A walk in the forest
The male hornbill eats the
toxic Bish tendu fruit. Then spews out vomit to feed the female hornbill, who
is kept hidden in the nest! Geeta from BNHS (bnhs.org) told us this and many
interesting things about birds, butterflies, trees, on a walk arranged by NDNS
(https://www.facebook.com/newdelhinaturesociety/?fref=ts) in Sanjay Van. This forest is part of the
Southern Ridge, which is part of the oldest mountain range in the world – the Aravallis.
We learnt about the importance of indigenous trees and collected seeds to help
proliferate them. We understood the difference between Desi and Vilayati Kikar
and that the former, is the real deal, while the latter does no good – not even
serve as a home for birds/butterflies. We also realised that most ailments
could be cured by fruits/barks/leaves of trees – so the forests heal us, in
more ways than one.
Walls of the original red
fort of Delhi, Lal Kot, still exist in this forest. Originally built by the
Tomars in 8th century AD, it was extended to Qila Rai Pithora by
Prithviraj Chauhan in 11th century. The view from the top was green,
but the reality on the ground was not very clean. Some of the walkers took it
upon themselves to clean it up (their story on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpCHoHU6mxg&ab_channel=DilliMeriJaan).

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