Biodiversity notes       -Anahi

23 May, 2026

My first visit to the farm at Jonaki took place on the cool, cloudy Saturday morning of the 23rd of May, 2026. I took an introductory round around the plot with Bhaswati aunty and Krishanu uncle, the ground cover still damp at 8:00am with dew from the previous night. 

Some of my initial observations:

• Horseherb, Calyptocarpus vialis, made up most of this ground cover, identifiable by its small pale yellow flowers. It is considered a resilient, low-maintenance lawn alternative to leaving the ground bare, preventing the takeover of other rampant species. 

• Big flowers blooming hibiscus red, cosmos orange and periwinkle purple greeted us at the entrance, as did smaller, delicate pink wineflowers (Boerhavia diffusa) and other wildflowers, at greater risk from unknowingly being stamped on where they grew to a low ankle-height. 

• Large chikoo and papaya trees were fruiting in plenty in the centre of the plot, surrounded by flowering insulin plants, and fragrant thai basil (Ocimum bacilicum) and rosemary (Salvia rosmarinus) bushes, abuzz with pollinators. 

• The thai basil patch is a popular hotspot for bees, with multiple blue cloak-and-dagger bees (Thyreus sp.) circling around the top. Interestingly, like other solitary bees, males rest at night by tightly clamping their jaws or legs to a plant stem, allowing their bodies to dangle mid-air. 

• A group of paper wasps (likely Ropaldia cyathiformis) laboured over the construction of a small nest on the broad leaf of a chikoo tree. Other than their role on farms as active pollinators, paper wasps are also ecologically important due to their ability to act as efficient natural pest controllers, hunting other insects to feed their larvae. 

• Many trees on the farm were laden with fruits still too juvenile to be harvested - mulberry, avocado, custard apple and lemon, to name a few; others in the back were abundant with ripe fruit ready to be picked - starfruit, mango and sour-sop, for example. 

• I noted the difference in vegetation growing along the fence with great interest - the presence of creepers like ivy gourd (Coccinia grandis) that required climbing support; saplings of sandalwood (Santalum sp.), that cannot be propagated unless by natural dispersal by birds, likely due to the proximity of a perch (the fence) for birds to sit; and large black-and-white snail shells and plants bearing evidence of having been eaten by snails by the fence bordering a dense, wild plot of land. 

After a couple hours of observing and photographing the plant and insect diversity at Jonaki, we sat down to discuss some of these observations and the practices and decisions that went behind maintaining the land. 

• Chop-and-drop, for instance, was a permaculture gardening technique employed on the land, in which pruned plant material and fallen produce were left on the ground where they were felled to decompose and act as mulch. This was observed to have protected plants from drying out in the summer months, a phenomenon that was observed on other plots of land in the area where the ground was left bare.

•  “Living mulch” was another practice I learned about - the planting of low-growing, beneficial crops alongside primary crops, to act as living ground cover. I also learned about the intention behind the deliberate planting of perennial (plants that live for more than two years) over annual (plants that complete their life cycle within a year) species for easier and sustainable maintenance of the land and farm ecosystem. 

• As the cloudy morning progressed, brightening into sunnier skies, butterflies fluttered about the garden, including a common jezebel (Delias eucharis) and a rose (Pachliopta sp.) species.

20 June, 2026

Butterfly and other pollinator activity at Jonaki in the Thai basil-rosemary patch was busy right from our entrance into the plot, with initial sightings of a lime swallowtail (Papilio demoleus), common gull (Cepora nerissa), and lemon emigrant. I took a round of the overgrown garden to make note of any changes since my last visit:

• Two empty shells of African giant snails (Lissachatina fullica) lay in the vicinity of each other right behind the tent, by the boundary wall where snails could usually easily be found. 

• Orange cosmos was brightly flowering during this visit, with a variety of yellow cosmos also blooming inside the area sealed off by a net to prevent peacock attacks on vegetables being grown. Trees fruiting included: guava, chikoo, avocado, jackfruit, custard apple, mango, starfruit and papaya, with only the fruits of the last three being ripe enough to pick.

• Seven new saplings were introduced to different parts of the land, each with different traditional/medicinal/decorative uses: 

  • Pirandai (Cissus quadrangularis)

  • Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana)

  • Spearmint (Mentha spicata)

  • Patharchatta (Bryophyllum pinnatum)

  • Citronella geranium (Pelargonium ‘citrosum’ graveolens)

  • Changing rose (Hibiscus mutabilis)

• A lime blue (Chilades lajus) butterfly was photographed resting with its wings slightly spread on a citrus plant.

• Other invertebrate activity observed in the hotspot near the Thai-basil and rosemary patch included a large colourful potter wasp buzzing around the Thai basil blossoms, a large brown mantis holding and eating a grasshopper trapped in its jaws, and an Indian green lynx spider (Peucetia viridana) climbing a Thai basil stalk holding its egg sac. 

• Birds recorded on Merlin: common tailorbird, red-whiskered bulbul, Asian koel, purple-rumped sunbird, rose-ringed parakeet, coppersmith barbet, pale-billed flowerpecker, common myna, white-throated kingfisher.