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In the face of world-wide gathering degradation of bio-diversity today, both the windward and lee-ward slopes of this ridge, showcase the best of natural equilibrium. Almost every inch is sheltered by rich, mixed stands of deodar and oak trees, with pine thrown in-between for good measure. Where the gradient permits, public institutions, isolated homesteads and sprawling private estates of the Raj era, dot the wooded landscape. From a distance, the NS crest of the mountain appears level and flat but a walk leads to three distinct, gentle saddles. And one of them is so narrow that standing upon its middle affords a 360 degree panorama. To the north-east lies a wide crescent of the Himalayan summits, ranging from Nanga Parbat (26,660 ft) to Kamet (25,447 ft) and ending with the lowly Bunder Punch (20,720 ft). In the West, the ridge plunges from its 6150-ft pinnacle, almost straight down to the plains where the setting sun throws aglitter, the narrow ribbon of the waters of the river Sutlej, like the blade of a sabre.
There is wealth of information to suggest that not so long ago, India had immense tree cover. Nothing illustrates this fact better than one fragment from Kasauli’s past. Way back in 1842, a flat piece on the northern extremity of the ridge was chosen for the first settlement which was and remains to this day the parade ground around which were constructed the barracks of the Army garrison. The number of mature deodar and pine trees felled and counted from this approx 400 x 400 yards space were 2,108, that is, one tree for every 8 by 8 yards of space cleared! In the natural order, trees are homes to birds nesting, roosting, feeding, flitting and chirruping. Under the tree canopies, dappled sun and shade facilitates blooms of bulbous plants and of flowering shrubs, which in turn attract butterflies by day and moths under star-light. Little wonder that Kasauli should be rich in bird-life; one random check-list of a brief vacation shows 93 species recorded. No matter how familiar a bird might be from its texts and pictures but the joy of holding that bird in one's vision, especially for the first time, is unique. My lifetime's “first” spotting of four species attributed to the Kasauli ridge were the black-chinned babbler, the scaly-bellied green wood-pecker, the black-headed jay and a peregrine falcon pair. The black-chinned babbler is so tiny (a mere 10 cm from tip to tip) and so hyperactive that chances of spotting it by design would be sheer utopia; that chance encounter was simply too thrilling. The peregrines on the other hand put up such an incredible display of aerobatics as they playfully indulged each other in a “catch-me-if-you-can” pursuit-flight that, it left me sort of “fulfilled” in life.
But they have yet to identify the shrub-in-scarlet-bloom which has resemblance with our corral-tree flowers but is most likely to be an exotic shrub introduced from else where in the 19th Century by one of the European house-holders. Now Shillong is acknowledged the world over as the “Mecca” for butterfly enthusiasts for sheer numbers and the riches of species. But Kasauli's claim as butterfly watchers “hot-spot” in north-west India, will not be easy to dismiss. We have 1501 species but so far not more than 750 have been photographed in the wild; so imagine my joy when I chanced upon a butterfly on a wet patch on the road-tarmac, photographed it and the Bombay Natural History Society pronounced it as the first photo-record of a siren (Hestina Persimilis) from the wild !
Most Indians (especially today's generation of senior citizens), would have known langoors from their childhood and seen them in forests and cities all over the country. Yet not many may have recollections of such large size specimens as some, often found on the Kasauli ridge. But please be warned that they zealously guard their self-respect and if teased or insulted in any manner, their retribution is swift and can be most severe. Those who have moments to observe, will find the ways of these baboons most endearing.
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NOT far from the tri-junction of Haryana-Punjab-Himachal, arises in one sweep a 2-km long north-south mount Kasauli at approx 6,000-ft above sea level, which blocks the viewers’northwards horizon, totally. That topographical setting leaves one astounded, of the magnitude of the force of collision, when millennias ago the sub-continental “plate” dashed against the Asian mainland, buckling the plains upwards, leading to the creation of the Great Himalayan range.
Turning to the north, the eye is arrested by the Churdhar peak on the first ridge of the outer Himalayas. Its summit was one of the hundreds of survey stations set up during the great trignometrical survey of the subcontinent in the 1880s. Though a mere 11,695 ft above sea level, but that is the highest elevation that Sir George Everest personally stood upon!
The moderate climate of Kasauli, coupled with nutrient-rich top soil of the ridge, is most supportive of both natural and cultivated blooms. I had sent two photographs of different, significant blooms to the Bombay Natural History Society for comments. They confirmed that they have no record of Dhatura flowers (Datura Suaveolens) as large as the ones I had photographed from Kasauli.
