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Millipede assassin bug crawling in the leaf litter of the coffee forest at the Poomaale Estate

In the lush greens of the Western Ghats, an assassin lurked, smartly hiding, looking for its prey, eagerly waiting for a chance to go for the kill. Its black colour with an uncommon highlight of blue – a sign of caution – drew us to it. We approached with calculated steps, careful not to alert it. Finally getting a glimpse of the big, broad bug, we realised that the health of our growing coffee forest was in the segmented hands of this assassin bug – the millipede assassin.

Millipede Assassin – Specialist Predators

Millipede assassin bugs (Ectrichodia crux) fall under a subfamily of assassin bugs (Reduviidae) with over 600 varieties of species. Their name comes from their area of specialisation – preying on millipedes. They are called ‘specialist’ millipede killers because there is no known defence a millipede has towards these big assassin bugs. Therefore, they become one of the few species worldwide that exclusively kill and feed on millipedes for nutrition and survival.

They are broad, distinctive and big assassin bugs with aposematic colouration (colours that repel or caution predators) – often blue, red or yellow. They are black assassin bugs with metallic colour highlights on their broad bodies. The adults can measure up to 22 mm. Their legs are black, segmented and typically longer than other insects. They have wings but prefer crawling.

Residents of the Garden

Usually found in leaf litter, millipede assassins tend to hide behind rocks and among other debris during the daytime and go looking for millipedes at night. They are also attracted to light, so you can often find them frequenting places with artificial lights. As a common garden bug, they can be found in numerous green spaces where millipedes are in significant numbers  – farms, orchards, forests and mangroves.

If you find one in your garden, it’s time to be delighted! Most people are wary of bugs and try to ward them off from their personal spaces. But finding a millipede assassin in your garden means you have a natural pest control system. They can define the health of your garden.

Millipede assassin bug crawling in the lead litter of the coffee forest at the Poomaale Estate

Attack Millipedes and More!

A specialist can be good at other areas too. 

Millipede assassins do more than just feed on millipedes. They have a diverse diet – ants, caterpillars, spiders and more. They approach slowly, attack swiftly and devour unhurriedly. The toxins they release when they strike the prey with their ‘beak’ (proboscis) turn the insides of the prey into a fluid. They then suck the fluid and leave the empty shell. Chemicals released by these millipede assassin bugs to repel predators are strong too. Therefore they predate more than they become prey. Hence they are an exclusively predatory species.

Welcome Them to Your Gardens and Food Forests

The presence of millipede assassins in your gardens and food forests can save you a lot of time and effort that goes into manual pest control. They are attracted to well-lit spaces with elements like rocks and leaves that help them to hide strategically. They also often love to sit on colourful flowers while waiting for their prey. Once a millipede assassin enters your garden, it’s best to leave them on their own as they can bite if provoked. Though their bites are not lethal to humans, they can cause rashes, swelling or itchiness.

Understanding the role of other living beings can help us lead a naturally optimised life. Even the millipede, considered a pest in this case, has a role to fill in the larger ecosystem. Doing our part and letting others do their part is key to an evolving world.

Droughts are common in the rocky lands of the Deccan Plateau. When the monsoons arrive, they fill up the lakes and bring freshness to the environment. But the landscapes, at large, remain dry. At the edges of waterbodies, we often find the most activity happening. One such instance was spotting an Indian flapshell turtle at the Hyderabad Collective at Bodakonda. What was even more surprising was the time of its spotting. A specie that is known to hide or camouflage even in the daytime was found frolicking in the monsoon puddles of the drylands of the Deccan.

How Are Indian Flapshell Turtles Different From The Rest?

The Indian Flapshell Turtle (Lissemys Punctata) is a freshwater turtle commonly found in tropical South Asian Countries like India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and Pakistan. Its identifiers are the femoral flaps that extend from the shell and cover the limbs when the turtle withdraws into its shell. A flapshell turtle can grow up to 370mm in length and live for about 20 years. The oval soft shell of the flapshell turtle is an evolutionary connection to hardshell turtles. The younger ones have circular shells. Their nose resembles a pig’s snout – extended and flat, claws – large and heavy and tail – short.

Homes of Indian Flashell Turtles

The Indian flapshell turtles have a strong affinity for fresh, shallow and stagnant waters of lakes, river streams, ponds, streams and marshes. They can also find their way to irrigation canals and tanks. Waterbody bottoms that are sandy/muddy are preferred by them so that they can burrow into them with ease. The chances of finding them near paddy fields are high as the crop grows in ‘temporary’ wetlands in largely dry regions. They like to be low-key about their presence and often hide in the muddy edges of these water bodies.

Flapshell turtles are terrestrial beings found in the freshwaters of drylands and try to avoid travelling on dry surfaces. Waterhole to waterhole and stream to stream is how they move on drylands to keep themselves hydrated. However, they are highly adaptable beings. They can survive in extreme droughts for about 120-160 days. Even so, they aren’t migrating in nature. Several flapshell turtles are prone to death every year during the dry spell.

