Dying Trees Shrinking Lakes- Sounding A Death Knell

Chirping birds, swaying palms, gentle breeze and colourful dawn.

Morning walks sure energise you. But when you see many old trees dying and the lake shrinking, you feel anguished, sad and angered- all at the same time. The other day I observed hundreds of Babool (acacia) trees in Yapral Lake dying a slow death.  Am sharing few pictures taken a year apart at the same spot around the Lake. See for yourself the damage and destruction that mankind is causing to the environment. If we, human beings, don't mend our ways, it may be too late. Just too late!

Baya Weavers make their nests on Babool trees. With the trees gone, where will the weaver birds make their nest?

And many other birds thrive on the greenery. Will we see such birds in our neighbourhood in future?

Another major waterbody which lost half of its area is the Kolleru Lake in Andhra Pradesh. It acts as the flood balancing system between Godavari and Krishna rivers. Do see the maps and the pictures in our story below:

Kolleru Lake- constantly encroached over 30 years!

The floods of 2015 in Chennai were also caused by encroachment of the flood banks of Adyar river which flows through the city. You may browse our story below:

Chennai Floods Man Made

Similarly, the flooding of our house in Secunderabad in Oct 2020 was caused by encroachment and blockade of free flow of rain water which existed for centuries. See the damage it caused in the story below:

Flood Fury

Ghumakkad has been highlighting environmental degradation through our picture stories. Like-minded folks who care for the environment, may browse the following stories:

Beat the Plastic Pollution - World Environment Day 2023

Only One Earth - World Env Day 2022

Reimagine, Recreate Restore - How to restore the environment? World Env Day 2021

Mutualism by Nature - how few species are dependent upon one another

Shrinking Urban Lakes- Impending Disaster

What Can We Do? - Practical things to do by individuals

Let us not turn a blind eye towards environmental degradation of any kind.

Thanks for browsing. Every person counts in this battle to save the environment.

      -Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ Secunderabad/ 26th Oct 2023

#environment #deforestation #saveourlakes #ghmc #encroachment #everypersoncounts #yaprallake #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #savethetrees #greenearth #treesareourlife #pollution

Drumstick Flowers- This Time of the Year

Who doesn't love Sambhar? And Sambhar without drumstick pieces? Don't you relish squeezing the drumstick piece from your sambhar and chewing the seeds?

Yes, drumstick is one vegetable whose pods, seeds, leaves, flowers and even roots are eaten! Those who have a drumstick tree in their garden or neighbourhood would have seen it flowering in September in Telangana region. See the picture below.

Drumstick or Moringa Oleifera is a nutritious vegetable (actually it is a fruit). Its flowers are a delicacy as it wilts fast. Plucked fresh, it makes a nice vegetable. Readers may browse the link for more details and its benefits for people with diabetes, hypertension etc.

So this time of the year, look around for a drumstick tree which is native to Indian sub-continent. Its white-creamish flowers will catch your eye.

Feel like eating a drumstick in your sambhar or otherwise? Go ahead and enjoy!

Thanks for browsing.

     - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ Secunderabad/ 2nd September 2023

#drumstick #moringaoleifera #sambhar #delicacy #indincuisine #secunderabad #homegardening #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh

White Jamun

Ever seen a white jamun?

Even I hadn't seen till yesterday. Grown in a friend's farm 30 kms north of Secunderabad, it resembles the normal black jamun in shape, size and taste. White jamun is slightly sweeter and its tree is shorter in height. The leaves are a bit broader. Its scientific name is Syzygium cumini. Black jamun is also called Indian Blackberry. 

It grows in SE Asia but not as common as the black jamun. Like the black jamun, it is good for diabetic patients. White jamun has a higher amount of pectin, which is good for lowering the cholesterol. Few readers after seeing the initial pictures commented it as 'eggs hanging from a tree'! But the white jamun is much smaller than an egg.

The farm had only ten trees of white jamun, The farm is basically a mango orchard with close to 4000 mango trees spread over 8 acres. See the pictures and a short video clip below which also shows the rain water harvesting. In one season, the water table has risen considerably.

It is always a treat to visit a farm. It was a pleasure planting two saplings before leaving. Thanks Devendar Ahuja for this privilege.

Some of our previous stories on mangoes, guavas, trees and plants are listed below. Just click to browse.

