The Camelopardalis meteor shower

A meteor Shower happens when the Earth passes through debris that are left in the space by a Comet. When any Comet travels near the sun, the sun vaporizes it and many small chunks of that Comet is left, and when the Earth passes near the Comet, the parts of comet burns up in Earth’s atmosphere and radiates. A meteor shower is expected to be visible on 23/24 May. Since, it happens in the Constellation Camelopardalis, a name from Roman Myths, where the animals has characters like that of Camel and Leopard hence, Camelopardalis.  The constellation lies near the Ursa Major, on a Northern region.

The Camelopardalis shower will be debris from 09P/LINEAR a comet that orbits the sun every five years. The comet was recently discovered in 2004 by the Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research project, (LINEAR) a partnership between MIT Lincoln Laboratory, NASA and the U.S. Air Force. Its expected to have more than 100 showers an hour. That should be spectacular!

The comet is expected to be visible on May 23/24 mostly favored for North America, based on the time of prediction but can be visible from all over the world, nothing bad in trying! Personally the best shower I've seen was Geminids Meteor Shower 2 years back. I hope the sky will be clear for that day/night and we will see the shower from Nepal as well.

The Dusty Table

The clouds are fading,
but still the darkness lingers
the glance of a traitor,
a doubt-able approach to
ceasing the fire,
the fire in the heart
as the green fields below
burn down to ashes,
hopes and dreams,
right before my blind eye crashes

waves of imaginary illusion
passes time with me,
sipping time with every drop
of tea on the table,
with a layer of thin dust,
the same that I had built up,
that she blew away at once!

The semi clear floor of
wooden table, polished with paints,
just like she was, yet internally
it was just a raw wood with
a darkness inside, oh! Polished it was! 

The Travelers Pack

The life of a traveller, the dirty shoes thumping on the muddy roads and trails of every corner of Nepal’s young Himalayan flood plains to mid hills to the lesser Himalayas itself. The worn out jeans, a small handheld camera, and a dust riddled North Face bag and infinite road ahead. Never as planned, well nothing goes according to plan anyways! But as a part of a career in Wildlife Biology/ Ecology, travelling is a must. I do love being in nature, the sound of birds, the winds rattling the leaves, the cricket’s noise is melody to my ears, there’s nothing I love more than being in nature, the soft scaly wings of butterfly breaking the waves in a silence, flying past us, teasing us, “Take my photo, catch me if you can”.  I spent 20-30 minutes chasing a butterfly for a good photo, at times never getting it in the end.  Nepal is Nature at its best! What do we not have here? I could spend years and years of my life year, I don’t believe in past or next life but a single life is not enough to travel and praise the beauty that Nepal possesses. But every time I’m somewhere, weather is the floodplains of Terai, some deep forest of the mid hills or barren lands of snowline; I’ve always had a pack of Wai Wai with me. I hadn’t thought of it at those times but recently after few of those crazy expedition, I came to realize that where ever I’ve been to, I’ve have had Wai Wai in the most strangest of the places as well! Be it raw of , cooked! I always have a travelers pack!!

 Well the strangest to start with has to be a recent trip to Champadevi, sitting on top of the South Western hill of the Valley; Champadevi offers the shortest and good hiking experience for a single day. We reached the top and with our theory of never coming down the same way that we took, we took a different way, the one we had no idea about, shortly after few hours of walk, we were lost, guessed our way through the fragile trails, ended up in stony paved stairs leading down into some kind of valley floor. It was almost thick forest and we had no idea where we were going, but then we heard faint sounds of Madal playing then we realized we had touched a part of Makwanpur, and there was this small hut, a shop. Out of all places in that wilderness, there was one shop! Would there be a better place to have Wai Wai?

High up in the Himalayas, this time Langtang Valley, climbing up the steep ridges of Kyanjin Ri, without  even a bottle of water, well no body even thought of carrying a bottle of water,  and I took the long and the wrong way ended reaching the peak alone but could see ant sized friends way below. With hunger creeping into the stomach, where else could be the best place for Wai Wai other than 4800 meters? Btw, a single pack of Wai Wai costs 100 in Langtang, Glad that I had bought few in Balaju!

I had always heard about Kalinchowk, always wanted to go there. But never had a chance, sometimes some friends weren’t free and sometimes I was broke and all but then few months ago, everything lined up! Decided a day ahead, and then went to Charikot the next day. What I thought was that Kalinchowk is few hours hike from Charikot, 2 to be precise from what I had heard but it turned out to be far more than that, Kalinchowk was 1.5 hrs away from Kuri which  was 5-6 hours from Charikot, we reached Charkot at 3 PM! Then directly started ascending up the hills, well mostly flat lands for few hours! Before reaching this small quiet village with a different essence, rested there for a minute and again asked the shopkeeper for noodles, and Wai Wai again!
The stories goes on and on, regardless of where it is, be it Far West in Mahendranagar, or the birth place of Buddha or Chitwan, Pokhara, Palpa, Syangja, Jomsom Muktinath, Gorkha anywhere I go, there’s always Wai Wai!

