Southern Western Ghats Traverse (Part I)
Anamalai Spiny Lizard (Salea anamallayana) in the garden of a bungalow in Kodaikanal. It’s always a treat stumbling upon these small lizards in places where you wouldn’t expect to see rare, endemic species. (April 2022)
Our home in Colombo provides relatively easy access to the southern Western Ghats Sky Island landscapes that have been the focus of my personal, artistic and academic pursuits for the last several decades. My teaching commitments necessitate that my visits across the straits are short and I try to squeeze something new out of each family and solo visit. Over this year’s Avurudu (Tamil/Sinhala New Year) spring break I had the privilege of doing a short east-west traverse of the southern Western Ghats Sky Island landscape. It follows up on a family visit last year and a solo trip for KIS board meetings in September 2023. The journey provided an opportunity to take in new and familiar landscapes, renew relationships with key friends, meet individuals doing important conservation work and further explore the Sky Islands.
There is something indescribably wonderful in the experience of ascending the Ghat Road from the hot plains to the cool mountain heights of the Sky Islands. The transformation in climate and ecology is something that has a lasting impression on visitors to the Palani Hills. Law’s Ghats Road, built in the early 20th Century, is the main access point but is now dangerously congested with traffic.
This is my first attempt to make a printable map on QGIS, the impressive Open-Source software that is the backbone for many users looking for a dynamic and cost-effective GIS package. I wanted to experiment with its tools and in this one I blended different layers (elevation, Google imagery and Open Street Maps). The map was created on a Mac operating system-a major bonus after being frustrated with needing a PC to do most my map work with ArcGIS.
Manjalar Dam as seen from the (Kodai) Ghat Road near Tum Tum Pari or (Thaliyar) Falls view. Taken in April 2022 after several nights of rain.
The southern slopes of the Palani Hills, as seen from Tum Tum Pari or (Thaliyar) Falls View. Taken in April 2022 after several nights of rain.
The White-bellied Sholakili (Sholicola albiventris), formerly known as the White-bellied Shortwing, is a key indicator species for healthy sholas in the upper Palani Hills and other ranges of the Southern Western Ghats Sky Islands landscape. Bombay Shola in Kodaikanal, where this individual was photographed, is one of the best locations to observe this shy species. Robin Vijayan’s students at IISER Tirupati are conducting long-term research on bird species in this small, protected area and this individual has been tagged by them. (April 2024)
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A collage of scenes and birds from Bombay Shola in Kodaikanal. Many of these species are endemic to the Sky Islands landscape. Close inspection of several of these individuals reveals rings-the area is an important field laboratory for students from IISER Tirupati and these are some of their birds. (September 2023 and April 2024).
The KIS campus seen from above. I created this orthomosaic with a small DJI drone using Dronelink software. The potential to map small sample areas and their land cover using this technology offers an exciting opportunity to understand the Sky Islands landscape in new ways. (images collected in September 2023).
Portraits of friends, shopkeepers and others that I encountered on the September 2023 and April 2024 visits to Kodai.
Elevated view of the Kodai Lake basin from what was once known as Swedish Hill. (September 2023)
One of the most encouraging things happening in the Palani Hills is a remarkable effort by the Shola Kurivi team. Composed of Kodai residents fed up with waste produced by tourists, they do daily walks through Bombay Shola collecting waste and raising awareness. Pingley (left) and Joshua (right) are two key founding leaders of this effort.
An elevated view of the Palani Hills and plains looking east from above Coaker’s Walk. (September 2023).
Kodai Lake, the KIS campus, town and view towards Perumal. Getting these elevated angles with a drone has greatly expanded my perspective and enhanced how I depict the Sky Islands landscape. (September 2023).
Visitors journeying through Tiger Shola are treated to this unique view of Perumal at the shola’s northern exit near the settlement at Perumalmalai. The basic view is similar to what Douglas Hamilton sketched in the mid-19th Century except now the montane grasslands have been planted with eucalyptus and other non-native timber species. ((September 2023)
Looking south from the village of Adukkam. When I was a student in the 1980s we hiked to this remote settlement a few times but it was a tough trek and the area remained unknown to me as I studied the geography of the Palani Hills. Several years ago a road connecting Perumalmalai to Adukkam was extended to the plains near Kumbakarai (Tope). This April I had my first opportunity to drive up and down the road.
To be continued in part 2…
REFERENCES
“Drawings by Douglas Hamilton.” Wikipedia. Web.
Pa, Aneesa. “Kodaikanal is now a giant traffic jam. A new Western Ghats magazine will flag problems.” The Print. 25 April 2024. Web.
Ramachandran, Surya and David Raju. Photographic Guide Wildlife of South India. Chennai: Norton Press, 2020. Print.
Raghavamoorthy, Reena. “It Began With the Birds.” The Kodai Chronicle. 14 September 2022. Web.
Slaty-Breasted Rail at Thalangama Wetlands
Slaty Headed Crake (Lewinia striata) at Thalangama Wetlands.
Spring wraps up the season of migration in Sri Lanka; visiting birds that have wintered on the island get ready to fly back north after their sojourn on the isle of paradise. In the early months of 2024, I spent several weekends and poya mornings staking out nearby wetlands looking for some of the more unusual visitors. On March 10th several of us were treated to a lengthy encounter with a Slaty-breasted Rail (Lewinia striata) at Talangama wetlands (this species may in fact be a resident whose population is boosted by migration but it isn’t fully clear). The same individual had been observed and photographed at the south end of the Thalangama wetlands for several consecutive days and it reminded me of the Ruddy-breasted Crake (Porzana fusca) that was the object of much curiosity in the ornithological community. I wrote a blog post about that encounter back in 2018 (in fact, I shared my first pictures of a Slaty-breasted Rail, observed with Will Duncan, in that post).
There has always been a strong birding community in Sri Lanka with the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka (FOGSL) and the Ceylon Bird Club being key promoters. With the advent of digital cameras, there are now large numbers of photographers who are on the lookout for rare species and interesting compositions. This has been a revolutionary change and digital photography has gotten large numbers of people interested in birds and with that, their conservation. The birding community that shows up at Thalangama on weekends represents a diverse range of Sri Lanka. I enjoy the friendly, supportive fellow photographers. People share stories and sightings and there is a general sense of goodwill. My close buddies are Priyanath Kotalawela, Nirosha Bopitiya and Rumeeth J and we coordinate many of our weekend outings. Our friend Malaka Fonseka, lives by the lake and is out with his camera on most weekdays. Ashok Amarasena also lives by the lake has some of the finest photographs of rare species. Their sightings spread ripples of interest in the community and most photographers visit on the weekends. The Birds of Thalangama Tank Facebook page, moderated by Sharmela De Silva and her son Shahan, is a great resource to find about sightings at the wetlands. The area, of course, benefits from the love and energy of Pay Drechsel and his Thalangama Wetland Watch.
Collage of the rock star Slaty Headed Crake (Lewinia striata) at Thalangama Wetlands.
Slaty Headed Crake (Lewinia striata) with a millipede catch at Thalangama Wetlands.
I visited Thalangama multiple times looking for bitterns and especially the elusive Black Bittern (Ixobrychus flavicollis) in the last four months. Most of the other photographers managed to get nice pictures this season but so far I have not had much luck and may have to wait for the 2024-25 season. It was my search for bitterns that brought me back to Thalangama on March 10th when the Slaty-breasted Rail decided to put on a show for us. My sense of what was shared is that all of us were able to get rather remarkable and certainly personally rewarding pictures from that morning!
REFERENCES
E-Bird. “Slaty-breasted Rail (Lewinia striata).” Web.
IWMI. “World Wetlands Day.” Web.
Kotagama, Sarath and Gamini Ratnavira. Birds of Sri Lanka: An Illustrated Guide. Colombo: Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka, 2017. Print.
Lockwood, Ian. “Rock Star Crake at Diyasaru.” Ian Lockwood Blog. 2017. Web.
Lockwood, Ian. “Teaching & Learning in Colombo’s Suburban Wetlands.” Ian Lockwood Blog. October 2016. Web.
Rasmussen, Pamela C. and John Anderson. Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide. Volumes 1 &2, Second Edition. Washington DC: Smithsonian, 2012. Print.
Ryder, Craig. “The Growing Importance of Colombo’s Shrinking Wetlands.” Roar. 2 February 2018. Web.
Warakagoda. Deepal et. al. Birds of Sri Lanka (Helm Field Guides). London: Helms Guides, 2012. Print.
Citizen Science Beginnings in a Sinharaja Restoration Plot
OSC students working under the guidance of Professor Nimal Gunatilleke, Dr. Suranjan Fernando and their teachers collect data on restoration and forest dynamics in a restored stretch of Sinharaja’s boundary forest planted with the non-native Pinus caribaea timber trees.
Sri Lanka’s ethereal Sinharaja rain forest, now more broadly understood as the Sinharaja Adiviya, has been a vital South Asian conservation success story, a magnet for ecotourists and a key location for the study of tropical rainforest dynamics. In recent years efforts to restore boundary areas that were earlier converted to non-native plantations have produced remarkable success. Last December I worked with Professor Nimal Gunatilleke and Dr. Suranjan Fernando to organize an effort to conduct citizen science with students from the Overseas School of Colombo. Our goal was to participate in the monitoring of the forest dynamics in restoration plots near the Kudawa entrance. The effort, although modest in scope, was designed to germinate and trial methods that could then be replicated by other groups of school students and interested citizens in the Sinharaja Adiviya.
Screenshot of the iNaturalist Sinharaja Biodiversity Observatory set up by the author for visiting student groups.
Sinharaja Adiviya boundary as seen in the Sinharaja Biodiversity Observatory page of the iNaturalist app.
Citizen Science in the International Baccalaureate Context
The Group IV project is an interdisciplinary project-based learning exercise that is a requirement for all Diploma (DP) science students to complete. Schools develop Group IV programs that allow candidates from the traditional science classes (Biology, Chemistry & Physics) to collaborate across disciplines to address a broad thematic question. At OSC, the interdisciplinary Environmental Systems and Societies (ES&S) class participates in this process (though it has not been a requirement). When the topic involves ecology and field work, ES&S students are expected to play a lead role. In past years OSC Group IV projects have focused on themes of tea, energy generation, urban wetlands and the OSC campus as a system. Group IV work is not formally assessed but students are required to participate and demonstrate collaboration that is evidenced in a final reflection. Thus, the focus is very much on the process rather than the product.
In the 2023-24 school year, the science department made several changes to how we conduct the Group IV project. We moved it into the traditional DP1 science field trip slot rather than have it at the end of the academic year. Secondly, we made a conscious move to design a program around Citizen Science in a way that the students would contribute to something more than an IB Diploma requirement. By good fortune, I was in touch with Professor Nimal Gunatilleke at the beginning of the school year and he was interested in getting students into the Sinharaja restoration plots to help monitor the forest dynamics and how contrasting areas were recovering. The proposed idea had a clear ecological focus but my colleagues in the department liked the idea of us all working to collect and contribute data to the effort.
