Kokkrebellur - Spot Billed Pelican bringing fish

My travelogue continues from Somanathpur to Kokkrebellur. Kokkrebellur is a village in Maddur taluk of Mandya district of Karnataka, India. The village is named after the Painted Stork (Mycteria leucocephala) called “Kokkare” in Kannada language. It is situated near Maddur between the cities of Mysore and Bangalore. Apart from Painted Storks, the Spotbilled Pelicans(Pelecanus phillipensis) are also found here. Both are classified as “near threatened category” in IUCN Red List of 2009. The village is one of the 21 breeding sites existing in India.

I have visited on Pelicanry in the Carnatic, where the Pelicans have (for ages I was told) built their rude nests, on rather low trees in the midst of a village, and seemed to care little for the close and constant proximity of human beings. – Jerdon, TC (1864). The Birds of India. Volume 3. George Wyman & Co. pp. 858–860.

Thomas Caverhill Jerdon was a British physician, zoologist and botanist. He is best remembered for his pioneering works on the ornithology of India. Several species of bird including the rare Jerdon’s Courser carry his name. What he might have referred was most probably about Kokkrebellur.

Kokkrebellur - Painted Stork

The uniqueness in Kokkrebellur is the long established bonding between the Spot-billed Pelicans and the villagers who have adopted this bird as their heritage, since they consider the birds as harbingers of good luck and prosperity to the village. The benefits derived by the villagers from these birds are basically in the form of phosphorus and potassium rich manure obtained from the bird droppings. Further, over the years, the popularity of this uniqueness has also attracted tourists to the village to watch the birds.

Kokkrebellur - Spot Billed Pelican Nesting

The village is located 800 metres to the west of the Shimsa River. The area in the vicinity of the village offers large water bodies in the form of several large tanks such as the Tailur Kere, the Maddur Kere and the Sole Kere that sustain food needs of the pelicans and other birds. The village setting at Kokkrebellur has nesting trees in the form of Ficus (Ficus religiosa, Ficus bengalensis) and Tamarind (Tamarindus indica) trees.

The spot-billed pelicans are protected by law in India and also in several other countries of the region (Sri Lanka, China, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos) to avert threats in the form of tree felling for agricultural purposes. A community-based project has been established to perpetuate historical links of the pelicans with the villagers. There is a rescue pen looking after those chicks which have fallen down from the nests and abandoned by the parent birds subsequently. They are fed with fish and their health taken care off until they grow enough to fly off.

Kokkrebellur - Shielding the young from heat

Kokkrebellur is not a reserved forest sanctuary but is a small village where the storks and pelicans coexist freely, mostly in tamarind trees in the middle of the village, in total harmony with the villagers. Consequently, reports indicate increased nestling activity in recent years. Kokkrebellur has the distinction of increasing its Spot-billed Pelican population by more than double in recent years. Since the houses and the nests are so crowded together, taking a good photograph of a nest without disturbing the villagers and the birds was difficult. View is also obstructed as the tamarind trees cover most of these nests. There must have been over 3-4000 birds in such a small village.

Kokkrebellur - Gullet filled with fish for the young ones

When we reached the village it was around 10:30 AM. Light was quite harsh already. Birds were away fishing at the nearby Shimsha River. I could get very few good photos. There were quite a few village kids who were enthusiastic in showing us the birds around. After the whole trip around the village I found the real cause of enthusiasm was love of the gifts given by the visiting tourists. I had few biscuits to share with them, but that didn’t satisfy their hunger as they started demanding for more especially for pens with us!. Somehow slowly escaped from them to I head back to the main road towards Mysore where I was staying that night.

Kokkrebellur - Chick grabbing fish from the throat

This is one of those innumerable spots on the Bangalore – Mysore highway which can be easily overlooked if you are not aware of this place. A blushing signboard on the highway which often hides its face from the traveling vehicles doesn’t help the matters either. The place is 75 km from Bangalore and 12 km from the highway. After Channapatna, go towards Maddur. Before Maddur, is a village Rudrakshipura. It is just before the BPL factory. Take a left turn here and Kokkrebellur is another 12 km on this muddy village road.

