गुलमोहर
भर दुपारच्या उन्हात,
गुलमोहर सळसळला.
लाल पाकळयांचा रंग मात्र,
तुझ्या ओठापुढे फिका होता !
Read my more poems here.
By Paresh Kale
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.
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
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| 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))
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| 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:
भेट
This time some watercolor effect. Its subtle, see photo in full screen mode. Matching theme poem was written
by me some 5 years back. :-)
Read my more poems here.
By Paresh Kale
Tawny Coster (Acraea terpsicore)
A very easy for ID butterfly. As name suggests, wings are 'tawny' colored with black spots on it. Another characteristics is lazy flight, bit of like sailing - fluttering combination. Lot many specimens can be seen around its host plant passiflora sp. Host plant is a climber, flowers throughout the year. Tawny coster lays eggs in large batches, typically between 20 to 100. Caterpillar is tawny-reddish color, and has spines allover the body. Appearance is similar to pansy caterpillars. I brought one batch for observation consisted of 50+ eggs. Here are some observations:
Photographing Odissi Performances
Photographing Odissi Performances
Just few days before I had brought new lens Nikkor 105 IF-ED macro lens. Luckily for me a mail came about Leena Mohanty going to perform Odissi as a part of a conference FIRE-2011 organised at IIT Bombay. I thought the dance program is good opportunity to test the lens, specially at aperture full open (f 2.8).
Butterfly Life Activities : in a nutshell (part 2)
Butterfly Life Activities : in a nutshell (part 2)
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| White Orange tip Male on Kalanchoe |
Food collection: Most of the time, a butterfly is imagined nectoring a flower. This is obvious as most of butterflies do the same. Flower is widespread food source for them. More importantly it is available in the same season when butterfly breeds : pre and post monsoon season. Common flowers like Lantena, siam weeds, amaranth, snakeweed, turnsole are favorites for them.
Butterfly Life Activities : in a nutshell (part 1)
Butterfly Life Activities : in a nutshell (part 1)
This Sanskrit quote says "As a man determines, so he becomes". But for a caterpillar I think there is no choice but to become a butterfly of a certain specie. Their life cycle has remained unchanged for thousands of generations. Serving and adding beauty to the nature silently - for generations. Here I am consolidating some important stages/activities of a butterfly life.
Mating: Primary natural task of any living species is reproduction to sustain. Butterflies are not different and one adult finds other suitable adult to mate. My observation says, the mating period is afternoon and late afternoon in a day. Sure shot chance of mating can be caught where the population of a particular species is higher. This place could be near to food plant. There are incidences reported when individuals from two different species seen mating.
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| Mating pair of Gram Blue |
Wandering Destination : Namdapha National Park (part 1: preparation)
Wandering Destination : Namdapha National Park (part 1: preparation)
In India there are over 1500 different butterfly species can be found. If one thinks to watch them, photograph them and increase ones lifetime checklist, visit to Namdapha National Park is a must. I will be writing a series about my experiences in a recent visit to the park made in November 2011. It will run in several parts and hope will be helpful to the people who wish to visit that peaceful land. Before proceeding further, some quick Facts about Namdapha:
1. Its basically a tiger project, situated in easternmost Arunachal Pradesh.
2. Inner line permit is required to visit the park, which can be easily obtained from concerned officers.
3. Its so remote that there is no electricity, no mobile range and no cheap transportation at the cottages. Accommodation and food is excellent.
4. Best butterflying season is March to May. Rainy clouds may appear any time and may rain for several consecutive days.
Celosia argentea (कुर्डू)
Silver cockscomb, a Flowering herb, is often neglected considering it to be grass / weed. It belongs to amaranth family and can prove striking garden flower as well. These are in pinkish - silvery white color, spike like structure and are vertically oriented. Flowers are like crest or plum and flowers in plenty. Its a much attractive plant when plantation is considered. It doesn't require shade, rather grown best in sunlight. Plant grows better when the dried flowers are removed. These dry flowers can be used to grow more plants. Mostly seen after monsoon season. Flower attracts plenty of butterflies for nectoring, specially the skippers. Skippers have long tentacles and therefore can penetrate well within flowers to grasp the food. Stem of the flower is long, thus can be useful for flower arrangement to be made with long necked flower-pot. Plant can grow upto 3-4 ft.
