Croaking Ambanaad

I came to Kerala first time in May 2010. I was a Masters’ student doing Wildlife Biology. My subject being one of those which can’t be studied in the classrooms, I was looking for opportunities for field work for summer internship. A little search led me to Foundation for Ecological Research, Advocacy and Learning aka FERAL (the organization though worked mainly on wild animals :D) I was to work in the southern Western Ghats, in a place called Ambanaad Estate. This estate falls in Kollum district of Kerala in the region called Aryankavu. In the nearby area, dense forests of Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary, Thenmala Forest Reserve, Ranni and Konni Reserve Forests and Achankovil Reserve Forests are located which makes it one of the best places for wildlife.

Roughly 500m above sea level, Ambanaad estate has rubber as major plantation followed by some coffee and tea at higher elevations. We had been given a field station to stay which was once a medical clinic. Right behind my field station was a beautiful hill which had mixed patches of grass and montane forests (Shola vegetation). I shared the field station with two ladies and two guys who worked on vegetation sampling and large mammal monitoring, and seven field assistants who helped us all with our respective tasks. My task here was to study amphibians and reptiles.

Neither of the researchers, including me was from Kerala and didn’t know Malayalam but the field assistants even though native to Tamil Nadu knew the language which helped us communicate with local people of the estate. Living under one roof gave us opportunity to know each other better. The atmosphere remained cordial. All the other researchers being senior to me, helped me understand field work better and the field assistants always helped me on the field. The field assistant who always accompanied me was Sathish. Extremely jolly by nature, he taught me to how to climb and overcome the tough terrains of Southern Western Ghats, played pranks, called me Kovilpatti Veeralaxmi* (because I always carried an aruvaal, a sickle-shaped weapon that the tribals use to cut grasses or bamboos or small trees on the field) and even tried teaching me Kalaripayattu (a form of Indian martial art).

Every morning after having tea and breakfast together, we used to disperse for our respective field sites. While others used to go for vegetation sampling and large mammal monitoring in different parts of estates, I and Sathish used to go and look for frogs, toads, snakes, lizards, turtles, etc. and record the data. After field work, we used to have fun clicking pictures of all the animals and plants that we came across- butterflies, dragonflies, bugs, beetles, millipedes, scorpions, wild flowers, interesting plants, etc.

As the time passed, my checklist of frogs kept getting longer. The best of the sightings was that of the Purple frog, the relic species whose closest relatives lie in Seychelles! Learning behaviour of the frogs, snakes camouflaged in the leaf litter, tarantulas basking on the tree bark after a good rain, scorpions scurrying on the road, Rat snakes in combat for the territories are some of the best memories of my field work in Ambanaad. Everyday there was something new to learn. We named the streams after the animals found there, eg. the Rhacophorus stream, the damselfly stream, etc!

Ambanaad being at such an elevation and surrounded by forests remained cool and pleasant in terms of weather. The place never received mobile connectivity. To make mobile phone calls one needed to walk some distance to the higher elevation be able to connect to the mobile network. The mobile phones were instead used as alarm clocks! Not to forget the peace and quiet that lack of connectivity from human-dominated landscapes can give you. The field station not being designed for the purpose of human residence lacked proper water supply. We had to keep a few buckets of water stored for use and had to go to the nearest stream to bathe. The bathes always ended up us walking up to streams dirty and returning back a little less dirty, all thanks to the shrubs, bushes and muddy pathways on our return journey. The only difference bathing did to us was the amount of dirt that we carried! Bathing was a chore and we avoided it as much as possible until someone revolted to our stench 😀

Ambanaad had become my home and the experience taught me a lot. The experience was made special all thanks to the forests, beautiful misty view every morning, perfect work, so many frogs, great field station, and funny and caring field assistant and great colleagues and supervisor. The month passed quickly and soon I had to return back to my college in Tamil Nadu. But the experience made such an impact that I returned back for my Masters’ dissertation a year and a half later about which I have another story to tell!

To this day, Ambanaad remains one of my favorite places and I feel that it is one of the most beautiful places I have been to. Not only the estate, but I am totally in love with Kerala’s scenic beauty and biodiversity. Some day I will be there. May be for a real long time!

*Veeralakshmi: A woman from Kovilpatti, Tamil Nadu who revolted against inhuman treatment against Dalits by the local Police Force.

Author: Sneha Dharwadkar

Hello and welcome to my blog. I am Sneha Dharwadkar, a Wildlife Biologist by profession currently working on herpetofauna (reptiles and amphibians) in Tillari region of the Northern Western Ghats, India. I am practically in love with herpetofauna (reptiles and amphibians- some of the creepy crawlies!) and more so with turtles. I find solace in nature and run to the woods whenever and as much as I can and also love to travel (because of which I am broke most of times). I love talking (I do better talking than writing). Apart from wildlife and travel; I raise my voice for gender equality. This blog has materialized after I finally did overcome my fright for writing and after pushing myself (and many of my friends pushing me) to tell the stories of my adventures. On this blog, I will be writing about my wildlife adventures, field experiences, travelogues and interesting encounters with wildlife or people. Feel free to write back to me or tweet to me @herpomania. View all posts by Sneha Dharwadkar