The Hindu Business Line : `Wild' holiday crowds at Amboli

MALAI Pathar is a semi-deciduous patch of forest at Amboli. The tall trees wear an unkempt, unshaven look with moss on the trunks and branches. The muddy forest path is paved with old and fresh leaves as dankness fills the air. Every depression overflows with rainwater, while the undergrowth is thin or non-existent at many places. The first trip in the weeping evening darkness was more of a blind walk, while the second in the morning was slightly better with the dark skies revealing a sun for a short while for the birds to come up with relief calls.

In the haze one could not spot the birds though Pramod Patil, a birder from Kolhapur, identified a red-whiskered bulbul by its call. Ishaan, Chinmoy, Pramod and Sameer came up with catches of caecilians for Varad Bhagwan Giri to sport a wide grin. Information on the forest patch came from Mahadev Bhise of the Malabar Nature Conservation Club, a local NGO trying to protect Amboli from poachers and the holiday crowds. Seemingly, the forest trail at Malai Pathar is a recent addition and the flora and fauna have been disturbed. "It is too quiet a place; maybe it will take a while for the animals to return," remarked Sameer.

With a snake stick in his hand, Varad scoured the floor in vain for snakes. While walking the group usually split in twos and one spent some time chatting with 43-year-old Vithobha Hegde, field assistant, Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS). For more than 21 years, Vithobha has gone with experts to many forests carrying bags full of bottles to hold snakes and frogs which finally land up in the store rooms of the BNHS. Vithobha has travelled with Dr Salim Ali once and with others many times. He is the quintessential, quiet collector and has for years been looking after the excellent collection of birds, snakes and mammals at the BNHS. In the process, he has picked up a sound knowledge of Nature without flaunting it. Given some training, Vithobha can become a fine naturalist as he is comfortable placing correctly frogs, snakes and birds. He stays at Dombivili and comes to office early to tend to the tiny garden fronting the office of BNHS in Mumbai. "When he is around I am free to search. He is the best we have," said Varad as Vithobha sensitively sorted the specimens.

At Amboli, in July, you cannot be dry. The cocktail of clouds, fog and rains which make a racket dropping off trees, keeps everyone wet all the time; one slept in partly wet clothes. That did not stop Vithobha from getting up at around 5 in the morning to have a bath and be ready for the day's work by 6.30. By 7, he had arranged tea for us from the hotel and then it was time to start. He never complains or critiques anyone and was the one who warned me about leaches. "One day I will name caecilians after Sameer and Vithobha for the help they have given me and make them immortal," promised Varad and this man does not waste words.

Despite wearing leach pads one got bitten thrice but that by Amboli standards is below par as in July the place has crowds of them. Late one night with the wind screaming, one got down to a quiet smoke with Varad. To a question whether one liked the trip, I answered it was going fine. "When you leave the place on Sunday afternoon you will regret having come to Amboli," he said.

Every Sunday, around 5,000 people come from nearby Kolhapur and Goa to stand under the many waterfalls on the climb to Amboli. As we drove down to Sawantwadi, the road was choked on both sides with every car model made in India. Howling young men stripped to their underwears, holding beer and rum bottles, were dancing under the water falls or on the tops of their vehicles; after finishing the beer they heaved the empty bottles into the valley while others threw food packets packed in plastic on the road without a care. Women were scarce for obvious reasons. There was no police around.

Over the last five years new hotels have started business while one could see others being built cutting into forest land. "Chalo damal karo (Let's go bust)," yell the tourists in Hindi least caring about the forest and its inhabitants. "If this goes on will Amboli remain intact?" asked Ishaan. That part still hurts. The Sunday editions of Marathi newspapers ran front-page stories on the crowd behaviour with the editors seemingly more sensitive than those in many national newspapers worried about the seedy behaviour of Shane Warne.

In recent times, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Malayalam press have been giving more space to the mindless decimation of the country's wildlife and its forest than English newspapers.

To get back into a laugh, one recalled the sight of a stick insect on the forest road waving in the wind on its long thin legs. It was as if the insect was performing at a disco and was more decent and amusing than the crowds on the road.

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