Quick Facts:
Name: Silver Cockscomb, Marathi : कुर्डू
Botanical name: Celosia argentea / spicata
Family: Amaranth
Best seen on IITB campus: Old medical garden
By Paresh Kale
Flowering Tree: Spathodea campanulata (African tulip tree)
Commonly known as African tulip tree, this spectacular evergreen plant is introduced to India. Its a large tree which can grow up to 80 ft. It blooms in the spring. The glorious flowers are orange in color and peak blooming is seen in spring months.
Quick Facts:
Common Name: African Tulip Tree, Fountain tree
Botanical Name: Spathodea campanulata
Family: Jacaranda
Best seen on the IITB campus: Behind staff hostel on lake side road, besides mechanical engg. dept. in new medical garden, on the turn towards SBI ATM in Tansa
India’s biggest problem: Underutilization of resources
This was the top award winning essay, written by me in 2003 for a competition which was part of Brainwaves 2003. Brainwaves is an annual national level festival of talent, organized by Finolex Academy of Management and Technology, Ratnagiri.
India’s biggest problem:
Underutilization of resource
One
striking difference between the developed and least developed
countries is that while many things may divide us like political
differences, economic competitiveness, ethnic divisiveness etc. in
the particular area we have shared common concerns that is we all
need resource development. Resources are both means and end of the
economic development. When we talked about means of development in
economics we often meant investment capital. And yet resource
capital, which made critical difference, was measured neither
qualitatively nor quantitatively, nor received the kind of attention
that it deserved. If we need to elaborate this India’s biggest
problem it can be as follows:
- Unviewed importance of local governance (Gram Sabha):
“Deliverance comes not from electoral forms but informed
franchise, not from the mystic
authority of franchise but from the enlightened participation of the
populance in the public affairs” – Justice Krishna Ayyar.
The
belief of the government is that active participation of the people
through the institution of Gram Sabha would ensure transparency and
accountability of the system and there fore the “Gram Sabha”
should be strengthened. The studies have attributed ineffective
functioning of Gram Sabha:
1.
Lack of awareness among rural people about the functioning of sabha.
2.
Dominances of sarpanches and absence of proper understanding of
village Panchayats and gram sabha.
3.
Lack of commitment on the part of the officials to educate the
members of the Gram Sabha as to their functions and responsibilities.
4.
Gram sabha should have full powers for determining the priorities for
various programmes in the village and approval of budget.
The
73rd constitution Amendment Act, 1993 for the first time
created a statutory imperative for the establishment of legally
empowered Gram Sabha or village assemblies in India. Almost all the
state governments have provided for the Gram Sabha but its functions
and authorities have not been spelt out in detail. Consequently,
these institutions continue to function ineffectively. The absence of
women folk in the meetings of Gram Sabha has become a common feature.
The participation of people belonging to weaker sections is also
minimal. The entire exercise thus becomes formal and incapable of
yielding the expected results. Thus it is needed to
1. Recognize Gram Sabha as the heart and soul of Panchayati Raj system
2.
Developed as an institution where common people can get an
opportunity to participate plan and implement their basic needs.
3.
Encourage to exercise its authority for taking up any development
program at village level.
4.
Allowed to evoke its own procedures within the legal limits for
conducting its business.
5.
Motivated to absorb the philosophy of grass root democracy.
- Underpowered rural women
“Our rural women have a very great part to play in the progress
of our country, as
the mental and physical contact of women with life is much more
lasting and comprehensive than that of men. For nothing was it said
that ‘The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world’. In the
apron string of the woman is hidden the revolutionary energy which
can establish paradise on the earth” – Dr.
Rajendra Prasad
The
term empowerment is often used to describe the process where by the
powerless peoples gain a greater share of control of resources and
decision making. The term ‘employment’ is rooted in the
theories of Paulo Freire who put forward the notion of
‘conscientisation’ as a process by which the poor could
challenge the structures of power and take the control of their
lives. By expanding this analysis and giving gender an integral
place; feminists put forward the concept of women’s empowerment. It
is the process is one where women find time and space of their own,
being to reexamine their lives critically and collectively, enable
women to look at there old problems in new ways, analyze their
strength and situation, recognize their strength, alter their self
image, access to new knowledge etc.
Indian
scenario says that access of information is the key for economic,
social and political empowerment of women. Reforms should poses new
forms of learning, education, health services, livelihood options,
governance mechanisms and commerce which would lead to the ultimate
goal. This Un-empowerment becomes part of India’s biggest problem as
although the rural woman population is 30% of the total, this hidden
energy is not utilized yet. There were fewer efforts to empower them
through reservations in elections, access to loans, participation in
local level banking, creation of credit societies.