The fun thing is, you ask the shopkeeper for a Wai Wai and he cooks up Mayos, Wai Wai means Noodles in Nepal! At least as far as I’ve known and I was thinking about this thing and a pact that I will be taking Wai Wai with me where ever I go and I will Eat wai wai in all the Districts of Nepal!! #BucketList
Rings a bell about that Wai Wai add, wherever it is, There’s Wai Wai in our heats! #HamroManMaaWaiWai

Save the Pangolins

Pangolins are Mammals of the order Pholidota, and family Manidae which has a single genus, The word Pangolin is derived from Malayan phrase ‘Pen Gulling’ which translates into ‘rolling ball’ or something that rolls up, while the term Pholidota came from a Greek word meaning ‘scaled animals’ the single genus is represented by 8 Species. Pangolins are known as Scaly Ant eaters! They are called “Salak” in Nepali.

Of the 8 Species of Pangolin in the world, 3 species are found in Asia of which two species are found in Nepal. The Chinese Pangolin Manis pentadactyla are distributed from the lower foothills to the middle mountains of Nepal while the Indian Pangolin Manis crassicaudata have been reported from western Terai region of Nepal. The peculiar character of Pangolin is that its skin is covered by large Keratin Scales. It looks like some primitive animal from Jurassic era.

The body looks similar to Pine cone. It is known to curl up into a ball like structure when it feels threatened while the scales act like armor. The Pangolin has an extremely elongated tongue which extend into the abdominal cavity. The largest Pangolins can extend their tongues upto 40 cm. Pangolins do not have teeth and are not able to chew, there’s a specialized glands in the chest of Pangolins which are specialized to produce a sticky ant catching saliva which helps to stick the ants in its long tongue. The diets of Pangolin consist of Ants and Termites. The Pangolins control the Ants and Termites and without them the population Ants could skyrocket. The life span of Pangolins is unknown but they are known to live over 20 years in captivity.

                                                                    Manis pentadactyla (Photo source : www.arkive.org)
                      

Status of Pangolins in Nepal:
The Indian pangolin, thick-tailed pangolin, or scaly anteater (Manis crassicaudata) Near Threatened (IUCN 3.1)
The Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) Endangered (IUCN 3.1)

The reason behind the Declining population:
The implication of medical importance of Pangolin is the reason for the declining population as the trade for Pangolin scales grows larger every day. It’s known that Pangolin and Pangolin scales are on high alert in the national and international trade market. They are mostly known to be imported to China, where most people believe that the scales have medicinal values. It is believed that pangolin is very important in healing rheumatic fever, asthma, joint problem etc. It is also believed that the Pangolins Uterus has high traditional value which is associated with avoiding abortion problems. The scales are also made into lockets which are believed to protect the children.

The only way to stop these illegal trade is; to aware the public about the status and importance of the Pangolins and the false assumptions that they are of medicinal uses! Even if there are, the so called healers or medicine makers and Scientist can work together to find the element or the thing whatever it is, the proteins or the chemicals responsible for treatments, if they can find a way to synthesize it that would of great help, but they never think of it like that, it’s just superstition that the pangolin scales are of medicinal uses, well it can’t be true but doesn’t mean we have the rights to over exploit it! The same chemicals, if true, found inside the pangolins can be synthesized outside to treat those diseases. Killing them endlessly is not an option. They are one of the most important animals in the Ecosystem. But in recent years, the trades of Pangolins have subsided. Hope this will continue if future as well and hope that there will come a day when that amazing species will be threat-less in the wild and both humans and Pangolins can live together in peace, which again will be helped by the pangolins, they are helping us control the Ants and the Termites and what are we giving them in return? Death? Is that fair?


P.S. World Pangolin Day is celebrated on the third Saturday in February

#SaveThePangolins Help spread the words!

Field Hike Day 1 : Ghyaampedada

This Saturday took us to right into the mixture of Urban-Suburban-sub rural areas within a few kilometers from the highway. The aim was designed in such a way to explore the Urban Wildlife of that particular area. I was accompanied by two of my friends for the reconnaissance survey. We started out late, well one because I took the wrong bus first and then the bus which roams around the city before exiting on to the outer road that touches that connecting road to Bhaktapur. My friends, both Environmental Science majors joined me on the way. We the got off at Bhaktapur then started walking towards the Suryabinayak Temple. The temple is, may be about a Km away from the main road. The road to Ghyampedada and pilot baba aashram lies on the left side of Suryabinayak temple. For the first few minutes you walk through a completed black pitched road, few minutes into the road and we’re enter a community forest, and slowly the pitched road starts fade, leaving the muddy “Nepali” style of road! The most striking part about that first few minutes was that, it was still slightly urban area, and even with those disturbances I had already seen bunch of different species of Butterflies! I had never heard about that place before, and hearing about the butterflies’ diversity of that place is out of the question. But I was overwhelmed after seeing such a diverse population of butterflies in such a short time span, and they were everywhere, plus the forest seemed so dense and undisturbed! The most common trees were
Dhale Katus : Castanopsis indica- Chestnut
Falat : Quercus glauca – Ring cupped Oak
Musure Katus : Castanopsis tribuloides – Chestnut
Seto Kath : Myrsine capitellata –
 Chilaaune : Schima wallichii