Lifestyle of Indian Flapshell Turtles

As reptiles, flapshell turtles are cold-blooded. Hence, they love to bask in the sun with outstretched limbs. But they are also wary and alert of the surroundings and can dive underwater in no time. They can stay subsurface for hours together, quietly camouflaging with the murky edges. Their flat pig-like noses and long necks help them to just come up to the surface of the water from time to time to breathe. Diurnal in nature, they are active during the day. Being part of an already sparse environment, they have evolved into being omnivorous and leave no chance to munch on things from flowers, fruits and grasses to frogs, fish and rodents. This balanced and nutritious diet allows them to remain healthy in harsh weather conditions.

Indian Flapshell Turtle found in the paddy fields of the Hyderabad Collective at Bodakonda Village. It was later rescued and released into a freshwater pond.

Predator That Also Falls Prey

The Indian flapshell turtle not only preys on smaller beings like reptiles and aquatic animals by smartly concealing itself, but can also fall prey to bigger-sized living beings like crocodiles, otters and big cats. The biggest predators, however, are humans. Indian flapshell turtle eggs and meat are a source of food in many South Asian countries, where several are killed and sold for profit every year. Conservation efforts have only increased the prices in the illegal international markets where numerous turtles are sold as pets, food or for their believed medicinal value.

Being a non-migrant species, flapshell turtles are forced to leave their natural habitats due to relentless human interventions like the construction of bridges, dams and the consequent pollution. Even agriculture, excavation and landscape activities often end up destroying their habitats, particularly the nests of eggs. There is no tab on the population of Indian flapshell turtles around the world and the species is categorized as Least Concern (LC) in the IUCN red list. 

The exploitation of the specie can end if we understand its place in the ecosystem and value it for its contribution to enhancing the ecology.

Indian Flapshell Turtle – Keeping Freshwaters Fresh

Every being has a role to play in the ecosystem of life.

Indian Flapshell turtles help keep the aquatic population in check. They feed on smaller snails, insects and even fragments of dead animals, which helps maintain the freshness and health of even stagnant waters (known to be not as fresh). Their contribution hasn’t been overlooked though. Humans have frequently used them for their own benefits too – whether trying to clean highly polluted rivers or open wells.

When natural systems are brought out of their context and enforced for results, they lose meaning. Nature works best when left on its own. The same applies to any living being – from smaller ants to flapshell turtles to big cats to humans. We all fit into a natural cycle of life and death. Letting others do their part is more important than doing what’s not naturally yours.

When it comes to protecting the Indian flapshell turtles, we can start by saving the natural wetlands and entrust their health and maintenance to our freshwater frolickers, for we survive if they do.

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The Western Ghats, one of the eight ‘hottest biodiversity hotspots’ in the world, are home to some unique species. Every walk in the coffee forest of our Poomaale Estate amazes us with bewildering sights of the wildlife of the Western Ghats. During one of the walks, however, when we spotted some bean-filled poop of an animal, we were forced to stop in awe. It was the scat of the Civet cat!

Regular Estate walks at the Poomaale Collective in Coorg

Civet Cats: Natural Coffee Experts!

It’s a mongoose!

It’s a raccoon!

It’s a cat!

Well, it’s none of these! It is a Civet. 

So, Why Are They Called Civet ‘Cats’?

Simply because they have a resemblance to cats – a resemblance that is not just physical but behavioural as well. When threatened, they hiss and spit like cats too. They also resemble mongooses and raccoons. Anyone who is unfamiliar with Civets can easily mistake them for regular cats. Surprisingly, they have no relation to the cat family! Asian Palm Civets (Paradoxurus Hermaphroditus), also called plainly as Civets, belong to the Viverridae family and are close relatives of African Civets, Genets and Lingsangs.

How To Identify a Civet Cat? 

Even though they can be mistaken for cats, raccoons or mongooses, most civet cats can be identified by the black-coloured fur across their faces, almost like they’re wearing a mask! Civets are nocturnal. Like all beings that don’t sleep at night, they have dark rings around their eyes. They have a long, slim body (about 40-70 cm long), a long tail, short limbs, with small and pointy noses and ears. These nocturnal beings cannot be spotted easily though, as they are most active during the inactive human hours – after sunset and before sunrise.

Homes of Civet Cats: Natural Habitats

They are found in Asian and South Asian countries – India, Srilanka, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. In some of these countries, they are also called ‘Toddy Cats’. They love living in the tallest trees in tropical rainforests, coffee plantations, orchards and mangroves. In urban sprawled landscapes, they can also be found galloping in parks and rooftops. They are excellent climbers and like to spend most of the day sunbathing on a treetop. They fancy night shifts, during which the forest floor becomes their playground.

