Learning about Jamal Ara

Thanks to Sagarika, for sharing this article with me.  What a sad, poignant story - a story as much of gender and communal inequities, as of personal tragedy. Madhuca

Mystery of India’s first Birdwoman

Jamal Ara was a fascinating personality beset by tragedy: she overcame her lack of education to publish scientific papers on birds in top journals, but disappeared abruptly in 1988

Mystery of India’s first Birdwoman

Jamal Ara (1923-1995). Sketch/Uday Mohite

By Ajaz Ashraf

In these fraught times, it is elevating to read about Jamal Ara, India’s first ‘Birdwoman’, a title none less than the iconic Salim Ali bestowed upon her for scientifically studying birds of the Chota Nagpur plateau, Jharkhand. Her story was lost to us until researcher Raza Kazmi recently rediscovered and narrated it, with poignancy, in The First Lady of Indian Ornithology, a chapter in Women in the Wild, a book edited by Anita Mani.

Jamal Ara’s accomplishments dazzle as she had studied only till Std X. She wrote prolifically from 1949 to 1988, contributing over 60 papers and articles to the journals of the Bombay Natural History Society and Bengal Natural History Society, and the Newsletter for Birdwatchers, which catered to both amateur and professional ornithologists. She wrote Watching Birds, a guide for children, now in its 13th edition.

Hold on, she also worked as a journalist for a while, did a programme on birds for All India Radio, wrote fiction, and translated stories of litterateur K S Duggal, who remembered her, in his autobiography, as a “lonely woman” with a flair for writing in English.

Ara was just the person who should have been serenaded post-Independence, if not for anything other than as a riposte to Pakistan’s dire predictions regarding the fate of Muslims who stayed behind in India. But that, sadly, did not happen.

She suddenly disappeared, in 1988, from the Indian ornithology scene. Nobody wondered why she had stopped writing. The address she gave in the letters she wrote to journals was that of Doranda, Ranchi, where Raza Kazmi, too, resides. He made it his mission, in 2018, to search for the mysterious Birdwoman of Doranda.

Her address no longer existed, but Kazmi stumbled upon a 2006 story on Madhuca Singh, a celebrated basketball coach of Ranchi, who credited her achievement to her mother Jamal Ara, “a bird lover.” The search ended only last year, when Kazmi met Madhuca, who was named after Madhuca indica, the scientific term for the mahua tree. Madhuca narrated her mother’s story to Kazmi.

Born in 1923 in a conservative Muslim family of a police officer at Barh, Bihar, Ara was married to Hamdi Bey, a cousin and leading journalist in Calcutta, much against her opposition. Madhuca was born to them. But the marriage soon broke down. Ara and Madhuca could have been on the streets but for Sami Ahmad, a cousin and an Indian Forest Service officer of the 1940 Bihar cadre. A bachelor, Ahmad shifted them to his official residence in Ranchi.

Posted to different forest divisions of Jharkhand, then a part of Bihar, Ahmad would take Ara on his trips to the jungles. In her was kindled a deep love for the flora and fauna of the area, inspiring her to spend hours observing the avian life around her. But her skills as a writer were not honed. She found a teacher in Mrs Augier, wife of P W Augier, an IFS office senior to Ahmad, who also encouraged her to keep birding notes. As she began to chisel out good prose in English, Ahmad and the Augiers encouraged her to turn her notes into articles—and these began getting published. 

Theirs was an old world where companionship meant more than engaging in chitter-chatter.

But this old world was also encountering a challenge from the emerging post-Independence culture of corruption and impunity. The sparks the clash of the two worlds engendered singed Ahmad, after he arrested the son of K B Sahay, a powerful politician who later became the Bihar Chief Minister, for poaching at Palamu. The political system retaliated: Ahmad was suspended. His sorrow became unbearable after he was asked to serve, on his reinstatement, under an officer junior to him. He died in 1966.

Ara and Madhuca, then in college, were financially stricken and emotionally hollowed out by his death. But help came from the old world: a friend of Ahmad heard about their plight and became their safe harbour. His name: Jaipal Singh Munda, the man who had led the Indian hockey team to a gold in the 1928 Olympics and was now an Adivasi leader fighting for the rights of his community. He found a groom for Madhuca—a Gurkha army officer’s son.

