The Geo-Wizz

Konkan, Maharashtra, India

It's the paddy growing season in this fertile coastal plain of Maharashtra. As you travel on the Mumbai-Goa highway right now, you'll come across this amazing process that has been a mainstay of the Konkan economy since historical times.

Paddy is a unique crop - it is first grown closely in nurseries and then transplanted in fields once it grows to a certain height. Transplantation can only be undertaken when the fields are flooded with rainwater. It is not an irrigated crop in this part of India.

Yet, due to uncertain monsoons in recent years, farmers are increasingly using underground water to ensure that transplantation is successful.

Paddy cultivation is a labour and animal intensive type of farming as machines are of no use on these small farms.

⬅️ Swipe left to see the stages of paddy cultivation.

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Jogale, Jalgaon, Dapoli

Konkan, you are beautiful in all seasons, but more so in the monsoons! A relatively unexplored area - worth a friendly visit in the monsoons. So many places to see, so many trails to explore, so many natural processes to observe. Konkan is rapidly changing - from sloping roof topped individual houses to brick and cement buildings; paddy fields converted to resorts and shopping malls; forested hills to bungalow plots - it's all changing. As the albedo changes, Konkan will experience the 'Urban Heat Island Effect', greatly affecting it's agrarian economy. Already, a bulk of Konkan's population is shifting from primary to secondary sectors of employments. With farming in decline, land grabbing continues in this pristine, fertile coastal belt.

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If you see the world as a geographer, you will observe the birds and insects dependent on trees, the aquatic species dependent on the wetlands and bogs, the intrinsic value of fresh air, unpolluted waters and fertile soil. You will see the worth of everything that the Earth has to offer, for what it does for the planet rather than just for humans.

Observations and interpretations often depend on your prior knowledge and the way in which you contextualise it.

As an economist, you are bound to look a polluting factory closing down in a part of the world as a lost opportunity for local employment.

As an environmentalist, though, it would be simply be a great victory for the Earth!

As a human being, it is important that we look at a phenomenon from different perspectives - natural, political, economic, geological, cultural, etc.

Only then can we truly make connections.

That's exactly what Geography helps us in doing!

It gives us a Geography ka Chashma (a geographical lens) 😎

How cool is this!
How many countries are there

Graphic thanks to

✓No copyright infringement intended.

Geography is understood better from the air. 🌍

What do you SEE when you look below when on a flight? 👀

Chances are, that unless you have a 'Geography ka Chashma', you don't see much. 😎

But when you have one, you can actually spot a lot of things that are difficult to imagine when you are on land. 🏞️

Can you see the erosional features on the coastline? The headlands, bays, stacks, stumps, wave-cut platforms?
The depositional landforms like beaches? 🌊

Can you imagine the power of various processes that have influenced the shape of the land that you see beneath?

Nature is immensely powerful - it changes landscape over a long period of time. But so is man. Man has the power to change natural processes over a very short period of time. That is where the problem lies.

Chiplun, Maharashtra, India

The growing town of Chiplun in the Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra is surrounded by the Sahyadris on all four sides.
As a result, it faces an extreme type of temperature inversion during winters. The cold mountain air flows down the valleys and settles in Chiplun during the night. So dense and cold is this air, that even the morning Sun isn't successful in heating it up.
A layer of warm air traps this cold air near the ground and prevents it from escaping above.
The fog that gets created due to this is known as 'Valley fog' or 'Inversion fog'.
It is often hazardous when mixed with pollutants and turns into 'smog' (smoke+fog).

Swipe left to see the power of this fog/smog against the Sun.

Tropical skies and the ocean.
Maldives.
What an alluring combination! Especially in such dark and depressing times, all we can think about is a visit to a tropical paradise with open blue skies and crystal clear water with corals beneath.
Even the memories of this photo, clicked on the last day of our stay in Maldives a few years ago, is super refreshing!



A very interesting thing about this part of the island was that it was an atoll - surrounded by shallow corals - meaning the sea waves didn't really reach the shores. I had never seen such a phenomenon before.

Check out a great bunch of geographical photos that can be used for educational purposes on my shutterstock account! I will be continously updating it. Thanks!

Richa Karve's Portfolio on Shutterstock Richa Karve's Portfolio, featuring high-quality, royalty-free images available for purchase on Shutterstock.

Bogmallo beach, Goa

One of the less explored beaches of South Goa and far away from the maddening crowds. Head to this beach if you want some peace and solitude. It is located very close to the Dambolim Airport.

Konkan, Maharashtra, India

I love this ideal looking, typical Konkan village that is seen while travelling towards Dapoli. Sloping roofs, with tiles made of red earth; typical of the Konkan area which is rich in laterite stone. They are a characteristic feature of the Konkan coastal belt which receives very heavy to heavy rainfall during the four months of South-West Monsoon season.

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-43244856

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