Kokkrebellur - Hoopoe on the wall

The best time to see the pelicans is in January to March. The place is not a sanctuary, and the storks and pelicans live freely in the trees in the middle of village and are quite used to their human neighbors. Mysore Amateur Naturalists (MAN) have been working with the inhabitants of village to preserve the nesting site of the spot billed pelicans, which are an endangered species. Sans the storks, Kokkrebelluru is not exactly a tourist’s paradise as there is nothing much to explore. If you haven’t had your fill of birds, you can try Ranganathittu bird sanctuary as well, where you get to see an amazing variety of birds.

Somanathpura Front View

During my last trip around Mysore I wanted to explore Chennakeshava temple of Somanathapura. I was traveling light with just Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L USM Lens on Canon EOS 7D. being 1.6x crop camera it was not really giving me the ultra wide view but a normal zoom view of 25-56 mm at f/2.8. I also had my 70-200mm in case I wanted to shoot tele. I also carried 1.4x tele-converter with which I can extend my reach to 340mm range. This is my compact travel setup. Since it was a family holiday trip I did not want my photography overburdening them.

Somanathpura Front View

Somnathpura is a scaled down version of the magnificent and grandiose Chennakeshava temple at Belur. It is serene, uncrowded, under rated, and very well maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India.

Somanathpura Side view

The most stunningly carved stone temple dedicated to Keshava was built here in A.D.1268, by Somanatha Dandanayaka, an illustrious General of the Hoysala king Narasimha III (1254 – 1291 A.D.). The village is hence named Somnathpura after the general.A stone tablet stands inside the temple main gate contain inscriptions in ancient Kannada script containing details of about the construction of the temple as well as details of grants for maintenance.

Somanathpura Sculptures

It is the one of the grandest temples of Hoysala architecture and apart from a shrine dedicated to Lord Keshava, there are two more shrines on either side of Keshava shrine dedicated to Venugopala and Janardhana. The three shrines together are known as Trikutachala and are interconnected. Even though it resembles other famous Hoysala temples of Belur and Halebid, this is the only major Hoysala temple with intact Vimana left. Both the temples of Belur & Halebid had lost that.

Somanathpura Sculptures

Somnathpur is 32 kms from the Bangalore – Mysore highway main road (SH 18), one has to take a left turn driving from Bangalore towards Mysore (Signboard is there stating the name and distance) the road condition is average; narrow with thin traffic and occasional patches of potholes and unmettaled portions. From Mysore, take the Bannur road. Somnathpura is less than 10km from Bannur. It should take just a half hour from Mysore.

Intricately Designed Pillars

The east facing temple stands out like a marvel against the backdrop of an ordinary village. It stands on middle of a walled compound encircled by a verandah with 64 cells which once housed 64 idols which were transported by British to their museum during their rule. Now Archaeological Survey of India is restoring these structures which are in a dilapidated state.

Intricately Designed Pillars

The temple is a piece of exquisitely carved architecture on stone, the garden around the temple is pretty well maintained. The outside walls of the main temple is covered with intricately carved out figures in stone, scenes from Ramayanas, Krishnas life, Vishnu, Narasimha with Lakshmi, incarnations of Vishnu, Goddesses like Lakhsmi and Saraswati, scenes of daily life people, Scenes of war, riding on horse & elephant. There are 194 images in all and around 40 of them have been carved by master sculptor Mallitamma. The other sculptors who worked in this temple were Ballayya, Chaudayya, Bharmayya, Kamayya and Nanjayya etc. These are the very few Indian examples of signature of sculptors on these sculptures.

Janardhana

The stone used for temple is chlorite schist which is a type of soft variety of soapstone. Soapstone is largely composed of the mineral talc and rich in magnesium. A unique property of soapstone very useful in making sculptures is that it is initially soft when under the ground and hardens gradually over the years when exposed to the atmosphere. Therefore, during the time of building the temple, fresh soapstones were used to ease the carving process. They hardened in course of time.

