A walk in the forest

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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).


The main water body in the forest, Neela Hauz, has a host of migratory birds in winter. You will see water hens, lapwings, and other water birds throughout the year, here. This is the season to catch (on camera and with your eyes) butterflies. We saw a large number of Common Grass Yellows, Yellow Orange Tips and a host of other insects. We learned that bamboo tree (which is really a grass), is home to a lot of these butterflies. And that butterflies have specific trees/plants on which they nest. So those of you who have Curry Leaves/ Lemon trees in your gardens, will see the Common Mormon fluttering about in this season.


We saw a jackal, earthworms, mongoose, the very reclusive Asian Koel (both male and female), pigs and many birds. This is not a bad count for a slightly noisy, argumentative group, who couldn’t contain their enthusiasm at being inside such a beautiful forest. 


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