Mangaluru: 15 years ago, Dr Krishna Mohan and Ashoka Vardhana form Moodbidri bought 15 acres of patta forest land in the Bisile Ghat way to Sakaleshpur from Subramanya in the hopes of preserving the natural habitat in the region. They wanted the land to have no human intervention so as to keep it as immaculate as possible.

The land which they named Ashoka Vana lies is in the midst of thick forests and was hence preserved from being exploited for commercial reasons. Many frog identifications camps and botanical surveys have been conducted to identify the ecological structure of the area. Along with Dr Gururaja KV from Shrishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Bengaluru, many season wise surveys have been done in the area to study the frog species present at the location.

Upon realising the importance of study, a container home (Kappe Goodu) has been setup at the location to provide accommodation on the forest land without disturbing the basic characteristics of the land. “In 2012 we discovered that ‘ Nilgiri Marten’, a very rare mammal, lives in this area. There hasn’t been much study on them and so this container will help the researchers to stay in the forest land and do study on the habitat, behaviors and characteristics of various species of animals present,” said Dr Krishna Mohan.

“We have planning on collaborating with the scientific community and conduct research studies in the land in a way in which it will not disrupt the balance of the forest,” he said.

He mentioned that this land will not be at any point open for any recreational purposes as this is manly for the purpose of nature preservation.

Dr Krishna Mohan from Moodbidiri is a surgeon by profession and a researcher, photographer, photography trainer and environmentalist. Ashoka Vardhana is an eminent writer, scholar and traveler. He is a passionate environmentalist and is currently working in the process of digitalising old books and scripts.  

 Photo credits: 

Anil Shastri

Dr Krishna Mohan