Venugopala

The Temple is built up on a raised platform consisting of a 36-pointed star base. The outer walls are divided into different layers the lower layer contains the scenes of daily life like people riding elephants etc while the middle ones contains exquisitely curved gods and goddesses. Some of these idols are damaged (like broken arms etc). The three garbha grihas / sanctum sanctorum have carved Vimana or towers. The grilled windows are carved intricately in stone and the outer wall has panels of elephants, plants, flower creepers, gods and goddesses, scenes depicting Ramayana and Mahabharatha. All the three shrines have a 16 pointed stellate (star-shaped) design and their towers follow the same pattern. Hence the whole structure looks like a rhythmic progression of well decorated projections and recesses. The number of points make the towers look circular.

Ceiling Depictions Of Banana Bud Motifs

In side the main temple there are three sanctums of Keshava, Janardhana and Venugopala. The Main Idol of Keshava is missing and replaced by another Vishnu idol of Hoysala style from nearby village. The idols have been made very beautifully with immense attention on ornaments, body posture and other aspects. These are one of the very few sculptures in the whole temple that have their noses intact. A sad but common feature seen in the temple is that the noses of most of the forms have been chipped out by the invaders during the 1311 A.D and 1326 A.D muslim invasions. It is said that their plan was to render the temple an inactive one because generally Hindu deities which have been damaged are not worshiped. Hence no pooja is performed in the temple. Even the animal forms have not been spared by the invaders. Trunks of elephant etc. which show power have also been truncated.

Ceiling Depictions Of Sacred Knot

The inner hall has carved designed pillars and a beautiful ceiling. The ceilings, the pillars, the doors and the idols are exquisitely carved and a sight to behold. The pillar outside the temple is a huge lamp post which used to guide neighboring villagers about the location of the temple more like a light house beacon.

Star platform

There is a red little post box hanging on a big tree in side the temple campus with a notice that the letters posted there will get a special cancellation mark of the temple.

Intricate Sculptures

Travel tips: Reach early to the temple so that you can avoid loads of tourists who land there at around 10AM onwards. Also the sun heats up the rock and walking barefooted is painful or wear thick socks as one has to leave his shoes outside the main gate. Carry torchlight for viewing the designs inside the temple.

Vimana

Intricate Side panels

Intricate Sculptures

Intricate Sculptures

Grilled windows are carved intricately in stone

Somanathpura Gopuram

Somanathpura Gopuram

Vishnu with Signature of Sculptor

Ship Wreck HDR

There is a wrecked ship lying in The Gurpur River near Tannir Bavi, Mangalore. Locals claim it was wrecked during the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. It provided me a very nice opportunity to test the new version of Photomatix Pro 4 software. Even though Adobe Photoshop has now built in HDR function, Photomatix is one of my favorite HDR software.

High dynamic range imaging (HDRI or just HDR) is a set of techniques that allow a greater dynamic range of luminance between the lightest and darkest areas of an image than current standard digital imaging techniques or photographic methods. The human eye can perceive scenes with a very high dynamic contrast ratio, Human eye sees more than 15 stops with a contrast up to 16384:1. Adaptation is achieved in part through adjustments of the iris and slow chemical changes, which take some time (e.g. the delay in being able to see when switching from bright lighting to pitch darkness). At any given time, the eye’s static range is smaller, around 10,000:1. In contrast digital photographs, color negatives and slides consist of multiple film layers that respond to light differently. Most digital camera sensors have 11 stops of light with a contrast of 2048:1. To obtain High dynamic range we need to resort to High dynamic range imaging technique.

Ship Wreck HDR

I used my Canon EOS 5D mark II with Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L USM Lens to take this photograph. I shot three bracketed shots with 2 stop exposure variation between the shots. So one shot was 2 stops under exposed than the normal exposure, second shot was correctly exposed and third was 2 stop over exposed. I fed these 3 shots into Photomatix through Adobe Lightroom using the new Adobe Lightroom plugin. After going through the Photomatix it produced a 32 Bit file which I did tone mapping to my taste. After developing in tone mapping process of Photomatix it was imported back to Lightroom as 16 bit Tif file. I exported the correct exposure file and the HDR file to Photoshop to remove the ghosting artifact. Once corrected I re-imported back to Lightroom.

Ship Wreck HDR

I would recommend any HDR enthusiast to refer to the invaluable HDR website along with very informative tutorials by Trey Ratcliff called Stuck In Customs. It has given me several insights, tips and methods to improve on my HDR photos.