Pleasure trip to Vagamon

 

Today is 9 May 2021. The Coronavirus pandemic that started last year is still raging and we have not been able to travel at all. I have been looking at pictures taken in happier days. These come from a trip in May 2017.

Pleasure trip to Vagamon

Hero Pleasure is not the two-wheeler that you want when you want to explore the hills of the Western Ghats in the monsoon. But, my parents had it. So, from the couple of weeks we had in Kerala to visit my parents, Swati and I decided to explore the hills nearby a little bit. This was the month of May, and while most parts of India were still reeling in the summer sun, pre-monsoon showers had already hit Kerala. We never say no to monsoon travels. So one morning at 6 am, we took my father’s scooter, put on our raincoats, and hit the road. In about an hour, we started climbing up the winding hill roads after Erattupetta.

The Meenachil river and its tributaries as seen on the way to Vagamon from Kottayam.

Vagamon is a mini hill station (about 1000 m above sea level) in Idukki District of Kerala, towards the western edges of the Western Ghats. Over the last two decades, it has become a popular destination for local tourists, and film makers, attracted largely by the extensive grass covered hill tops. Due to this surge in irresponsible tourism, over the last several years, the region has also been at the centre of several land grabbing controversies: resorts, plantation people, developers, everybody wants a piece of the pie. 

The road from Erattupetta to Vagamon is rather scenic: winding hill road passing through plantations of arecanut, and rubber, giving way to cardamom as one goes up, and beautiful views of the low lands every now and then. Wherever there is a view of the valley below, there will be a bunch of tiny shops selling snacks and refreshments. While I hate the plastic waste that is carelessly thrown around these, a cup of hot tea from one of the small tea shops is always welcome during the cold wet ride up the hills. 

The beautiful red flash of a flowering gulmohar (Delonix regia) and the eyesore red of Vagamon Tourist Home. These sign boards destroy the natural scenery of Kerala.

 

Wherever there is a view to be had, small shops come up. With that comes construction. And then...

 

The hill road going up Vagamon, with plains of coastal Kerala visible in the far background.

Thus we rode up the hill, had tea and snacks in one of those small roadside shop, and hoped for less traffic on the road since it was a weekday. I had been to these hill tops many times since I was a kid. But the last time I had visited was way back in 2006, right after my masters degree, when I was walking around these hills in monsoon looking herpetofauna. I have vivid memories of those walks: the cold, the rain, the porotta and beef fry in a roadside shop, the lightning that struck an electricity pole just a few meters in front of me, producing a vertical column of fire and reminding me to never walk barren hilltops during a thunderstorm! Fortunately, there was no thunderstorm this morning, only a light drizzle which was quite enjoyable. It  also kept most people away.
 

I am not sure about the origin of the grasslands on hill tops: are they a result of deforestation in the past or some sort of climax vegetation?

Once we reached the plateau, the green hills stretched as far as we could see. Green hills covered in fresh grass from early rains, the folds between them covered in a deeper green of forest trees, each often having a small stream passing through it. Miniature shola forests perhaps! Many of these hills are popular tourist destinations: some even allow four-wheelers to go up the hill, trampling everything in the way. We parked the scooter in secluded places, and went up some of these hills. There were many birds flitting among the trees and in the grassland. But the mist and rain made them somewhat difficult to see. But that was not going stop Swatiji. You can take a birder out for herping, but you can't take birding out of her!

Making bird checklists even on rainy days.

Since the weather was so pleasant (for us), we decided go further as far as the little 110cc scooter could take us. So we drove down the southward road going to Peerumedu for a few kilometers, stopping wherever we liked or whenever the rain forced us to stop. The landscape along this route is a mixture of grassy hills, small townships, and tea plantations. 

 

Can you see the two little heads?

Still, we saw many birds, including a few painted bush quails. There were a few Malabar giant squirrels in forest patches. At one place while out looking for bushquails, we saw a barking deer! The less pleasant sightings included so many road-killed snakes: at least three species of shield-tailed snakes, a couple of striped coral snakes, vine snakes,cat snakes, and Beddome's keelbacks. Frogs were too smushed down to be identified.

A surprised barking deer/muntjack

As the day got older, the sky got darker, and we decided to turn back. As we rode back and down the hills, I had to stop at a few locations checkout some frogs. I had seen some leaping frogs (Indirana sp.) and heard some night frogs (Nyctibatrachus) calling from roadside locations during another trip a couple of weeks ago. First stop was a little water fall on the roadside, quite close to one of the popular view points. We could hear the musical notes of a small night frog coming from somewhere near the waterfall. By then it had started raining. Under an umbrella, and in our raincoats, we scanned the rocks for minutes, until we could pin point one of them. A small, dark frog, sitting flat against the vertical wet rock face under a curtain of falling water. As we got closer, we could see that it was not all dark, but finely spotted with yellow. His throat was periodically ballooning out sideways as he let out his musical 'peew, peew, peeeeew....'. And then, there were two, then three... and there were many more of them all across the rock face, sitting in secluded spots and calling for a female. These were Deven's Night Frogs (Nyctibatrachus deveni). Crouching under an umbrella, we managed to take some photos of these, while several vehicles slowed down to check what we were up to!

A little roadside waterfall. Deven's Night Frogs were calling from the vertical rock face, close to clumps of grass and moss. While the water was falling from more than 20-30 m above, this was probably not a perennial stream. So what happens to all the frogs in the dry season?

A brightly coloured crab also made its home among the wet rock and vegetation.

Deven's night frogs (Nyctibatrachus deveni) are small and blend well onto the wet rocks they inhabit.

The closer you get, the more you get to see the intricate patterns on the wrinkled body of this frog.

 

Sunset was fast approaching, and we had to head down the hill (though part of me wanted to continue exploring the hills at night). On the way down, we stopped at another spot, were I had seen a small depression in a rock earlier, filled with water and tadpoles of Brown Leaping Frogs (Indirana semipalmata). By now, the tadpoles had climbed out of the water and in typical Indirana style, they were hopping all over the wet rock face. A little further down, I located another frog calling: a male still calling for mates. He was sitting at the edge of large patch of moss on a rock. As we were photographing him, we noticed little shining orbs spread all around him. Hundreds of eggs on the rock face, perhaps laid by several female frogs. Was he guarding those eggs? I don't know. But he was still calling for more females, and sure enough, we found some frogs slowly moving towards him. Since we had to get back before it got too late, we did not wait around to see what happened. But before we hit the plains, we got one last critter: a few Anamalai Ramanella/balloon frogs (Uperodon anamalaiensis) calling from a small roadside pool. This species was supposedly lost to science for over a century, though they seem to be very common. I guess science really wasn't paying attention.

Bright little orbs spread on a rock. This species of Leaping Frog seems to have specialized to lay eggs on such wet rock faces. This was a place surrounded by rubber plantations and on the side of a road where thousands of vehicles pass every day.

 

Brown leaping frog (Indirana semipalmata), male with eggs.

Ending the day on a loud note. These Anamalai Ramanella (Uperodon anamalaiensis) have an extremely load call.

The ride back was quite pleasant. The rain had stopped, and the road was rather empty. By 9 pm, we were back at my mother's table, ready for dinner. Not a bad day. Hope to travel like that again soon.