It seems Ara turned to translating Duggal’s work, in addition to her ornithological writings, to overcome the emotional trauma the death of Ahmad had been for her. In 1988, she brought her semi-paralytic sister to live with her in Ranchi. But after the sister began walking, she left Ara. The abandonment shattered her; psychotic breakdowns plagued her. 

One day, she made a bonfire of all her writings, notes, and photographs. “It was useless,” Ara muttered. In 1995, seven years after having stopped writing, she died, unnoticed and unsung. 

After Women in the Wild was published this year, Kazmi went over to the residence of Madhuca. Since an irreparable retina scratch has severely impaired her vision, he read aloud his essay on her mother, who winged an arc as unique as that of migratory birds, with an end as tragic as that of those shot down before their return flight home.

The writer is a senior journalist

Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com

********

I found this article in the TOI, with more about her writing, it kind of complements the previous essay.

Jamal Ara, cited as India's first 'birdwoman'

Sharmila Ganesan Ram / TNN / Oct 19, 2023, 20:19 IST

"With his large body, bald head and scraggy bare neck, he is not a pretty sight, but he is unrivalled in the perfection of flight." That's how the vulture found itself described in 'Watching Birds', an adorable Rs-55 children's booklet which cost Rs 2.50 when it was written five decades ago.

As keen a weaver of words as she was a viewer of birds, its author Jamal Ara—who was often mistaken for a man because of her name—was a rare, early bird who stood out amidst the flock of pioneering male ornithologists such as Samir Ali and Zafar Futehally.

Despite her prolific, seminal surveys of the fauna of Bihar spanning four decades, the late Ara would remain a sighting as rare as the pink-headed duck.

Her legacy remained unrecorded till Raza Kazmi—a young environmentalist—met her daughter and only living link, Madhuca Singh, in Jharkhand for an essay in the recent book on female biologists titled 'Women In The Wild'.

Born a century ago in 1923 Bihar to a cop father, Ara was one of seven children, two of whom would later migrate to Pakistan. After being deserted by her journalist husband Hamdi Bey, the young mother would find support in her cousin Sami Ahmad, an upright Indian Forest Service officer from the Bihar cadre.

'Akki'—as Madhuca called Ahmad—would put her through school and in the villages where he was posted, the little girl would grow up eating climbing trees, plucking fruits and devouring ant chutney.

Even as Ahmad gifted her books on birds, Mrs. Augier, wife of the nature-loving Anglo-Indian forest officer PW Augier, honed her English-language skills as she had studied only till the tenth standard.

The field notes that Ara took in the unexamined forests of south Bihar soon became articles in the journals of Bombay Natural History Society and Bengal Natural History Society.

Her 1949 piece on the rich wildlife reserves of undivided Bihar was not only the first of its kind work in the region but also remains a seminal peek into the natural bounty of present-day Jharkhand.

The first and possibly the last to look closely and record the birds of Kolhan in Singhbhum—an under-explored landscape in the state—she kept watching, waiting and writing.

When her quest for the rare pink-headed duck—which had last been spotted in Darbhanga in 1935—hit a dead end in 1953, she resolved to resume searching the following winter. Her keen ear for mating calls and hawk eye for the courtship habits of winged creatures, translated into a series of meticulous notes bolstered with graphs and tables.

"It is time the government of India stepped in and curbed the waste of public money. If the forests are not saved, we will be creating a desert. Let us not forget the examples of Babylon and Nineveh," she wrote in a letter published in TOI on September 2, 1961, which questioned and demanded details on the state government's claims of afforestation.

At a conservation conference in the US, she presented a paper on the near-extinct rhinos of Bihar and other vanishing herds of mammals then called 'Big Game'. "She had never been a hunter or came from a hunting/royal family background, and thus her approach towards conservation was solely focused on the preservation of wildlife rather than balancing out 'sport hunting' and preservation," says Kazmi to TOI, comparing Ara to the fierce American naturalist Rosalie Edge.