SETTING THE SINHARAJA RESTORATION CONTEXT
The restoration plots that our group worked in are part of an important experiment in ecological restoration in “ever-wet” Mixed Dipterocarp Forest (MDF) that Professor Nimal Gunatilleke has been the key leader of. The plots are set in plantations of non-native Pinus caribaea that were planted on Sinharaja’s’ boundary 3-4 decades ago. Today there are still vast areas of non-native timber plantations that are awaiting restoration and the Sinharaja study was designed to test and model appropriate restoration methods. Around two decades ago key manager realized that the plantations were not producing the results originally envisioned and they (at least, initially) did not do much to support the area’s rich biodiversity. The restoration project involved thinning (rather than clear-cutting) plantations in strips and then planting key rainforest species that were appropriate from an ecological succession point-of-view. Experiments were conducted in different widths of strips (1-3 rows of pines removed) and manipulation (either no manipulation or some amount of it). Pioneer, rather than climax, species were initially planted as they would be more tolerant of the abiotic conditions in the cut strips (more light, less humidity etc.). These included “site generalist” and “restricted native” and “naturalized species of utility value.” The Pinus plantations are located in Sinharaja’s buffer zone where controlled extraction and harvests are permitted. The plants with economic value were specially designed to help get buy-in from neighboring residents.
The detailed story of the Sinharaja restoration plots has been recently published in a chapter of the book Ecological Restoration: Moving Forward Using Lessons Learned. See “Ecological Approaches to Forest Restoration: Lessons Learned from Tropical Wet Asia.” I created the maps for the Western Ghats and Sri Lankan case studies in this book but they are rather small in the final draft. I also highlight the key lessons in my October 2023 restoration article for Sanctuary Asia.
Sinharaja Adiviya restoration site map from the book Ecological Restoration: Moving Forward Using Lessons Learned (2023).
Professor Nimal Gunatilleke orients OSC students and teachers to the Sinharaja area and restoration site on the north-western Kudawa boundary.
GROUP IV FIELDWORK
We had a relatively large group including 35 DP1 students and five faculty members. Because of our size, we were spread between two different guest houses (Martin’s & the Blue Magpie Lodge). We spent our first afternoon getting oriented and doing a trial plot in the secondary forest near the REEC Center above Martin’s. Professor Gunatilleke and Dr. Suranjan led this and it was good to see the kids getting the hang of the steps despite some hungry leeches. The method of examining trees with a GBH of <1cm and between 1 and 5 cm GBH was challenging for our students to grasp but they put in a good effort. We had the Sinharaja guides working with each of our eight groups and they played a key role in identifying what was being recorded. The data was recorded on paper and also on the Survey 123 app that I had set up in Colombo based on the parameters established by our mentors.
A simplified flow diagram showing some of the key steps of the 2023 Group IV project in Sinharaja.
On our full day of data collection, we gathered the team at Martin’s and then hiked down to the restoration site. I’ve been walking by this site for many years and have been amazed and how it has changed such that it looks more like a rainforest than a plantation now (see attached historic pictures from earlier OSC studies). Nimal did a site briefing and then he and Suranjan assigned the groups to plots on the slop below the track leading to Martin’s from Kudawa village. Faculty members spread out with the groups, and we also got to work. Mechum Purnell, our secondary principal, moved between groups providing the lux readings using a Vernier probe. Science HOD, Robert LeBlanc ensured that the Chemistry aspects were being conducted properly (we measured nitrates and pH). Mohamed Haji, our new biology, teacher and I monitored several groups. Melinda Tondeur was on the road organizing a surprise birthday cake as a break after the second round of data had been collected. Tyler Echols ran back and forth to Martin’s to make sure that we had everything that was needed for the study. Each plot took about 30 minutes to study and the groups got better as they gathered more data. Unfortunately, we had to cut our day of fieldwork short when the skies opened up and it got wetter than our students were prepared for.
Notable plant species (and bracket fungi) from our time in Sinharaja.
Measuring canopy cover was an important part of the restoration study. We used the Canopeo app to get a quantitative assessment of the percentage cover of our plots. This image is taken on the old logging road leading to the research center.
WRAPPING UP
The rest of our time in Sinharaja was spent in class groups. The ES&S class spent quality time with Nimal and Savitri and got a personalized lecture on the story of Sinharaja and the efforts to restore the rainforest after the logging destruction of the 19760s and 70s. As per tradition, I planned a visit to Moulawella on our last morning. This short but physically challenging hike rewards you with a broad view over Sinharaja and the Kudawa area. I think that it is important for students to see the view, take in the grandeur and appreciate the work of past generations who worked so hard to protect this vital rainforest from destruction in the name of economic development.
Professor Gunatilleke gave a rich, illustrated presentation for the DP ES&S students and teachers in which he discussed Sinharaja’s history, its struggle for protection and subsequent years of being a site of key ecological studies.
The data that we gathered is satisfactory but it is clear that we need to do more training and preparation before the next field study. Using Survey 123 worked really well and we have all the raw data on an online database that can be shared. Working with the Sinharaja guides to identify the plants was crucial. Most students are not botanically inclined and switching gears to think about leaves, stems, GBH and plant diversity is challenging for them. Most of our students did not let that hold them back and willingly learned from our mentors and the Sinharaja guides. The ESS& students made a good attempt to record the biodiversity they saw and load it up onto iNaturalist (you can see their submissions under the Sinharaja Biodiversity Observatory). We are now looking forward to coming back later this year to continue the restoration studies in Sinharaja with the next cohort of OSC science students.
REFERENCES
Ashton, Mark et al. “Restoration pathways for rain forest in southwest Sri Lanka: A review of concepts and models.” Forest Ecology and Management 154(3):409-430. December 2001. Web.
Ashton, Mark et al. “Restoration of rain forest beneath pine plantations: A relay floristic model with special application to tropical South Asia.” Forest Ecology and Management 329:351–359. October 2014. Web.
Ashton, Peter and David Lee. Trees & Forest of Tropical Asia: Exploring Tapovan. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2022. Print.
Ecosystem Conservation and Management Project ESCAMP. Sinharaja Forest Range Landscape Management Plan 2022. Colombo: Sri Lanka Forest Department, 2022. Print.
Florentine, Singarayer et al Ed. Ecological Restoration: Moving Forward Using Lessons Learned. Springer, 2023. Print & Web. See “Ecological Approaches to Forest Restoration: Lessons Learned from Tropical Wet Asia” for the article edited by Nimal Gunatilleke. It includes key case studies from Sinharaja, the Knuckles and the Anamalais.
Gunatilleke, C.V.S, et al. Ecology of Sinharaja Rain Forest and the Forest Dynamics Plot in Sri Lanka’s Natural World Heritage Site. Colombo: WHT Publications, 2004. Print.
Gunatilleke, C.V.S. WNPS Monthly Lecture: Saving Sinharaja. 11 December 2022. YouTube Video.
Harlin, John et al. “Turning students into citizen scientists.” Citizen Science. October 2018. Print & Web via ResearchGate.
Lockwood, Ian. “Preliminary Analysis of Land Cover in the Sinharaja Adiviya using Planet Dove Imagery.” Ian Lockwood Blog. September 2019. Web.
Lockwood, Ian. “Rewilding What Has Always Been Wild: Sri Lankan Restoration Stories” Sanctuary Asia. October 2024. Web.
Pethiyagoda, Rohan and Hiranya Sudhasinghe. The ecology and biogeography of Sri Lanka: a context for freshwater fishes. WHT Publications, 2021. Print & Web.
“Restoring a rainforest: The WNPS effort with Diyakothakanda.” Sunday Times. 2 June 2021. Web.
“Report on visit to Diyakothakanda Forest Restoration Site on 16 April 2018.” WNPS Roar: Ecological Restoration.” 2018. Web.
Sinharaja Biodiversity Observatory. iNaturalist Project. Web.
Mountain High on Sri Lanka’s Pekoe Trails
Scenes from different parts of the Pekoe Trails (Stages 9 & 12).
In the last six months, I have been curiously excited to learn about the Pekoe Trails, an initiative with socio-economic goals that promotes a networked series of hiking paths through Sri Lanka’s Central Highlands. The initiative has a helpful website and you can use All Trails and Wikiloc to assist with walking the trails. Raina and I did our first trail (stage 1) in November and I have just returned with friends after completing three of the most interesting stages (9, 10 & 12) in the Horton Plains National Park area. Walking new mountain paths for three straight days through varied landscapes in gorgeous Sri Lankan winter weather gave me the kind of lift that is so rare in our busy lives. I was reminded of the challenges and joys of trekking and completing long hikes in the Palani Hills with friends during my school years. On your next visit to Sri Lanka be sure to put a Pekoe Trail or two (or even all 22) on your bucket list. I have written reviews for All Trails and am posting them here for my regular readers.
Pekoe Trail Stage 9: Bogawantalawa ⇌ Dayagama (13 January 2024)
This is a wonderful stage of the Pekoe Trails with excellent mountain landscapes and superb mountain walking. The trailhead is relatively difficult to get to and involves a drive to the Bogawantalawa valley and town. I led a group of several OSC teachers who were new to the area. We set out from Colombo early passing Ingiriya and Ratnapura before coming up to the Central Highlands via the scenic back road from Balangoda. The initiative was part of the Sunshine Committee’s effort to promote wellness in our faculty and support teams. We also wanted to recce the trails for upcoming student trips. The weather, after a damp week with torrential rain and lightning storms across the island, was clear and crisp. We stopped several times to appreciate the views and cloud forest of the Peak Wilderness Sanctuary that the road cuts through.
I started off the hike with my trusty five-year-old hiking boots disintegrating after a mere 100 meters! Luckily, I had brought an extra pair and after a call to Mahesh (the OSC driver with us) I was ready to go. My companions (Kamila and Dominic) and I started with a steady climb through the tea gardens of Bogawantalawa using the All-Trails app to navigate. The rest of our team went with Mahesh on the long drive around towards the Iona Villa via Agarapathana. A cup of tea at the assistant manager’s bungalow gave us a much-needed boost.
The rare endemic Daffodil Orchid (Ipsea speciosa)
The Stage 9 path continues through a steep, narrow pass that opens up into a very different landscape of montane grasslands. The area is reminiscent of what you encounter in the protected areas (Eravikulam, Grasshills, Kudremukh etc.) of the high Western Ghats. The pass is called “Jacob’s Ladder,” a name that presumably dates back to colonial times. In most of Sri Lanka’s Central Highlands, montane grasslands have been converted to tea and timber plantations so experiencing a large area of grasslands is a real treat. I searched for and was thrilled to find the rare endemic Daffodil Orchid (Ipsea speciosa) here. It is associated with mid-elevation grasslands in the Central Highlands and not surprisingly there are very few suitable habitats left for it. We hiked about about 1-2 kilometers along the edge of the grasslands that are part of a large marsh that was quite boggy. The path then joined a farm road that meandered through fields of cultivated grass used for dairy production. We had occasional views of Kirigalpota (2,388 m) and the high Horton Plains plateau. There were sections of eucalyptus forest with mixed natural vegetation (tree ferns, Rhododendrons etc.) somehow surviving along streams. It got late and we modified the last bit of the official trail, hitched a short tractor ride and then hiked into Bopatthalawa in order to get close to our night halt at the Iona Villa.
