Madras Ramblings: Travels along the Thamirabarani - Day 1. Tirupudaimarathur temple and bird conservation centre

Here is our trip report wonderfully summed up by Gayathri. Italicised comments are my additions and can be ignored, as they are usually some frivolous details that are important to me.

THE THAMIRABARANI LANDSCAPE | MNS TRIP REPORT | 17th APRIL to 20th APRIL 2023 | By Gayathri R

The perennial Thamirabarani has significant environmental and cultural importance to southern Tamil Nadu. It is born in Agasthyamalai, also called the Podhigai Hills and is 130 km long. Our aim was to explore Ainthinai in the Thamirabarani region which denotes the five geographical landscapes– Kurinji(mountainous regions), Mullai(forests), Marudam(cropland), Paalai(desert) and Neithal(seashore).

As I was keen on exploring the Tan Porunai (Sangam name for the Thamirabarani) landscape, I quickly hopped on to the trip with MNS. We were a set of 21 people and the journey started on 16th April 2023 with the night train from Chennai to Tirunelveli.

Latha, Sheila and I were in one compartment, and got stuck with an ace snorer, who spent his waking time on the phone and sleeping time snoring.

Day 1: 17 April 2023–

Midnight rendezvous - Raji was to get on at Trichy at midnight. Station comes, train stops; Sheila - who is in the lower berth - goes to investigate, no sign of Raji. I call Raji - and she says they just announced the platform, and she was coming. Earlier in the night we had asked the TTR and he said the stop was for 3 minutes. I panicked - where is this friend of mine? Was she going to miss the train? From the other platform? Finally we saw her in the distance! But she was not hurrying!! turns out that the train had arrived 10 minutes early,, and so the stop was 13minutes! So she did board and did make the trip, yay! Raji and I were on a trip together after years! She was with the boys Samrudh and Aditya, and we went back to sleep for the few hours until daybreak.

At 6:30, on the morning of 17th April 2023, a couple of us joined the group at the Tirunelveli junction. My eagerness transformed into a feeling of warmth once I met with the bubbling (and babbling) group of people. As a first stop, we went to catch a glimpse of the mighty Thamirabarani, as suggested by Ajith, a young lad who was our driver and a support for the trip.

The multi-coloured painted bridge that we all took pictures of, as we had our first glimpse of the river that defined and accompanied our trip.

We malingered as we are wont to do - watching the dragonflies, taking selfies and just being delighted at the bucolic scene.

The stop was brief and we soon left for our place of stay, ATREE's Agasthyamalai Community based Conservation Centre. The Agasthyamalai landscape was rustic, dotted with palm trees and the comfortable dorm type rooms made our stay lively. We had a wholesome breakfast and interacted with the research team at ATREE (Mr. Mathivannan, Mr. Thanikaivel and Mr. Isakki).

The landmark Agastyamalai hill and scenery from ATREE.

We ladies had one dorm of 6 beds, the kids had another along with Sagarika and Chitra, and the men were far away in the meeting hall. It was a really nice set up for the research scholars, with study tables, adequate plug points and solar power. Several fans circulated the warm air, though one fan protested and moaned about having to do its job! There was much discussion about who would clamber to the upper bunks - and the problem was solved by pulling the mattresses to the floor.

This mango tree was very inviting indeed

As planned, we went to bathe in the stream nearby(a part of the Manimutharu river) in Zamin Singampatti. It was my first river bathing experience and I had a splendid time (as did we all. The aftermath of dealing with wet clothes and trying to change out of them - that's another story).

It was blazing hot and I wondered how these birds stood around in the sun, without seeking the shade. Photo by Sagarika

This field with the ibises and egrets had been irrigated - when we went there a second time it was bone dry. Photo by Sagarika

The surrounding villages depend on the Porunai and its various streams for their daily life. The sight here held a peaceful village life in its entirety. After the refreshing bath, we birded in the surrounding patches and ponds. We were also able to spot the Red-naped Ibis and Black-headed Ibis. We observed the Copper-smith Barbet making a perfect hole on the branch of a tree near the river. Probably it was trying to make a spacious home.

The conservation is efforts from the local village community, along with the FD, we were told by Thanikavel, who explained in detail about the place and the trees.

After lunch, we went to the Tirupudaimarathur temple and bird conservation centre. The picturesque village is located adjacent to the Tamiraparani river. The Conservation Reserve is an IUCN Category V protected bird nesting area in the 2.84 hectares (7.0 acres) compound of Siva temple in the village. It was fascinating to learn that the village community manage this area consisting of the temple, the river and it’s sand bank, and the conservation centre. This is the only village along Thamirabarani where commercial sand mining from the riverbed is banned. Justice Ratnavel Pandian, former Chief Justice of Madras High Court, who hails from this village, has been the master behind all these postive efforts.

It seems "over 400 little egrets, pond heron and painted stork nest in this grove of 20 huge, century-old Maruthu, Mahwa, Neem and Iluppai trees and feed in the many agricultural fields, a few ponds and the Tamiraparani River adjacent to it." (Wikipedia) However, since the rainfall was low in recent times the birds haven’t started nesting yet. Other birds seen were Pied Kingfisher, Spotted Owlet, Rosy Starling, Pale-billed Flowerpecker, Short-toed Snake Eagle and Yellow-throated Sparrow.

We also saw hundreds of Indian flying foxes on the giant iluppai trees near the pond and we sighted the leaf nosed bats inside the temple.

The protected sacred groves within the temple walls, opposite the temple tank we went to. the neer marudhu trees were awesome.

Photo by Sagarika - the Illupai tree with hundred of bats, in various stages of stupor, sleep or wakefulness. We even saw some babies.

They would make sorties like this - were they cooling themselves? Photo by Sagarika

Photo by Kumar - magnificcent

There was this lovely stone corridor in the side that I wandered through.

The Shiva temple at Tirupudaimarathur. We circumnavigated around theouter walls, through the sacred and ancient groves.

At the beginning, these spotted owlets distracted us, and soon the group was straggling, with some fascinated with the owlets, others engrossed in Thanikai's accounts of the trees, and still others like me just wandering and day dreaming. Photo by Sagarika

Illupai - Mahua - Madhuca longifolia, getting into fruit

Gaps in the temple wall and I saw the river and the cleen village streets,

...and even the "sandy beach" where we were headed.

The trees seemed to be looking at me from above.

The path around the temple - a deserted quiet moment to myself.

Inside the temple. Legends of the Leaning Lingam and the swayambu Amman. It was interesting to hear the legend of the leaning lingam, as Lord Shiva leaned to listened to his bhakta who prayed for a way to help him across the river in spate. The amman is made of rudrakashas.

Photo by Kumar of the leaf-nosed bat, which was within on the rooms of the temple, closer to the roof. The elaborate noses of these bats is supposed to help in echolocation


Vilvam tree


The incident of the Yellow throated sparrow - on the top of the gopurma, was supposed to be perched a YTS, and as I peered through my bincolars it just sat there, very still and unmoving. Turns out it was a piece of cloth, wire and lightning arrestor, which magically suggested itself to be a YTS. Anyways, as the light faded, I did manage to see one on the wires - there were a bunch of females - and this photo is by Sagarika.

We headed to the sandy shore of the river, past this beautiful speciment of a tree. Undisturbed and growing with abandon?

We spent some time on the banks of the river which was nothing short of a beach. We enjoyed the time with a wonderful sunset to complement.

The dogs decided the children were more amenable to giving them tidbits...and we had a tough time ensuring they did not feed them. Many got their feet wet once again - I did not - too much effort to take out shoes etc - and I just sat and watched the sunset, the ibis flocks in the sky and the setting sun.

We came back to our stay around 7 or so.

The mothing screen was kept ready by moth researcher Thalavaipandi Subbaiah of Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) for regular study. He and his colleague are the first in the world to photograph the moth species Mimeusemia ceylonica, as only an illustration of the insect existed previously. For reference- Moth Found In Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi Districts After 127 Years It was so fascinating to know about this field of research and few boys stayed up late to learn from the expert.