Biodiversity notes -Anahi

23 May 2026

We visited Noyontara later in the morning, around 9:00am. Krishanu uncle and Bhaswati aunty explained that very little work had been done on the land so far, save for clearing the land of large, persistent grasses, almost 4ft high. This made it an ideal location to observe the initial stages of plant succession and transformation of land. Some of these observations included:

• The land was bare, save for a few grown fruit trees of mango, pomegranate, jackfruit and jamun scattered around the plot. 

• Small, trifoliate, nitrogen-fixing leguminous plants had been introduced to the bare ground to create some cover, and alter the nature of the soil.

• The same grasses that had initially been uprooted from the land kept cropping up, and much of the visit was spent removing them from around the fruiting mango trees and near the walls and gate. Orange Cosmos sulphureus saplings from the Jonaki farm were planted in their place, due to their nature as a hardy, drought-resistant plant and ease of propagating themselves. The large colourful flowers would also serve to attract pollinators like butterflies and bees to the few fruit trees on the land. The use of saplings from another plot was also advantageous in helping thin out the growth of Cosmos on the other farm. 

• Other than the described human activities underway, the land was also abuzz with activity of other fauna - a pair of minivets flitting about in a tree at the back of the land, a grey francolin calling from an obscured hiding spot, quick-fluttering butterflies – white orange tips (Ixias marianne), a common jezebel and some Lycaenidae species.

20 June 2026

• The long grasses that we had spent most of the previous visit weeding and removing had sprouted once again in greater force on many patches in the land. However, it had failed to recolonise in the areas around the fruit trees and at the entrance of the plot where cosmos saplings had been planted. 

• Mangoes were ripe, some enough to pick. 

• The jamun tree by the tank was fruiting in abundance, and we picked and shook down hundreds of fruit onto a sheet. The insides were a rich purple, almost entirely through the fruit, in comparison to market-bought jamuns that often have a partly whitish inner flesh.