Jacob’s Ladder pass on stage 9 of the Pekoe Trails.
Jacob’s Ladder pass on stage 9 of the Pekoe Trails (ground-level perspective).
Pekoe Trail Stage 10: Dayagama ⇌ Horton Plains (14 January 2024)
The Pekoe Trails Stage 10 was our main goal on this three-day Pongal weekend and we were thrilled to be able to hike into Horton Plains National Pak on foot using the disused, old road from Dayagama. We had a team of six OSC teachers and friends who did this trek at a leisurely pace. We were keen to see the landscape and understand the path and ecology that it passed through. The key thing was ensuring that we spent the night near the trailhead. We stayed at the quaint Iona Villa and were dropped at the trailhead (Dayagama Bus Stand) by Mahesh, our school driver. The first two-thirds of the trek involved gradually ascending an untarred tea road to the park boundary. We encountered few people and there were good views over the heavily cultivated Daygama Valley. The skies were overcast and several times we encountered birds of prey circling above us (two Black Eagles, a Honey Buzzard etc.).
There is a ticket booth at the entrance to HPNP and a friendly guard issued us tickets and we walked into the cloud forest in the early afternoon. The path is cut at such a gentle gradient here that you can really enjoy all the plant life and remarkable montane ecosystem that Stage 10 passes through. We never saw any leopards and bird sightings were modest (a mixed species group of Sri Lankan white eye, tits, warblers etc.). We finally leveled out on the plains around 4:30 pm. There were wide-eyed people with long lenses hunkering down in their SUVs looking for leopards as we emerged from the forest. Being up at 2,100 meters the air was pleasantly chilly and clean. The parking lot was still quite full and most visitors were getting ready to head off the plateau. We met up with Mahesh and then proceeded slowly down to Haputale with plans to hike Stage 12 the following day.
Pekoe Trail Stage 12: Udaweriya ⇌ Haputale (15 January 2024)
This trail is one of the finest walking paths in Sri Lanka and traverses a variety of landscapes as it follows the high ridge of the southern escarpment from the Horton Plains/Ohiya area down to the saddle in the hills at Haputale. Kamila and I were joined by Aaron and Benson for this leg. They will be bringing 14 students here as part of our Experience Sri Lanka! Week Without Walls program and we wanted to recce the path. After doing the previous two days of hiking the Pekoe Trail our legs were slightly tired. Despite the sore muscles, we found this to be a reasonably straightforward, scenic and enjoyable stage that is understandably one of the most popular stages of the Pekoe Trails.
The Udaweriya Valley. with views west towards Horton Plains. World’s End is on the furthest high ridge.
We made a slight modification on our route of Stage 12 that avoided starting at the lower side of the Udaweriya Valley. Instead, we started above the abandoned tea factories soon after taking the road towards the Hill Safari Guest house from the Ohiya-HPNP road. Earlier we had taken the train up from Haputale (standing room only, but 3rd class tickets were only LKR 60), gotten down at Ohiya and then taken tuk tuks up to the road leading to the Udaweriya Valley. Several years ago, I had stayed at the Hill Safari Guest House with my family but it was good to take in the dramatic scenery again. The view looking west over the terraced fields and hamlets of the Udaweriya Valley and onto the high Horton Plains plateau is stunning. Migrant Blue-Tailed Beeeaters buzzed around above us and the calls of the Sri Lanka Scimitar-Babbler added to the magic of the place.
There are several small hamlets at the beginning of stage 12. Tamil families who work the tea estates were enjoying the bright sun and blue sky as they celebrated the Pongal long weekend. Our high point was just under 2,000 meters and from there the trail follows a little-used tea road heading down the ridge in an easterly direction. A short section of trail was overgrown-mainly by Eupatorium (now referred to as Devil/Siam weed (Chromolaena odorata)) that has grown up on this old bridal path. (Note: almost all of my pictures from this hike have Eupatorium in them!) We could hear the nearby trains clattering along the tracks so there were no worries of being lost. We followed the All-Trails map and did not get off the path too much. Stage 12 then followed through mature (non-native Pinus caribaea) pine plantations with large fallen trunks, a tea estate and then patches of forest and grasslands before ending up at the scenic Idalgashinna station.
Tunnel #36 soon after Idalgashinna station on the Pekoe Trail Stage 12 path to Haputale.
In the Idalgashinna- Adhisham section of stage 12 you start off on the railway line and then pass through tunnel #36. Soon after the tunnel, the path turns back slightly and you ascend the ridge that overlooks the track. The ridge is part of Thangamale Sanctuary– a protected area that has a mix of natural and plantation vegetation. There is a bit of a drop off here but with caution and care you are not in any danger. I appreciated this slope for the relatively undisturbed montane grasslands with numerous Rhododendron arboreum trees. There were also clumps of the small but beautiful Nepal Satyrium (Satyrium nepalense) ground orchid in the grasslands. The gradient is a gentle as Stage 12 descends towards Haputale. You pass through 4-6 pockets of natural (cloud) forest. Giant tree ferns, mossy dwarf trees and a cool, damp environment welcome you. Each forest patch had a stream with clean water. These forest patches contrast with the towering eucalyptus trees that have been planted on the montane grasslands. I was happy to see the grasslands still surviving against the odds-this areas seems to be ideal for a montane grasslands restoration effort.
There are fine examples of Rhododendron arboreum on stage 12 of the Pekoe trails as you walk parallel to the Ohiya-Haputale train track.
We came out at Adhisham monastery after being on the trail about 3-4 hours. Because of the Pongal holiday there were many visitors. I appreciated observing several key mountain birds species on the property including the Dull Blue Flycatcher, Bar-winged Flycatcher Shrike, Orange Minivet, Cinerous Tit and Yellow-eared Bulbuls (see my E-bird list https://ebird.org/checklist/S158949998 ). Our group completed the trail at the main road just east of Adhisham. We had to get back to Colombo and it had been a productive and enjoyable day.
Stage 12 ends at Haputale, a fine little mountain village and crossroads.
Special thanks to Charles Conconi and Miguel Cunat for advice about the trails and places to stay.
Sky Islands in Mumbai
Snapshots from Mumbai, opening night on the red carpet.
In the spring of 2023, the idea of putting on an exhibition of photographs in Mumbai to promote and support the Center for Environment & Humanity at KIS was starting to gain traction. We had a collaborative model set up: the show would feature my black & white images to highlight the concept of the “Sky Islands” in the Western Ghats/Sri Lanka Biodiversity Hotspot (see previous post). The Development Office at KIS would help with marketing and promoting the show. We would use the show to raise funds for the center through the sale of the framed prints used in the gallery as well as limited editions of selected 20. We had identified the NCPA’s Piramal Gallery as an ideal location and set rough dates based on their other shows and key late-year holidays (Diwali, Christmas etc.). There is a spacious courtyard next to the gallery and we saw this as a potential location to have an evening event for alumni. There was just one slight hitch: the Piramal has a respected name, but it is slightly off the beaten gallery track, and we would need a way to pull in the audience. Without something to wow them our hopes of attracting a crowd were slim.
Make it Original, Make it Matter and Add a Little Masala
We had several key supporters in Bombay’s art circuit who were advising the team that what we needed was a dash of Bollywood glamor and glitz. Even with a fresh portfolio of work and a novel theme in the Sky Islands, they were not overly optimistic that we could catch the public’s imagination. Mumbaikars are busy people with lots to do and there are dozens of art openings and shows every night in this megacity. We needed a minor miracle to achieve lift-off. At that stage, we had no idea how a group of us- me from distant Colombo and the KIS team from a sleepy south Indian station- could cook up a celebrity event in India’s bustling financial capital.
Serendipity played an important role. It has been some time since the school did an outreach program in Mumbai and Kalyani Gandhi, Director of Development, saw the Sky Islands exhibition as a way to build bridges with the parent and alumni network in the city. She planned a gathering at the Willingdon Club in September to get a sense of the possibilities of supporting the CEH through a show of exhibition prints. The initial trial batch of prints that Chemould had framed were on display to give viewers a sense of what we wanted to do with the Sky Islands exhibition. Corey Stixrud (Head of School), Manjusha Ninan (alumni coordinator) and Kalyani shared the Sky Islands exhibition idea with about 40 individuals from different generations who had gathered to hear about their alma mater. Like members of the Kodai clan in other locations, the Mumbai alumni are enthusiastic about their Kodai heritage and friends. KIS alumni have had varied experiences in Kodai: some loved the boarding school experience, some found life’s purpose in their experiences, many never fit back into the places they came from. A few still bear emotional scars of experiences but there is genuine love for their time and friendships. By the end of the presentation, the audience was electrified and the Sky Islands theme had struck a chord with alums who could help us achieve lift-off.
Sky Islands preparations in October. Kalyani Gandhi and Stéphanie Cauvet from the KIS Marketing and Development offices are assisting with key logistical, design and marketing aspects of the show. We spent time in March and October lining things up, meeting key people and shuttling around the city. An initial batch of prints was done at Print Animation in Colombo. Ajeet Jha of Idea Creative (upper left) then produced most of the fine art exhibition prints that were exhibited. Both printers have been superb in helping to produce state-of-the-art pieces for the show. Bittu Sahgal (pictured with his wife Madhu, here) helped to garner publicity and support in conservation circles.
Pre-Exhibition Preparations
October was a hectic time as we went into overdrive in multiple locations. I used OSC’s mid-term break to work with Stephanie and Kalyani in Mumbai laying the groundwork for the show. Logistically it was easier to print the portfolio in Mumbai rather than Colombo. My key friend and support Banoo Batliboi and her photographer friend Rafeeq Ellias recommended Ajeet Jha, the printer at Idea Creative Solutions in Prabhadevi. He operates out of a rather compact space but produces world-class fine art exhibition prints. During my visit to Mumbai, Ajeet completed printing the portfolio such that we had 35 signed exhibition prints to give to Chemould before I left. We had a busy social schedule and met alumni and parents who were providing background support. Rustom & Tushna Kapadia (parents to Jehan), Bianca Nagpal (KIS ‘87) and Avantika Akerkar (KIS ‘83) were key Kodai contacts.
Trying to get a grip on the art scene in Mumbai over dinner with Bianca & Ashley Nagpal. Kalyani, her mother Kalpana, sister Kanchan and Stéphanie are also in the photo with Ian.
Keeping the focus of the Sky Islands exhibition on conservation themes was vitally important to me. Landscape photographs often conjure up dreamy ideas of natural beauty without meaning. In the exhibition I wanted to illustrate the landscape of the upper Western Ghats but within the context of an effort to promote understanding and conservation. Themes of land cover change, biodiversity threats, climate change and human impact in the Sky Islands landscapes were important themes in my design. We got in touch with Bittu Sahgal and the Sanctuary Nature Foundation team early in the year. They were already getting ready to publish my piece on restoration/rewilding in Sri Lanka and they offered full support of our enterprise. Bittu and his wife Madhu took Kalyani, Stephanie and me out to dinner at the Gymkhana club in October. We were able to pin him down to be our chief guest at the exhibition inauguration.