Why Are They Our Natural Coffee ‘Experts’?

For Civets, picking the right coffee beans comes as naturally as pooping!

Civet cats have an unusual and impeccable ability to select only the freshest and sweetest coffee berries to eat. When the coffee bean inside the berry ripens, it imparts a certain smell to the berry. Civet’s sense of smell naturally attracts them to the best coffee fruit, which eventually gives coffee consumers the best coffee beans too! They eat the berries for their fruit and excrete the beans whole.

But coffee fruit is not all that civets like. They are omnivores and hence prefer a large platter – pulpy fruits, rats, seeds, small snakes and insects. Having this balanced diet is essential for their health and well-being.

Civet cat poop with whole coffee beans found at the Poomaale Estate in Coorg

Civets Do More Than Just Picking The Best Coffee Beans

Experts can have more than one area of expertise!

Like any other natural being/element, Civets have a special and unique place in the ecosystem. Civets contribute to the ecology by being ‘seed dispersers’. They eat seeds of various fruits whole and excrete them, improving the forest health. They also act as natural pest controllers by feeding on rats and insects, controlling their population.

World’s Most Expensive Coffee? 

Kopi Luwak is the world’s most expensive coffee. And as you must have already guessed, it is the coffee made from the beans that have been eaten, digested (fully or partially) and defecated by the civet. It is called by a variety of names in Southeast Asian Countries – Civet Cat Coffee (common name), Kape Alamid (Philippines) and Weasel Coffee (Vietnam). The most striking name, however, is ‘Cat poop coffee’. It is extremely valued and in demand in countries like the Philippines and Indonesia. 

What Makes Civet Cat Coffee So Expensive?

Exported at ₹20,000 to 25,000 per kg, Kopi Luwak is in demand worldwide. The extraordinary sourcing of coffee beans is not the only reason for its extraordinary pricing. The unique flavour and scarcity add to the price. When the Civet eats fresh coffee berries, the digestive enzymes in its digestive tract break down the protein present in the coffee bean and eliminate the regular ‘bitterness’ of the coffee, making it mild and smooth in taste. Processing this coffee is also time-consuming, gruelling and labour-intensive. The natural processing by the Civet, followed by meticulous processing by humans makes it a costly deal.

Wild Civet coffee foraged from the coffee forest of Poomaale Estate in Coorg

Is it Safe to Drink Civet Cat Poop Coffee?

In case you are wondering, Kopi Luwak is absolutely safe to consume. The final product is made by harvesting the Civet’s poop. It is then rinsed, made free of berry fragments and dried. Authentic and genuine Kopi Luwak beans are roasted at extremely high temperatures to ensure they are safe to drink. Once the beans are obtained, they are ground and brewed like other speciality coffees.

Civet Coffee: Born Out of Desperation, Now a Luxurious Commodity

Commercial Civet coffee was a product of colonisation. In the 17th century, when the Dutch colonised East Indies (present-day Indonesia), they started growing premium arabica coffee from the seeds they brought along. Later, in the early 19th century, as the Dutch coffee industry in East Indies expanded, they made reforms that stopped native cultivators from growing their own coffee. Out of desperation, the farmers scurried to find a way around the new reforms to make a living. That is when they stumbled upon the Civet’s poop that had undamaged, whole coffee beans. Upon processing it further and making it ready for consumption, they realised it had a superior taste to other coffee variants and started selling the Civet cat coffee at higher prices.

Today, Indonesia is the largest producer of Kopi Luwak in the world. What was once a product of desperation has become a luxury affair – an affair no one needs today.

An Expensive Coffee that Comes at an Even Bigger Cost

Civet Poop Coffee is a natural occurrence and a product of the Civet’s lifestyle. However, this natural ‘product’ is now being excreted out of civets in unnatural ways to meet the world’s demands of consuming ‘premium’ coffee. Commercial Kopi Luwak industries in some Southeast Asian Countries have been known to capture Civets, keep them in undermaintained cages and feed them a highly imbalanced diet of just coffee berries to get the product of their natural selection. However, when the Civets are only fed coffee fruit, their ability to pick the best berries get impaired as they’re forced to consume only one type of food. So Civets end up eating whatever it gets to survive. This highly affects their well-being, leaving them stressed and malnourished.

Civets are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, yet they continue to be exploited by profit-making companies. Once they are released, they tend to die in the wild as their natural immunity weakens. Tourists and consumers are also often misled because of the false labels the companies display. 

So, Is There a Way to Produce and Consume Civet Coffee Ethically?

Several arguments state that there is no way Kopi Luwak can be grown ethically. Sure, business models can be built around the safety and care of the Civet. Several organisations like WAP (World Animal Protection) are closely monitoring the Kopi Luwak trade worldwide, especially the ones that claim to be sustainable and wildly sourced, assessing each step in the process to ensure no harm is done to the Civets. 

