Sarang
Bio Diversity
The bio diversity of Sarang Watershed has been evolving since we started protecting this area. Over the years we witnessed how nature brings back each and every species to the right place at the right time. One of the sweetest shocks were when we saw tiny wild tarrow sprouts in the valley after 7 years of severe drought. Its amazing how fast nature restores or bring in a species. Â Here are some highlights and photos.
Snails, Centipedes and more
As the barren land become fertile, life around soil also bloomed. The snails and millipedes ensure calcium. Earth worms brings up waves of nutrients. Centipedes and so many other organisms make the soil live, porous and damp.
When you visit Sarang, remind us to give you a demo of this diversity within our agriculture plot.
As the forest grew more and more species of birds appeared. We will be adding shots or checklist as we get them. If you are good with this, you can come, stay here and document the birds for us. We will be updating a list of birds seen here as and when possible. (Don’t worry even if you see this post not being populated beyond this after a year. We are too less people to do too much work! 😉 )
Butterflies, bugs and dragonflies
These are considered the indicator of a lively environment. Â The hills has changed into a paradise from a barren land through the last 30 years. Now we see activity of butterflies, moths, bugs, beetles, hopers, wasps, dragon flies and even damsel flies!
One of our tasks for 2013 is to document as many of them as possible. It will be a great help if you can identify them. We will be posting images as and when possible.
The forest has become home for many small and medium animals. There are  rabbits, squirrels, hedgehog, civet and monkeys. Barking dear and wild boar are the other animals seen in our tiny patch of forest.
There are rare visits of Bison and elephants. Once we saw the pug mark of a leopard in the campus.
Once dried and dead, when the valley regenerated with the stream, many organisms either re-appeared or introduced by nature. Along the stream, different types of frogs, Mollusks and plants can be seen. We have also added some plants and fish into the aqua life of the valley . We dream to rear fish in the check dam in future. It might help our neighbours to see water as also a food source: another reason for conserving water.
Fungi
There are many varieties of mushrooms and fungi in the campus. Some appear only during the monsoons while some are year around. Check out some of the species here :