Zayed (KIS ‘97) and Malaika (KIS ‘99) Khan were two of the attendees at the September Willingdon Club Gathering. I’m not sure what it was, but something clicked for them, and they threw their full support into making the Sky Islands exhibition a success. At the end of my October visit Kalyani, Stéphanie and I spent an evening with them hammering out the plans to make the opening night an event not to be missed. They assured us that they would invite a bunch of their friends in the film industry and would handle all of the Sky Islands publicity through Tandem Communication, a multi-talented PR agency known as one of the best in the city. That evening we met Aashish Hermanik, at Tandem, Shruti Tejwal, the celebrity photographer and a handful of key friends. Thus, with the involvement of Zayed and Malaika we were on a path to crack the celebrity angle of the evening.
In October 2023, Stéphanie, Kalyani and I met with Zayed and Malaika Khan at their home in Juhu. They had first met at KIS in the late 1990s and shared a fond relationship for the school and its mission to be the school that the world needs. Zayed and Malaika became a key force in moving the Sky Islands exhibition into high gear. Their sponsorship of the PR and efforts to invite a diverse range of movers and shakers was an important part of the success of the show.
Assembling the Dream Team
In the fourth week of November, different members of our diverse team assembled in south Mumbai to put the final touches on the Sky Islands show and prepare for opening night on Thursday, November 23rd. The KIS point team, including Kalyani, Stéphanie, and Igor, led the way and handled the delivery of frames to the gallery. Raina and I took our personal days and an unpaid absence to be in Mumbai by Wednesday morning. Other KIS members followed: Manjusha, Iti, Natasha, Rajamanikam, Sheetal, Soumithra and Rebecca. Corey and the new academic vice principal Cindy Beals conducted the closing assembly of the KIS school year and flew to Mumbai. Several KIS students and young alumni also joined the effort.
The Piramal Gallery is an often-overlooked corner of the National Centre for Perming Arts (NCPA) at Nariman Point in south Mumbai. The team worked hard to convert the gallery and adjoining garden into a world-class exhibition and thematic evening for the opening night.
Unpacking the frames and getting ready to set them up at the Piramal Gallery on November 22nd morning.
Manjusha and Sharma leveling frames on Wednesday.
Sharma leveling and making final adjustments to the frames on Wednesday evening.
Ajeet printed a series of 16 color 15”x 15” highlighting key species from the Sky Islands that I have taken over the years. Twelve of these were displayed separately from the black & white images but helped give viewers a sense of the biodiversity of the Sky Islands landscapes. I also had my map of Sentinel imagery printed in large format. It didn’t really fit into the gallery, and we placed on the porch outside.
KIS team briefing by Kalyani & Stéphanie on Thursday morning. By this stage, all the pictures were hung and labels were up.
We spent November 22nd hanging pictures and preparing the Piramal Gallery. Kalyani led the team with firmness and humor, barking orders in a mix of English, Hindi and Marathi. There was no time to go out for lunch or coffee that day. We were caffeinated with several thermoses of masala chai. A steady stream of chutney sandwiches from the NCPA canteen provided nourishment. I envisioned the display of frames in a way similar to my past exhibitions-geometric in layout, not too cramped with adequate space around each image. The NCPA’s designated gallery person, Sharma, was adept at lining them up. Iti worked with a team to design a display to provide information to visitors about the CEH. It was an important piece of the effort but at the sam,e time we didn’t want to alter the thematic black & white art exhibition experience and the CEH materials were kept on the porch of the Piramal. Rajamanikam and Iti planned a series of student activities and workshops that would be run as part of the Sky Islands exhibition.
Stéphanie Cauvet and Kalyani Gandhi at a preliminary meeting at the NCPA in October 2023.
Kalyani never sat still for the days preceding and after the exhibition opening. She was on the phone, running around and working logistics, ensuring that all was in order. Kalyani was the key bridge to Zayed, Malaika, and Tandem. Behind the scenes, she had worked to get sponsorship from Kodai Cheese, Grover Zampa Vineyards. Kalyani had carefully organized the necessary liquor licenses. There was also food to be catered; 200-300 guests were expected and all in all it was a huge operation. At the beginning of the week, we learned that our opening night fell on a state-temperance date! That offered an unexpected challenge for Kalyani but one that she was able to overcome with characteristic thunder, persistence and ingenuity.
Stéphanie Cauvet’s role was crucial to the success of the show. She worked with NCPA and various printers to ensure that all the accompanying panels and picture labels were created and completed in time. As a designer, she worked with me to conceptualize themes and colors for all the material. She taxied back and forth to Prabhadevi to work with Ajeet on final prints. A final task was the printing and framing of 16 color 15” x15” images that I had assembled to illustrate biodiversity in Sky Islands. These were planned as a distinct display separated by the partition wall from the black & white work. Stephanie also completed the accompanying website where visitors were directed with QR codes to learn more about individual images.
Sky Islands key team members from top, clockwise: Ian outside the Piramal by freshly installed exhibition posters, Raina helping Iti Maloney (CEH Director) prepare tote bags for guests, Igor Sitar (KIS Development office) on the way to the NCPA with exhibition tote bags, Ian with Mukesh Parpiani the director of the Piramal Gallery, Kalyani Gandhi (KIS Development officer) with the journalist Dia, Manjusha Ninan (KIS ’00 and alumni coordinator), Corey Stixrud preparing thank you notes before the opening (with Igor on phone), Stéphanie Cauvet (KIS Chief Marketing Officer).(photographs by Ian Lockwood except the top one by Igor Sitar).
Red Carpet Opening Night
By Thursday, November 23rd the pictures were hung, and all the labels and boards were up. There were large panels along the pathways approaching the staircase to the Piramal. The NCPA is a busy place and we needed to funnel our guests while filtering out non-invitees on the opening night. The garden was being set up with lounge chairs, bar tables, a mini stage and a large LED screen. A red carpet was set up alongside a lengthy panel with logos from KIS, CEH and High Range Photography (we had made an effort to make it a green carpet but that detail got too complicated and so red it was). Kelly assembled the KIS team to review the order of the evening and the different roles that needed to be played. I did several interviews with media connections that had been set through Tandem and the NCPA (see links at the end of this post). Important guests were in town. Most importantly, Raina had accompanied me from Colombo. My parents, Merrick and Sara Ann Lockwood came to Mumbai from South India. Five members of my graduating class came from various corners of the globe to be at the opening. Friends like Jayashree Kumar and Rajni George and come up from Kodai. We had advised alumni to be punctual and the clock was ticking as the NCPA had rules about closing down the gallery at 10:00. Then there were the A-list guests who came in slightly later.
Dr. Rajamanikam Ramamoorthy, a key member of the Center for Environment & Humanity (CEH) team lights the diya during the inauguration early in the evening.
The skies were clear and there was a cool breeze in the air as dusk set in on Nariman Point. The garden area, lounge and stage looked gorgeous. There were flowers on the bar tables, information about how to donate to the CEH and waiters ready to serve scrumptious snacks and serve a choice of wines and cocktails. I especially appreciated the Bo tree that shaded the stage and space. Several burly security men in dark blue outfits checked out the setting and stationed themselves at strategic points. We had a welcome desk to help usher in guests. Kalyani’s mother Kalpana supported the KIS team- she knew pretty much everyone who came to the show. Kanchan (KIS ’90), Kalyani’s sister, and one of my most important friends from KIS met other alumni guests who came through. Malaika, Zayed and their boys arrived to coordinate the PR efforts. My father Merrick cut the ribbon and we lit the diya around 6:20 before the main crowds arrived. Bittu was in attendance a chief guest in one of his trademark tiger t-shirts. Corey, Rajamanikam and Cindy also helped light the diya. Our other chief guest, the actress and UN Goodwill ambassador, Dia Mirza arrived a little bit later. It was an honor to have her helping to inaugurate the show.
Zayed & Malaika Khan, with KIS principal Corey Stixrud and the author on the red carpet.
Avantika Akerkar, her mother Jinx (far left), Dia Mirza and another guest at the Sky Islands show.
The rest of the night was a bit of a whirlwind. My task was to be available to as many guests as possible and to give VIP visitors a personal explanation and walk-through. I zipped up and down between the courtyard and gallery numerous times. At 8:00 we did a presentation on the garden stage. Iti was the MC with support from Zayed as a host of the evening. A video produced by Igor about the CEH ran in the background. There were short talks from Bittu, Dia and Corey. I spoke very briefly too- I kept it short and encouraged people to attend the two planned talks in the coming days. There was a contingent of paparazzi photographers and they were busy at the red carpet as Bollywood notables entered. Up in the gallery, guests moved around looking at the photographs and meeting friends. It was a happy, slightly crowded situation with good energy. The Tandem team, led by Shruti, set up a camera to record blurbs from the key celebrity guests. A key invitee was Amruta Fadnavis, the wife of Maharashtra’s deputy chief minister, Shri Devendra Fadnavis. Some of the snippets feature in Tandem’s polished short video (see link). We had to wrap things up because of the gallery rules and guests slowly (and reluctantly) started to leave. The energy from the opening was really good and we realized that the evening had gone fabulously well despite many uncertainties. The lights were turned off and we headed out.
Amruta Fadnavis, wife of Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister, speaking with Zayed, Corey & Ian. (photograph by Igor Satar,KIS).
The KIS Class of 1988 made a good showing and having them here was a highlight of the Sky Islands evening. From left: Ajay Kirloskar, Prasad Venkatraman, Bharati Pfulg, Ian & Raina, Jay Shah and Rustom Khandalavala.
This is the opening night video put together by the talented Shurti Tejwani and the Tandem Communication team.
The Dream Team (at least most of it) at the end of the evening on the red carpet. Standing from left: Cindy, Natasha, Stéphanie, Soumi, Kalyani, Corey, Zayed, Iti, Rajamanikam. Kneeling from left: Sheetal, Ian and Manjusha.
All Too Fast
Over the following days, Raina and I spent time at the gallery and followed up with contacts that we had made. I gave an illustrated talk around themes of the Sky Islands at the Bombay Natural History Society and then in the Piramal Gallery. This allowed me to deviate from the photography and talk a little about ideas of change and how we are studying this with satellite imagery and historic maps. The show stayed open until December 3rd. Iti and Rajamanikam led a series of well-received workshops and outreaches with Mumbai schools during the week after the exhibition. Mr. Parpiani the director of the Piramal Gallery seemed very pleased and suggested that this was the gallery’s top show of 2023. It was painful leaving on the 26th and heading back to Colombo while the show was still on. The KIS team took turns staying on and greeting guests and showing them around in the following week. On December 3rd they took down the frames, delivered pictures to buyers and packed up materials to go back to Kodai. They went on a well-deserved break. I had one last big field study to organize and I was soon tromping around in Sinharaja’s saturated rainforest with Amy’s large class while ideas of Sky Islands and Mumbai’s bright lights were still swirling in my head.
