A living mountain with a rich past & moving tales to tell

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: The Western Ghats are not the snow-capped Himalayas, but they more than make-up for it in their varied biodiversity. This mountain range stretches the length of India's west coast and is home to an astounding variety of the country's wildlife. Although they existed for more than 150 million years and were created before the Himalayas or the Arabian Sea, we still know little about them.

Pranay Lal and Aruna Rangachar Pohl delve into the Western Ghats' ecological past and unravel the fascinating story of the Western Ghats at a tete-atete held at Bangalore International Centre. They delve into the Western Ghats' ecological past and hear moving tales about how this mountain range has supported millions of people throughout history.

Talking about the story of the formation of the Western Ghats, Pranay Lal says, “One major final chain that they've seen, which I think is very important, because you see that change happening in the fossil record, in terms of the geological events that happened, is the separation of India with Madagascar.

And I think that's the real story that needs to be told and, you know, really cherished in some ways. It's something that's evolving because we keep finding very, very interesting species of frogs and other instruments in the Western Ghats.

And the same is happening in the Indian Ocean, and Eastern, Eastern east coast of Africa.” Lal further says, by owning and preserving the Western Ghats' rapidly disappearing bio-diverse habitats, we are investing in our children's future. Our strategy is to produce information, dialogue, environments, and installations for reflection by the next generation.

Our first step towards bringing this community together is by understanding our backyard to foster conversations that make our interactions with nature more straightforward. Within the scientific community, the 2003 discovery of the Indian purple frog, sometimes known as the pig nose frog, is regarded as a remarkable find. Only the southern portions of India's Western Ghats, in particular, are home to this mysterious amphibian, he added.

The tribal communities are the perfect example of a positive interpretation of nature. They have been practising conservation through coexistence for a long time now. But answering the question of “What does western ghats mean to these communities,” Aruna Rangachar Pohl, who has worked with the tribal communities, says.

“I think for us, and I can say it in very simple terms, that we map science to the traditional wisdom that already exists within the communities. They know it, possibly because of oral traditions of looking at it. We primarily work in the central Western Ghats, the coastal Karnataka, and when we talk to those communities, it's like a lot of wisdom is already lost. So, we are trying to understand and map it from a scientific point of view, it's all folklore. Sometimes it's about songs, oral traditions, religious texts, and many rituals.”

There is certainly a lot of attention on flora and fauna in the field of conservation. However, geology and rocks are ignored because we need to talk about geology and rocks more. And if we give it more thought, we’ll realize that the Indian subcontinent has one of the most astounding geological histories.

People need to be aware of it, and we should emphasize that mining is causing these rocks to become extinct. Because of the elegant tiles that we use in our homes, they might become extinct in the wild, Pranay Lal and Aruna Rangachar explain, summing up their discussion.