Saturday, April 16, 2016

Sinharaja–A rain Forest in Sri Lanka

Ever since joining the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka [FOGSL] in 1996, attending the annual workshop at Sinharaja was a routine event for me. This was to continue for almost 10 years until occupational and family priorities overrode. However, it was always an urge to be at Martin’s Lodge in Sinharaja whenever time permitted. The creek flowing by with its ice-cold water and the dip in it after a day’s wandering in the forest was the most soothing feeling one could achieve in this pristine patch of forest called Sinharaja.

As it is generally said that your kids follow your habits………both my son and daughter also turned out to prefer the outdoors and enjoyed the wildly stays at Sinharaja or Horton Plains whenever they wanted to be away from home and the city.

Sinharaja was the choice this year when Naveen came over for holidays since his last visit in 2012 when we stayed over at Horton plains.

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Sinharaja still has the virgin touch.

As agreed by all we book Martins Lodge from the 22nd to 24th of May 2016. This time we have a new kid in the group our second grandchild Arun. However we miss our daughter Hiruni who is away for higher studies.

Our regular trip driver Tharindu gets us to Kudawa in Weddagala where Martin’s son Gumasoma is waiting for us with the old 1940’s Willys 4X4 to get us up on the only motorable dirt track to their lodge. A continuous jerky climb of almost twenty minutes we are at the lodge greeted by our good old companion and friend Martin. We are all veterans at this facility excepting the kids and their mother being here for the first time.

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Vista from Martin's Lodge

A very late lunch had we decide to spend the last four hours to sundown relaxing at Martin’s with ample plain tea enjoying the vista across the dining room and doing some long-range bird watching through binoculars. I recall that a few of the older trees that were iconic of this vista are no more and Martin says that they had died and fallen. The natural regeneration process in a rain forest. The older ones fall for those that have stayed years to catch the sunlight to gain heights……a competitive process.

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Research has shown that Pinus could be grown with an indigenous undergrowth in the Sinharaja buffer zone 

Being the month of March it is generally warm…. but this year the rains have failed miserably compared to 2015 that was above average. The forest is dry and the streams to have parched. In this climate, we were not to expect the large bird flocks in the forest says, Martin. But for one consolation……..the blood-sucking leeches have all gone deep in the ground until the rains occur and we are safe without leech socks.

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The kids enjoyed the stay so far as now there is electricity up here unlike in the past when paraffin lamps gave light for an early dinner and to bed for an early rise for birding. The plan to go frogging was not to be with the lack of water and moisture around. Mevan was so adamant that he locate a frog by the light of his headlamp was finally gifted with a large Bufo toad that had burrowed under a dripping water pipe.

After an early dinner, we retire for the day planning that Naveen with me would go down to the ticketing office by 6:00 a:m to collect the passes and get a forest guide assigned for the day in the forest.

The night was dry and silent without the cicada and the croaking toads. There was no rain dripping on the larger leaves creating a melody that is special to a rain forest.

Dawn brakes to the whistle of the Spot-winged Thrush; Naveen is dressed up ready to trek downhill with me for the passes. Breakfast had we are ready to go in the forest with the cherubic guide,… Sujith.

Sujith our guide
The dryness of the forest was imminent with the crushed up leaf matter from the foot traffic on the forest path. A silent stalk on the birds was hard to come and in return, the Jungle-fowl in the undergrowth was also very noisy turning up the leaf matter for grub. At a closer look, we find a number of Jungle fowl females turning up the leaf matter for the chicks to pick. It’s mid of the springtime and the birds have just flushed the fledglings off their nests giving them the first lessons on foraging.


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Jungle fowl with brood

A little further on we come across a brood of Brown-capped Babblers also turning up the dry leaves, marching on with their young. We are so close to them and are not alarmed which is strange…. and Sujith our guide says that it's because of the many young in the flock that they would not abandon them.

Brown-capped babblers with brood
The kids are also fascinated in the dark and gloomy forest just as their parents; both practicing biologists, a similarity running in the family.

Dark and gloomy an  art of its own - Sinharaja
Midway on the path Sujith who knows the forest better says this is the locality for the Malabar Trogon and with a little ambling around in silence, we hear them……… and staining our eyes and necks we see a pair high up in the canopy. The flaming frontal view of the male and the back view of the female.