Back to where it all began. Ian with friends and a Western Ghats Portrait & Panorama poster at the BNHS on November 24th before the illustrated lecture.
Special Thanks to
Raina, Amy, Anna, Lenny, Merrick & Sara Ann Lockwood
Kodaikanal International School & CEH teams
Bittu Sahgal & the Sanctuary family
Zayed & Malaika Khan
Dia Mirza
Amrita Fadnavis
Ratan & Banoo Batliboi
Aashish Hermanik & Tandem Communication
Mukesh Parpiani & the Piramal Gallery at NCPA
Ajeet Jha & Idea Creative Printers
Adil Gandhy & Chemould Frames
Anish Andheri and BNHS team
Robin Vijayan and IISER Tirupati team
Vijay Ramesh, Amrutha Rajan & Mohanraj (Historical maps classification team)
Tamil Nadu Forest Department
Kerala Forest Department (Wildlife Division)
Palani Hills Conservation Council (PHCC), High Range Wildlife Association, Nilgiri Wildlife Association
Kodai friends (Billy, Koli, Bob, Jayashree, Pippa, Rudy, Hemma, Philippe, George, Vera, Israel & others)
DRAFT I POSTSCRIPT
The Sky Islands exhibition was a great success thanks to the efforts of multiple individuals and organizations. I have made an effort to highlight and pay tribute to these people and organizations in this post but I may have left out details and individuals. Any omissions are regretted.
SELECTED MEDIA LINKS
Dixit, Amit. “Photographer Ian Lockwood | On higher ground.” India Today. 10 November 2023. Link.
K, Hrishi. This Week at the NCPA 16. Radio One International. November 2023. Youtube Link.
Lockwood, Ian. “Sky Islands: A Personal Journey Through an Endangered Indian Landscape.” Sanctuary Asia. December 2023. Web.
Louis, Maria. “ The Hill View.” Open Magazine. 25 November 2023. Web.
Putting Sky Islands on the Map
Monsoon breaking over the Palani Hills. Part of a series of four images exposed on Konica Infrared film with a Mamiya 6 in July 1998. Original image printed on 14” x 56” Hahnemühle Photo Rag for the November 2023 Sky Islands exhibition in Mumbai.
The Sky Islands exhibition scheduled for November 23rd -December 3rd is a celebration of landscapes in monochrome as well as a call to protect these sensitive mountain landscapes of southern India. The exhibition has been produced in collaboration with the Center for Environment & Humanity at Kodaikanal International School. In my last post, I reported on the preparations earlier in the year. We are now in high gear and less than a month away from the inauguration of the exhibition on November 23rd, 2023. In this post, I want to share some of the developments with map making that I am pursuing to illustrate themes of the Sky Islands in the Western Ghats/Sri Lank biodiversity hotspot.
The Western Ghats & Sri Lanka Biodiversity Hotspot map created by the author for the 40th Anniversary issues of Sanctuary Asia (September 21). The map emphasizes relief -something that for a long time was conspicuously absent on many older maps of southern India. The Western Ghats boundary is also highlighted and I have tilted the axis to align Sri Lanka with the Sahyadris.
DUMBSTRUCK
In the months after the pandemic receded from our lives, I was starting the unit on biodiversity & conservation in my IB Environmental Systems and Societies class and was dumbstruck to find that my students could not locate the Western Ghats. Furthermore, they had a limited idea about how the Western Ghats were connected to Sri Lanka and the reasons that the area is a shared hotspot! I have good students; diverse in all aspects and generally curious and energetic. The idea that they are learning and growing to be agents of change is even embraced by many of them. They had studied biodiversity hotspots and looked at Madagascar as a case study but somehow, they had neglected to learn about the hotspot that they lived in! I suppose it had something to do with the fact that we had covered so many of the units remotely over Zoom calls and online lectures. Regardless, I was left feeling that I needed to act.
This recognition of the gaps in their learning forced some soul-searching and I brushed up my lectures and activities for the class. Around the same time, Sanctuary Asia was looking to mark their 40th Anniversary issue and contacted me about a submission. I wrote back to Lakshmy Raman, Bittu Sahgal and the team and suggested a fresh overview of the Western Ghats/Sri Lanka hotspot. Readers who know me well, understand that this heterogenous, biologically-rich and utterly fascinating region has been the focus of much my my personal exploration, writing and photographic documentation for the past several decades. In fact, Sanctuary readers are probably a bit tired of me sharing photographs and writing about this theme. However, I wrote the article (“Mountain Transitions…”) with my students and a new generation in mind, assuming that many readers were equally unaware of the intriguing connections between the Western Ghats and Sri Lanka. The article focused on themes of shared ecology, fragile landscapes, change and biogeography.
Sanctuary Asia’s 40th Anniversary issue from October 2021. The cover art is by the gifted Svabhu Kohli. My illustrated essay “Mountain Transitions” features in this special issue.
IGNORANCE POWERS A MAP-MAKING JOURNEY
For decades I have worked hard to create maps to illustrate the themes of my photo essays and writing. The Survey of India’s 1:50,000 topo sheets were an important part of my kit from my earliest forays into the remote Palani Hills. To make my own maps, I traced smaller-scale maps (1: 250,000) and worked on sketch maps from memory. When I needed a map for the Western Ghats Portrait and Panorama exhibition brochure in 2001, I traced a map from J. P. Pascal’s Wet evergreen forests of the Western Ghats of India. This was then inked in with my father’s drafting pens. The map was scanned and included in the handsome brochure designed and printed by Reza Rahman at Drik
In 2007 I was exposed to GIS tools and thus began a journey to learn the software to better accomplish my mapping tasks. This blog has recorded notable steps on that journey (see GIS Related posts) to become an amateur cartographer using modern tools. For map making I continue to use ESRI’s ArcMap or QGIS software. Of course, as all users know, ArcMap is being phased out in favor of ArcPro. John Nelson and other mapping superstars provide excellent guidance and I am in transition. For my recent publications and for the upcoming Sky Islands show I fell back on methods that I have developed using ArcMap.
The theme of the Sky Islands: An Endangered Indian Landscape exhibition is to look at an old landscape in new light. In my selection of images, I hope to evoke a sense of the unique Sky Islands landscape using black & white imagery. The 34 images printed on fine art Hahnemühle paper are selected to communicate strong conservation themes and appreciation for the fragility of the Sky Islands landscapes. The maps support the educational goals of the exhibition and will help viewers to understand the spatial aspects of the Sky Islands in the larger Western Ghats/Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot.
Sky Islands exhibition map (Version 1) emphasizing the key boundaries of the Western Ghats/ Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot as well as areas above 1,400 meters. The poster is designed to be printed at A0 size. The bathymetry (25m, 100m, & 500m) illustrates the edges of the Indian plate.
Sky Islands exhibition map (Version 3) emphasizing the broad land cover patterns of the Southern Western Ghats. The multi-spectral imagery was gathered by Sentinel 2 satellites over a period of three different years (2018-21). The data was selected by the author to obtain cloud-free views of the landscape. The poster is designed to be printed at A0 size. The bathymetry (25m, 100m, & 500m) illustrates the edges of the Indian plate.
This map started out as a draft for a new book on Ecological Restoration (published in July 2023) but there wasn’t enough room after contributing three other maps. I have now focused on Sky Islands rather than the key restoration sites. The color-shaded relief has been clipped out around the Western Ghats boundary at 400m in Sri Lanka to show mountainous areas while Sky Island areas are shown (above 1,400 m) in red.
SELECTED REFERENCES (WITH MAPS OF THE WG/SL HOTSPOT)
Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund. Biodiversity Hotspots. Web. (see link for Western Ghats projects)
Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund. Ecosystem Profile: Western Ghats & Sri Lanka Biodiversity Hotspot (Western Ghats Region). May 2007. Web.
Ecological Restoration: Moving Forward Using Lessons Learned. 2023. Print & Web.
Gunatilleke, et al. “Ecological Approaches to Forest Restoration: Lessons Learned from Tropical Wet Asia.”
Gunawardene, Nihara Reika et al. “A brief overview of the Western Ghats – Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot.” Current Science. December 2007. Web.
Kadidal, Akhil and Ian Lockwood. Gems of the Western Ghats: A Vision for Creating Wealth Through Biodiversity. Bangalore: Biogen, 2014. Print.
Kadur, Sandesh and Kamal Bawa. Sahyadris: India’s Western Ghats-A Vanishing Heritage. Bangalore: ATREE, 2005. Print.
Mittermeier, R. A. et al., Hotspots Revisited: Earth’s Biologically Richest and most Endangered Terrestrial Ecoregions, Cemex Mexico, 2005. Print.
Myers, Norman. “Threatened biotas: ‘hotspots’ in tropical forests.” Environmentalist, 1988, 8, 187–208.
Myers, Norman et al. “Biodiversity hotspots for conservation priorities.” Nature, 2000. Web.
Pascal, J. Wet evergreen forests of the Western Ghats of India. Pondicherry: French Institute of Pondicherry, 1995. Print.
Pethiyagoda, Rohan and Hiranya Sudhasinghe . The ecology and biogeography of Sri Lanka: a context for freshwater fishes. WHT Publications, 2021. Print & Web.
Robinson, Francis, Ed. Cambridge Encyclopedia of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives. UK: Cambridge University Press ,1987. Print.
UNESCO. Western Ghats (as a World Heritage Site). 2012. Web.
Vijayan, Robin et al. “Reassessment of the distribution and threat status of the Western Ghats endemic bird, Nilgiri Pipit Anthus nilghiriensis.” Current Science. August 2014. Web.
Ward, Geoffrey. “Western Ghats.” National Geographic Magazine. November 2002. Print.
Western Ghats Biodiversity Portal. Web.
Weller, Richard J., Claire Hoch & Chieh Huang. Atlas of the End of the World: Western Ghats & Sri Lanka Biodiversity Hotspot Map. 2017. Web.
Sky Island Pathways
Sky Islands flier for potential sponsors. Photographs by Ian Lockwood, Design by Stephanie Cauvet and the KIS Marketing Team.
This November I will be exhibiting a body of work at the Piramal Gallery, a part of the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) in Mumbai. The show is entitled Skyislands: An Endangered South Indian Landscape and is being produced in association with the Centre for Humanity & Environment (CEH) at Kodaikanal International School (KIS). In an age of colossal human impact and accelerating climate change, the exhibition highlights the concept of the Sky Islands in southern India with an overarching message of conservation. The initiative will raise funds for the CEH to address its mission of “offering innovative experiential programs and research opportunities for students, educators, organizations and agencies that lead to practical solutions for crucial human-environment issues.”
