What immortal hand or eye could frame thy gentle beaut
What immortal hand or eye could frame thy gentle beauty (to alter William Blake’s poem a bit)
As they flit from flower to flower, they are like poetry in motion. I am, of course, alluding to the butterflies and moths. From the staid browns to the colourful blues, reds, yellows and mesmerizing blacks, they come in all colours. They carry off the beautiful patterns and the mix of colours so elegantly. Our creator was perhaps in a mood for experimentation (especially with colours) when he made these gentle, delicate beauties.
At my home town in K R Nagar, there is village close by called Chandgal which has a lake. Many a bird I have seen hovering around the lake; butterflies and dragon flies are also present here in good numbers. During my last visits to the place (sometime in the first and third week of July), the lake was devoid of all these delicate creatures. The monsoon wind's had swept them off and now they had taken residence in the areca nut, mango and pepper plantation some distance away from the lake.
As they flit from flower to flower, they are like poetry in motion. I am, of course, alluding to the butterflies and moths. From the staid browns to the colourful blues, reds, yellows and mesmerizing blacks, they come in all colours. They carry off the beautiful patterns and the mix of colours so elegantly. Our creator was perhaps in a mood for experimentation (especially with colours) when he made these gentle, delicate beauties.
At my home town in K R Nagar, there is village close by called Chandgal which has a lake. Many a bird I have seen hovering around the lake; butterflies and dragon flies are also present here in good numbers. During my last visits to the place (sometime in the first and third week of July), the lake was devoid of all these delicate creatures. The monsoon wind's had swept them off and now they had taken residence in the areca nut, mango and pepper plantation some distance away from the lake.
It seemed like a mass exodus had taken place; I saw all these butterflies had now made the plantation their home, spreading happiness and cheer as they flew, some being perched on the lantana bushes, and on the wild weeds adjoining the fence and the canal that bordered the plantation. Watching a palm fly in these dark, cool and quiet plantation habitat is truly a sublime experience! 
My album is testimony to the beauty and fragility of these butterflies and moths.
I must also mention that I was welcomed by the farmers here who allowed me access to their plantation and were warm and friendly, narrating many a tale.
Please visit our web site for more photographs
http://picasaweb.google.com/earthsublime/ButterfliesJuly2007
Sunita Raghu
posted by earthsublime @ 8:49 AM
3 Comments:
At 11:59 AM, November 21, 2007 ,
Anonymous said...
It was a pleasure to read your blogs...actually, I was looking for info. related to "Anshi Nature Camp" when I hit upon your post!
I request you to kindly let me know the procedure to book accomm. at the Anshi Nature Camp.
Also, are private jeeps available near the Anshi Camp for hire to do the local sight-seeing (Syntheri rocks/Kavala caves/Siroli peak/Sykes Point)?
Warm regards
Dr. Sudhakar Rao
Hyderabad
At 11:50 PM, November 22, 2007 ,
earthsublime said...
Dr. Sudhakar,
We had called the Dandeli forest department DFO from Bangalore and visited Anshi. We were able to pay the accomodation charge in Anshi forest office. This approach, will waste an hour or two and you may have to make calls to DFO Dandeli for forest incharge to get a confirmation from Dandeli. For some reason they don't trust strangers. More over sometimes you may have to rely on the Walki Talkie phones to make a call to Dandeli DFo, Cell phone service are available at some vantage points during tekking. So get better get a reservation slip, which had to be done well in advance by sending DD to Dandeli wild life warden. No online or credit card system. You can also book personally in Dandeli. Telephone no's should be easily available in the net. We had our own vehicle and could cover quite a number of places. Syntheri rocks is in remote place. No bus facilities, may be you neeed to search for a package tour in Dandeli or make a vehicle from Dandeli.
Anshi is a very good forest, good cottages, green trees even in summer, lovely birds and mammals along the 5 trek routes, Best one can enjoy the silence and nature. The accomodation charges were very minimum ( 150/- to 250/- per tent and 8 tents are available). When we visited only two tents were occupied. 4 - 5 people are working over there to take care of the guests and food. Forest Guards will accompany you while you trek. Food is quite simple and good. The camp is about 2-3 kms from the Anshi forest office and spans roughtly 10 acre.. Anshi has 10-15 houses for forest guards and two small shops. Own vehicle and visiting in group is recommended. These forest treks are dense and dark even at 10 am in Summer !. Just imagine in the night.
Dandeli forest is less green and dense in summer when compared to Anshi.
Traffic and people are will never bother you. There is one tempo or a bus plunging from dandeli crowded. Dandeli is quite a big town and private vehicles should be easily available. Road to Anshi from dandeli was not smooth. Forests can be better preserved with bad roads !
Warm Regards
Raghu
At 11:51 PM, November 22, 2007 ,
earthsublime said...
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