"Ara's prescriptions for preservation, just like Rosalie's ideas, were far ahead of their time—be it in her recommendation for the establishment of a separate wildlife department, recommendations for creation wildlife sanctuaries, banning of carrying of any arms by any person (irrespective of whether they are private individuals or even government or police officials except for the forest department itself), and so on. These ideas would gain mainstream currency in the Indian conservation sphere only from the 1970s onwards, while Ara was prescribing these remedies from the early 1950s itself," he says.

On All India Radio, listeners heard her swoon about the birds of Ranchi and present-day Jharkhand. Outside ornithology, her writing skills manifested a range of short stories and translations of partition-themed works such as a Punjabi novel titled 'Nahun Tere Mas' by Kartar Singh Duggal.

Her articles revealed her lyricism. "Two of her essays made me go wow when I first read them," says Kazmi, citing 'Sylvan Trails in Chota Nagpur' and 'Just a Weed', both published in a little-known journal called 'Thought'.

He quotes a small sample from the latter piece: "It has been said, “See Naples and die”; I would alter it to “See the Strobilanthes flower and die”. It is no exaggeration; there will certainly be no regrets....The shaded hill slopes and valley bottoms for miles on end are smothered under it and one motors along the forest roads as if in a blue haze assailed by the heavy camphor-like aroma of the flowers. If some Wordsworth had seen it, he would have promptly consigned his poem ‘Daffodils’ to the trash-can, and written another about the Strobilanthes.”

At a time when it was rare to find Muslim women in North India travelling, working and excelling, Ara did it all but when her cousin, Ahmad, died in 1966, she lost a pillar.

Later, her mental health collapsed. One day, she took all that she wrote and photographed to the verandah of her house and set the pile ablaze.

Birds continue to visit her Bihar housing board home, the only one in the street overridden with creepers, climbers, plants and flowers.

*******

Looking forward to reading her book.

Beautiful nature writing

https://www.instagram.com/p/CyXaxVgoFM4/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

Who else but Yuvan. 

" I have discovered for myself how a Hornet eats bees. I am feeling child-like excitement about it. It's the funniest and most laborious way to feed. I saw it happen last month and have been seeing it again and again since. A lesser banded hornet once it grabs a bee, flies to a nearby peaceful leaf and hangs upside-down exactly by one hind leg, hooking onto its surface one of its tarsal claws. Dangling around, it wraps and squishes the bee with the rest of its five legs and buries its mandibles into it. A friend sent me a photo of it first, then I saw it twice by a river few days later, then in a park, then in a brinjal field. Hornets hanging upside-down on one leg, eating bees.

The southwest monsoon has recoiled herself into the ocean. And now October heat is here and heavy. Its humidity hammers on the skull, feels sometimes like embers on skin. The sea wind is felt only in the mornings and evenings. A few dusks ago I went to my terrace to feel the breeze through my clothes, see the orange sun setting and the kites and storks returning to roost. But from the North Barn swallows were streaming in. Most flying towards Pallikaranai marsh, and some just dawdling in the sky. Seeing them after months, these cheery way-farers, boisterous pilgrims, brought lumps to my throat. I whispered 'welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome….. ' to each one which passed. Then sky reddened, pinkened, purpled. Blue-tailed bee-eaters glided through the colours, back to roost. They are visitors too making their way here from other parts of the subcontinent as winter settles. Their soft-trilling filled the glowing sky, their spaced silhouettes - slender-billed, tender-winged, needle-tailed - made my neck clamp, scalp tingle unbearably. All of existence, for a while, was bee-eaters trilling.

Over the last week my 4th batch Urban Wilderness Walks interns at Madras Naturalists' Society have been mapping trees in their localities, investigating how trees shape human socio-political life around them, and collecting tree stories. 30 stories from 30 neighborhoods of Chennai..."

There's more in the Insta link. 

Cheetah misadventures - one year on

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/one-year-indias-cheetah-project-shows-spotty-report-card-8943750/

Ravi Chellam writes:

And here's what the "other" side has to say.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/travel/travel-news/preparations-underway-to-bring-south-african-cheetahs-to-gandhi-sagar-sanctuary/articleshow/103727764.cms

"India is planning on bringing another batch of cheetahs from South Africa by the end of this year. When that happens, the plan is to relocate them to the Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh. Apart from Gandhi Sagar Sanctuary, another site called Nauradehi is being prepared. 

As of now, with 15 cheetahs and a cub, Kuno National Park is almost reaching its carrying capacity of 20 cheetahs. New sites are being developed to accommodate the newcomers by the end of this year. "

"This year, authorities are going to take extra precautions to bring in cheetahs that do not develop thick winter coats. This is because, from last year’s lot, some of the cheetahs developed thick winter coats in the Indian summer and monsoon months, which caused severe infections and deaths. "

Shore walks diary -

Morning walks on 6th, 7th and 8th September 2023 - low tide

Blogger has decided to jumble up the order of the photos, and it really doesnt matter, so 

let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be - I sing, and carry on.

Clean sands near the tide line and no debris of shells at the high tide line.  6th was cloudy and 7th, 8th were sunny.

Virgin Murex shell in solitary splendour

A massive razor clam piece

Vast exposed wet sands at low tide...and less human debris - made for a surprise delight.  

The sands were free of the washed up shells that I usually each comb through on low tide mornings.

The tideline had no shell debris to speak of.

Contrasted to July 2023 - the tideline was like this.

Possibly some long shore current has changed direction?

The bird most adapted to the human "footprint" - the crow -was picking off a net collecting wire and string for nesting material possibly.

There were a few Sunset siliqua shells here and there.

The manner of this shell's presence in solitary splendour gave me the feeling it was possibly dropped by someone.

Near the Valmiki Nagar thickets, the coccinia (kovakai)is flowering.

A mole crab was a surprise discovery.

A house sparrow flitted down to the road near sparrow point.  Long time no see.

This emerald treasure - scarab beetle - beauty lay, quite dead sadly, on the road near the beach.

While the painted grasshopper was on the milkweed, looking well painted and toxic.

A dog was catching up on sleep, (the beach has more than a dozen) in a lovely little burrow he/she had excavated for him or herself.

Water bubbles glinted in the sun, and ghost crabs scuttled around.

The crabs were shy, but I got a good look with my binoculars.

I discovered that this is a variety of hibiscus - Wineleaf Hibiscus - growing wild by the roadside.

I wondered if this was a mangrove root..a Barringtonia from somewhere?

Until next time...

Those painted grasshoppers are back

 Sept 6th and 7th

Poekilocerus pictus 

On Calotropis

Coloured and painted, you'd think it would cheer us

but beware, that toxicity cld afflict us

23, chewing Calotropis poisonous

So, we can squirt you, dont you mess with us

I know, I shall leave, I'm no ignoramus!

Thiruvanmyur 4th seaward road thickets - the milkweed are filled with painted grashopperss.

Watch out for those geckos!

 

A walk in the urban woods of TS

Butterfly Walk for MNS Members – The Theosophical Society – July 29, 2023

By Sagarika

It was a nice and sunny Saturday morning, 20 of us gathered in TS for the Butterfly Walk led by M. Yuvan. Theosophical Society post rains is an amazing place; we could notice butterfly activities the moment we stepped into their premises.

The ‘Butterflies of Chennai’ booklet by Palliyur Trust and a sheet on depicting all the key Butterfly Behaviour – from nectaring to mud-puddling to chrysalis was distributed as we waited for everyone to join in.

Under the Premna tree, with the morphs of the Common Emigrant being shown by Yuvan.

Yuvan started his briefing by sharing how he has been following butterflies and insect for last few weeks, and how the onset of the SW monsoon leads to a migration not only of butterflies but also of various other insects towards the Eastern coast.

He asked us to try and observe the different behaviour of the butterflies, going beyond just the name/ id. ‘’Know the name and then forget the name’’- that really set the tone for the Walk.

We started off by observing activity around a Premna tree, the group quickly spotted Lemon Pansy, Common Leopard, Tailed Jay and Common Jay. Yuvan went on to show the eggs and caterpillars of Emigrant as well as Tawny Coster. A floating Great Eggfly distracted some of us for few seconds before disappearing into the tree canopy.