- Ignorance towards agricultural reforms
Agriculture is no doubt a leading sector which provides major part of
employment needed. But no government yet has made a significant
reform after the green revolution. “Every country can revolt
once against bad government but every farmer should make revolt
against the less crop production every year.” When drastically
increasing population is considered the only way to provide them food
is a new revolution not only for Wheat but also in case of rice,
cotton, cereals etc.
If we
study latest general budget for the year 2003-04, it proves to be
meaningless for the productive agriculture. Even the finance minister
said that “Farming is most important but we are using fewer
resources in the farming”, lessen the subsidies over
fertilizers, levied Cess over cash crops. The most interesting thing
is that out of 4,38,795 crores Rs. only 50 crores are reserved for
the irrigative fertilizers, crop diversity, biotechnology, precise
farming, in all. Even after fifty years of independence insurance
policies for agriculture sector is not strong so that a poor farmer
can rely on. No proper schemes are provided to lend the money to
farmers and its recovery, development of wastelands, processing and
storage etc. Not
about this budget, but all the budgets after India has decided for
strengthening its privatization and Globalization policies budgets
are going away from agricultural reforms. It looks such that all
theses budgets asks common farmer should turn towards business of
construction.
- Improper technology transfer
There is need to organize the rural artisans and provide them
improved technology based on the existing tools and skills. The
development and usage can vary. The best technology is that the poor
should be able to handle it. For better and efficient utilization of
technologies at various levels of industrialization, an ideal
organizational structure which can take care of linkages between
production, marketing, processing, materials etc. The focus of
appropriate technology should concentrate on:
1. R &
D which has to play a vital role in providing right kind of
technology.
2. It
should deal with upgrading of skills and productivity and optimal
utilization.
3.
Technology should not be only confined to mere expansion of
traditional technology but also cover large scale industries.
4.
Should be profitable.
5.
Search of suitable technologies with major objectives of increasing
employment, output and reducing capital requirement and saving
foreign exchange.
In
the present rural industrial structure there seems to be deficiency
of all the above things discussed. The transfer is following
‘Trickling theory’, i.e. appropriate technology is not being
transferred to the farmers although it is invented in the various
Laboratories. This is also because of the less number of agricultural
related institutes actually interested in field studies and imparting
education in agriculture. For example in Maharashtra there are 47
engineering colleges, 25 medical and uncountable art and commerce
colleges, but only four agricultural colleges. This imbalance has
lead to improper and inappropriate technology transfer.
- Inability to grab the advantage of IT sector
Government has declared year 2002-03 as IT year. It decides to take
every advantage of IT sector to empower the e-governance, e-commerce,
e-medicine basic communication network. Certainly taking the
initiative, states like Karnataka, Andhra, and Tamil Nadu had started
projects for such reforms. But this digital fever is not throughout
the country. North-Eastern states, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and
Bihar etc. are far behind where IT is badly required. Our country has
got many IT experts, next generation is favoring digital reforms,
will to fill up digital divide is also present. But schemes are still
on the paper. If these reforms are taking place then the local
governance can be made strong removing barriers of literacy, jugglery
due to red band, and frauds.
- Lack of "energetic" initiatives
In rural areas electricity supply is erratic in terms of availability
and poor in terms of voltage regulation. Still rural people are dependent on the fuel wood and biomass available locally. This
destroys man hour to meet energy needs, poses serious health risks
due to smoke. Installed capacity in the country increased from 1300 MW at the time
of independence to about 102,000 MW as December. The studies by
Central electricity Authority (CEA), December 2002, show that
natural resources are underutilized. The following table shows
potential and installations of renewable energy technologies:
Sources
|
Units
|
Potential
|
Installed
|
Wind Power
|
MW
|
45,000
|
1,507
|
Small Hydro power
|
MW
|
15,000
|
1,406
|
Biomass power
|
MW
|
19,500
|
358
|
Solar PV
|
MW/sq. Km.
|
20
|
7
|
Solar power heating
|
Mn. Sq. m
|
30
|
0.59
|
Biogas plants
|
Million
|
12
|
3.26
|
Improved cook stoves
|
Million
|
120
|
34.3
|
If these resources will be used at optimum basis, stress of
increasing load over power system will get reduced; Power to the
local user will be provide locally, Industry will get uninterrupted
and required power. This requires energetic initiative by power
ministry.
