The Puckle’s Path

The Puckle’s Path

Thalavai pandi S

Puckle's path
Photo : Maria Antony

Students from the Corpus Christi School, Nagercoil attended the wild camp to learn about flora and fauna present in a forest ecosystem. We had our breakfast at the dormitory to reduce the weight of the luggage and started hiking the puckle’s path by seven in the morning. Puckle’s path is one of the scenic trekking routes at Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve. It is named after the then British collector Puckle who used to ride this particular trail. The trial is well-made and wide enough to even ride a four-wheeler. The remnants of a dairy farm once operated during the British period was also visible. There are several small streams that cross the path, which comes alive during the monsoon.

Brown-headed Barbet
Photo: Prasanth

On our way, we were welcomed by the calls of Coppersmith Barbet, Brown-headed barbet and jungle fowl. As usual, we started with the introduction of the path and Boothaththan, an experienced retired watcher accompanied us who explained several interesting pieces of information about this path. The activity of the birds was good but I tried to concentrate more on insects. Small minivet was grooming its feather on a dry tree which was very visible to us. As we moved further whatever organisms we came across on the trail we explained to the students about their distinct characteristics. We observed the flying pattern of the common sailor butterfly near the grass where Antony found the adult Antlion. He caught it and explained the lifecycle of it, the reason behind its name and released back at the same place. 

Strobilanthus sp.,
Photo: Thalavai pandi S

We came across a camera trap set up by the forest department. We explained the importance of such types of equipment in wildlife population estimation and monitoring inside the forest. Several florae have bloomed on both sides of the path such as Strobilanthus, Barleria, Jasminum, Crotalaria, Plumbago zeylanica, Aglaia, etc. Botanist Saravanan explained a few taxonomies to the children. At that time, we saw a Plum-headed parakeet and a Golden Oriole on a dry tree, grooming their feathers. We observed a juvenile of a Garden Lizard which was basking on a small shrub, also a Tiger centipede moving on the side of the trek path. We saw the fresh scat of Indian porcupine on the path, it might be from the previous night. One of the students was keenly observing the survival technique of Stick insect. All the streams got dried up except two small ones, indicating that the summer season has started. We saw a few fishes jumping in small pools which had very less water. One of the students collected a few of these fishes and left it in the nearby stream.

Excretion of Indian Porcupine

The climate was cloudy during the whole hike, so we saw only around 25 species of butterflies including Blue Mormon which is India's second-largest butterfly and the state butterfly of Maharastra, Malabar spotted flat, Indian Cupid, etc and different types of moths and caterpillar, grasshoppers and nymphs. The funnel spider was patiently waiting on the web for its prey. As we neared the end of the trail, we saw the eggs of Jungle fowl. The hike ended at Servalar river where all of us had a good bath and we also finished our lunch. After lunch, we proceeded to another trail where students learnt about the different types of leaves and barks pattern associated with trees. Afterwards, we visited the tribal settlement where the children interacted with the people learning their ways of living inside the forest, how it used to be and how it has changed in recent times.

Dark Wanderer
Photo: Thalavai pandi S

On returning to the dormitory, movie “Wild Karnataka” was screened. After the movie screening we setup the moth screen and explained the different types of moths that got attracted towards the mercury lamp. Initially, there were very few moths but thanks to the night drizzle, by four in the morning we found nearly 15 families of moths including Sphingidae, Erebidae, Crambidae, Pyralidae, etc. Other than moths there were also a lot of other insects such as Caddisfly, Mayfly, Beetle, different types of mantis and Grasshoppers.

Moth - Nyctemera lacticinia

In the morning we initially planned to go for a short walk on the road to observe the animals that might have got killed by the speeding vehicles. But at the last moment, the activity was cancelled due to rain. So we had our breakfast at the forest department canteen and went for butterfly watching activity on a different trail. As the climate was cloudy even today, we could not find many butterflies. We saw a few including Blue Mormon, Psyche, Common Grass Yellow, Water Snow Flat and Dark Cerulean. We hiked for a small distance and the rain has started again. So we decided to head back and on our way back we saw a Hump-nosed pit viper on the path. 

Hump-nosed pit viper

At the end of the day, we saw nearly 35 different types of butterflies. We visited the picturesque Karaiyar dam and took a group photo and returned to the room. With the valedictory ceremony this three-day, two-night camp came to an end. Overall we had a nice experience and learnt a lot from this wild camp.

Group picture