गुलमोहर - gulmohar

गुलमोहर 


भर दुपारच्या उन्हात,
गुलमोहर सळसळला.
लाल पाकळयांचा रंग मात्र,
तुझ्या ओठापुढे फिका होता !

Read my more poems here.


By Paresh Kale

Common Jay - Graphium doson

Common Jay - Graphium doson

Common Jay, is a tailless swallowtail common to the gardens. It is found all over the India in abundance. A butterfly frequently seen visiting flowers and lantena for nectoring. Flight is quick and powerful. This species may be easily confused with bluebottle species in flight. Common Jay lay egg on the tender leaves and at a height from 1 to 2 meters from the ground. The Polyalthia longifolia (Ashok) and Magnolia champaca ( Sonchafa). Egg is pale yellow in color and perfect round in shape. Initially instar is pale brown which turns dark brown and final instar is pale green in color. Caterpillar forms pale green color pupa on upper side of leaves. Sexes are alike. In general behavior of this species closely resembles that of Tailed Jay.

Quick Facts:
Status: Common
Latin Name: Graphium doson
Wingspan: 70-80 mm
Host plants:  Polyalthia longifolia and Magnolia champaca

Nature @ IITB – Conservation program

Nature @ IITB – Conservation program

IITBombay campus hosts a wide variety of flora and fauna on the campus. The major reasons for sustained wild life on campus are the location and healthy eco-system. The 550 acre campus boundaries are shared with Sanjay Gandhi National park and Powai Lake. Campus is full of variety of climbers, shrubs and plants. Some patches of the campus are still away from human indulgence. All this is the right mixture for wild life to sustain for years.  In recent time, vegetated land is being utilized to erect infrastructure to meet the increased student intake. This has partly destroyed the natural eco-system in some part of the campus, especially in old medical garden. Also, many activities and policies are unknowingly followed, which may add to the harm done to the nature around the campus.

Commander

In order to save the wild life in the campus, a conservation program was drafted by some nature enthusiast on the campus; the preliminary group includes Prof. M.B. Patil (Electrical department), Krishnapriya, Paresh Kale (Research scholar, ESE Dept), Abhay Soman, Swapnil Lokhande (Research scholar, Mathematics Dept) and Yugbala. The group is concerned with the conservation, documentation and awareness related issues regarding wild-life on the campus. Group has agreed on some critical issues to be sorted out to make this program successful. The details of which are:

Malabar Tree-Nymph (Idea malabarica)

Malabar Tree-Nymph (Idea malabarica)

Luck favors who take chances - I took chance when Deepak said we can get Malabar tree nymph (MTN) caterpillar for sure at one place. Answer to this question was another question. Why dont you asked me before? The destination was another five kilometers inside the jungles, ahead of Ashtagaal (cotigao, goa). Thankfully a car was available and going there was not a problem. MTN is one of the largest butterfly species of India, with wingspan upto 160 cm. Could be easily identified with black spots on off-whit grey colored body, gliding flight and habit to hover over a particular spot. Species is endemic to the western ghat and is locally common. 

Oriental Apefly - Spalgis epeus

Oriental Apefly - Spalgis epeus

Apefly - A butterfly with a wingspan less than 30 mm holds "Not rare" status as per Winter-blyth. It is from the resemblance of the chrysalis to a monkey's head, butterfly gets its name 'ape'fly. Spread of this species is almost covers the entire India. In the field, individual of this species can be easily identified. Its is smaller than all the blues normally found in the upper western ghat region. Under side is dull white with wavy markings on it. Sex can be distinguished FW apex and termen. Male have acute apex FW and termen straight while its rounded in female. The canary yellow eyes are appealing and challenging for macro photography. When shot from the front with wings closed, individual resembles Eiffel tower. It added one more fabulous angle to my earlier write-up about 'angles of photography'. Flight is fast, hence not easy to track. I saw the individual comes to the same spot, if left for some reason. Prefers shady places and seats above the leaf. In this position there is good chance to catch the glimpse of its upper-wing. Upper wing is dark brown.

Wandering Destination : Namdapha National Park (part 2: Accommodation))

Wandering Destination : Namdapha National Park (part 2: Accommodation))

Kamku River and Namdapha National park in the backdrop

Arunachal literally means 'land of rising sun', land also known as 'land of dawn-lit mountains'. The scenic beauty of mountains certainly justifies the phrase. After alighting at Tinsukia junction, urge vising the easternmost state first time was ever increasing. It was just 5 AM and sun was already up, enough to allow our taxi driver to drive without headlights. We were lucky to get the cab in reasonable rates, bargaining would have been reduced it furthermore. However, experience comes after action. Miao was our destination, some 4 odd hours away. More than half of the road to be covered  was  going through Assam, till the army check point of Jagun. Roads in Assam are pretty to travel on. Mostly runs between the tea gardens and are well maintained. Tea tree plantation was appearing as plane green surface, certainly the magic of hands which collect the tender leaves. Systematically planted rubber trees inside tea plantation were also seen, I suppose they also shades the tea plant. But I couldn't find a single person in the fields, probably it was not the right season for leaf plucking.

Smoke Photography made simple

Smoke Photography made simple

Light and shape : perhaps the key elements to eye-catching photography. Light imparts contrast to the image and sometimes also creates points of interests. To achieve those, light is often associated with the shapes and curves. Solidity of the object is revealed plying light and shape. Effect of light can be created artificially, however curves and shapes needs  to be discovered. Mastery over the creation and discovery comes with repeating and perfecting the small assignments of controlled photography. In this article I am writing about one of such simple yet magical technique called Smoke Photography.

This technique has infinite scope as one can burn virtually anything to create smoke and then its combination with light effects can create infinite unbelievable smoke images. Here I am going to elaborate the basic set-up and tricks to shoot smoke. This is the list of accessories I used: