‘Convince me u have a seed there and I’m prepared to expect wonders’– Thoreau
Forget the majestic tigers, forget the magnificent elephants, the glorious peacocks the cheering monkeys.. Let’s just say we find something that lives to glow! How absurd yet beautiful that is?!!
As a wildlife enthusiast, I always seek ways to make journeys, feel and experience exciting nature’s bounty. This time (September 2015) leading a team of 12 wildlife enthusiasts – A fun, action-packed trip, on one such exploration, where we head in search of to the smaller world of mushrooms, even smaller, the algae and the smallest/least visible to the naked eye – the world of fungi!
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| The beautiful landscape and a land with mystical theories and species –The Western Ghats |
Our Journey began with a bunch of interesting people who were keen on doing an unexplored journey and had a wish list to tick off with this trip. It was one of those tours where all were new yet everyone seemed to have met and had a feeling of knowing each other well before making the group just a perfect one to explore the unknown!
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| Onward journey –The kickoff |
So, what’s the big talk about the fungi?
What if you realized that in an absolute black night sky, the pitch darkness of the forests amidst lies a phenomenon that lights up patches of forests in bright green light.. Wouldn’t it be fascinating to know who/what causes this glow and if it is visible to the naked eye?
Surely is..! As an add on, experiencing this in the midst of wilderness on a night trek with leopard scats and sloth bear scents alongside pit vipers found in close corners is such a thrill!
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| The little, yet one of the most venomous snakes scattered and found across Karnataka, known for its swift yet sharp strikes when senses danger - Malabar Pit Viper |
So how does the forest glow anyway?
Welcome to the world of ‘GLOW’ or to be precise concept of Bioluminescence:
Before you jump the question about here says – To clarify, this is an absolutely existing, non-mythical and quiet a common phenomenon in certain parts of Western Ghats and remain less exposed due to lack of exploration/awareness sharing in various forums.
Bioluminescence – In simple terms – means light emitted by an organism, produced by energy released from chemical reaction occurring inside (or ejected by) the organism.
Relatively common in insects and sea creatures, commonly seen and exhibited by glowworms and fireflies. This however, is slightly different where the bioluminescence is seen on land caused by a fungus on land!
Can fungi actually give light?
Yes! Did you know that Fungi – is a living organism and continues to multiply with enough moisture and can survive under most temperature and weather conditions.
The bioluminescent fungus (a few) produces the faint glow in a process, which is akin to that used by the glowworm. The growing part of the body of the fungi (hyphae) which is present in decaying plant matter is responsible for the glow. Only about 70 species of fungi are known to be bioluminescent.
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| Taken on the spot for exploratory observation on our exploratory tour - September 2015 |
We were 12 of us and started walking half past 10 (10:30 pm) and as we treaded through our path – as we began to loose light, we slowly managed to sight a few patches, and nearly after 4 kms of walk – we came across a small patch that nearly looked like the tree was lit bottom up!
Extremely difficult and a challenge to photograph this phenomenon - Karthik Samprathi and the team took great measures to get the exact representation for record purposes with the equipment they had.
Although the glow was faint, with less moisture in air – we were glad to come across that patch.
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| Comparative image –Shows the area just as an ordinary patch of land and the same patch in complete darkness takes over with glowing green bioluminescence light. |
A few more stops and we reached a considerably larger open area and could clearly hear a waterfall close by. It was more open, scattered and a few spells of rain luckily made this our sweet spot for observation –it was nearly 12 past midnight and from our each pit stop, we could clearly see the variation in the glow - It had moved from faint - shallow – prominent glow in just a matter of few hours alongside a slight change in temperature..!
What we saw absolutely amazed us! And as everyone began to recall the facts I had mentioned during the small orientation about generic facts of fungi clearly seemed to be making sense with what was lying right in front and experiencing it.
The Bioluminescence fungi particularly found in this region is said to be Mycena, a species of bioluminescent fungus that produces and emits light through a chemical reaction; the intensity of light is dependent on the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere. Simply put, during the monsoon, these forests glow in the night. Its known also as Foxfire. Foxfire is a natural phenomenon sometimes visible at night in forests.
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| Extremely challenging to capture on camera, glowing green bioluminescence light |
Some stunning facts of Fungi – It is pretty much found all through, everywhere – in the soil, or tree trunks, on leaves, etc. Scientists estimate a whopping 1.5 to 5 million species! So far only describe and name only about 75000 species, around 15000 of them being reported from India.
Why do they glow?
Why they glow, what benefit they derive is not very clear and pretty controversial as a matter of fact and many scientists are trying to figure the exact reason behind it. However, some preliminary observations suggest that the bioluminescence could attract insects which help in dispersing spores!
We were pretty pleased with the way our exploratory tour went and decided to call it a day err.. Night! ;)
We started early the next day and headed towards – Chorla ghat Plateau
I was told it was a place to sight some beautiful butterflies and dandelions. We took about a good 30 mins to walk up and reach the top and behold! What was in front of us was mist-covered hills surrounding us, ground full of dandelions and little colorful flowers all around us.. Making it almost like scene from a movie of a distant imaginary land!
We clicked some pictures, laid down and let the mist cross our face, laughed until our jaws hurt – and all the while our hearts longed for more.. What a picturesque place to end our journey!
Goodbye to good times..
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