A ‘pink bloom’ phenomenon is drawing tourists to this Kerala village, but there is a caveat

A village in Kerala has been witnessing a surge in tourist footfall amid the pandemic due to a peculiar reason—an invasive aquatic plant that has lent a scenic attraction to this otherwise non-descript location.
Spread over a vast area in Kozhikode’s Avala Pandi near Perambra, this pink flowering plant, which belongs to the family of Cabomba furcata, has attracted widespread interests among social media users. It is locally known as ‘mullan payal’.
Due to a steady surge in the number of tourists, several small-scale vendors have turned up in the area to earn some money out of this ‘pink bloom’ phenomenon. The location has also emerged as a pitstop for several candidates running for the upcoming local body polls in the state, canvassing for votes.
Botanist Dr. P Dileep told i.e. Malayalam that the plants belonging to the family of.
He, however, sounded a word of caution. “Although these invasive plants appear attractive, they pose a serious threat to water bodies,” Dr P Dileep said, pointing out that they may be from aquarium escapes. He also attributed the scale of the growth to the Covid pandemic, reasoning that fewer people may have stepped into the narrow canals, leading to its sprawling growth.
This phenomenon was first spotted in Avala Pandi last year, but did not turn out to be this visually appealing.

Red Snow

The phenomenon of“red snow” or “watermelon” has been observed over the last few weeks around Ukraine’s Vernadsky Research Base, off the coast of Antarctica’s northernmost

The snow is red because of a red-pigmented, microscopic algae called Chlamydomonas nivalis chlamydomonas, which thrives in freezing water as the ice melts.

This phenomenon has been known since ancient times but now it raises concerns about climate change.
Aristotle is believed to be one of the first to give a written account of red snow, over 2,000 years ago. He attributed the redness of the snow to the colour of worms and grub (larva of an insect), which are found in long-lying snow.
According to modern-day scientists, it is an algae species, Chlamydomonas nivalis chlamydomonas which exists in the snow in the polar and glacial regions and carries a red pigment to keep itself warm.
Algae contain chlorophyll (green pigment) as well as a red carotene layer in their cells which mixes with the green colour to cause snow to look like “raspberry jam”.
This layer is also said to protect the algae from ultraviolet radiation.
These algae change the snow’s albedo (the amount of light or radiation the snow surface is able to reflect back).
The intensity of the redness increases with the dense presence of the algae. The darker tinge leads to more absorption of heat by the snow. Subsequently, the ice melts faster.
The melting is good for the microbes that need the liquid water to survive and thrive but it is bad for already melting glaciers.