Giant Squirrel
Today Sinharaja too has turned out to be a location for guaranteed species sighting. I ask Sujith of the possibilities of seeing the Serendib Scops Owl. He tells me that there is a place outside the reserve in the buffer zone and that he would check out after the tour and come back for us if it is in its day roost. Sighting the endemic Sri Lanka Spur-fowl, he tells me that one needs to go out in a jeep to an adjoining village where a group has been almost domesticated by luring them for cooked rice.

We now come over to a location dominant with ‘Ginihota’ trees [Cyathea crinite] when Sujith tells us…. let’s check for the Frogmouth. Again we have closed up at a recorded day roost of the rare Sri Lanka Frogmouth [Batrachostomus moniliger]. We go down from the road with difficulty into the ferny groove and notice there is no vegetation on the ground due to excessive foot traffic looking for the Frogmouth. We are lucky today there is a solitary male bird roosting for us to watch. There had been none roosting the last week says Sujith. The Frogmouth being nocturnal is not excited or disturbed at human presence; most nocturnal birds are yet to be subjugated by us.

Sri Lanka Frogmouth

This being a noteworthy sighting I tell our group that we would not see anything significant from here on. This is based on an irrational belief that I have on these wild tours. If a special bird is sighted by chance you would not see anything significant from thereon. This worked out to be true today as well. From here on no noteworthy bird observation was made except for the ones very common to Sinharaja. But something special was seen outside birds. It was the first time that I saw the lantern moth in Sinharaja thanks to Sujith.

The Lantern Moth

Fish in the Maguru wala

 
In a short while, we reach the “Maguru Wala’ a marker point on this Sinharaja trek. Mevan spots something moving in the leaf litter and we follow it. The kids are impressed with the Rasbora’s and many other fish species in the crystal clear water in the Maguru Wala. The one that moved in the leaf litter is photographed and identified as the difficult to locate ground lizard the “Cerataphora aspera” the Rough Nose Horned Lizard.


 

Cerataphora aspera” - Rough Nose Horned Lizard.

Calotes liocephalus” - Spineless Forest Lizard

Calotes calotes” - Green Garden Lizard
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Yellow-browed Bulbul
We continue up to the Research Station the termination point on this trek encountering small flocks of Orange-billed Babblers, Sri Lanka Laughing Thrush, Crested Drongo, and Crimson backed Flameback, Velvet-fronted Nuthatch, Sri Lanka Hill Mynah, and the numerous flycatchers.

Spiders in Sinharaja

Flora in Sinharaja
Another of the rear lizards were spotted …. the “Calotes liocephalus” or the Spineless Forest Lizard. Its closest resemblance being the very common “Calotes calotes” the Green Garden Lizard who are in plentiful here and their body scales grow upwards while those of the former grow backward and down.

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While resting in the summerhouse just before the climb on the Mulawella hike Mevan and Arun find the other lizard common to Sinharaja the “Otocryptis wiegmanni”, also called the Sri Lankan Kangaroo Lizard. They have startled the lizard to run on its hind legs mimicking the name Kangaroo Lizard.

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Kids play with “Otocryptis wiegmanni”, - Sri Lankan Kangaroo Lizard.

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Mevan with Water Monitor

We are now at the research station at the end of the walk which is a distance close to two kilometers. The Jungle fowl and the Sri Lanka Blue Magpie; the Sinhalese damsel of the forest here around the research station are study-specimens wearing identification rings and are attracted to people. They are so attached that they are of the habit of snatching food from the unsuspecting visitor. Arun nearly lost his snack and started to boo……… we now had to make it back from here soon to keep other visitors happy in a silent forest.

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A marked Sri Lanka Blue Magpie

We called it a day after a late lunch and said goodbye to Sujith requesting him to be back in the morning with new passes looking forward to another prospective trek in the forest.


The colorful Sri Lanka Jungle Fowl Gallus Lafayetti - The National Bird

The trek in the forest the following day was not fruitful as the previous day. The Frogmouth was not in the roost. Of anything significant seen it was the extra-large earthworms that had come out in the night and the excessively dry weather had made it lose their body mucus making them immobilized ending up a feast for the forest ants.

