Kaas Plateau – a wonderland!!
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Panoramic view,en route Kaas. click here for complete view
My desire is to visit the “Valley of flowers” in Himalayas where hundreds of wild flowers of all colors bloom, though I dint get a chance to visit Himalayas but lucky enough to visit the wonderland Kaas ,it was on 17th September 2009 Me and my friend vivek left pune by 7:15am by his car and drove towards the Pune – Bangalore highway, we hit the NH around 7:40 am and on the way to Satara had nice chai and Vada Pav at Sherival a small village on the highway.Reached Kass around 9:30am and was spellbound by the rich flora.
Narrow road from Satara to Kass (25 km approx)
Satara is approximately 100km from Pune on Pune-Bangalore highway after crossing the town the uphill road takes to Kass plateau, this part of western ghat is famous for Flat table top mountains, with lateritic plateaus on top becomes home to millions of tiny flowers, the whole spectale is beyond words. Different types of wild flowers, herbs, orchids, shrubs, insectivorous plants etc., can be seen here.
Kaas - a paradise for flower watching, birding and camping around with a gentle road running across the plateau and flowers of varied colors in millions on either side, the view is simply superb!!
Lush green open land filled with flowers of varied colors and size
Vigna vexillata
Eriocaulon tuberiferum
Kass has a very good bird life with good sightings of Crested Buntings, common Crested Larks and Oriental White-eyes. For the first time I spotted the European roller.
Amazing place for Macro photography, one can go crazy seeing plethora of subjects to shoot.
Utricularia Pupurascens
Purple bed of Utricularia Pupurascens
Bee Pollination
Impatiens Lawii
Welcomed by the Pink carpet
Drossera Indica an insectivorous plant, interesting plant with sticky tentacles
Thunbergia fragrans - Chimine
Argyreia elliptica
There are few other places to be explored nearby like Kaas Lake, Bamnoli ,since we were running out of time and had to go to office that night so we left Kaas around 4:30pm and reached Pune by 7:30pm, the whole day was awesome, day before work was hectic hardly find time to sleep and today whole day went running for flowers, flowers and flowers :) but Kaas has this mesmerizing effect of making you forget all the tiredness, that's true! totally invigorated after my trip.
Murudannia Lanuginosa, अबोलिमा
Exacum lawii
Murudannia simplex,निलिमा
Impatiens Lawii flower
Peteshwar hill with small lateritic platue on top
Pleocaulus ritchiei (Topli Karvi) टोपली कारवी
Utricularia in white
Pogostemon Deccanensis, जांभळी मंजिरी
Grazing cattle
Fast expanding township of Satara - a threat to this fragile ecosystem
Sad sight is that most of the place has been littered with liquor bottles, plastic plates, covers and cups by the unruly tourist who visit this place. State forest department has to take some serious effort in conserving this place by increasing the forest guard to keep a watch or we will be losing this wonderland forever.
Reference: Flowers of Sahyadri by Shrikant Ingalhalikar.
Equipment:Canon40D with 18-55mm IS lens
For any queries and suggestions please contact me at cj.samson [at] gmail.com
