Hampi, capital city of the erstwhile Vijaynagar empire is a place of very high historical significance. Hampi is also home to a wide variety of wildlife, that many are quite oblivious to, as, understandably, the architectures and the landscapes of the place garner the complete attention of its visitors.
I tend to visit Hampi at least a couple of times a year. It is a sort of a retreat for me to relax and rejuvenate, if I could say so. The icing on the cake is when you are around people who are like your extended family.
The person I am referring to is none other than the inimitable Pompayya Malemath of Kamalapura. I share a very close bond with Pompayya Malemath, his son Viji and a few of the others there, making the place more like my second home.
Pompayya Malemath’s Eco farm is a wonderful place, the peace, the quiet and the totally lip-smacking food is what I revel in the most when I am there. Apart from these, the place is also great for the amazing variety of bird and macro life. Pompayya has single-handedly created an oasis in the middle of a barren and rocky stretch of land.
During the interludes between venturing out of his farm for indulging in any kind of landscape or wildlife photography, I spend the time walking around his farm. There is always something interesting happening around, one would just need to pause and observe.
Simple things, yet beautiful and definitely worth capturing (cameras we have, need not grow up looking only at the big cats, there is much more for them to see and enjoy 😃 )
On one such walk, I noticed a lovely bee enjoying the sweet nectar of a flower and in return getting smeared by the little flickers of pollen that it carries away to another flower, thus helping in pollination.
Plenty of butterflies were darting around. Noticed this beautiful Common rose…
Common rose is a big, swallow-tailed butterfly, always a pleasure to observe it.
Then, there was this beautiful Common albatross butterfly…
If you look at this image closer, you notice something interesting transpiring. There is a tiny crab spider, a stealthy little one, waiting on the flower for any unsuspecting prey to come within its grasp. This butterfly was perhaps a bit too large for this fella!
When I came across this beautiful dragon fly known as the Common picture-wing, I tried to create a back-lit image to highlight its beautiful wings.
Exploring the flowering plants around, I came across this wonderful crab spider, positioned and awaiting its prey…
There is a lovely fish pond in the farm. This pond is home to a couple of Checkered keelback snakes. One day I noticed one of the individuals out of the water, perhaps for gaining some warmth. As I stood there watching, the snake readjusted its jaws with a big yawn, wow!, that was amazing!
There is so much life here, in this wonderful farm. Heaps of credit to Pompayya Malemath for creating this amazing, self-sustaining piece of forest.
More to come in the further instalments of this series. Hope you enjoyed reading this. Until next time, adios.
Have shared more of my experiences from Hampi here
You can read more about Pompayya Malemath’s Eco Farm here
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Ram
Santhosh