We believe that Civet coffee is a gift of nature. And we don’t get gifts every day, do we? When we try to manufacture a gift, we stop treasuring it. The beauty of civet coffee lies in the element of surprise and in its unpredictability. So when we finally are granted this gift, we know better than to reduce it into a chain of profit and loss.

Living in the dense coffee forests of the Western Ghats, we have always been on the lookout for spotting amusing species. In the Poomaale Estate in Coorg, when we found a Common Krait and a couple of Vipers around the manager’s house, amusement was an understated emotion. Sighting two of the big four snakes of India instilled a wave or alert among us. 

With the onset of winter in November, mating season for our lethal mates had begun. As we anticipated more sightings of vipers, kraits and even the Indian cobra, we set to action. To ensure safety, we cleaned the areas around all our living spaces and further advised everyone to wear sturdy footwear while stepping out, especially in the early mornings and late evenings, and use a torch while moving in unlit areas. The presence of these snakes not only gave us a new learning experience but also assured us that our coffee forest was significantly healthy. 

Growing Coffee in the Serpents’ Abode

The most beautiful and unique snakes have been found to dwell in coffee forests, most of which are being converted into commercial coffee plantations today. The unique ecosystem of animals and plant species in a coffee forest provides a fertile ground for snakes to thrive. One can find a wide-ranging species of snakes in a coffee forest – from 10 cm long worm snakes to 7 m long King Cobras. As reptiles, snakes need to regulate their body temperatures and the combination of shade and sunny areas of a healthy coffee forest allows them to do that with ease. In the Poomaale estate, both Arabica (dense shade providers) and Robusta (scattered shade providers) varieties are being grown leading to a thriving snake population.

Malabar Pit Viper sighted in the coffee forests of Poomaale Estate in Coorg

Why You Should Protect the Snakes of Your Coffee Forest

Simply because they keep your coffee forests healthy. 

A variety of snakes are extremely well adapted to coffee plantations from common rat snakes to vipers, kraits and cobras. They prey on several rodents and smaller pests in the coffee plantations. They are mid and top-level predators in coffee forest ecosystems. They form integral members of the food chain and balance the energy flows. 

This unbreakable relationship between snakes and coffee makes us wonder.. Do snakes make coffee plantations their home? Or are we growing coffee in their natural homes?

Spotting Vine Snake in the rainforest of Poomaale Estate in Coorg

Human-Snake Animosity

Over the past few decades, the population of snakes in coffee plantations has been on a decline. One of the main reasons for this is fear among humans and the inability to differentiate between venomous and non-venomous snakes. Killing snakes out of fear and producing commodities like belts or purses has been a common practice. Furthermore, the unnatural/ unsustainable growth of coffee by clearing wetlands and excessive use of pesticides has led to a degradation of their natural habitats. Human-made habitats also attract lizards and rodents upon which snakes largely prey. The boundaries between the habitats of both living beings get blurred.

This only starts a cycle of using more unhealthy systems to control a disturbed ecosystem created by eliminating the required elements and introducing harmful ones. 

Curbing the Conflict

Awareness and Education

The first step to reducing the human-snake conflict is by educating ourselves about the value they bring to the coffee forest ecosystem. Distinguishing between venomous and non-venomous snakes is the first lesson. Among all the snake species, a very small percentage of species are venomous. Even venomous snakes inflict venom through bites only in case of self-defence. Once the team on the ground is well-educated about the nature of snakes in the region, the next step is to take precautions.

Shed skin of the Indian Cobra (Naja Naja) found in the coffee forest of Poomaale Estate in Coorg

Precautions in a Coffee Forest

As soon as we spotted two of the big four snakes at the Poomaale Estate, we started to take strict precautions as Viper and Kraits fall under the venomous category. The safety measures included a thorough cleaning of living areas and surrounds and adequate lighting in and around living spaces. We also advised our team members to wear sturdy footwear while stepping out, especially in the mornings and late evenings. 

Other precautions include keeping essential antidotes in case of emergencies and training our staff to handle encounters with snakes sensitively. Snakes tend to hide in wood piles, hay stacks, bricks, stones and tree holes. Carrying torch lights at all times and carefully inspecting dark areas before entering is extremely important.

Let the Wetlands Flourish

The wetland ecosystems attract a variety of species and house complex interdependent ecological systems. They also act as a breeding ground for these species. Clearing the wetlands to make room for larger amounts of commercial coffee can disrupt the local ecosystem and harm biodiversity. Growing coffee sustainably, without altering the indigenous landscape works in the favour of all life.

Coffee forests and the lives of snakes are codependent. They help each other stay healthy and grow. Being aware of the native snake species, their movement patterns and their behaviour is essential for peaceful coexistence. Coffee forests thrive if they thrive.