Giant Earthworms
We are back at Martin’s for an early lunch and packed up and ready for Gunasoma to take us downhill in his 4X4. We say goodbye to Sujith and wishing Martin and his family good health…. with a positive assurance of our return again when the rains are in....once again to brave the leeches of Sinharaja.

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Martin Wijesinghe ……of Sinharaja Fame

Martin Wijesinghe, for many Sri Lankans would only be another name…………but to those with a knack for the wilds, the environment, and the Sinharaja Forest…. the only one of its kind in Sri Lanka: Martin is a dear friend and a loving companion.


Martin for that matter is now an authority on Sinharaja……..

It all began in a very humble way. As he narrates he was born in 1940 in the village of Pethiya-Kanda located within the outskirts of Sinharaja. Things didn't go right for him at school and was out at the age of 15 completing the 8th standard. This was considered a sufficient standard of literacy then and was good enough to pursue a carrier of skills. Having tried his hand at carpentry, masonry and various occupations in the rubber estates and not happy with either he gets into marriage at the age of 19 from the village Kudawa in Weddagala and starts life together. It was then that occupation came to his door step when the project for selective logging of Sinharaja was to commence to feed the massive plywood factory that came up in Salawa, Kosgama.

By 1970 Selective Logging commenced and the destruction to the untapped Sinharaja was immense. Selective logging creates the immediate of a felled tree to total destruction and is devoid of a forest canopy and the ground is exposed to the elements. This open area needed to be planted with saplings that would catch the sunlight through the forest canopy and grow fast to bring back the forest cover. The Forest Department initiated a programme to plant these expanses with indigenous saplings and Martin found occupation in this programme as a charge hand; supervising the re-forestation programme.

Dawn breaks across Martin,s Lodge
The selective logging brought about a significant damage to the forest and this raised a public outcry with protest. By 1972 the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society headed by its then President Thilo Hoffmann came out in support of the protests and he initiated a fact finding mission on the magnitude of the destruction and a publication which followed highlighting the scale of the destruction and the impact to the fauna and flora within the forest. As a result of these findings the then government was compelled set up a Ministerial committee to report on these findings and the result came in by 1977 when it was decided to halt all types of logging within Sinharaja. The Ministerial committee highlighted the need for scientific study on the forest; and by 1978 Sinharaja was elevated to the status of an International Man and Biosphere Reserve and is now a part of a word–wide chain of protected areas.

The detailed research was entrusted to the University of Peradeniya. However it was the organization March for Conservation [MFC] a group that was formed to rescue Sinharaja that first established a center for research in a make-shift log cabin alongside the current research center.

Sinharaja was now frequented by senior academics from Peradeniya assisted by young academics from the Colombo University and other interested groups and organizations.

Artist impression of the MFC cabin- 
Curtsy Singharaja A Rainforest in Srilanaka –
Neela de Zoysa and Ryhana Raheem
Martin was now idle again with his team of tree planters having had to abandon their occupation which would have had to continue only with the deforestation.

The make shift research facility was in dire need of a person to care and run in the absence of the research teams. Being a person from Kudawa Weddagala and now living just outside the Sinharaja forest in a wattle and daub abode; opportunity opened for Martin once again;....... who now became the ubiquitous requisite and the all-purpose man.

He was absorbed in the carder of the Forest Department and was enlisted as the caretaker of the research facility. It was here that he says he was exposed to science…. having left school in grade eight, it was more like going to school again for him working with the researchers.

Professor Balasubramaniyam from the University of Peradeniya taught him botany while the eminent Museum Curator Mr. P.B. Karunarathne taught him zoology, says Martin. There was then the young academics who assisted the seniors………the likes of Dr Sarath W Kotagama, Dr. Nimal and Savithri Gunathilake, Ms Neela de Zoysa and Ryhana Raheem [an English scholar but a leading activist of MFC ], Mr. M D Dissanayake, and Siril Wijesundara and Mr. Mark S Ashton to name a few who was more closer to Martin, who in return continued and helped them with the research work in their absence in the field.
Today an automated unmanned weather station sends data all the way to Colombo
Martin was now the meteorologist keeping rainfall records and gauge readings on the swell of the river. He was also the one who checked the traps set for the small mammals at the proper intervals and caging them for the researchers; recording the times of capture etc. This way he became a person who saw the depth of the forest and became a change factor to the community in the sustainable use of the forest for their dwelling and existence.
 