I last exhibited my photographs in Mumbai at the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) more than two decades ago. The Western Ghats Portrait and Panorama show in 2001 highlighted the landscapes and ecology of a mountain range that was often overshadowed by its taller northern neighbors. Thematically, the collection of hand-printed black & white images emphasized the role of the Western Ghats as a treasure trove of biodiversity and a vital player in water security for peninsular India. The 40+ images were printed in my darkroom in Dhaka after a period of learning and workshops with world-class fine-art printmakers. The negatives that were the source of the material were shot on medium format film. At the time, photographic material availability limited the size that I could print (a few 15”x15” or 8”x 20”, but mostly 10”x10” prints).
Now 22 years later I have fresh work to share in Mumbai. I have visited a broader swathe of the Western Ghats, explored Sri Lanka in-depth and focused on the higher elevation Sky Islands of the ranges. In the last few years, I have collaborated on several significant studies in the Palani Hills that have investigated the biogeography and change in land cover of the Sky Island habitats in the Western Ghats (see links below). Maps and satellite imagery help us understand the patterns and relationships of the landscape and I have been developing geospatial skills to better analyze changes in land cover and vegetation in the Western Ghats/Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot. I continue to write articles and produce photo essays for Indian-based publications though most of my energy is devoted to maintaining my blogs. My last exhibition was The Hills of Murugan at Dakishna Chitra, in Chennai (2018).
The Sky Islands exhibition focuses on the unique but threatened ecosystems above 1,400 meters- the Sky Islands or Shola Sky Islands of the Western Ghats/Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot (see my December 2020 blog post for a detailed review of the Sky Island concept in the Western Ghats context). With the advent of digital photography, photographic tools have changed completely- in how images are captured, in their printing and sharing. Thus, while staying focused on documenting the Western Ghats, my workflow is completely different than back in 2001. I still have a quantity of 120 negatives exposed after the BNHS show which I have been scanning and then printing digitally. The Sky Islands show will present fine art images printed on archival Hahnemühle paper and printed at larger sizes (20”x 20” and above) to emphasize detail and give viewers a richer sense of the landscape. As is usual in my exhibitions, there will be supporting information panels of annotated maps.
The exhibition is scheduled to open up on November 23rd and will be open to the public for the next 10 days. The Piramal Gallery is well known for promoting photography as art and is one of India’s premier galleries of photographic art. The goal is to engage with the conservation community, school groups and people interested in photography as art. The KIS alumni/parent community is a special group of people that we want to reach and we are planning a special showing and talk for them on Friday, November 24th. In the coming months I will be sharing much more information and hope that you can come to see the show in person!
REFERENCES
Arsumani, M. et al. “Not seeing the grass for the trees: Timber plantations and agriculture shrink tropical montane grassland by two-thirds over four decades in the Palani Hills, a Western Ghats Sky Island. PLOS One. January 2018. Web.
Dodge, Natt. “Monument in the Mountain”. Arizona Highways. Phoenix, Arizona: Arizona Highway Department. March 1943. (Wikipedia Link)(Sky Islands Alliance link)
Lockwood, Ian. “Palani Hills Sky Islands.” Ian Lockwood Blog. December 2020.Web.
Montanari, Shaena (& Prasenjeet Yadav). “Breathtaking Sky Islands Showcase Evolution In Action.” National Geographic. 11 August 2017. Web.
Shola Sky Islands. Web.
Vijayan, Robin, Anindya Sinha and Uma Ramakrishnan. “Ancient Geographical Gaps and Paleo-Climate Shape the Phylogeography of an Endemic Bird in the Sky Islands of Southern India.” PLoS ONE. October 2010. Web.
Vijayan, Robin. “Unexplored Areas: Sky Islands.” JLR Explore. February 2018. Web.
From Reef to Rainforest Part 2 (Sinharaja)
OSC’s annual Geography IA field study combines face-to-face interviews in the Kudawa area with biodiversity encounters in and around Sinharaja’s rainforest. Students worked in small teams to interview a broad range of respondents and learn about their home gardens, and lives in a challenging economic situation. The emblematic Sri Lanka Blue Magie (Urocissa ornata) is a species that we saw at our guest house (Martin’s Jungle Lodge) and heard on the edges of the forest boundary during the course of the fieldwork.
Within a week of returning from the Maldives (see previous post) I was in the field again-this time in the northwestern edges of Sri Lanka’s Sinharaja rainforest. This was the 19th OSC group that I have brought here (not including DofE teams). Villagers and Forest Department officials protecting the World Heritage Site are familiar with OSC groups and our studies are based on these relationships. Four of the students who had been on the Maldives field study were also in the Geography class, so the five of us were really immersed in field-based experiential education in May! Our goal was to conduct a household survey that would help students write individual internal assessment reports. This year’s cohort included six students with the support of three adults. Desline Attanayake was back again providing key logistical support and helping the students to make bridges with the community. Our friend Sushma Sen, a former KIS & Woodstock teacher who has been working in the OSC math department for the last two years, joined us. This year’s field study was characterized by solid data collection (we ended up with 58 complete surveys), relatively good weather (with almost no rain during the days) and rich encounters with a variety of people and rainforest creatures.
Portraits from Kudawa (clockwise from upper left): Desline and Mali on the trail to the Sinharaja research center, the artist Iresha and her husband at Kudawa bridge, guide Ranjit sporting a new Sinahraja t-shirt, Sushma going to see Sri Lanka frogmouths, the author and the six Class of 2024 students, Inoka the granddaughter-in-law of Martin Wijesinghe, Indramanaya cooking up (exceedingly delicious) pol-rotis on a granite slab, owner at the spurfowl home at Katala Patala. Bottom: A classic home garden scene with a traditional adobe house (the owners have moved into a cement block home while keeping the older structure intact).
Setting the Course
I usually try to visit Sinharaja and stay at Martin’s once or twice in the months preceding our Geography field study. This year I went in February and was accompanied by several friends including Nirosha, Rumeth & Priyanath. This spring trip was more personal and allowed me to focus on getting pictures of birds, amphibians and other species. It is also a time when migrants are sound and there is potential to see and photograph rarities. Many of the species from this post were photographed on that visit. It was surprisingly wetter in February than May-the complete opposite of what you would normally expect.
Sinharaja amphibians and butterflies (taken in February). From top: Long-snouted tree frog (Taruga longinasus), Purple Mormon (Papilio polymnestor), Ceylon tree nymph (Idea iasonia) Hallow snouted shrub frog (Pseudophilautus cavirostris)
Common Survey Analysis & Findings (thus far)
My approach to gathering sufficient quantitative data for the Geography IA continues to involve using a common survey with a variety of questions that help each student answer their own fieldwork (research) question. We now have a pool of standard questions that stay the same every year -this allows longitudinal analysis. Students then add their own questions focusing on themes of energy, overall wealth, education, health and resources. There were significant findings from the 2023 survey. Firstly, students gained an appreciation for the hard work and challenges of running a home garden in Sri Lanka. Secondly, we saw that there had been a spike in electricity costs mirroring national trends. Tourism to Sinharaja is still recovering and visitor numbers are not yet back to pre-pandemic levels. Further analysis is underway as the students crunch the numbers over the summer. They will hand in rough drafts that I give feedback on before the final IA is submitted in October.
Examples of the home gardens near Kudawa. Virtually every plant in the garden serves some useful purpose that helps farmers be close to self-sufficiency in terms of food needs.
Home gardens are small private holdings where families practice a combination of subsistence and (small-scale) commercial agriculture. The home of Kudawa almost all depend on tea, grown on relatively small plots (1 -2 acres). Families are versatile and creative with other crops that they grow (manioc, banana, cinnamon, papaya, coconut etc.). Self-sufficiency in a time of economic challenge is a benefit but home gardens struggle to stay out of poverty. The 2019 import ban on key inputs (fertilizers and pesticides) greatly affected yields- something that our results showed. Several families now have one or two members that work as Forest Department employees or as private guides. This collage shows a work shed of a home garden near Katala Patala.
VIDEO INTERVIEWS
Map from ESRi’s Survey 123 showing responses from the IA survey on electricity usage in 2023.
MAP OF 2023 WALKS
https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1Lu6WJfXJlcK8_gNKtjcFds06YvhLYNg&usp=sharing
2023 OSC Geography class with their teachers, Chandralatha, her sister & Chamara the guide at Martin’s Lodge.
PAST BLOG POSTS ON SINHARAJA IA
Geography IA Trip 2021 (Cancelled because of COVID)
SELECTED REFERENCES
De Silva, Anslem and Kanishka Ukuwela & Dilan Chathuranga. A Photographic Guide to the Amphibians of Sri Lanka. Oxford: John Beaufoy Publishing, 2021. Print.
DeZoysa, Neela and Rhyana Raheem. Sinharaja: A Rainforest in Sri Lanka. Colombo: March for Conservation, 1990. Print.
Geiger, Klaus. “Characterizing the traditional tree-garden systems of southwest Sri Lanka.” Tropical Resources (Yale School of the Environment Tropical Resources Institue). 2014. Web.
Gunatilleke, C.V.S, et al. Ecology of Sinharaja Rain Forest and the Forest Dynamics Plot in Sri Lanka’s Natural World Heritage Site. Colombo: WHT Publications, 2004. Print.
Humke, Matthew. Tourism Assessment Report: Sinharaja Forest Reserve Complex. Colombo: Ecosystem Conservation and Management Project (ESCAMP).July 2018. Web. Kotagama, Sarath W and Eben Goodale. “The composition and spatial organization of mixed-species flocks in a Sri Lankan rainforest.” Forktail. 2004. Print & Web.
Liyanage, L. P. K. et al. “Assessment of Tourist and Community Perception with Regard to Tourism Sustainability Indicators: A Case Study of Sinharaja World Heritage Rainforest, Sri Lanka.” World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology International Journal of Social and Business Sciences. Vol 12 No. 7. 2018. Web.
Lockwood, Ian. “Into the Wet: Field Notes From Sri Lanka’s Wet Zone.” Sanctuary Asia. August/September 2007. 3-11. Print. PDF.
Lockwood, Ian. “Montane Biodiversity in the Land of Serendipity.” Sanctuary Asia. July 2010. Print.
Lockwood, Ian. “Sinharaja: The Heart of South Asian Biodiversity.” Sanctuary Asia. April 2020. PDF
Singhalage Darshani, Nadeera Weerasinghe and Gehan de Silva Wijeratne. A Naturalist’s Guide to the Flowers of Sri Lanka. Colombo: Vijitha Yapa Publications, 2018. Print.
Sinharaja Forest Reserve: 2020 Conservation Outlook Assessment. IUCN. Web.
Sri Lanka Survey Department. Sheets 80_x & 81_x (1:10,000) 2nd Edition. Colombo: 2017. Maps & Spatial Data.
Warakagoda. Deepal et. al. Birds of Sri Lanka (Helm Field Guides). London: Helms Guides, 2012. Print.
Wijeyeratne, Gehan de Silva. Sri Lankan Wildlife (Bradt Guides). Bucks, England: Bradt Travel Ltd. 2007. Print.
