The morning was cool, and the air fresh and frosty. Dawn had just broken through the malleable night. Eager to make new feathered acquaintances, we set out early along a solitary road that floated up towards a dead end. It was our first day in Roing, Arunachal Pradesh.
The soft morning light gently touches the hills
Attentive, and equally enthusiastic to greet us; the red-whiskered bulbul gathered in bunches along a solitary line of cable wire, while the melody of the blue whistling thrush wafted through the quiet. Then, another bird; small and plump fluttered up and down rapidly; landing upon its original launchpad with surprising precision. Yellow-breasted, its tail splayed; unfurling frequently like a Japanese uchiwa. “A yellow-breasted fantail” whispered my friend. I had never seen one before. I noted it down, studiously. A daurian redstart casually sat on a block of concrete watching us, drowsily. We ambled onward. I fumbled with my binoculars and stared up at the brightening blue sky. A constellation of chestnut-tailed starlings floated above. My friend yelped in excitement. Gathering pace, we followed the quilled stars.
The scrape of my excited shoe soles against the grey concrete sounded jarring. I stopped and resumed my stillness, watching my friend continue; who then suddenly halted in a moment of distraction. “What is it?” I queried, as quietly as I could. The starlings had perched upon a large tree flushed with a glowing, brilliant pink. I resumed my keenness of pace. My friend was now crouching preoccupiedly beside a rock. Large spiders scuttled across the cloudy grey stone, and an intricate web; interlaced with small black objects that looked like inanimate pepper pods were presumably the arachnid’s morning meal. I spotted a stray beetle crawling and settling upon my friend’s shoulder. I waved my hands in a fit of courage and the insect jumped abruptly, landing on the smooth bark of the ironically-grey trunk of the tree.
The Hollock Tree
The tree was perhaps 20 metres tall. Its branches all hung with the sleepiness of a mild winter morning. It was flowering, and from below, the pink fell like frozen waterfalls. There were so many flowers that the sunlight which filtered through was imbued with strands of the faintest pink. I noticed leaves carved and cut like two-dimensional waves. They curved up and down. “Look at that” exclaimed my friend; “those are the bite marks of a hungry caterpillar gnawing its way through the leaf”. The leaves were long, and dullish-green. A number of them were hungrily punctured. “I wonder how many such caterpillars there are on this tree?” I blurted. “Hundreds!”
Half-chewed leaves by a hungry caterpillar
The hollock tree (Terminalia myriocarpa) houses small yellow petals that bloom between summer and autumn. The pink we observed indicated maturity. Absorbed by its beauty, we hadn’t realised it stood inside somebody’s garden. Adjacent to it were mounds of charcoal-coloured sand. Striped blue-white tarpaulin sheets that flapped mirthlessly in the occasional wind pointed to impending construction. Commonly cultivated as an ornamental for its attractive pink; the hollock’s susceptibility to decay has made it a popular wood for indoor usage. But it all seemed rather frivolous to utilise such magnificence for something as flippant as a cabinet.
Later that evening, we returned. But access to the tree was blocked by a silver sheet that greedily coiled around it. A sturdy utensil for the tree’s destruction lay propped up against a pile of severed branches. I then heard what sounded like uproarious laughter; of jubilant merriment in the misty distance. I looked at my friend quizzically. “What is that?” I shuddered. “A family of hoolock gibbons are nearby. Let’s go and have a look”.
We left the hollock tree and briskly followed the echoes of joy.
All photos by Harshad Sambamurthy
About the author: Harshad has a background in environmental education. He works in the wildlife conservation space in India, and uses writing and oral-based storytelling to advocate for a more equitable and just world; for all its diverse beings.