Guava- A Powerhouse of Nutrients

Dussehri- The Thrill of the First Harvest - from the first two mangoes five years ago, the tree gave more than 200 mangoes this year!

Plants and Leadership

Learning Patience from Nature

Hope you enjoyed the story of White Jamun.

We end with a quote by Claude Monet, the famous painter, who loved Nature. We have superimposed his line "My wish is to stay always like this, living quietly in the corner of Nature" on one of our pictures taken at the farm.

Stay connected for more stories on Nature, Wildlife and Learning.

    - Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with inputs from DK Ahuja/ Secunderabad/ 21st May 2023

#WhiteJamun #Diabetes #Trees #Syzygiumcumini #IndianBlackberry #Farming #Mangoes #Nutrition #Naturalprotein #guavas #plants #nature #lessons #picturesquequotes #PQ #claudemonet #jamun #blackjamun

Of Friendship with Humans, Plants, Animals KBG-80

 Another Valentines Day. Emoji of hearts, arrows, cupid and the like have flooded the media. But Ghumakkad has always said that Nature is your best valentine. Care for Nature, she will take care of you! 

Our cover picture conveys the same message. It shows a Bhutia pup in Meghalaya being cuddled by a dog-lover! Unconditional love by the animal! That is real valentine.

We have carried numerous stories conveying this theme. Re-sharing some of the stories if you haven't browsed it earlier.

The first story titled 'Friends and Facebook' portrays the 'friends' which we acquire on social media. Such friends, are they real? Rabindranath Tagore's quote below conveys it all.

Nature creates friends among the species of birds and animals. Like the Cormorant and the Turtle in the picture below. Please read turtle for tortoise in the picture.

The story titled 'Mutualism by Nature' showcases many animals and birds mutually dependent upon each other.

Covid Pandemic brought many challenges like we could not celebrate Diwali with friends and neighbours. Why not celebrate it with the birds? Read our story 'Celebrating Diwali with Birds'. Picture of a Common Coot says it all.

Another story titled 'Valentine Beyond Humans' emphasised the theme of the present story. See the picture below.

'Plants and Flowers as Valentines' was our story for V-Day 2021. See the collage below.

The Contest

When another Valentines Day arrived, it re-ignited our previous thoughts and stories. We had selected a picture of college friends for KBG-80, the 80th edition of our online captions contest Kaun Banega Ghumakkad.

The Contest received overwhelming response. We thank all the participants for their creative captions which are listed below.

