Newsletter

Winter 2000: Notes from India

Ecological studies in the Western Ghat Mountains of Southern India
By Benjamin Van Ee

During June of 2000 students from North America and India participated in two courses offered jointly by Au Sable Institute and Bishop Heber College: Tropical Mountain Ecology (Biol 479) and Birds and Mammals of South India (Biol 330).

During the course of the program the group traveled extensively visiting numerous different habitats ranging from the high elevation grasslands, where few trees can grow, to the low-elevation scrub jungle, where only highly adapted xerophytic plants grow. Most of the time was spent in between those two in ecosystems such as the lush Evergreen Forest in habited by the Lion-tailed Macaque monkey (Macaca silenus) and the huge Great Indian Hornbill (Buceros bicornis).

Although India is widely perceived as being hot and crowded the experience of this summer's group proved otherwise. There still are a few pristine wild areas in habited by magnificent wildlife. In addition to visiting such areas the program exposed students to the cultural, social and economic realities of India.

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