It didn’t take much time for us to realise that the patches of Tridax had maximum congregation of different butterflies, the so-called weed is truly a butterfly magnet.

Through the Walk, Yuvan pushed us to observe more - observe the wings, the flight, the antennae, the height of flight.

I was surprised to learn that butterfly’s flight is very different from that of bird. Butterfly wings clap above to generate thrust, unlike birds who get majority of the thrust from the downstroke.

The Walk was filled with many interesting observations and discussions about various aspects of butterfly behaviour. Some key learnings were:

– Tawny Coster - male butterflies utilize a mechanical tactic – a mating plug or copulatory plug to reduce female re-mating.

Turnera subulata - White buttercups, favourite plants of the Tawny Coster, a more recent adaptation.  We saw the Coster female looking to lay eggs on its underside.

– Multi-generational migration of butterflies – each stage carried out by new generation of adults.

– Poisonous butterflies – Common Crow, the Tigers, the one which we see commonly around are all poisonous!!

– ‘Time compensated sun compass’ of butterflies which help them to understand their location in the world.

– Older generation of Crimson Rose migrate to Sri Lanka, never to return. Usually migration is round trip, in this case it seems to be dispersal enmasse post breeding boom.

Besides butterflies we saw many other insect like robber flies, stink bugs, spider hunter wasp, cricket hunter wasp, blue banded bees, beetles, ants, and grasshoppers of various kinds. The masked crab spider with a wasp hunt took many of us by surprise.

The Little Clown grasshopper nymph was my favourite.

What looked like a wasp - Oreumenoides edwardsii - sitting on a flower...

...was actually a prey captured by a Crab Spider about a quarter of its size.  Basically the spider just sucks out all the living juices off the wasp...quite gruesome to visualise this.

Indian Green Lynx Spider and spiderlings

On our way out, we saw Lime Swallowtails mud-puddling on a patch between the bushes. Some of us went on to spend few moments admiring the giant Sterculia apetala before calling it a day.

And just when we thought that we are done with the sightings, a Great Orange-tip floated into the Periwinkle for nectaring, and we all gasped at its sheer size. What an exciting finale!

The Walk lasted for close to 3 hours. We spotted 37 species of butterflies and umpteen other insects.

We are grateful to MNS member Geetha Jaikumar for all her support, without which this wonderful Walk wouldn’t have been possible and to Yuvan whose passion for nature made this Walk so much more meaningful.

BUTTERFLY LIST

Papilionidae

1. Common Jay

2. Common Mormon

3. Crimson Rose

4. Lime Swallowtail

5. Tailed Jay

Pieridae

6. Common Emigrant

7. Plain Orange-tip

8. Great Orange-tip

9. Psyche

10. Common Albatross

11. Common Grass Yellow

12. Small Grass Yellow rose

13. Three spotted grass yellow

14. Indian Wanderer Lycaenidae

15. Small Salmon Arab 16. Common Gull

Nymphalidae

17. Common Crow

18. Blue Tiger

19. Plain Tiger

20. Striped Tiger

21. Lemon Pansy

22. Yellow Pansy Hesperiidae 23. Angled Castor

24. Tawny Coster

25. Common Leopard 26. Great Eggfly

Lycaenidae

27. Common Pierrot 28. Zebra Blue

29. Lesser Grass Blue 30. Indian Sunbeam 31. Tiny Grass Blue 32. Forget-me-not

Hesperiidae

35. Indian Skipper

36. Oriental Straight Swift 37. Marbled Skipper

More photographs of the butterflies here.

eBird India Checklist - 30 Jul 2023 - Shaheen Falcon - Viewing Point [Leela Palace IT Building West Facing] - 10 species

eBird India Checklist - 30 Jul 2023 - Shaheen Falcon - Viewing Point [Leela Palace IT Building West Facing] - 10 species

GK's observations

Quite a productive day to observe every behavior of a Shaheen falcon in detail. 

6:20AM: (ROUSING) When I had reached, the Falcon was perched in the right most edge of the Leela building at the top deck. Falcon was quite relaxed and preening, occasionally looking towards the Jains apartment/Somerset building. It once did a rouse, with raised feathers followed by a quick shake to dust of loose feathers and a poop. Falcon wasn't showing any signs of an hunt this day. 

