Western Ghats

 The Western Ghats are a series of hills on the west coast of India. They get very heavy rain during the monsoon season, hence they have thick forests. Many rivers originate in these mountains, and are the lifelines of peninsular India. The Tungabhadra is a river made up of two such rivers- Tunga and Bhadra.

 My friend is walking through the forest. She was not scared of meeting a king cobra during her walk!

Sunset at Agumbe, the spot which gets the heaviest rain in the world, after Chirrapunjee in Assam.
To read about more exciting places, go to Our World Tuesday.

Temples of the Rainforest

The southwest of India has an extensive rainforest . There are some ancient temples hidden in the midst of the forest and betelnut plantations. The picture abov shows the beauttiful 800 year old Shiva temple at  Amrutapua.

 Much of the forest has been converted to coconut and betelnut plantations. The slender , straight trees of the betelnut stand like soldiers.

 Fortunately, there are still some pockets of the thick tropical forest at some places.

I am joining Our World Tuesday and Travel Tuesday.

Sundarbans- A Wonderland of Mangroves

A happy New Year to you!
We spent the last days of 2016 in Sundarbans, an incredible ecological haven for mangrove trees and aquatic animals.  The river Ganga (Ganges) branches into many distributaries before it reaches the ocean, making a vast area of swamps. The tides make the water salty. There are different kinds of mangrove trees in the forests which line the river.

 We were on a boat cruising the streams for three days. It was chilly, but we enjoyed the cruise.The boat stopped at some villages, where we went ashore and visited museums. The folk drama  at one place about the saintly Bono Bibi who helps those in trouble , was poignant.

Although we could not catch a glimpse of the feared Royal Bengal Tiger, we came across large crocodiles sunning themselves, wild boar , monitor lizards and spotted deer.
The flower above is the flower of the Bruguiera mangrove. In one village I saw a number of these red flowers fallen on the ground and some were moving! On close inspection, I found that the moving ' flowers' were in fact red crabs camouflaged to look like the flowers, making it easy for them to catch their prey, and also helping them escape from the birds!