- Conclusion
These measures are suggestive. India can make its functioning
effective by using its extensive human resources, agricultural
richness, and vast natural resources. To enhance utilization
functioning and central role Gram Sabha in local planning, services
of NGO, empowerment of women, technology transfer, research
organizations and use of IT for faster access to knowledge. Then only
the legislative imperative becomes a reality, otherwise the ideas of
real democracy and powerful nation remains on paper. Ultimately,
“It is perfectly said that
that Government is best which governs
least
It is equally true that
that government is best which provides
most”
- Walter Lippmann
Flowering Trees: Gilricidia sepium (गिरी पुष्प / उन्दरी )
Its a deciduous tree and introduced from Mexico. As it belongs to Pea family, is used for nitrogen fixation and improving quality of soil. It can attain a height up-to 10 m. Tree shades it leaves during February / March. Flowers are bright, pinkish in color and are present in bunch. Ants are often seen feeding on them Its also food plant for many butterflies, specially from the "Blue" category. Its host plant for Pea Blue, common cerulean. During ore-monsoon season, hundreds are Pea-blues are seen near this trees. I am not sure if this tree is also called as उन्दरी in Marathi, as bark is used as rat poison. Fruits are elongated sticks, approx 10 cm in length.
Qucik Facts:
Common Name: Mexican Lilac, Mother of Cocoa, Quickstick
Botanical Name: Gilricidia sepium
Family: Pea / Fabaceae
Marathi Name: गिरी पुष्प / उन्दरी
Location on IITB Campus: All along fence common to SGNP of medical garden, hill side
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| Bark |
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| Leaves |
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| Fruit |
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| Flowering |
Flowering Trees: Helicteres isora ( मुरुड शेंग )
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| Flower of Indian Screw Tree |
A significant plant in terms of ecological and medical use. Its a small tree which grows upto 2 meters. It flowers in September-October. This post-monsoon period is also a high season for butterflies. Butterflies like emigrant , tailed Jay, Wanderer etc. are often seen nectoring on these flowers. Small birds like flower peckers and sun bird favors this plant for nectoring. Red flowers turn pale white when old. Twisted shape of the fruit impart its name "Indian screw plant" to it.
Quick Facts:
Common Name: Indian Screw Tree
Botanical Name: Helicteres isora
Family: Cacao
Marathi Name: मुरुड शेंग
Location on IITB Campus: Most common tree on Hill side ( in the valley), medical garden
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| Flower pecker on Murud Sheng |
Basic Raw Editing
Shooting in RAW is always preferred by most of the photographers. RAW file is like digital negative, thus making post processing flexible and powerful and compared to editing JPEG. I use Nikon D7000 and Adobe Photoshop CS5. Other models and version can make concerned changes in the post and read. In this post I will try to explain some basic steps in RAW editing using Adobe Photoshop CS5. Before starting, here are few notes:
1. Check if you have installed proper camera raw plugin. Look in the associated equipment list for your camera model.
2. A particular version of Photoshop supports camera raw, and is mentioned in the details of the camera raw version u r downloading.
Tool pallet helps for cropping, rotating and zooming the image. Tool pallet 2 is more useful. Histogram and EXIF information is displayed on the top. Just below it, there are plenty of tabs which are used for adjustments. First tab, Basic, is widely useful. White balance can be adjusted using some pre-sets and fine tuning can be done with temperature and tint slide bars. I use it mainly for correcting object colors due to light reflection from other objects. Exposure adjustments helps specially when the flash has not fired, I have explained it in detail here. Default values of recovery, fill light, blacks and brightness slide bars are acceptable in most situations. Contrast may be sometime improved. I don't seem it add much of the noise. Clarity adjustment may be individual taste. For macro (close-up photos) sometimes I decrease the value. Rarely I increase it. For sharpening I use "high pass filter technique". Increasing saturation increase vividness. I shoot the photos at standard picture settings. So sometimes hue and saturation are necessary. Other tabs, sometime later. Basic tab suffice most needs. :-)
Flowering Trees: Bixa orellana (शेंदरी)
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| Flowers |
A small evergreen tree, originating from Myanmar / Burma). Flowers in October to December. Flowers with five petals and are off-white / pinkish in color, approx. 6 cm in diameter. Flower occurs in a bunch at the end of the branch. This tree is cultivated variety in India, although its native from Burma. The seeds are crushed to obtain yello-orange pigments and are used as dye for food, cosmetic and soap industries. Coloration property of the seeds might be reason it is also called "lipstick Tree". It is reported host plant of Tricolor Pied Flat.
Quick Facts:
Common Name: Lipstick Tree / Annatto
Botanical Name: Bixa orellana
Family: Annatto
Marathi Name: शेंदरी
Location on IITB campus: Medical garden, many of them planted left side of entrance.
