Biodiversity Walk at Kaikondrahalli Lake

As part of the Citizen Science and Lakes Initiative another Biodiversity Walk was held at Kaikondrahalli lake on Sunday, August 11th 2019. The walk was led by Aswathy Joseph and started near the Kalyani entrance. Aswathy started by explaining the importance of mutualism in nature. In the case of ficus trees, each variety of ficus trees has a certain species of wasp essential for its pollination. The wasps in turn depend on the figs for a safe haven to lay their eggs. Image 2 below is of a ficus tree being worshipped near the Northwestern Entrance.

Image 1: Aswathy leading the Biodiversity Walk at Kaikondrahalli lake

Image 2: A ficus tree being worshipped at the lake

Aswathy mentioned that a week ago the tree was blooming with red figs but a week later we could only spot a couple on the entire tree. An interesting story she shared was that since so many birds, insects and mammals depend on ficus trees throughout the year, one of the ficus trees in the area always has figs growing on it. She also stated that figs were one of the first plants domesticated for human consumption. Another species we came across was the Babul tree as shown in Image 3, it’s a thorny tree with yellow flowers. The same Babul species in Jakkur lake was more like a shrub while the one we saw in Kaikondrahalli lake was a surprisingly large tree. 

Image 3: Participants observing the large Babul tree

Throughout the walk all the participants were really engaged and shared any additional knowledge they had on the biodiversity of plants and insects around the lake. What was supposed to be a one and a half hour walk lasted for over two and a half hours due to the enthusiasm of the participants. 

Venkatesh Peedhanna - one of the younger well diggers was also a participant

To learn more about the previous walks we have had, please refer to the following links:

• Biodiversity Walk at Rachenahalli Lake- https://biometrust.blogspot.com/2019/06/biodiversity-walk-at-rachenahalli-lake.html
• Biodiversity Walk at Jakkur Lake- https://biometrust.blogspot.com/2019/04/biodiversity-walk-at-jakkur-lake_58.html