Monticola cinclorhyncha

Uma Maheshwaram Temple Complex & Ananthagiri Forest Range

Located in the central stretch of the Deccan Plateau, Telangana has sub-tropical climate and the terrain consists mostly of hills, mountain ranges, and thick dense forests covering an area of 27,292 km². The annual rainfall ranges between 1,100 mm to 1,200 mm and the annual temperature varies from 15 C to 45 C. The State is drained by a number of rivers which include Godavari and Krishna.

Telangana is endowed with rich diversity of flora and fauna. It has dense teak forests on the northern part along the banks of river Godavari. As per the Champion & Seth Classification of Forest Types (1968), the forests in Telangana belong to three Forest Type groups, which are further divided into 12 Forest Types. The State Government has taken up a massive greening programme, 'Telangana Ku Harita Haram' in the State to plant and protect 230 crore seedlings over a period of 4 years. This initiative aims at achieving the twin objectives of increasing the forest cover and reduce pressure on the existing forest resources, through massive community participation by Vana Samrakshna Samithis (VSS) and Eco-Development Committees (EDCs) in Protected Areas and Watershed Development Committees in the Watershed areas. Recorded Forest Area (RFA) in the State is 26,904 km² of which 20,353 km² is Reserved Forest, 5,939 km² is Protected Forest and 612 km² is Unclassed Forests. In Telangana, during the period 1st January 2015 to 5th February 2019, a total of 9,420 hectares of forest land was diverted for non-forestry purposes under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 (MoEF & CC, 2019). As per the information received from the State during that last two years, 12,730 ha of plantations including avenue plantations in the State.

Three National Parks and nine Wildlife Sanctuaries constitute the Protected Area network of the State covering 5.08% of its geographical area and our focus area today is the northern fringe of the Nallamalla forest located both in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. It is part of the Eastern Ghats. The Nagarjunsagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve, the largest tiger reserve in India spread over the five districts of Kurnool, Prakasam, Guntur, Nalgonda and Mahabub Nagar falls in its precincts.

Blue-capped Rock Thrush

The Blue-capped Rock Thrush is a species of chat. Chats (formerly sometimes known as "chat-thrushes") are a group of small Old World insectivorous birds formerly classified as members of the thrush family (Turdidae), but following genetic DNA analysis, are now considered to belong to the Old World flycatcher family (Muscicapidae).

The name is normally applied to the more robust ground-feeding flycatchers found in Europe and Asia and most northern species are strong migrants. There are many genera and these birds in particular make up most of the subfamily Saxicolinae.

Other songbirds called "chats" are:

• Australian chats, genera Ashbyia and Epthianura of the honeyeater family (Meliphagidae). They belong to a more ancient lineage than Saxicolinae.

• American chats, genus Granatellus of the cardinal family (Cardinalidae), formerly placed in the wood-warbler family. They belong to a more modern lineage than Saxicolinae.

• Yellow-breasted chat (Icteria virens), an enigmatic North American songbird tentatively placed in the wood-warbler family (Parulidae); its true relationships are unresolved.

And now onto the exquisite Blue-capped Rock Thrush. The brightly coloured male is unmistakable with his black mask, sky-blue head, and orange rump and underparts. The female is not as striking and is a gray-brown with scaled underparts and faint white eye crescents very similar to the larger female Chestnut-bellied Rock-Thrush, but lacking the prominent white “ear crescents”. It has less densely-patterned underparts, and averages paler overall.

This thrush-like Old World flycatcher breeds in hilly and montane areas, particularly open dry forests and rocky slopes with scattered trees like the foothills of the Himalayas and winters in the hill forests of southern India favouring secondary forests and plantations. In summer it is found in pine forests and hill slopes and in winter it is found in dense canopied forests. During winter it is found throughout Pakistan, Bangladesh (passage migrant), parts of Myanmar and India, especially in the Western Ghats region. The Blue-capped forages in trees and on the ground, often searching for prey from snags or telephone wires and like other thrushes, they fly up into trees and sit motionless when they are disturbed. It usually moves with mixed-species flocks in the winter.

These birds were photographed in and around the temple complex of Uma Maheshwaram. This is a temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva located in the Nallamala Forest around 100 kilometers from Hyderabad on the Hyderabad-Srisailam highway, about 4 kms from the village of Rangapur, Achampet.

Uma Maheshwaram is the northern gateway of Srisailam — one of the jyotirlingas, on a hill surrounded by high trees. Nearby hills shield the Uma Maheshwaram temple and the 500-metre stretch to PapaNasanam from sunlight for most of the day, maintaining a temperature lower than the surroundings through out the year. The area abounds in flora and fauna like this beautiful and vulnerable Yellow-throated Bulbul. Read about the birds of Uma Maheshwaram - the few I have already talked about here - the rest I still need to write.

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For a print of the beautiful birds from my various sojourns click on the button below to read my process and order a limited edition canvas.

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