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| Plant |
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| Seeds |
Flowering Trees: Saraca asoca ( सीता अशोक )
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| Flowers of Sita Ashok |
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| Leaves of Sita Ashok |
A semi tall, sprawling green tree looks like a content and satisfied human being to me. Its the same tree mentioned in Ramayana in referenace to "Ashok Van" (Garden of Ashoka trees), where Sita was captivated by Lankan King Ravan. Its the same place where Hanuman meets her and assures her about her release. Tree grows upto 10 meters and found in evergreen forests. Tree is green through out the year and flowers in pre- monsoon months. This characteristics may be the reason tree becoming a must plantation in garden. Still this tree is listed as "vulnerable to extinction" in the IUCN list. Flowers, yellow-orange colored, bloom in clusters. Personally, I haven't seen nectoring species on this flowers. Although flowers are fragrant, never seen a lady wearing those either. It is reported host plant of Common Cerulean, a common butterfly.
Quick Facts:
Common Name: Sita Ashok / Sorrowless tree
Botanical Name: Saraca asoca
Family: Gulmohar
Marathi Name: सीता अशोक
Location on IITB campus: on right side of H-5 entrance
Lime Blue (Chilades laius)
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| Fresh Lime Blue |
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| Lime Blue female egg laying on Lime |
Lime Blue (Chilades laius) belongs to Lycaenidae family. It is small butterfly, grayish in color. We
were able to observe its life-cycle. As its name suggest its larval
host plants includes Lime plants. We observed its larva on small lime
tree in Medical garden. Larva was easy to detect even though it is well
camouflaged. Ants constantly follow larva, so in order to find Lime
Blue's larva just follow the trail of ants. On the same plant we were
able to find many empty pupa. This plant had many curled leaves. Lime
blue caterpillar took advantage of this to make the pupa. Pupa were well
concealed inside curled leaves of plant. It seemed that ants
were attaining pupa also. We saw two pupa made very near to each other
on same curled leaf. Lime Blue is seemed to be common in immediate post mansoon months. Again they were mainly encountered around Hill side.
Key
to ID this butterfly is the "L"shaped dots on its hind wings. Sex are
dissimilar, female has black outlines on UP, which are absent in male. Here is a video Describing association of ants with lime blue caterpillar on lime tree.
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| Lime Blue pupa in secluded leaf of lime, held on palm |
Quick Facts:
Common Name: Lime Blue
Scientific Name: Chilades laius
Wingspan: approx 25-20 mm
Status: Locally Common.
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Flowering Trees: Red Silk Cotton Tree (शाल्मली / शेवर)
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| Flower of Red cotton silk tree |
A large dark red/ magenta colored flower of "silk cotton tree" attracts every nature wanderer during summer trails. There exists a very similar species, white flowers is the sole difference. Flower with five petals blooms during spring months (January to March), while tree losses all its leaves as many other tree do. Many birds like drongo, jungle babbler, common crow etc. feed on the flowers.
This native tree can grow up-to 30 m. Thorns on the stem and branches is its characteristic ID. Tree is largely famous as it bears its relation with a famous festival of Holi. In Konkan region, the decorated tree, decorated with Mango leaves and flowers, is worshiped. Tree is then burnt in the night and Holi is celebrated. The availability of this tree is larger and confidently its leafless during the same month when Holi is celebrated. The fruits appear in the month of April may and has fiber inside. Often seen them flying with the hot summer winds. Fibers are used in the pillows by villagers. Wood is light and makes it use in building structures used in water.
This native tree can grow up-to 30 m. Thorns on the stem and branches is its characteristic ID. Tree is largely famous as it bears its relation with a famous festival of Holi. In Konkan region, the decorated tree, decorated with Mango leaves and flowers, is worshiped. Tree is then burnt in the night and Holi is celebrated. The availability of this tree is larger and confidently its leafless during the same month when Holi is celebrated. The fruits appear in the month of April may and has fiber inside. Often seen them flying with the hot summer winds. Fibers are used in the pillows by villagers. Wood is light and makes it use in building structures used in water.
Quick Facts:
Common Name: Red Silk Cotton Tree (Sanskrit: शाल्मली / Marathi: शेवर)
Botanical Name: Bombax ceiba
Family: Baobab
Flowers: Large, red/magenta colored with 5 petals
Location on campus: All over academic area and hill side, a common tree.
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| Jungle Babbler feeding on Red Cotton Silk Tree |