Also lots of Rhodoendron
We walked through the dense forest for about an hour, it would take less if you just walk without looking around the diversity in the forest but we took our time with it, photographing every strange or unknown leaf to trees and mostly butterflies and caterpillar. After walking for an hour we finally reached Pilot baba’s aashram. The aashram sits on top of a peculiar landscape, the aashmram lies in Bhaktapur and a steep slope south to the aashram drops into the southern face into a small valley separated by a river into Lalitpur and Bhaktapur. The slope had considerable number of Aiselu (Rubus sps.). The aashram resides on a very peaceful location with a touch of cold breeze even in the middle of a hot day. The temple premises are well maintained and extremely clean, and the garden is well managed as well with plenty of species of Roses, which I’m really acquainted with or else I’d write down the types or genus of those roses as well. While we were busy trying to take the photographs of the rose garden, the clouds had other plans and all of a sudden they broke into rains and started to pour down on us, draining our hike as well as my survey. We rushed to a small tea house right on the door of the Aashram.

We waited for the rain to end with a cup of black tea. While we were having tea, a foreigner walked into the tea shop all drenched in rain. She asked the shopkeeper for “Dudh Chiya” , again her wish of having a Dudh chiya was drenched by the shopkeeper just like the rain had drenched her, he replied with NO Milk tea! Only Black! She said, it’s fine; I’ll have the black tea. Then shortly we started to have a conversation, she was from Spain and had been to Nepal twice, then the conversation went along, while we were about to leave, I asked her if she was travelling alone, and she was,  so I asked to join us if she wasn’t in a hurry. She wasn’t, she joined us and then we walked towards the Ghyampe Dada, few minutes away from Pilot Baba Aashram. On the way she asked us what we were doing there and I told her that I was there on field visit and I was looking for some Leopards, she didn’t understand it at first, then after I explained to her she said “Ohh Leopaaarrddoooo” in Spainsh accent! She thought I was joking at that time! While having the same conversation we reached Ghyampedada. Ghyaampedada has number of houses and local hotels and as we learned that day that it was famous for local alcoholic products as well as it was a scenic hotspot from where, on a clear day, a wide range of mountains could be seen, but since we were walking in faint rain we didn’t see anything but a blurred out Bhaktapur city below the dark clouds. On the way back we took photos of lots of butterflies, saw one extremely beautiful butterfly, chased it for about 20 minutes but still couldn’t get a shot because the butterfly wouldn’t rest at all! Slowly and gradually we walked down the road and it started to rain again! We only had 1 umbrella and 4 people but we managed somehow, and kept on walking down the road, we did miss out on lots of butterflies because of the rain. But it was extremely fun trying to walk in the muddy slippery roads while it was raining cats and dogs! Finally the rains subsided and we reached the Suryabinayak temple. We had few cup of teas and Waiwai noodles and then had some Sapanish and Japanese lessons! Then as we moved into the urban part of Suryabinayak I had to ask some local few questions regarding my Thesis work, we found a shop where a and elderly man was sitting alone, so we picked that shop and went in to ask him few question. It was as if he was bored to death, he invited use like we were his family member, he was that happy even before I told him why we were there, he asked us to sit down and then I told him what was I looking for, and the pulled out a chair and started talking endlessly. He told me about everything I needed to know regarding the Leopard- Human conflict in that area, as per him, in recent years, there hasn’t been much conflict when it comes to human, because according to him the Leopards come into the urban area to feed on the Dogs! And since, no humans or other cattle’s are harmed there exists no conflict in recent years. That was an interesting insight for my research. He also told me that the Urban wildlife of those areas were, Leopard, the most common one then there were deer (Spotted Deer Axis axis) as per his description, Rabbits, Wild boars, Mongoose etcetera. I did learn about possible habitat and future conflict scenarios from that person, he was extremely helpful. And this is when our Spanish friend believed that we were there for field study and really looking for the Leopaaaardoo! Then we bid him farewell, thanking him for his time and sharing his knowledge. Then as we took a bus, and asked our foreign friend where she’d get off she told us that she had no idea where to get off because she had come to that place last night and had no idea where it was, she knew it was not in Thimi but outside of it, Thankfully she had phone number of that place, so we called them and asked for the location and it was such a location that even my local Bhaktapurian friend had no idea where it was, so we got off with her, asked the locals for the direction and dropped her off at the location. And as it turns out, the place where she was staying was a beautiful garden almost could pass for a Botanical garden with old style Bhaktapurian houses. It’s was an Organic farm plus guest house for peace lovers!

On my personal experience, for a short term hike that place is ideal, with a different cultural blend to natural scenic places to vast diversity of butterflies and birds! Take your time and hike the route!!