6:25AM: (SOARING, PURSUIT ATTACK & FLAPPING FLIGHT) Falcon took off from the perch, did a short soar between Leela & Jains apartment. This made the Pigeons perched in the Jains apartment fly west. During the second half circle towards Leela, its flight pattern changed from soaring to active flight, with deep wing beats and flew steadily towards Jains apartment, a pursuit attack for sure. Vanished from the view for 5 seconds and returned through the same path with Pigeon in the talons, must have picked in between Jains & Somerset. Flew straight to the base of its favorite pillar perch. 

6:27AM: (NECK SEVERE) Usually the prey get killed when the Falcon landed on its perch, but today as soon as the Falcon landed all of a sudden the Pigeon started flapping heavily which startled the falcon for a few seconds. It took a well over 5 seconds to gain control of the Pigeon and the falcon hoped twice heavily holding the prey by its neck, followed by severing the neck with its bill. 

6:30AM: (PLUCKING & FEEDING) Falcon started to prepare its meal, defeathering the neck feathers of the pigeon and nibbled small bits of flesh with strong pulls. After 5 mins of feeding, Falcon moved the kill towards the corner closer to the pillar and started defeather again, now bigger chunk of long feathers flying off in the wind clearly indicating those are the flight feathers of the prey. Feeding continued for next 10 mins with 20-30 seconds pause to gaze around its environ. 

6:45AM: (GRIFFON POSE, CACK & WAIL VOCALIZATION) Couple of Black Kites appeared over Leela and one of them sighted the Falcon with its prey. As soon as the Kites started soaring over the side of the Falcon, it turned over to the ridge side and moved to more an horizontal posture, started giving loud "cack" calls. One of the Black Kites, flew quite close to the Falcon's ridge as if it tried to snatch the kill. The Kite then flew right over the Falcon's head, dive bombed in an attempt to make the Falcon fly with the kill or abandon the kill. Now the Falcon transformed into "Griffon" posture, with its back feathers roused + half open wings in mantling posture + well spread tail + open bill and started giving loud "agonistic wail" calls. Its call reverberated the entire open area below the Leela building. After a couple of attempts, the Black Kite moved SW towards the estuary. Feeding resumed only 5 minutes after the Kites had vanished. 

6:55AM: (TOMIAL TOOTH) 3 more Black Kites appeared over Leela, 2 flew south and one happened to see the Falcon. This time few "cack" calls from the Falcon were enough to deter the kite away and the feeding continued. Now the Falcon had moved closer to the edge of the pillar facing West which gave good views of the feeding. The pigeon now was held to lie on its back and the Falcon fed from the flanks as the feet of the pigeon was clearly visible. The Falcon nibbled the flesh at first, then held a good chunk with its bill followed by a tilting of its head on both the sides to rip of flesh from the bones. The tomial tooth must be of great help here to tear small pieces of flesh from the pigeon.

7:10AM: (GUT ELIMINATION) Feeding continued with big chucks of flesh been gulped by the Falcon. The intestines/gut are pulled out carefully and been set aside, not eaten. One of the Pigeon's feet along with the tibia portion been detached and swallowed whole after about 1 minute of struggle to push the entire piece in. Few small pieces of flesh & feathers struck to the Falcon's head & bill were carefully removed by a head-rub over its shoulder feathers. 

7:20AM: (CACHING, SCRATCHING & FEET NIBBLE) Feeding came to a pause now. Falcon picked the remaining (around 30%) kill in its beak, carried it closer to the wall of the pillar and dropped it there, cached it for later. Did a short hop to come back to the edge of the pillar base now. Feet nibbling continued for about 2-3 mins accompanied with some scratching of the bill with its front facing talons. Then and there the Falcon will look at its feet, gaze around the habitat for a few seconds and once again relook at its feet. This behavior continued for quite some time until it walked along the ridge of the pillar for a few feet and settled facing the wall. 

