Journey through Landscapes

Passing by landscape

The people who witnessed first train chugging off from Bombay to Thane in 1853 wouldn’t have had the slightest imagination that one day a 64000 km long network of railway lines would run over the entire length and breadth of India. Traveling long distances on board Indian Railways has always been on my list of favourites since childhood days – and over the past two decades there have been several journeys aboard the Indian Railway that I would cherish forever. A berth in the train transforms into wonderful moments both inside the cabin and outside as well. Every compartment of the train is a cocktail of diverse cultures and regions, and more importantly the train takes you through the myriad ecological regions of India. The collage of diverse landscapes spread across time and distance always caught my eyes aboard the Indian Railway network.

My earliest train journey was aboard the Kanyakumari Jayanti – Janata Express running between Mumbai CST (the then Victoria Terminus) and Kanyakumari. As a child I remember pressing my eyes and nose hard on to the iron grilled window and watch

Sunflower fields near Ambala

everything that’s running back outside. The crowded and sometimes filthy Mumbai and its suburbs would soon disappear into villages and farm lands dispersed across hillocks followed by the steeper mountains of the Western Ghats. Next day would be a treat for eyes as the diesel engine would puff out smoke while it chugged through the Deccan plateau of Andhra Pradesh. Vast plain lands – mosaic of sunflower fields and wild lands – stretched up to the horizon. Amma would point at the sunflower fields in the morning and in the evening indicating the direction flowers faced – so piously towards the sun. The sun seemed to be their life! There were very few small trees scattered across the wild lands interspersed with rocky hillocks and probably Euphorbia, Prosopis juliflora and thorny Acacia scrubs. Knowledge of species in childhood was nil but definitely the dry scrublands interspersed with huge rocks enthralled me. Huge rocks stood one over the other – smooth, round, oval, different forms – shaped through centuries of wind, sun and rain.

As an undergraduate student boarded in the college hostel at Thrissur, I was fortunate enough to travel several times in train to and fro from home to hostel and vice versa. Most preferred trains were Parsuram Express or Venad Express. Rail route all the way from

Paddy fields near Kottayam as seen from Venad Express

Thrissur to Thiruvalla reveals a magnificent blend of paddy fields and coconut plantations. The stretch between Ernakulam Town and Tripunithura always seemed to be unique as it could have once been a brackish wetland which has now been encroached and ‘developed’. The estuarine fern Acrostchium aureum spread over large areas on either side of the railway tracks prove this sufficiently. There’s even a patch of Glochidion, Terminalia catappa, Thespesia populnea, Hibiscus tiliaceaous and Alstonia scholaris trees around a small pool of water by the tracks. The coastal creeper Ipomea biloba and the voracious climber Ipomea cairica (Railway Glory) cover ground and tree canopy respectively. Greater Egrets, Night Herons and some Cormorants roost abundantly on these trees. Travelling further towards Kottayam, I remember having seen small patches of natural vegetation near habitations, temples and paddy fields. Trees that looked like Dipterocarpus sp., Memecylon sp., and Vateria indica were probably present in those patches. Many times, standing too close to the doors of the crowded coach, I concluded that these must be the last remnants of West Coast Evergreen Forests ravaged by the greed of ever increasing human population. 

Punjab plains through Una Jan Shatabdi Express

Most of the paddy fields were being converted or ‘reclaimed’ as they fell prey to the Giant named Real Estate. These wetlands are known to play a key role in the local hydrology by soaking up and conserving enormous amount of water and thereby maintaining a steady water table. But, these wet paddy fields too bear the brunt of increasing wealth and greed labelled as development by mortals!

More than twice I’ve travelled aboard trains running along the Konkan Railway – the rail engineering marvel cutting through the coastal region along the Western Ghats. The train chugs through innumerable tunnels – some of them quite long!  End of every tunnel and curve unravels the myriad yet

Blurred: View from Karnatak Sampark Kranti Express

beautiful form of the Sahyadris. From small villages perched among the hill paddy fields to mighty waterfalls and spine chilling gorges, from deciduous forests to evergreen forests and mangroves – mystique landscapes painted by Divine painter!

Poor man's Express: New Delhi Railway Station

Rail journey in the plains of northern India too offers splendid mix of various land use patterns – vast agricultural fields predominated by wheat, sugarcane, maize and pulses and cereals. Very often herds of blue bull (nilgai) can be sighted raiding these crops. But tolerance of farmers towards these beasts is something that earns a piece of appreciation – may be the word ‘gai’ meaning cow attached to its Hindi name prevents the farmers from hunting it down owing to religious sentiments attached with the cow. A pair or two of Sarus Cranes is a treat for the eyes and heart for those who keenly look out of the window and have some place for love in their hearts! Flocks of Demoiselle Cranes undisturbed by the dust and sound thrown into air by the passing train can be seen in the drier plains bordering Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh and areas around Bina, Morena, Jhansi . Plains of Punjab, Haryana and areas around Dehradun, Meerut present magnificent glimpses of poplar integrated agroforestry farm lands. The leafless poplar trees disciplined in blocks and lines among the wheat fields in winter easily makes a keen rail traveler ecstatic.   Traveling on rail to Jodhpur, I remember having seen vast stretches of barren deserts and little hamlets washed in warm

Metre guage track through hills near Malan, Kangra, HP

hues of brown in the scorching sun light. Flocks of Demoiselle Cranes are a treat for the eyes here too. And often, the barren stretches are broken by Prosopis cinerarea (khejri) trees – heavily lopped in some villages and with intact crown in few others. The khejri trees have become a symbol of nature conservation in this part of country after the Bishnoi community sacrificed even their lives to save these trees from axe. As the train cuts through the dry deserts, one realises that there is much more to the deserts than just sand and heat!

Metre gauge train through Kangra Valley

Now, I am aboard the Lokmanya Tilak – Kochuveli Garib Rath Express. There was a jerk and wheels rolled over the tracks moving the train ahead. Soon the platform and noisy crowd disappeared behind. As the train moved further across Kadalundy bridge, the mangrove forests artistically lining either side of the estuarine river looked marvellous.  Armed with physiological and physical adaptations to thrive in salty and submerged substratum between sea and land, the mangroves can aptly be called as “twilight zone between sea and land.” Where the river, meandering all its way from forests of the Western Ghats, merges with the mighty Arabian Sea, dense mangroves embrace the tidal zone with all its glory and divinity. In spite, the mangroves have been wiped off our coasts to a great extent and still

The empty Garib Rath AC Chair Car

continues to give way for human vandalism of nature.  As I watch this twilight zone through windows of the empty Garibrath Express, I realise that Indian Railway doesn’t just connect places and people, but also weaves a fine fabric inter-twined in the ecological diversity of this Majestic Nation. It is just not a mere mode of transport for 14 million Indians every day but, truly, Indian Railway is the life line of India!