Kaas - The Plateau of Flowers!! (Sept 2013)

Sahyadri’s, commonly known as Western Ghats has so many beautiful places which attracts thousands of tourists across the world. Especially in Monsoon when the mighty nature changes the whole landscape of this region, it’s the most beautiful place to visit. The pouring rains, guzzling streams and waterfalls make their way through the valleys and the lush green mountains. Western Ghats is home for as many as 500+ bird species, 100+ mammals along with large number of fish, amphibians, reptiles and huge number of insects. Most of these are endemic to this region. This region is very rich in the biodiversity and needs the deserving care to keep these endemic living things from getting extinct.   

Very popular places in Western Ghats and especially in Maharashtra are Mahabaleshwar, Matheran, Lonavala and Khandala. Western Ghats receives huge amount of rains so has many evergreen and semi-evergreen forests. The climate is pleasant during monsoon and winter. In summer also its much cooler than the cities in Deccan plateau. So, most of the tourists plan their outings to these places over the weekends throughout the year.

There are many other locations which are not so popular. The one of them which lately has started attracting many nature lovers is ‘Kaas Plateau’. This is 1000 hectors of plateau situated in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra. This place is near to Satara and is home for many of the endemic species of animals, birds, reptiles and most importantly the herbs and shrubs. This plateau has a tough rock surface and very little soil on it. Due to which there are not many large trees on this plateau. Still for about 8-10 months of the year (Except couple of months of Summer) many small shrubs and herbs grow and bloom in this area. Towards the end of the monsoon, when clouds and sun play hide and seek and sprinkle water over this region is the time when lot of small plants bloom and the green cover on the plateau starts taking different colours. September and October are the times when the colourful flower carpets change their colour and attract the nature lovers, artists and photographers.  

Last year a great thing has happened. UNESCO has declared Kaas Plateau as a World Heritage Site. Due to this special efforts were made by the forest department of India and made fencing around this area. They created pathways for the people to roam around without stepping on some endemic plants. Lot of security guards are appointed now to keep tourists disciplined. Parking space has been created. Road side parking and stopping is prohibited. All good steps have been taken to save this land of flowers. Also the entry fees have been introduced, which are very nicely utilized in securing the biodiversity of the region.

Fence guarded by Malabar Crested Lark

Before we reach to the plateau, the yellow carpet of flowers forces you to take a halt. These lovely small flowers called as Kawla or Mickey Mouse flower by the locals. The botanical name for these flowers is 'Smithia Hirsuta'

Yellow Carpet

The closeup photo gives you an idea why its called as Mickey Mouse flower.

Smithia Hirsuta Closeup

7 Dwarfs

Just near the parking some small herbs and shrubs seek your attention.

Fern

One of those is the lovely star like flowers. At different stages they have different colors. You could see white, pink and lavender color in a single bunch.

तारे जमीन पर!

And some galaxies as well!

रानवांग

Id?

As we parked our vehicle and started towards the plateau, the rains spoiled our plans. We took a lunch break and decided to come back after 2-3 hours. But as they say that, 'every cloud has a silver lining', we got an opportunity to catch some lovely droplets on the colorful flowers. 

सोनकी /Senecio Bombayensis is a lovely yellow flower which is very commonly found allover India.

सोनकी

High Five!

Mix..

तुतारी

A very small herb called Snake Flower / वायतुरा is endemic to this region. I think the name वायतुरा came from the fact that it has structure like the English letter Y

वायतुरा

There is this lovely small herb found in the shadows of bigger trees. This grows near to the moss. This has a lovely 4 petal structure. 

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 Also with their fragrance and bright colors, these flowers attracts lot of insects.

There are some insectivorous plans which are found in this area. The one which is endemic to this region is Dorsera Indica / गवती बिंदू. This small herb has small thread like structures which have dew drop like endings. These dewdrops are sticky in nature. Once the insects get in touch with these, they get stuck there and the small stem winds around the insect and kills it. All the nutrition from the insects body are then sucked by the plant. 

Another beautiful 3 petal flower found in this area is Muradannia Lanuginosa. This is called as अबोलीना in Marathi. This is one of the attractions of this plateau. This flower is endemic and engendered specie.

अबोलीना

Clouds play Hide and Seek with Sun!

जरतारी

नीलिमा

The other lovely flower of the region makes a blue carpets on the plateau. Utricularia Purpurascens also called as निळी पापणी / सीतेची आसव.

निळी पापणी / सीतेची आसव

Blue Carpet

निळी पापणी / सीतेची आसव आणि गेंद

Eriocaulon / गेंद is another endemic plant of this region. This also grows in numbers and creates a white carpet in some places.

गेंद

जांभळी मंजिरी

Kaas Landscape

Kaas Landscape

तेरडा

Pink Carpet

तेरडा

आभाळी

Orchid Id?

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Finally got to see some guest appearance of the reptiles..

Indian Forest Skink / सापसुरळी

सापसुरळी

The Spider gets his pray in his diamond cladded web!

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And finally we started our journey back. In the way we captured this lovely city of Satara which is situated in the valleys of lush green Sahyadri. With all those lovely moments captured in eyes and camera we said goodbye to Kaas without forgetting to say, we would visit again, soon, very soon!!

Thanks for reading! Have a great day!