Nature Watch Series for Dehradun Live Hindustan Times by Sanjay Sondhi Published on 11 August 2017 The Kan Khajura Amongst the most common creatures seen near our home in this season is the millipede. I see numerous types of millipedes, some black, some brown, and others that are chestnut coloured. Seeing the millipedes reminds me of a story that was related to me during one of my visits to the hills in Uttarakhand. The local guide with me started to tell me about a creature that they called the “Kan Khajura”. I asked the local lad to describe the creature, and figured out that he was referring to millipedes or centipedes. Finally, during the walk, he excitedly beckoned to me, and showed me a “Kan Khajura”. Indeed, it was a millipede. The guide told me that the creature was very dangerous, and it often entered the ears of people, biting them, and causing a great deal of pain. I asked the lad “Kya aapne aisa dekha hai?” (Have you seen this yourself?), and he promptly replied in the negative. “Maine sirf suna hai ki aise karte hain” (I have heard that they do this!). I was very skeptical about his response. For one, millipedes don’t bite, and are quite harmless. The bite of a centipede can be quite painful, but why would these creatures enter people’s ears remained a mystery to me. In villages, many people still sleep on the ground, and wandering terrestrial creatures such as the millipede or a centipede, could, I suppose, enter a person’s ear by mistake! Not satisfied with these explanations, I decided to Google for images of centipedes or millipedes in a human’s ear. Expectedly, there were hardly any images showing Kan Khajura in a human ear. My own personal view that the Kan Khajura story is one of those rural legends that passes from one person to another, with only the tiniest element of the truth! For the most part, millipedes are harmless. On my morning walks, I see them regularly on walls, on the ground and in crevices. Centipedes, which can bite, are less commonly seen, being mostly nocturnal. Millipedes typically have cylindrical bodies and two pairs of legs per body segment, while centipedes have flat bodies with one pair of legs on each body segment. Most millipedes are detritivores, which means that they feed on dead and decaying vegetative matter, and play a crucial role in decomposing organic matter. Centipedes are carnivores, and feed on whatever soft-bodied prey they can catch. They have a pair of claws near their mouth, through which they inject venom into their prey. I saw an incredible video on YouTube of a centipede attacking and devouring a frog, which was much larger than the centipede. Both these creatures play their own very role in the web of life, and entering a human’s ear is definitely not one of those roles! Feedback on this column is welcome at sanjay.sondhi1@gmail.com

Photograph caption: Kan Khajura in our garden © Sanjay Sondhi