One of my favourite places

One of the most charming places close to home is RV, with the most charming people in it as well.



One of those charming people is Shantharam, and I was delighted to find this in the papers.



Green Valley of Learning - The New Indian Express

The munificent shade provided by the banyan tree could function as the classroom. There is no teacher to guide or shout instructions. There aren’t any books, and no rules. The subject of study is all around—perched on trees, camouflaged in the foliage, some preening themselves while others are screeching and cooing. This is the campus of the Institute of Bird Studies & Natural History, a bird sanctuary in Madanapalle, Andhra Pradesh. Both fall under the aegis of Rishi Valley School.

Aligning itself with founder Jiddu Krishnamurti’s ideology of compassion towards all living beings with his observations on birds, animals and nature being well documented, a six-month correspondence course in ornithology was introduced in 1997, much before the institute was set up in 1999.

“The course is open to people from any background. Although professionals in ecology and conservation are taking advantage of it, the course has attracted a lot of retired people and housewives who are pursuing it as a hobby,” says V Shantaram, director of the institute.  

For students, the Rishi Valley School campus is a practical learning ground with its huge tree cover, bird life and other forms of biodiversity. “Krishnamurti planned to develop a world university, but it fell through. Rishi Valley School was started in 1930 in this remote place with barren surroundings except for a centuries-old banyan tree. Tree plantation followed, gaining momentum in the 80s when the revenue department handed over 150 acres of land to the school on lease for afforestation. With an additional habitat of a percolation point that provided rainwater harvesting, bird life on the campus began to grow,” explains Shantaram.

So what came first, the institute or the bird sanctuary? “The latter,” says Shantaram, the credit for which goes to S Rangaswami, naturalist, author and educator at Rishi Valley School. “In the late 90s, Rangaswami found a dramatic increase in the bird life and decided to conduct a survey. He invited people from other places, which is when I came there,” says Shantaram. “From the 70-80 species found here in 1977, we were able to list 150 species, probably due to the positive changes in the habitat. In 1991, Rishi Valley School was declared a bird preserve.”

The bird preserve may not have become the Institute of Bird Studies and Natural History had Rangaswami decided to move on after authoring his book, Birds of Rishi Valley and Regeneration of their Habitats, in 1994. He introduced a correspondence course in ornithology.

The reins of running the institute was later handed over to Shantaram. “Rangaswami invited me to join and I came here in 1978 as the resident ornithologist. From the 175 species when his book was written, the number has grown to 230, which I have documented,” says Shantaram.

The correspondence course is of six months, with students welcome to come to the institute and observe birds as part of the practical component. Shantaram also teaches at the main school. “Students who are 17 and above can join. Once an eight-year-old boy got through the course, while our oldest student was an 80-year-old lady,” he says.

Students have to answer a question paper after the first three months and another at the end of the course, after which they get a certificate. The course fee is “a minimum donation of `1,000. Upon feedback from students and others, the course syllabus is always up for revision,” says Shantaram. The institute’s mascot is the yellow-throated bulbul, “which is special to south India and is listed as ‘threatened’. We keep seeing it here regularly,” he says.