Nature Watch Series for Dehradun Live Hindustan Times by Sanjay Sondhi Published on 20 January 2017 Of peaks, peas and moths In late November 2016, Arun Prasad, our colleague and friend, who runs a nature conservation and alternate livelihood organisation at Devalsari, was getting married. As part of the baraat, we drove with the rest of his family and friends from Arun’s village, Bangsil. Enroute, we stopped at a picturesque spot at Morana Top and admired the snow peaks in the distance. From here, the Banderpoonch massif of the Saraswati Himalayan range is visible. Banderpoonch, which literally translates to the “tail of the monkey” relates to the legend that Hanuman, the monkey God, went to the mountain’s summit to extinguish his burning tail, in the battle between Lord Ram and Ravana. At Morana Top, a small Nepalese-run teashop offered us garam-garam chai. The shop owner had a fresh harvest of peas. They looked really yummy; we asked him if they were for sale. We bought a bagful, and the rest of the journey was spent munching of some really tasty peas. The pleasure of eating freshly harvested vegetables from the fields always tops buying them from a vegetable vendor in the city! During one of the “munches”, Anchal exclaimed, “Oops, a caterpillar!” She had found a caterpillar in one of the pea pods. “Seems like a moth. Lets rear it”, I retorted. Hopefully the moth will emerge even if we take it to Dehradun. The caterpillar was dull green, with only a few hairs, and as it fed on pea pods, we had no problem in providing it with food. It chomped away on the peas we offered it for a week or so, and then it began to spin a cocoon. A day later, the pretty cocoon was spun. From then on, my morning ritual involved taking a peak into the box to check whether the moth had emerged. A week two went by, then two, and the moth did not emerge. I hoped it was still alive. Could a parasite have got to it? Seemed unlikely, as I had the caterpillar and the cocoon in a closed, yet airy box. Could it be that it was too cold? If so, it could be that the moth would over-winter, and emerge only in the summer. Many insects do this. Finally, on 12 January 2017, almost six weeks after it had pupated, the moth emerged! Nothing spectacular, I noted. I identified it as the Cotton Bollworm (Helicoverpa armigera), a moth that is treated as a pest as its larva feeds on many cultivated crops including cotton and pea. The moth was comatose, and seemed dead. I prodded it with a leaf, but it did not move. I took the moth outside, and as soon as some warmth from the sun fell on the moth, it wriggled; it was alive! Allowing the moth to sunbathe for a while, I photographed it. Soon, the moth was sufficiently warmed up, and it flew away, looking for a moth to mate, or perhaps, peas and peaks.

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Photograph caption: Cotton Bollworm life cycle © Sanjay Sondhi