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Krish Ashok

17 Sep, 9 tweets, 2 min read

What connects the customary late afternoon/early evening rain in Bengaluru and the Nepenthes fly-trapping pitcher plant? It’s Madagascar. Intrigued? Thread...

Around 120 million years ago, the Indian landmass parted ways with the Antarctic and Australian landmass. And around 88 million years ago, a giant underwater volcanic eruption called the Marion hotspot occurred, and it went on for 2 million years.

What is today the Western Ghats in India was originally a wider mountain range that literally split down the middle like a zipper during this eruption and this is how Madagascar separated from the Indian landmass.

Look closely at the coastline of Madagascar and you will see that it fits rather snugly with the western coast of India. The Central Highlands of Madagascar is the western side of the larger mountain range that split into two during this cataclysmic event

The fact that Madagascar and India were once part of the same landmass is evident from a lot of shared flora and fauna. The fly-trapping pitcher plant (Nepenthes), for instance, is found rather uniquely in Madagascar and India, as is the Drosera (Sundew) plant. Also, chameleons.

And this brings us to the 30km gap in the Western Ghats called the Palakkad gap. It fits in like a jigsaw puzzle with the Angavo entrapment in the Madagascar highlands. This gap is said to have been created during the separation of Madagascar and India.

So, during the day, when the sun heats up Bengaluru, which sits 900m above sea level on the Mysore plateau, it creates a low-pressure zone, and moist air from the Arabian sea whooshes through this 30 km Palakkad gap and it does 2 things.

It delivers a cool late afternoon mist in Ooty and drops the rest of its water load on Bengaluru. So, this is why Bengaluru gets its customary near-daily late afternoon shower. The Palakkad gap. And Madagascar

@rameshnair

PS: More fauna connections. The only other place where Kerala’s famous backwater fish Karimeen is found is…Madagascar thehindu.com/society/Fishin… (via @rameshnair)

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