No.	Name	Caption for KBG-80 Contest
1	Zafar Naseem	"Atoot dosti”, Unbreakable friendship.
2	VV Ramani	May not meet frequently but never go apart
3	Vinod Dhanuka	Gazing together in Future
4	Vinod Agarwal	Harmony in Silence
5	Vijay Uppal	Friends are brothers from different mothers
6	Veeky Baths	The best gift of life is friendship!
7	Suchitra Chaudhuri	Friends are like dopamine. Instant spirit lifters.
8	Shekhar Murthy	Timeless Bond
9	Shekhar Murthy	Eternal Voyage
10	Sanjay Patnaik	Friends in real world are real... Else, it's a showbiz...
11	Rohini Tiwari	Yeh haath zindagi bhar galey se lagey rehte hain!
12	Ritu Bhargava	Seek the companionship of virtuous friends rather than virtual friends.
13	Ritu Bhargava	Good times, happy memories and crazy friends.
14	Rekha Bhargava	मँह से कुछ ना बोल , झप्पी ने खोली पोल।
15	Rekha Bhargava	मिल गई दुनिया की दौलत , यारों की प्यार की झप्पी से ।
16	Rashmi Bhargava	Friends don't let friends do silly things alone
17	Ramdas B Dhavare	Birds of the same feather flock together.'
18	Ramanand Baliga	The three idiots!
19	Rajendra Singh	Hum sath sath hain
20	Raghu Trivedi	Teen jism magar ek jaan hai hum.
21	Raghuraj	Tera Haath Mera Saath
22	Radhika Sareen	Time doesn't come back, but friends do…
23	Radhika Sareen	कुछ भी हो, दोस्त तो दोस्त ही है
24	Radhika Sareen	साथ है स्वार्थ नहीं....
25	Prashant Jadenavar	New Generation! New Dreams! New Expeditions! New Revolution!
26	Poonam Bhargava	A multi-faced gift of God to everyone!
27	Poonam Bhargava	If you have even a few good friends, your riches know no bounds!
28	Nirmal Bhargava (86y)	जैसे चांदनी गगन में,जैसे खुशबू चमन में, वैसे दोस्ती जीवन में
29	Peter de Padua	Together we stand, supportive and strong.
30	Nidhi Bhargava	Difficult to find a true friend, easy to "BE ONE"
31	Nidhi Bhargava	दर्द मे मरहम, कांटों में फूल, अंधेरे  मे टिमटिमाता दिया...ऐसे हैं दोस्त
32	MV Vasudevan	Though Friday ends, But FRI-ENDS for forever!
33	Manju Khetan	ये दोस्ती हम नहीं तोड़ेंगे छोड़ेंगे दम मगर तेरा साथ न छोड़ेंगे।
34	Anonympus-4	Bum-chums
35	Anonymous-3	Co-conspirators
36	Mamta Bhargava	Friends are our lifeline!
37	LS Bhargava	Being friendly is the key of positivity and togetherness.
38	Jyoti Dixit	Friends together gather wisdom and experience.
39	J Ramamoorty	Hum panchi ek daal ke.
40	Gopu K	Together we from secured Open Terrace to challlenging Open World....Stay together to Conquer.......
41	Deepak Jena	Friend has no end.
42	Deepak Jena	Distance and time can't break them apart.
43	Deepak Jena	Friendship isn't a big thing it's a million little things.
44	CD Sawant	Yeh Dosti Hum Nahi Chhodenge.
45	C Raghuram	Kal, aaj aur kal, sabse haseen doston ke saath bitaye huey pal
46	BR Natarajan	Friends do not ask the way if it's for hell or heaven
47	Bharat Ladha	दिल की बातें
48	Bharat Ladha	दीदारे यार
49	BC Jayaprakash	"Friends are relatives you make for yourself."
50	Avinash Tiwari	Yaar aaj sham kahan chalen?
51	Anoop Singh	Jhaphi unlimited!
52	Anonymous-2	Friends till the end....
53	Anonymous-1	साथ है तो कुछ भी असंभव नही
54	Amandeep Kaur	You can’t do epic stuff with basic people, vibe attracts the tribe.
55	Amandeep Kaur	The Monica, Racheal and Phoebes of the college
56	Ajai Bhumri	दोस्ती की वजूद से दुनिया चल रही है। ना मंजूर हो तो खुदा से पूछ लो।
57	Aayush Paroolkar (11 years)	The Three Musketeers.

The Winners

Our Jury has selected four winning captions as highlighted in the table above. We congratulate the winners with their brief profiles below.

Veeky Baths is a regular participant in KBG Contests. He has won the contest several times. Veeky holds a PhD and is a Professor at BITS Pilani Goa campus. His research area includes cognitive neuroscience. His caption appealed to the Jury instantly

Rekha Bhargava is an alumnus of Birla Balika Vidyapeeth Pilani and Delhi University. She has been a teacher. She loves travelling and meeting people. A regular participant in KBG Contests, her caption in Hindi brought out what bear hugs among friends mean!

Radhika Sareen is an electronics engineer from BITS Pilani who has worked with TCS for three decades. A keen traveller she is a regular participant in KBG Contests. Her caption in Hindi brought out the selfless aspect of a true friendship. It caught the Jury's eye.

Peter de Padua writes creatively and has won several KBG Contests in the past also. A former Wing Commander of IAF, Peter is a water sport enthusiast. His caption signifies the strength of a friendship and won the Jury's appreciation.

Once again we congratulate all the winners.

Hope the KBG series of contests have helped you to divert your mind away from the boredom of Covid pandemic. Our next series of contest will bring a new theme.

Stay connected and thanks for browsing.

    -Harsh-the-Ghumakkad with Neeta Bhargava/ Secunderabad 15th Feb 2023

#friends #friendship #valentinesday #valentine #natureasvalentine #treesasvalentine #plantsasvalentine #birdsasvalentine #ghumakkadhb #ghumakkadharsh #kaunbanegaghumakkad #captionscontest #kbg80