Vigallon, S. The Sinharaja Guidebook for Eco-Tourists. Colombo: Stamford Lake Publications, 2007. Print.
From Reef to Rainforest Part 1 (Maldives)
Fulhadhoo reef restoration site with our team being taught by Sendi to clean “coral plugs.”
In the space of two weeks, I’ve had the good fortune to extend learning opportunities for my students from the turquoise, ethereal water of Fulhadhoo Island in the Maldives to the steamy rainforests and home gardens of north-west Sinharaja here in Sri Lanka. Both learning experiences helped students engage with global issues of resource use, environmental stewardship, reef & rainforest ecology and ecological restoration.
The Overseas School of Colombo(OSC) has an established and rich history with the Maldives. Maldivian students have been attending OSC for several decades and Maldivian parents have been involved with stewardship during this time (our current board chair is Maldivian). One of our most prominent alumni, Nasheed Mohamed, has been a global leader in climate change negotiations. Last year I had the privilege of taking, what I believe is, the first OSC field study to the Maldives. That was facilitated and made possible by Omar Razzak and Aminath Zahir. Working on the success of last year’s visit and with Omar’s continuing support, I once again led a group of DP1 students for an immersive field study in the Maldives.
Scenes from Fulhadhoo,Innafushi, Malé and the flight approach to Hulhumalé.
Fulhadhadhoo Island was the site of this year’s OSC field study.
This year seven DP1 ES&S students were joined by two DP1 biology students. Their teacher and my colleague Liz Harrison joined us once again. We were based in one place for most of the five-day experience. Fulhadhoo Island is part of the Goidhoo Atoll in the Baa Atoll administrative area and was our home for three nights. Omar had recommended this plan and it was really worthwhile to get to know one area in more depth. Crucial to the success of our learning program was his childhood friend Hussain ‘Sendi’ Rasheed. Sendi was our guide and mentor and acted as a natural bridge to the island, its people and ecology. He made our visit deeply meaningful and rich in experience. We stayed at Palm Retreat-a most delightful Guest House run by Amy, a migrant from Thailand who has married a Fulhadhoo man.
Crucial to the success of our learning program was his childhood friend Hussain ‘Sendi’ Rasheed. Sendi was our guide and mentor and acted as a natural bridge to the island, its people and ecology. He made our visit deeply meaningful and rich in experience. We stayed at Palm Retreat-a most delightful Guest House run by Amy, a migrant from Thailand who has married a Fulhadhoo man.
Sendi speaking with OSC students on our first afternoon at Fulhadhoo Island.
Portraits from the 2023 OSC Field Study in the Maldives. Clockwise from top left: Sendi and his grandson, Lara & Maya at Goishoo mangroves, Akash at Fulhadhoo, Shinara at Fulhadhoo, Chirath at the reef restoration site, Yusoof in UV light, Yaman in Hulhulmale, Maya & Lara at the Coral Masjid, Ethan at Soneva Fushi, Antoine & Isa at Hulhulmale. The author and group at Innafushi- a highlight for all of us.
Coral Ecology & Restoration
The first focus of our learning was on coral reef ecology and restoration. Sendi took us to the north-western edge of Fulhadhoo to snorkel at a ‘house reef.’ The reef is fairly healthy here (we saw larger healthy corals the next afternoon on the inner lagoon of Fulhadoo).
The efforts to restore reefs using frames and plugs were fascinating to learn about. Last year we were introduced to efforts on Villingilli (near Malé). We learned that almost every resort island in the Maldives and lots of other places are making efforts to restore reefs. Sendi like to call it “revival” rather than restoration. He demonstrated how the coral plugs that the Maldives Coral Institute is experimenting with work. Our students had a chance to clean algae off the bottom of the plugs. We also snorkeled over the frames that have a variety of branch corals. Liz had brought along Coral Watch cards and we did a morning of assessing coral health. On our third night, we came back and snorkeled over the same reef in the night using UV lights. That was an outstanding and unique experience (the shaky GoPro pictures do not do it justice).
Reef restoration and studies at Fulhadhoo Island. From left to right: frames with plogs that are removable, Lara & Maya collecting Coral Watch data and traditional frames with new coral.
Sustainability Initiatives On An Island Resort
On our 2nd day at Fulhadhoo, we motored north-east across a deep channel to the fabulous Soneva Fushi. It is well known as a high-end island resort with a commitment to sustainability. Thanks to Omar and Sendi’s introduction we were given a chance to take a tour of their facilities with a special emphasis on waste management, recycling efforts, organic gardens and innovative maker spaces for reusing materials. Different members of their teams took us on a tour of the waste management facility, organic garden and maker spaces where key resources are reused. We were also treated to an illustrated lecture on coral ecology and restoration efforts.
Back at Fulhadhoo the next day our team snorkeled along the edge of the northern dropoff of the Goidhoo Atoll. We did a drift snorkel, flowing with the current while the boat stayed alongside us. Visibility was very clear and we saw a wide variety of larger reef fish, Hawksbill turtles and even a pod of dolphins (most likely Spinners).
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- Snorkeling in clear water near the drop-off on Goidhoo Atoll.
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- OSC students in the waters off of Fulhadhoo.
Our boats crossed a shallow channel on the way into the inner Goidhoo Lagoon.
In the afternoon we visited the nearby Innafushi Island. We had to wait for high tide and then motored into the lagoon across a shallow channel. Innafushi is only a narrow bank of sand with a slim patch of vegetation and it brings to mind the classic desert island that one might imagine Rubin Cruso being washed up on. In fact, the 16th Century French mariner François Pyrard de Laval was shipwrecked here. He left one of the earliest European accounts of the Maldives after escaping imprisonment. The shallow sand banks, powdery beach and translucent water made this the most scenic place that we visited. The videos and images make it clear why this was a highlight for the whole group.
Urban Maldives Experience
Scenes from Hulhumalé- a new development that has been built to accommodate Male’s growth. We spent our last night here and our brief visit gave us a sense of how rapidly things are changing in the Maldives.
For our last 24 hours, we took a speedboat back to Malé and stayed in the Phase 1 area of Hulhumalé. We had several key people to meet and we also wanted to see this new face of the Maldives. The contrast with the uninhabited island was stark: there was still turquoise water but broad avenues with trees, sidewalks and multi-storied buildings fill the space. Cars, scooters and people buzz around. There is a constant buzz of seaplanes landing and taking off at the seaport next to the main international airport. The streets are tidy and it feels very modern.
OSC group out for dinner Hulhumalé with Yaman from the OSC Class of 2016.
We met up with Yaman Ibrahim from OSC’s class of 2016. Over dinner, it was great to catch up with him and learn about his very cool work with Water Solutions, a Maldivian surveying company. They use all kinds of sensors, GIS software and gadgets to survey underwater and terrestrial areas. It seems like the perfect job for someone with a Physics background, an interest in marine environments and an aptitude for using 21st-century technology.
OSC Class of 2024 students meeting with H.E. Mohamed Nasheed, former OSC student, climate change champion, former President of the Maldives and Speaker of Parliament.
On our last morning, Omar arranged for us to speak with former President and Speaker of Parliament Mohamed Nasheed. He, of course, has been a global spokesperson for taking action on climate change. There is a special link for us since Nasheed was a student at OSC in the early 1980s. He spoke to us about current issues in the Maldives, coral challenges, new efforts to tax plastic bags, debt swapping and his work supporting Sri Lanka on their own climate change initiatives (he advises them on an official level). Our students had a chance to ask questions and he was encouraging of their generation to make an effort to make a positive change.
Scenes from a sacred space carved from coral blocks and rosewood: the Friday Mosque in Malé.
Before we flew back to Sri Lanka the group had a chance to tour key parts of Malé. Notably, we visited the 17th Century Friday Mosque, built from exquisitely carved coral blocks and rosewood beams. Interestingly, it was built on the foundation of a pre-Islamic Buddhist or Hindu temple. The fish market was equally fascinating. Like the rest of the city, it was compact. At its docks rays came into feed on scraps. We were enthralled as dozens of them, along with an array of reef fish paraded right underneath us on the edge of this packed human habitation. It was a wonderful way to wrap up our five-day visit and we returned to Colombo with a sense of rapture from all that we had observed and learned.
The author and ES&S/Biology group on Innafushi Island. From left: Yusoof, Shinara, Chirath, Isa, Antoine, Ethan, Lara, May, Liz & Akash.
References & Interesting Links
Godfrey, Tim. Atlas of the Maldives: Reference for Travellers, Divers and Sailors. 6th Edition.” Malé: Atoll, Editions, 2019. Print.
Lockwood, Ian. “ESS Field Study in Male, Maldives.” Ian Lockwood Blog. May 2022. Web.
MIT Self-Assmbly Lab. “Growing Islands.” ND. Web.
Rasheed, Hussain ‘Sendi.’ “Why Seaweed is not a Weed.” TEDxBaaAtoll. 2022. Web.
The Voyage of François Pyrard of Laval to the East Indies, the Maldives, the Moluccas, and Brazil. Google Books. 1887. Web.
Tibbits, Skylar. “A new way to “grow” islands and coastlines.” TED. 2019. Web.
Voiland, Adam. “Preparing for Rising Seas in the Maldives.” NASA Earth Observatory. 9 April 2021. Web.
Ticket to Jaffna
The Nallur kovil is one of the most important landmarks in the Jaffna peninsula. Jaffna Fort, started by the Portuguese, strengthened by the Dutch and utilized by the British never saw conflict until modern times when it was severely damaged during fighting between the LTTE and government forces. It has now been partly restored and is an important point of interest for visitors and Jaffna residents. Tickets are required…
The northern part of Sri Lanka offers visitors an opportunity to see, taste and experience a distinctly unique, yet undoubtedly Sri Lankan, part of Serendip. At the end of January Raina and I took a modest-sized group of OSC students on a five-day exploration of the area’s landscape, culture and natural history. The land sits on a limestone bed devoid of hills and just a few fragile meters above sea level. Expansive lagoons are interwoven between human settlements, palmyra forest patches and fields of paddy. The climate is dry for much of the year with the North East monsoon (October to January) accounting for most of the rainfall. The culture of the Jaffna peninsula is influenced by the Tamil community with their rich history, Tamil language, links to southern India and minority faiths (Hinduism, Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism). In the mid-1950s the politicization of the choice of an official language for the newly independent nation of Ceylon created a communal rift that eventually cascaded into a fearsome civil war and the displacement of large numbers of people in the north. Nearly 30 years of armed struggle and war that ended in 2009 have left a mark on the Jaffna peninsula: empty, overgrown art deco houses are interwoven with vividly repainted gopurams and new storefronts. Most of the once ubiquitous military checkpoints have been removed, schools are thriving, business is vibrant and the roads are repaved signaling a new page in the area’s story.
