URBAN TREE DIVERSITY OF KARWAR, KARNATAKA

     Urban trees serve many useful functions such as climate change mitigation by carbon sequestration, air quality improvement by air pollution abatement,  biodiversity conservation and  source of ecosystem goods to urban inhabitants. They also have aesthetic, socio-religious and recreational value in urban contexts. In spite of the importance, they have not received much  scientific attention. we ( Shivananda Bhat, Jayakara Bhandary & Syed Fasihuddin, Department of Botany, Govt. College, Karwar)  have  investigated the diversity and density of tree species growing both within the built environment as well as road-side avenues in the seaside town of Karwar  which  is  the administrative headquarters of Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka.    The total area of the town  is 27.15 km² and  population (2001 census) is 62,973. 

                The tree flora of Karwar comprises of about 106 species in which about 70% are indigenous species. The other 30% involves exotic and introducedd species.  The top five dominant species are Mangifera indica  (Wild mango, 20.016% of total tree population), Polyalthia longifolia (False Ashoka, 12.544%), Peltophorum pterocarpum ( Yellow flame tree,  6.763%), Samania saman (Rain tree, 5.072%) and Artocarpus heterophyllus (Jackfruit, 5.045%). The tree diversity represents a good assemblage of  different utility categories such as wild and cultivated fruit yielding trees, shade and ornamental trees, sacred and religious trees, etc. Besides the high proportion of older  trees of wild mango and jackfruit,  presence of other wild fruit yielding trees like  Artocarpus incisus and Spondias pinnata, large sized sacred trees such as Ficus religiosa  and  F. benghalensis, rare medicinal species such as Garcinia indica,  Saraca asoca, Terminalia bellirica, etc., are some of the notable features of the urban tree flora of Karwar.

Old gigantic trees cooling the heart of Karwar town

Tree shades - a hub of activities

Avenue trees of Karwar

A 300 year old sacred Syzygium cumini tree

Wild mango trees - dominant tree of Karwar

              This is, in fact, the summary abstract of this project presented at Lake 2010 Conference held at Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, from 22nd to 24th December 2010. 

Annual Festival of Kurmagad Island, Karwar

      Want to have the unique and enthralling experiences of a boat journey in the blue waters of Arabian sea,  a jolly picnic in an serene island and also the religious feeling of attending a God’s festival? If yes, you should participate in the annual festival of  Narasimha  temple in Kurmagad island, Karwar.

          Kurmagad  is an  island off the coast of Karwar,  in the west coast of India.   A temple dedicated to ‘Narasinha’ is located in this island. He is the much revered God of  the fishermen community of this region.  A one day annual festival of this temple is held sometimes in the month of January. Thousands of people  travel to this island on boats, along with bunches of banana to take part in this rare type of festival.  Majority of the fishing boats call off their fishing activity on this day and offer their service to ferry people for this festival.  Banana bunch is the special  offering  to the Narasimha God.  The Idol of the God is also carried to the island in the previous night of the festival and is brought back on the next day.  For the rest of the time, the idol is safely located in the temple of Kodibag on the main land.

          For several people, the pleasure of  island picnic is the more attractive reason than the festival.  They reach the island in the morning and return only during late in the evening. Besides locals, people come from far away places of Maharashtra and  Goa  to partake in this unique island festival.  See the pictures taken by Panduranga Harikantra of Karwar to believe what I have written about the festival.

  

View of Kurmagad Island (All Photos: Panduranga Harikantra)

....to the island..

....on the island

....to the temple

Huge crowd on the island

        

The rare 'rangoli festival' of Maruti temple, Karwar

Maruthi temple, Karwar

 Karwar is a small coastal town of Karnataka and has now gained a prominent label  in the national map of India because of the newly commissioned ‘INS Kadamba’  base of Indian Navy. Besides several others, the annual festivals or ‘jathras’ of  the local temples are the special attractions of this town. Each such jathra has its own specialties and unique features.  The festival of Maruthi temple stands out due to its associated ‘rangoli’  art.  Beautiful rangoli arts are drawn and displayed on several streets surrounding the famous Maruthi temple during the festival night.  These streets together getting transformed  into a  Rangoli art Gallery  is,  in fact, the special attraction of this jathra. Thousands of people visit this jathra only to see such  rangoli arts.

            During the recently concluded festival  of this year, the usual rangoli paintings depicting  traditional designs,  Gods and Goddesses were only a few. On the contrary, portraits of film stars, sports icons and the likes,  drawn in rangoli style,  were in plenty.  A variety of popular figures ranging from the US President Obama to the local snake catcher Marshal D’Souza were found on the streets of Karwar , this year!  They did not come to see the jatra! But people came to see all these great people framed in rangoli colours.

            Glimpses of this unique and rare type  of  Rangoli  Festival  of this year  is provided  for readers to appreciate.  This is especially for the ‘ netizen’ people of  Karwar who know about this festival but missed it…

Nana Patekar - the crowd puller in Maruti festival

Obama & Sanjay Duth - together on Karwar street!

A traditional rangoli pattern..rare to see

Traditional rangoli  made from grains

People busy shooting a film star...