Kaas: The wonderland

Among the hills of Sahyadri near Satara, lies the plateau of Kaas. Every year during the month of September and early October it transforms into carpet of wild flowers. Such a spectacular display can only be experienced by visiting this place in person. No amount of words and photographs can bring out the real beauty of Kaas. Still this article is my attempt to frame the nature's spectacle at Kaas. 

The plateau of Kaas is situated just 23 kms from the city of Satara. The road from Satara to Kaas is nice tarmac, which runs through valleys and open meadows. Many spots along this road provides grand view of the Sayhadris. This plateau turns a botanists and nature lovers delight towards the later part of the monsoon. More than 300 species of wild flowers, herbs, shrubs, orchids and insectivorous plants can be seen during this time. 

Its been three years since I first visited Kaas. I fell in love with it at first sight and haven't missed any opportunity to visit it since then. It is really hard to describe the impact it creates when you first see the vast expanse of colourful flowers. I was fortunate to witness the blooming of Topli Karvi in my first visit itself, which blooms once in every seven to eight years. Well my first visit was a short one and I could spend only couple of hours at the plateau. But I knew I will be visiting this place again and again.

Over the year I have seen many outstanding pictures from Kaas. And no wonder that majority of them were flower macros. Surely its an amazing place to do the macro photography. I find this place extremely challenging for photography. It is one of those places where there is no dearth of subjects but probably one will run out of own's creativity. I found it really hard to come up with pictures which will do some justice to this spectacle and reproduce the impact this place makes on one's mind when witnessed in person. Right from the day one, I choose landscapes over macros as my primary format to portray Kaas. However the tiny insectivorous species like Sundew or Dew Drop plant (Drosera Burmanni  and Drosera Indica) are best presented only in a macro format.

As per the available literature, the name Kaas could have been derived from the local plant called Kasa or the goddess Kasani. The plateau is predominantly made up of laterite, a porous mineral rich rock formation, with little to no soil over it. Thus it hardly supports any bigger vegetation apart from plants like grass, shrubs and herbs. The yellow Sonaki and Smithia, pink Terda or Balsam , blue Bladderwort are among the few which dominates the plateau. It is worth visiting plateau multiple times during Monsoons.

The presence of water bodies like Kaas Lake and back waters of Koyna dam brings in rich avifuna to the plateau. Several bird species can be sighted at plateau and areas in its proximity during peak birding season. In terms of birding, one can commonly see owls, eagles, harriers, shikra, oriental turtle doves, quails, flyctachers, shrikes  and other commoners. Dr. Shotri's book 'Kaas: The Plateau of Flowers' gives detail listing of birds and flowers seen at the plateau along with a wonderful account and information about Kaas and near by area. 

Below are few more pictures which I would like to share though I already mentioned that its hard to do any justice with the true beauty of kaas.