OSC groups have visited Jaffna before-we sent the first Week Without Walls (WWW) group up with Amanda Lenk and Suren Rajadurai in 2013 when things were still quite raw. COVID interrupted these visits and our other experiential education programs so it was good to renew our association with a new batch of students ten years later. During this time while coordinating the program, I have worked on developing ecology and hiking-oriented experiences in the south. This year Raina and I got a chance to revive the Jaffna trip. Our family has visited Jaffna several times (see my 2011 post for the first account). Of course, we have a special connection to this part of our island home thanks to my paternal grandparents Edson and Dorothy Lockwood who taught at Jaffna College for 30 years.
RECCE IN NOVEMBER
Last year, in order to plan our learning experience, Raina and I visited the Jaffna area with the aid of a school van. We were accompanied by OSC’s driver Nishanta. This gave us an opportunity to visit places that we would stay at and the sites that we would visit to build the learning around. We packed in a number of places to our busy schedule, Mihintale (on the way up), Jaffna Fort, Point Pedro, Kankesanthurai,Keerilmalai springs, Kayts, Nainativu docks, the baobab tree on Pungudutivu, and Hammenhiel fort. On the way back we overnighted in Anuradhapura and visited the remote Sesseruwa hermitage. There were many critical visits for our WWW experience (one was discovering Lavin’s a south Indian restaurant with first-class dosas and filter coffee).
Getting down at Anuradhapura station-the furthest north that we could go by train (there was major track work going on just north of the city). We weren’t the only tourists in the area.
DESTINATION KKS
The most challenging aspect of our trip was the distance and trying to squeeze in as much as possible in the five days that were allocated to the learning experience. We planned to go straight from Colombo to Kankesanthurai (KKS), the northmost train station. Riding Sri Lankan railways was an important part of this but we could only get as far north as Anuradhapura as there was maintenance work going on just north of the station. Our groups of 13 students and three adults assembled at the school campus at the rather un-holy hour of 4:00. Raina and I were supported by our colleague Gayani Bentotage who handled key negotiations, kept track of accounts and was crucial to the success of the trip. While we went to the station in a borrowed bus our own vehicles (led by Anthony a tri-lingual, multi-talented driver) went ahead to meet us in Anuradhapura. The train ride was enjoyed and the transition back to the road was smooth. At Elephant Pass we stopped to see the bulldozer-converted war memorial that commemorates the Sri Lankan army’s achievements in this once-contested spit of land connecting the Jaffna peninsula to the rest of the island. My highlight was spotting a large flock of Greater flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus) across the tracks just north of Elephant Pass. There is no way to predict when you can see these majestic migratory birds and seeing them in the Jaffna area is a rare treat. Sri Lankan birders (not unlike the author) go to all kinds of logistical gymnastics to see and photograph them (usually in Mannar). So we stopped and the students had a chance to see the birds through our scope. Interestingly it was the same area that our family had stayed over at in December 1977. The Rest House where we stayed, with its verandah overlooking the lagoon, was regrettably lost during the years of fighting.
Memorials celebrating the Sri Lankan government’s victory over the LTTE are a key feature of the built landscape in once-contested areas. These images are from the Elephant Pass memorial.
Watching Greater flamingos near Elephant Pass. There is no way to predict when you can see these majestic migratory birds and encountering them in the Jaffna area is a rare treat.
Our drivers took us through short, intense monsoon showers to Point Pedro, the northernmost Point in Sri Lanka. Raina and I had brought postcards and stamps and all the kids wrote and sent cards home from the northernmost mailbox. We did an obligatory stop at the Unity in Diversity sign in the same area as the lighthouse and then drove westwards to KKS for our first night, spent at the army-run Thalsevana Resort across from KKS station.
Point Pedro snapshots: We sent postcards from the northernmost post box in Sri Lanka and then appreciated the “Unity in Diversity” sign. Some of the postcards reached parents before we returned five days later.
Words of wisdom at the spanking new Kankesanthurai (KKS) railway station.
Sri Lanka’s northernmost train station is at Kankesanthurai (KKS). It adjoins a harbor and the airport (now with international flights to Chennai) at Palali. The station and all the railway connections north of Vavuniya were rebuilt after the war with support from India and China.
JAFFNA TRANSITIONS
On our 2nd day, we left the coast and did the short drive south into the city of Jaffna where we were based for the majority of our trip. On the way, we visited Keerimalai and the next-door Kovil. The seaside spring is well known for its therapeutic water. Our group was prepared and after a tour of the Kovil we bathed at Keerimalai in the designated parts for males and females). We shared the space with pilgrims and visitors from all over Sri Lanka. A Buddhist monk and Catholic priest were recording a message of unity for a TV program. Kids from a nearby school had cycled up to swim. There was a family of Sri Lankans from the diaspora settled in Toronto. By the time we resumed our ride, we were refreshed at all levels. Before reaching Jaffna center we stopped to see the Kadurugoda Viharaya, a mysterious Buddhist site set amongst houses and towering palmyra trees.
Snapshots from a bathing ritual at Keerimalai and the visit to Keerimalai Naguleswara Kovil.
Pilgrims Rest at Keerimalai, an important architectural treasure in the process of being restored.
Kadurugoda Viharaya, a mysterious Buddhist site set amongst houses and towering palmyra trees near the Jaffna suburb of Chunnakam.
IN JAFFNA PROPER
At KKS we had stayed in barracks-style rooms with no complaints. In Jaffna city, the group was treated to the more upmarket Thinnai Hotel. That gave us good access to a number of sites and we also relished their fine Jaffna-style cooking. Visiting Jaffna Fort, the Jaffna Public Library and Nallur temple were all key features of our stay. We spent our first afternoon exploring the ramparts and interiors of Jaffna Fort. On the 2nd full day, we visited the Jaffna Public Library. Raina had established a good connection through our student Chirath who had just completed an internship at the Asia Foundation in Colombo. That relationship helped pave the way for a meaningful exchange and tour of the site. Raina and her Room to Read service group had collected reference books to donate to the library so these were delivered when we visited. In the evening Raina and I took the group to Lavin’s for dosas. That was a major hit with all the kids. It worked so well that we ate a second meal there on Wednesday. There were other short trips to Nallur, to the dry fish market and the minister’s crumbling mansion (Manthri Mannai).
This staged picture from the lobby of the Thinnai Hotel sums up the good-natured, playful and open-minded approaches of our wonderful cohort of OSC students.
Details and sweeping views at Jaffna’s historic fort.
OSC students & teachers visiting the Jaffna Public Library.
NAINATIVU & KAYTS
Our longest visit outside of Jaffna involved traversing several lagoons, to Kayts, and Pungudutivu before taking the ferry to Nainativu (see attached map). This small island is an important pilgrimage site for both Buddhists and Hindus. It seems that all good visitors to Jaffna make the visit (luckily we went on a non-poya weekday). The boat ride is short-sitting on top was refreshing and probably safer than the interiors (Amanda Lenk had warned me about this years ago). Both shrines have been redone and repainted in recent years. Next time we hope to make the longer ferry ride to Delft. A select group of our team returned to Kayts on the last day to look for birds. The sheer abundance of ducks, waders, egrets, ibises, storks and other waterbirds was extraordinary. We saw another group of flamingos on the way to Pungudutivu but they were very far off.
Approach to the Nainativu ferry on Pungudutivu.
Boat ride to Nainativu-a service of the SL Navy.
OSC group at Nainativu in front of the Kovil.
Twelve of sixteen: Portraits by the author of the Jaffna Northern Narratives group (most of it) in action in various parts of the experience.
OMANTHAI SERVICE, KALUDIYA POKUNA & PIDURANGALA
On Thursday we started our journey south to Pidurangala where we broke the journey and spent a night in tree houses. Anthony took our bus via the Sangupiddi bridge and Pooneryn. The road is in excellent condition (compared to our 2011 visit) and the scenery is still stark and spectacular. The vast lagoon, a veritable sea, stretches in all directions. A few sail-powered boats were out checking crab traps but otherwise, the shallow water was devoid of human activity (and flamingos, unfortunately). A series of giant wind turbines now tower alongside the south bank of the peninsula. Near Omanthai we visited with a local Tamil-medium school. Raina had set up a meeting with a principal so that we could deliver boxes of books to five different schools. These had been collected in a community drive and were going to be distributed to schools identified by our parent members working at the ILO. It was a good visit and we left wanting to return to spend more time to develop a meaningful relationship.
Dropping off donated books from OSC’s Room to Read service group to the Omanthai schools.
At Mihintale, the place where Buddhist teachings were first introduced to the island, we took a rest to explore the exquisite Kaludiya Pokuna. This is one of my favorite, off-the-beaten track sacred places and is ideal for introspection and exploration. No one in the student group-including the Sri Lankans had been there previously and it was our privilege to share the worn boulders, mad-made lake, caves and other structures with the group.
OSC students at a monastic cave near Kaludiya Pokuna in Mihintale.
OSC students at Kaludiya Pokuna-a special sacred place that is ideal for exploration, introspection and reflection.
We pulled into Pidurangala in the very last light of the day. As usual with any Back of Beyond property, I always have a feeling of coming home. They had ensured that all of our team got to sleep in tree houses. Most of us were thrilled with this arrangement though a few had doubts. My treat from the BoB team was special: A small Green Pit Viper (Trimeresurus trigonocephalus) had been found and it had been left alone so that I could catch and photograph it. Unfortunately, it was lodged in a rafter outside Gayani’s room (later, I discovered that she has a fear of snakes and didn’t get much sleep that night). Working with Anaanda (of BoB) I fashioned a crude snake stick, climbed a ladder, and got it into a basket. The dry zone individuals have green eyes which I had not seen before so I was thrilled. I released it near their pond.
No Week Without Walls experience is complete without some natural history. This gorgeous Green Pit Viper (Trimeresurus trigonocephalus) fulfilled our need to experience some of Sri Lanka’s rich biodiversity. Special thanks to the team at Back of Beyond Pidurangala, including Ananda and Vajira, for locating the individual.
In the morning we got the whole group up early and did the trek up to Pidurangala to watch the sunrise on Sigiriya. The weather was muggy so there really wasn’t a sunrise but we had a good time and it was a fitting way to complete our experience. We coasted home via Dambulla, Kurunegala and the new Central Expressway (not quite complete but it helps cut some stressful driving). Along with all the other WWW teams, the Jaffna Northern Narratives will be sharing its learning at the annual Experience Sri Lanka Exhibition on February 17th.
MAP OF NORTHERN NARRATIVES 2023
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PAST OSC WWW EXPERIENCES
- WWW 2013 Sinharaja
- WWW 2014 Dry Zone
- WWW 2015 Sri Lanka Highlands
- WWW 2016 Sri Lanka Highlands
- WWW 2017 Sri Lanka Highlands
- WWW 2018 Sri Lanka Highlands
- WWW 2019 Sri Lanka Highlands
- WWW 2020 Sri Lanka Highlands
- WWW 2021 -CANCELLED (COVID)
- WWW 2022 Down South
REFERENCES
Fabry, Philip. The Essential Guide For Jaffna And Its Region. Colombo: Perera Hussein Publishing House, 2012. Print.
Lockwood, Ian. “Windows on the Long Road to Jaffna” Ian Lockwood Blog. April 2013. Web.
