The little green giant on the road .......

The little green giant on the road 
 Saravanan A

On 9th September 2019, I and Tamilazhagan (Chian) planned to do the monthly tree phenology work at Kakachi. The weather was cloudy with occasional showers. Fortunately, we took the jeep from ACCC field station for the fieldwork in the evergreen forests of Kakachi which is nearly 40Kms from the field station. After finishing the entry formalities at Manimutharu Forest dept check post, we crossed the Manimutharu waterfalls which was full of water. Generally, this waterfall is a tourist place but the forest department does not allow the public due to road maintenance and also because water flow is high in the river. So the place was silent and one could hear the roar of the waterfall very clearly.  

Flooded Manimutharu waterfalls

We went further from the waterfall and reached the proper Tar road that is maintained by BBTC tea estate. After driving for about 5kms on the tar road and before the tricky Moona madang ( 3 U bend) hairpin bend, Chian wanted me to stop the Jeep. As the vehicle came to a halt, he jumped out and ran to check some movement on the road. We soon found out it to be of an Indian chameleon (Chamaeleo zeylanicus), which was big and crossing the road slowly. A lot of photographs and videos were taken and we waited a long time for the little green giant to cross the road walking gingerly on its padded feet. Finally, we marked the GPS location of the point and moved ahead. Thanks to Chian for spotting the animal, the one I saw earlier was a small one at Mundanthurai and on a tree, but this fellow was really big, very colourful and very attractive too with pale green and dark bands.    

    

 As they say, if you see an animal once you will keep seeing it again. A month later I saw the Indian chameleon two times at different places, one in Kanikudiyiruppu with Chian (On the way to Karaiyar dam ) and again during our Phenology fieldwork trip on the same road but a little before the sightings mentioned above.   This Chameleon did not have any dark bands because this is a hatchling. They are pastel green in colour and develop bands as they grow. Adult male are brighter with more defined bands. Hopefully, we will find more in our upcoming field trips.

Hatchling with lighter bands
Photo: Vinod M Kumar