Urban Wilderness Walk - Thiruvanmyur

29th August '21

In July this year, MNS launched a project called Urban Wilderness Walks, an internship for college students, with the goal of creating more nature educators in the city, and creating a kind of snowball effect for increasing connect to urban wilderness in the city of Chennai.  Spearheaded by Yuvan and  Kalpana, it is an amazing initiative.

Kalpana explained in the MNS bulletin -   

"The internship was begun with the aim of creating a community around biodiversity appreciation and study through training people in planning and conducting periodic urban wilderness walks in their neighbourhoods. The 27 interns, mainly from two womens’ colleges in Chennai - Stella Maris College and Womens’ Christian College - attended field sessions at Perungudi and Kotturpuram Urban Forest and participated in activities curated by M. Yuvan as part of their training module. For easy identification of common urban fauna, each intern received a copy of Preston Ahimaz’s “A Guide to Some Urban Fauna of India” as well as the Field Guide for identifying Common Birds, published by NCF.

As a first step the interns checked out their residential localities from the perspective of conducting wilderness walks, chose a suitable trail for the walk and invited people to participate in the walk. Inspired by Yuvan’s activity sheets they designed their own to suit the chosen trail and surroundings. The result - delightful activity sheets and unique activities formulated to engage the walk participants. Fun activities were created and implemented – estimating the age of trees by measuring tree girth, colouring insects and birds on activity sheets, drawing leaf shapes, drawing food chains, urban flora and fauna bingo, identifying birds through calls, making bird sounds, enacting commonly observed behaviour of animals, checklists for biodiversity observed on particular trees, open ended questions...the list goes on......."

This hybrid orientation - online and offline - culminated in a series of walks by the interns in their areas - Pallikaranai, Velachery, Thiruvanmiyur, Adyar, IITM, Mandaveli, Royapettah, Triplicane, St. Thomas Mount, Washermanpet, Madhavaram, Perambur, Ayanavaram, Mugappair, Aminjikarai, Kolathur, Virugambakkam, K.K. Nagar, Ambattur and Avadi.....  I attended the one conducted by Keerthana in Thiruvanmyur, along Kuppam Beach Road.  

Each of the interns made lovely little posters like this one on the left that I received.   

The previous night we had heavy rain, and it was a slushy walk to the starting point which was near Bhavani medai.  It was a small group that started the walk.

It is the end of August and the "Mayflowers" are in bloom, I loved the colours on this one, all washed and bright.  It is unsurprising that the British brought this tree in, so attractive and graceful.  As we were finishing our walk, we also saw one that had fallen in the overnight rain - the shallow roots once again evident.

My big learning was the approximation of a tree's age - Four feet from the ground, measure the girth in centimetres and divide by 2.5!  This Rain Tree near the fish market, was around 90 years old, then! As old as my father!

My next discover was courtesy Usha, who added to the walk with a small detour into Teachers Colony and and ancient Shiva temple there.

What caught my immediate attention was a fig species tree, growing all over and into the temple wall.

The Shiva temple houses the samadhi of Siddhar Bala Ramalinga Nathar who used to worship here, centuries ago.  It is all bricked and plastered now, so it was difficult to imagine its antiquity.  There was a lovely Nandi as well.

Took a picture of the leaves of this fig, which was not a Peepul.  Was it the Rock fig - Kallala tree?  I doubt it, as the edges are not wavy and nor are the veins pink. More like Icchi maram, or Talbot Fig?

The roots below and the temple were supporting this enormous canopy above.

In the compound was the second ancient tree - a Peepul - that we measured, and this emerged as 110 years of age! It was a glorious sight, since it had grown unfettered and unimpeded, with a uniform all-round canopy.

I learned about murungai "Pisin" or the resin from the bark - supposedly a widely used herbal remedy for stomach ailments

The Murungai trees on the road were in fruit, in abundance!

A small roadside guava was in flower too

We continued up Balakrishna road- with its Australian Acacia trees and Bauhinias.  We saw a bunch of sparrows flitting through the trees, a few sunbirds, heard a Koel and some red vented bulbuls. A screechy parakeet flypast up above too.

Cotton stainer bugs species scurried in the undergrowth as also large black ants.

We turned west on First Seaward road, and saw the beautiful Jamun trees.  Of course the area is dotted with Neem trees as well.

It was an interesting and enjoyable morning, and we parted ways, wishing Keerthana all the best for her future walks as well. As  Usha and I made our way home, we were filled with positive energy, as a morning walk is bound to do.  Never mind the sweat of course!