Jyoti

Siddhita Sonavane

Editor

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It is September 2023, and we are in the middle of the flowering season
in the ‘valley of flowers’ of the Western Ghats where hundreds of varieties of
pink and purple flowers, many native to this biodiversity hotspot, bloom every
year. 



But over the years, instead of the vibrant blooms, only trampled blossoms lie around.  



Located at an altitude of 1,200 metres, Kaas Plateau was awarded UNESCO&#39;s World Heritage Site in 2012. Since then, it has become a major tourist
attraction in Maharashtra, especially from August to October – the flowering
season. And therein lies the problem.



“Nobody used to come here. Kaas was just a hill for us. We used
to graze cattle and goats,” says Sulabai Badapuri. “Now people walk on the flowers, click
photos, pull them from the roots!” Frustrated with their indifference, the
57-year-old adds, “this is not a baag (garden);
these flowers bloom on the rock.”The plateau at Kaas is a
1,600-hectare bedrock in Satara taluka of Satara district and is also known as Kaas Pathar.

“The crowd becomes unmanageable,” says Sulabai who guards the plateau
from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. She is among the 30 people working on Kaas as guards,
waste collectors, gatekeepers and guides with the Kaas forest management committee which was set up for conservation purposes.



The average footfall of tourists crosses 2,000 every day during the
flowering season, as per the Joint Management Forest Committee of Satara. And
rushing visitors pause briefly when Sulabai requests them, “aho madam! Please don’t stamp on the
flowers. They are delicate and will soon die in October,” only to continue with
their photo sessions after a casual apology.



During the flowering season, this plateau is home to 850 plant
species, of which 624 are <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fNOMeiIog7hAefOy89-OxK2Teid4akzH/view?usp=drive_link">listed</a> in the Red Data
Book –  a document recording all
endangered species – and 39 are endemic to the Kaas region. Over 400 medicinal
plants grow here. “There were some elders who knew the medicinal
plants and their use for knee ache, cold, fever. Not everyone knew about it,”
says Laxman Shinde,
a 62-year-old farmer from nearby Vanjolwadi village. 



Apart from plant life, Kaas is also home to about 139 species of
amphibians, including a variety of frogs, says this <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fNOMeiIog7hAefOy89-OxK2Teid4akzH/view?usp=drive_link">report</a>. Mammals,
reptiles and insects that live here aid the ecosystem’s functioning. 

Prerna Agarwal, an independent researcher based in Pune, has studied the
ecological impact of mass tourism on Kaas for over five years. “These endemic
species are sensitive to external threats like crowd and trampling. Flowers
like purple bladderwort [Utricularia
purpurascens] get damaged. There has also been depletion of the malabar
hill borage [Adelocaryum malabaricum] species,”
she says.

Ironically, it is this tourism that has opened seasonal employment
opportunities for people from the surrounding villages between August and
October. “I get 300 rupees for a day. [It is] better than farm labour,” says
Sulabai, comparing it with the Rs. 150 she earns as daily wages in the fields
of Kasani, Ekiv and Atali
villages.



For the rest of the year, she cultivates paddy in her family&#39;s one
acre rainfed land. “There is not enough work apart from farming. These three
months provide some good income,” says Sulabai who lives four kilometres from
Kaas in Kasani village, and walks to and fro from her home which “takes me one
hour.” 



Every year the plateau receives very high rainfall, between
2,000-2,500 mm. During monsoon the scarce soil on these rocks supports unique
vegetation and native species of plant life. “The laterite rock on Kaas acts
like a sponge by retaining water in its porous structure, and slowly
distributing it to the streams nearby,” explains Dr. Aparna Watve. A Pune-based conservationist
and botanist, she warns, “any damage to these plateaus will disturb the water
table in the region.”Dr. Watve has conducted field
studies in 67 plateaus of Maharashtra’s northern Western Ghats and Konkan.
“This [Kaas] is a delicate location. Extreme infrastructure activities disturb the working of ecology,” she says, referring to the growing
tourism and attendants, hotels and resorts which are booming within the 15 sq.
km range of the plateau.

The many mammals, reptiles and insects that live here are in danger of
losing their food as insects and flowers are disappearing due to anthropogenic
causes. “Documentation [of the fauna] is needed because they have very little
space to move, and can&#39;t survive anywhere else. If you pollute or degrade such
habitats, they have nowhere else to go. They will go extinct,” says scientist Sameer Padhye.
Disappearing insects and flowers, leading to a drastic drop in the blooming
patterns, could disturb the entire ecosystem, he adds. Further, the harm to
endemic species will impact pollination and water resources for the villages on
the plateau’s fringe, notes Padhye. 

Laxman shows us the jangli halad (Hitchenia caulina) plant, effective for
knee and joint pains. Recalling a time four decades ago he says, “in those days
flowers [on Kaas] would be very dense.” During flowering season, he collects
plastic and non-disposable debris on Kaas, earning Rs. 300 a day, and the rest
of the year he cultivates paddy on his two-acre land. 



“We were born here. We know every corner,” says Saulabai. “Still,
nobody considers us as we are not literate. But what are shikshit [educated] people doing to nature?”



Kaas looks different today.
“It looks bekaar [spoiled]. It is not the Kaas of my
childhood,” says Sulabai sadly.

‘It is not the Kaas of my childhood’

کاس اب پہلے سے بالکل الگ دکھائی دیتا ہے

‘ఇది నా చిన్నప్పటి కాస్ కాదు’

‘என் பால்யகாலத்தில் நான் கண்ட பகுதி இது இல்லை’

‘ਇਹ ਉਹ ਕਾਸ ਹੈ ਹੀ ਨਹੀਂ ਜੋ ਮੈਂ ਬਚਪਨ ਵਿੱਚ ਦੇਖਦੀ ਸਾਂ’

‘ଏହା ମୋ ପିଲା ଦିନର କାସ୍‌ ନୁହେଁ’

‘എന്റെ ബാല്യത്തിലെ കാസല്ല ഇത്’

ʼಇದು ನಾನು ಬಾಲ್ಯದಲ್ಲಿ ನೋಡಿದ್ದ ಕಾಸ್‌ ಅಲ್ಲʼ

‘अब वो कास नहीं रहा’

'હવે કાસ મારા બાળપણમાં હતું એવું નથી રહ્યું'

‘ये ह मोर बालपन के कास नो हे’

‘ई हमनी के लरिकाई वाला कास नइखे’

‘এ আমার ছোটোবেলায় দেখা কাস পাথর নয়’

‘এইখন মোৰ শৈশৱৰ মালভূমি নহয়’

‘माझ्या लहानपनचा कास नाय हा’

Satara

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‘It is not the Kaas of my childhood’

Home to endemic species of plants and animals, Kaas Plateau in the Western Ghats is a unique landscape resting on 1,600-hectare bedrock. Uncontrolled tourism threatens this fragile ecosystem

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