7:30AM: (RESTING) Falcon moved to the left side of the Pillar base, started resting and gazed around looking at the flying Crows and Pigeons. Couple of Rose-ringed Parakeets ignored the presence of the Falcon and landed few metres below the pillar investigating the crack in the wall. 

7:35AM: (AGONISTIC CALLING & TERRITORIALITY) Two Black Kites flew in to the Leela building's terrace where the House Crows interrupted them and started mobbing them at all sides. Falcon now turned away from the wall, started giving the "cack" calls looking up. When one of the Kites came closer to the pillar Falcon took off, made a quick climb and started mobbing the Kite. As the Falcon started to circle around the open ground next to Leela, "cack" calls continued with the Falcon trying to soar over the Black Kite. When the second Black Kite too moved towards the Leela west side, Falcon moved towards NW and didn't return. 5 mins post the Falcon had vanished, House Crows appeared next to the pillar base and took possession of the remains of the Pigeon cache.

******

My learnings

Tomial tooth?:  A protrusion that is quite sharp on the upper mandible outer edge - used to kill their prey and I guess also eat.

Travels along the Thamirabarani - Day 4 - Padhaneer, KMTR and a flaming Laburnum

Continued from here.

Day 4: 20 April 2023

By Gayathri R

(My comments in italics)

The morning began with a Malkoha sighting - there were a pair and Baskaran managed this shot of the full bird!  Most often, we were seeing tail or face or beak, with the restof the bird hidden behind.  A whole group of us crowded near the fence to see these beauties.

 

Before wandering in to the bus, I stared curiously at the grasses there, which seemed all knotted, as if some creature had been at work building a nest.

And then eagle-eyes Sagarika spots an Assasin.  Well, thats what these bugs are called I believe. Spot it if you can, and look for that long proboscis.  That is the assisination weapon - it injects saliva into the hapless prey, which then liquefies its insides which it then sucks on like a nice cold mildshake.  All this learning is today.  That day, I looked at it, or rather didn't see it, and then when I did, I was marvelling at its camouflage. "Tribe Harpactorini"

 Padhaneer!

The hero of the morning was Borassus flabellifer, the nungu tree, our state tree, ignored for most of the year, until it is nungu season!

As we got into the bus, Vijay announced he had a sweet surprise for us.  The bus came to a halt on the highway, along an avenue of Palmyra - and Padhaneer was announced.  The boys were dubious as was I, the men were gleeful, the women sceptical, but everyone curious.

Nungu was a favourite summer pastime at my grandparents' home in Coimbatore, but what was this padhaneer?  Wasnt it like pre-fermented toddy?  Shouldn't we be careful?

By the time these questions went through my head, everyone was busy slurping, a long line had formed each with one of these delightful cups.

I had a first tentative sip, oh!! it was delicious! - Sweet, malty, grainy and cool!  

Clay pots are placed under the flower fronds and the sweet sap collected early in the morning.  When fermented, this turns into toddy (was my understanding).

 Raji, Chitra and Sara lined up for second cups, Samrudh did not take to it, and Baskaran was in seventh heaven.
 

The tools of the trade, to clumb up, pierce the fronds and tie the pots

These cups - so aesthetic.

The video below shows how the rib is removed and the fronds are tied, to make these cups.

 

KMTR and the Sorimuthu Iyyanar Kovil

The Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) has been on my wish list for more than a decade.  This reserve is part of the Agasthyamalai Biosphere Reserve, which straddles Kerala and Tamil Nadu.  If I remember right, Thanikai mentioned how the Thamirabarani originates within the KMTR.  If I remember right, Isakki mentioned there were 13 rivers, including the Manimuthar, Ganga and Kallar  in this region. The main species being protected was the LTMs - Lion tailed Macaques - and later tiger.

The landscapes vary from  moist to dry, and Kakachi was also part of the overall area was how I understood.  We were off to the Sorimuthu Ayyanar kovil area - for which special permission is not needed.  So we did not go into any "non public" places.

We crossed several canals and streams - all part of the wider Thamirabarani network.  Past Kalidakurichi and Ambasamudram.  We were soon winding up the hills.  It was a dry April scenery.

