Hear the Western Ghats

It was the desire to collect sounds from the mountain range older than the Himalayas which led to an unusual recording project Ears to the Ground born out of pandemicinduced restlessness explores the sounds of the Western GhatsldquoAs sound artistes we are constantly looking for new palettes of sound to work withrdquo says Sanaya Ardeshir who cocurated and codirected this project ldquoI wanted to move out of the obvious choices and explore a way to integrate space and sound to create something meaningfulrdquo Her colleague Krishna Jhaveri oversaw sound mixing and codirected the project The Mumbaibased musicians recognise themselves as music producers sound artistes and composersClutching to the idea of decoding sounds they plotted a map across Maharashtra and then all the way to Kerala but ended up in Tamil Nadu ldquoThe initial idea was to record the sounds of lsquowild spacesrsquo but that eventually expanded to include stories and conversations with people we met for whom the Western Ghats is homerdquo says ArdeshirThey hid recorders to capture the sounds of rain wind bees chainsaw animalshellip everythingThese interviews reveal their relationship to the sounds around them and how they have changed over the years with some disappearing altogether ldquoThe soundscape is changing quite drasticallyrdquo says Jhaveri ldquoWe donrsquot hear the sounds we used to a few years ago and we hear new sounds that we never did beforerdquo he adds This was a recurring theme from several of their conversations These include the sound of wind water trees or human interaction and occupation or vocalisation of other species ldquoOne of the obvious ones is the changing pattern of rainfallrdquo says Jhaveri Through one interview they were able to collect data about the rainfall in the past 70 years ldquoThe quantum of rain hasnrsquot changedrdquo says one of the speakers in theinterview ldquoBut the pattern definitely has itrsquos undeniablerdquo The steady constant rainfall that lasted three months has become sporadic with either heavy showers that cause floods or landslides sometimes therersquos a week of sunshine and clear skies in between these calamitiesThe second obvious change is the presence or absence of a particular species of wildlife ldquoPeople reported a langurrsquos call at high altitude which was previously uncommonrdquo continues Jhaveri ldquoThe jackal which was quite common in the area cannot be heard anymore So there are some significant changes in the environment which are reflected by the changes in the soundscaperdquo The langurrsquos climb to higher regions indicates that the water in lower areas its usual habitat has dried up and it has climbed up in search of another source This should worry wildlife enthusiastsldquoSome people heard chainsawsmdashwhich can indicate deforestationrdquo says Jhaveri ldquoHowever conservation is also underway Restoration is also underway Changemdashboth positive and negativemdashis taking place on multiple levels but the human footprint is ubiquitousrdquo Hidden recording devices captured owls hooting bees buzzing frogs croaking crickets and birds chirping rainfall and the sound of humans tapping fruits to check if they are ripeldquoOur mind was blown by how biodiverse and rich the soundscapes were Itrsquos startling for those like us who live in cities like Mumbairdquo says Ardeshir ldquoFor us activated listening is the piece sitting at the centre of the whole project not conservation We are not environmentalists but we do have decades of experience in working with soundrdquo The 33yearold is also the brain behind the popular electronic outfit Sandunes The duo calls their interactive immersive website a ldquolistenerrsquos imaginariumrdquoldquoWe believe in the potential of interacting deeply with sound as a mechanism to push against a pervasive visually dominated culture It can be deeply transformationalrdquo both say in turns ldquoThis is something we are both passionate aboutrdquoPart one of the series is up on SoundCloud ears2thegroundorg as a 19minute audio clip In the last week of August they also held an offline interactive and informative session at a venue in Bandra Theyrsquove set their eyes or rather ears on the Nilgiris next and hope to employ field recordings recording techniques bioacoustics and indigenous listening