Time goes by and Sinharaja is now in the world map as a biodiversity hot-spot in Asia / Sri Lanka. The high endemism in the Flora and Fauna in Sinharaja was exposed to the world. International authorities on Natural Science and other interested environmentalist and naturalists show up in Sinharaja and the visits become numerous. Birders, Zoologists, Botanists come over to see the fascination that the scientific publications signified. These visitors needed interpretation and guiding in the forest and moreover they needed a place to stay overnight close to the forest. It was again the ubiquitous Martin who came to their assistance.

Martin now had to expand his abode to house his visitors. In the meantime the research grants extended funds for awareness in education to the forest users and students both university and school. This again needed accommodation. Now a makeshift dormitory with a study area was created by Martin in his premises and educational activity commenced. Not a single sapling was harvested from the forest but all the timber was brought from outside and a facility with basic needs came up. Water requirements was from the stream flowing by and provisions and paraffin brought by the programme participants were cooked and used for illumination by Martin assisted by his beloved wife.

Scientific studied conducted to advance level students-assisted by the FOGSL
These educational programmes were organized by the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka [FOGSL] of the University of Colombo spear headed by Dr Sarath W Kotagama. March for Conservation [MFC] had by now ceased its activities with much of their research completed.

By now the Forest Department finding the great potential in the local visitor to Sinharaja also puts up dormitories and regularizes guide assisted day tours in the forest and commences educational programmes.

However Martin was the most sought after person to the overseas visitor. His small library with bird guides and tree guides enhanced the interest of the visitor and Martin was by now world renowned.

Eco-tourism caught up with Sinharaja in the 90‘s and the annual birdwatching tours always came up to Sinharaja and now “Martin’s Lodge” was the overnight stay or the lunch stop in the forest. Martins Lodge was now in the World Wide Web and became an economic entity in the Eco-tourism industry in Sri Lanka.

Morning Birding by the breakfast table at Martin's Lodge
In 1994 Martin Wijesinghe is honoured with the title Sri Lankathilaka for his service for assisting in the scientific research in Sinharaja by President D B Wijethunge. This is regarded as a national recognition a lay Sri Lankan could achieve in a lifetime.

The family takes the chores in running the Lodge
Today Martin is retired from the Department of Forest Conservation and is running his “Lodge” to the local and international visitor. He is assisted by the whole family and one need not carry his provisions up there as before. The Lodge provides you with a full board facility but with basic needs.

Going by the trip reviews “Martin’s Lodge” is commented as not the place with the best bed and towel in Sinharaja….but for the ardent birdwatcher it is the best location to be in the forest at the crack of dawn.

The dinning area

A row of rooms with basic finishes and facilities

However the Lodge and the facilities need to be looked at in a different perspective. It is housed with basic necessities. The beds are of recycled timber. The mattress is of average foam rubber. The water in the faucets is tapped in the running stream and its pressure derived from the run in the river. Hot water is from solar energy. It’s not for luxury that you pay in this forest facility but for the logistics.



The monastic type living 
If one is to look at the facility in a different mindset it could be interpreted as the way of Buddhist monastic dwelling. The furniture in the room is also limited to a simple open cupboard with a screen type furniture where the monk laid his robe. If one thinks of his stay here in line with a monastic recluse ………I’m sure his stay at Martin’s Lodge will definitely be a novel and a memorable one.

Unfortunately there is no interpretation of this simplistic lifestyle that one pays for at the “Martin’s Lodge” highlighted in any of the tour guides or reviews.

Author with Martin
Martin today is 76 years old and wears three stents just short of a bypass surgery. A feeble but active personality……….how would things be at the Lodge without Martin is a question that the organizations making use of the facility today will have to workout..... in-order to sustain this facility for the future generations that would come here to see Sinharaja………