And we were at the Papanasam falls. Alighting from the bus was not allowed, so Isakki took everyone's phones and took some lovely pictures of the Papanasam Agasthiyar falls.  This is one of the falls where the Thamirabarani moves to the flatlands, and there is also a big Hydel project and a dam in the vicinity.  It was not in full force, but still quite a splendid sight.

Just a km or so before the temple, we got off and decided to walk the road.  There were many butterflies in the undergrowth keeping everyone busy.  We spotted a Leafbird, Lyra kept both eyes on her dad,

 

A watchtower had to be climbed, and what a breathtaking anorama, of the forests, the temple, the rocks and the river.

The bridge across the Thamirabarani

With the temple at the far end of the rocks.

Amidst the rocks, these plants were growing.

The Sorimuthu Ayyanar Temple, on the banks of the river flowing from the left of the picture, to the foreground.  What a grand sight!  The temple can be accessed from th right, over the bridge.  The temple sees busloads of pilgrims in the month of Aadi - especially amavasai.  It is a special temple for Sabaramalai pilgrims.  the Ayyanar deity is a avatar of Ayyappan.  Common names in the region - Pechi, Isakki, Pattavarayan - these are all part of the various deities at this temple.

As we crossed the bridge and headed to our bus, to return for breakfast, we saw this clump and a board.  

Euphorbia susan-holmesiae - a Cactus native to this region, and is also endangered. 

Vitex leucoxylon - identified by Thanikai as Neer Nocchi (tamil name). 

Breakfast, tree climbing and the most gorgeous Laburnum I have ever seen

It was past 9, we were hungry and hot, as we descended past the Papanasam temple and down to this lovely spot by the river.  Under the shade of a large Banyan tree, we feasted on Pongal (I think).

All these spots were (relatively) clean and defecation free - I found that amazing and enjoyable in itself.  One of the joyous revelations of the trip is the relative cleanliness of the surroundings of Tirunelveli and the river.

The banyan - boys and girls climbed, many ladies swung - including Raji, with the most gleeful expression on her face.  I did not attempt it.

What a gorgeous sight this tree was!  When we returned to Chennai, the Laburnums burst into bloom in May, this year - and some are even now in flower.  We all took pictures under this tree, of this tree, various combinations.

Back to Singampatti for a final dip in the river - it was HOT, and I had much travel ahead of me, so like a responsible adult (for a change) I decided to stay out of the sun and the water.  I watched the antics of the Greenish Leaf warbler instead.  This was the better dipping point - stronger water flow, and deeper as well - there was a mid-river ladies conference as well, it was wonderful to see.  Also impressive is the magical changing routines pre and post bath that the ladies managed.

 

It called, and chirped, and Aravind, Shashank, Sagarika and I followed it around.  Photo by Sagarika

Photo by Sagarika

 

 And so we returned back to our dorms, to pack and eat and rest before leaving.  Samrudh went off spider hunting within the campus along with Sagarika, the other boys played cricket.

The spiders are in this link.

Gayathri sums it up best:

We then came back and thanked everyone who crafted a spectacular journey, extending their hospitality. After delightful lunch with payasam, we started packing for our return trip. With loads of memories and authentic Tirunelveli halwa, we bid good-bye to the magnificent Thamirabarani landscape with high hopes of returning back. Below is a group photo of us in the campus.

Thanks to all the members of the group for sharing the sightings list, pictures and offering a lovely company. Thanks to Sagarika for her valuable feedback during report making. Special thanks to Vijay sir for organising this awesome trip. 

PS:  Raji got off at Tiruneveli - Janakiraman hotel to spend an extra day temple visiting, so no return adventures with her.  There was a rowdy and raucous "goodbye" that resounded all through the bus as she alighted.  After dropping her, we seemed to go round and round, seeing the same streets, as there were one way streets.

Chitra and I had a chocobar in the station, with much glee.

No Snorer in our compartment, so we slept well, and got off at Egmore, said goodbyes, and made our way together across the city - Mr Shankarnarayan, Chitra, Sheila and me. It is always difficult to say goodbye.

The iNaturalist species list

https://www.inaturalist.org/lists/4402490-Tirunelveli-Trip?view=plain