth. It is the confluence of the Panamaram river, originating in the Western ghats near Lakkidi, 1371 mtr above sea level, and the Mananthavady river, springing from the 1500 Tondarmudi.The river originates from Pakramthalam hills at Kuttyadi-Mananthavady road. Makkiyad river and Periya river join it near Korome and Valad respectively. After flowing through Mananthavady town, Panamaram river joins Kabini near Payyampally. One branch of the Panamaram river starts from the Banasura Sagar reservoir near Padinjarethara and the other branch of the river start from Lakkidi hills. After traversing two more kilometres from the confluence of Panamaram river Kabini forms an island called Kuruva Island, spreading over 520 acres (2.1 km2) with diverse flora and fauna. Between Kabani reservoir and Kuruva island Kalindi river joins Kabini. Kalindi river originates from Brahmagiri hills which on reaching near Tirunelly temple the rivulet Papanasini joins it. The Kabini flows through Kerala only for a stretch of 8 km. It covers about 12 km along the Kerala-Karnataka border, before moving northward, at Kalvalli, towards Mysore and flows eastward to join the Kaveri River at Tirumakudal Narasipur in Karnataka, which empties into the Bay of Bengal. 

The total drainage of area of Kabani upto the point where it crosses the state boundary is 2,070 sq km of which an extant of which 1,920 sq km is within Kerala.

a leopard on the banks of River Kabani in the summer

Why temperature drops with altitude?

The temperature of the troposphere generally decreases as altitude increases. The rate at which the temperature decreases, is called the environmental lapse rate (ELR). The ELR is nothing more the difference in temperature between the surface and the tropopause divided by the height. The reason for this temperature difference is the absorption of the sun's energy occurs at the ground which heats the lower levels of the atmosphere, and the radiation of heat occurs at the top of the atmosphere cooling the earth, this process maintaining the overall heat balance of the earth. The temperature drop with height  is 6.5 degrees Celsius per 1000 meters/ the temperature drop with height is 0.0065 degree Celsius per 1 meter.

Another interesting information about the increase in the altitude is that:-

Montane Wet temperate forests- the adoption of the term temperate in respect of montane conditions in the tropics was originally put forward by Humboldt in 1817 who generalized that the successive altitudinal zones of vegetation correspond to the latitudinal zones from equator to the poles. An increase of elevation, according to him, about 1,000m. On a tropical mountain would correspond to an increase of about 9⁰ 30’ of latitude, or roughly a difference of 100 m. in altitude could be equivalent to a difference of 1⁰  latitude. According to this, an altitude of about 8000 m. correspond phytogeographycally to the poles!!

Inspite of the obvious general similarity between the physiognomy (in ecology = The apparent characteristics) of the vegetaion at different altitudes and that at latitudes of corresponding mean temperature, this concept has been held to be inappropriate as being far too simple to be general application; for, on closer scrutiny, this similarity will be found to be far from exact. The climate of the equivalent altitudinal and latitudinal zones is never the same, since in a given altitudinal zone at the equator the length of day and the seasonal changes are greatly different.

(Ref:-Nilgiris District Gazatteer) 

Banasura hills

View of the Dam from Banasura hills

Banasura hills are located in Wayanad District of Kerala in the Western Ghats. It is the catchment area of the largest earthen dam in India and the second largest in Asia, Banasura Sagar. 

Tropical cyclone names

Met Office

During the Second World War names were used by USA Air Force and Navy meteorologists monitoring Pacific tropical storms. By the mid-1960s names were used for all tropical storms except those in the North Indian Ocean. The names currently in use and those to be used in future years are listed below. Various meteorological organisations have responsibility for names and employ different conventions.

Northern hemisphere index

• Western north Pacific - West of 180 °E
• Philippines - 5-25 °N 115-135 °E
• Central North Pacific - 140-180 °W
• Eastern North Pacific - East of 140 °W
• Atlantic
• North Indian

Credits to Metoffice.UK, if you are more interested please visit their website:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/tropicalcyclone/names.html

Neighborhood Geography with Young Children

“Where’s my new preschool?” “What does ‘prairie’ mean?” Children’s natural curiosity about places is the basis for learning about geography. The Illinois Early Learning Standards call for children to express beginning geographic thinking and to locate objects and places in familiar environments. These tips can help children in your program meet these benchmarks!

Lots of educational materials can be found from the following website:-

Illinois State Board of Education
http://illinoisearlylearning.org/cgi-bin/iel/searchiel.asp

Remote sensing

We were talking about Geography, Maps and remote sensing in a Govt. Tribal Residential School where Keystone Foundation is having Conservation Education Programs.
Suddenly when we talked about remote sensing the situation became very perplexed (one of my ability)!!
We did not carry our computer, set of maps, globe nothing, there was there to help :(

By the time our audience became very curious (which was rarely seen) to know what is this 'remote sensing'
We were looking around to find a way to explain how to address their wounder...
looking around and round we saw a small hill behind the school, asked teacher can we take children for 2 hours to that hill!!!!(teacher's expression)
It hardly took for us to climb 1000 meters. Most of them were barefoot ecologists, we were carrying no water no snacks, one camera, one binocular, note books, sketch pens and pencils and an interest to know 'remote sensing'
This is what had happened after the trek... 

Seeing school from hilltop

Sobha (barefoot cartographer) is drawing map

Geddesal school through my camera

Geddesal school through Sobha's eyes- 'Remote sensing'!(red rectangular shapes are school buildings, green rectangulars are paddy fields, mushroom shaped greens are eucalyptus plantation..

A Sea of Clouds

Nilgiri eastern slopes

A Sea of Clouds: Unveiling the Mysteries of Cloud Formation and Movement

While returning from Sathyamangalam, I encountered a breathtaking sight – a vast expanse of clouds stretching across the valley below. This encounter ignited my curiosity about the formation and movement of clouds, leading me to explore the fascinating mechanisms behind these atmospheric wonders.

Clouds are formed when water vapor, invisible gas produced by evaporation from oceans, lakes, and other bodies of water, cools and condenses into tiny water droplets or ice crystals. This process occurs when warm, moist air rises and encounters cooler temperatures at higher altitudes. The expansion of the air causes the water vapor to lose its energy and condense onto tiny particles, such as dust or salt, forming cloud droplets or ice crystals.

The movement of clouds is governed by the Earth's prevailing winds, which are driven by differences in air pressure. Warm air rises, creating low-pressure areas, while cooler air sinks, causing high-pressure areas. As clouds drift along with the winds, they encounter varying air temperatures and moisture levels, leading to changes in their shape, size, and density.

The presence of abundant water vapor in clouds is a crucial indicator of the potential for precipitation. As cloud droplets or ice crystals accumulate, they grow heavier and eventually fall as rain, snow, sleet, or hail. The amount of precipitation depends on the temperature and humidity of the air, as well as the altitude at which the clouds form.

Ocean heat energy plays a pivotal role in regulating atmospheric circulation and influencing weather patterns. Warmer oceans provide a steady source of moisture, fueling cloud formation and generating precipitation. This interplay between ocean temperatures and cloud dynamics is essential for maintaining the delicate balance of our planet's climate.

(http://www.teachersdomain.org/asset/ean08_int_seasurface)