Madras Ramblings

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Flamingoes - Experiences in the Kutch and at Pulicat

The Kutch adventure began with the wild asses.

In 2008, I saw flamingoes in the wild for the first time at Pulicat. Later that year, Mr Ramanan, took some lovely photos of these ballerinas in pink.

But still, it was a thrill to see them at the Little Rann, in April this year. The LRK is a breeding ground for them, and we saw little ones without their pink, and we saw both Lesser and Greater flamingoes. We saw them near the salt pans, we saw them in the last remaining waters in the wetlands.

They fed, and called noisily and took off in large groups, filling the skies with pink.

LRK. In formation! Junior captures them in flight with his analog camera.

LRK. Photo by Mr Ramanan, caught in a rare moment when they were not feeding!

LRK. The rest of his buddies had taken to the skies, protesting against our getting too close to them. But this one stayed back and stalked proudly up and down, posing for us. Photo by Mr Ramanan

The same fellow.

A juvenile, feeding single-mindedly.

We returned home with our stories and pictures, only to be bested by Skandan and company's experiences, right here at Pulicat!

They were privileged to witness the Flamingo March! I had not heard of this, until I saw these videos. They are the ritualised courtship breeding displays of the flamingoes, and generally precede breeding.

So then, does that mean these flamingoes are breeding in Pulicat in the middle of summer? Maybe not.

Adeesh Shivkar writes, in his post on the flamingoes of Mumbai that,

The lesser flamingos before leaving the shores of Mumbai to their breeding grounds…..perform a spectacular display that is rivaled by none…...Even if you do not get any images…...its an amazing experience to just watch this…

So does that mean these flamingoes of Pulicat will now leave? I am hoping that Skandan and friends will keep me informed!

The Kutch encounter with the fashion king of Dasada continues here.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

A tree bank in Chennai

Nice to read about other tree help organisations, along with Nizhal.

Get your birthday saplings from Tree Banker | tree banker | | Indian Express

CHENNAI: What began as a small eccentric idea has now reached at least 3,500 people all over the country.
And the result is for all of us to see. G Mullaivanam of Velachery has created a silent revolution of sorts planting hundreds of trees across Chennai and its suburbs.
His little crusade has even earned him the sobriquet of a tree banker, for Mullaivanam sources hundreds of saplings and distributes them for free.
Mullaivanam, who now commands a 3,500 strong volunteer force of IT professionals and college students across the country, says, “There are blood banks for giving blood and eye banks for donating eyes. But there was no bank for tress that give us air to breathe and shade when we are in the hot sun.”
This activity which he started as a hobby now easily takes up most of his time while his vocation, farming, takes a backseat.
Free saplings are given to people who approach the tree bank on auspicious days like their birthdays and wedding days.
“Before a tree is planted at any place, we look into various aspects, like the Metro line, cables and overhead livewires that may harm the trees at a later stage. We also ensure that the trees have enough space to spread when it grows,” Mullaivanam said.
The calculation is, in fact, simple: for a plant of three metres height, a one-and-a half-foot pit should be dug.
The Tree Bank has distributed 20 lakh saplings throughout India, including 11,500 saplings this month.
Surya Narayanan, an active volunteer and a college student, said that he and other students have planted at least 15,000 saplings at the Anna University, Alpha College and other campuses in the city. The saplings are also being maintained by the students.
Apart from this, they also distribute medicinal plants as much as they do, avenue trees.
The student volunteers help maintain a forest near Tambaram where they have planted avenue trees, neem trees, sandalwood trees and many other medicinal plants and herbs. Mullaivanam said that the volunteers have also helped plant trees in burial grounds in 17 districts of the state on May 1, his birthday.
He believes that potted plants are like birds in a cage, which are dying for freedom. The Metro Rail project in the city has eaten up nearly 200 trees, laments Mullaivanam.
Apart from contributions by the people, the Tree Bank also receives occasional donations from philanthropists that helps it survive.
Tamil comedian Vivek, for example, had gifted a truck to the organisation for transporting the saplings.
It even has a sticker on it that says ‘I love trees’.
Celebrities like S Ve Sekhar, volunteer for the organisation occasionally. Mullaivanam feels the toughest part is not planting saplings but to rear up the tree.
If only the authorities thought of the painstaking work, they would perhaps stop cutting down trees, he hopes.

Monday, May 16, 2011

I see the slender loris for the first time

Last night, along with my son and other members of the MNS, I sighted the slender loris for the first time!

The MNS is doing a project to track the slender loris, which I had written about here. It was in this connection that we set out at 9:30 at night, with head torches, covered with a film of red paper.

It was a lovely night, with the moon almost at paurnami (full moon is on the 18th I think), a strong breeze and clear skies. This summer has been mild by Madras standards. We walked as a group, as quietly as we could, shining our torches and scanning the branches for any sign of those large eyes. The loris-spotting technique is to look for the "eye-shine" in the trees, as you beam the torch.

This was our first time, while the others had already been on this exploration earlier. Within the first half hour, we had heard the characteristic screech, and seen our first set of eyes as well.

We saw many more, but the one I liked the best was closer to midnight, on an Indian Ash tree, bare in this season, just with the stringy flowers that make for good sightings. I first heard a loud call and quickened my pace down the road.

I caught it in the light of my torch high up on the tree, and upon seeing us, it made its way cautiously down looking for a place to hide. So we had a good sighting of it, and as we tracked it moving downwards, we saw another one too!

Mr Ramanan's photos from his spotting at Ayyalur are here.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

A Kutchi summer - Day 1 - Searching for the wild ass

Seen on the wall of our room at Rann Riders

From Chennai to Ahmedabad by the Navjeevan Express ...two whole days on the train, when will we have faster trains in India? Junior is armed with ipod...without headphones. Just as I have a good laugh, Pritam also sheepishly announces he has left his behind too. Prasanna saves the day...she has a set and Vish is mightily relieved. (He took ownership of those headphones for the next whole week I should add. Thanks Prasanna!)

Arrive at Ahmedabad at 7:30 at night, to the heat and dust of Gujarat in the last week of April. 36 of us from MNS. Board our buses for Dasada (Point B on the map) stopping for dinner at a wayside Dhaba, where there is no Gujarati meal - only a Punjabi thali!

View Larger Map

SH18 takes us past lorries and more lorries. Going where? Mundra port? Its past midnight when we trundle into Rann Riders, which would be our home for the next few days. I am sharing with Prasanna and my "little loris" Vikas. Junior is off with Vijay and Pritam.

We are to be up at 5:30 the next morning, (actually the same morning, isnt it?), and i was sure that there would be many absentees for the morning ride. How wrong I was, even Junior was up and ready!!

The Little Rann of Kutch is a salt marsh and when I was in high school, I remember being fascinated by the markings we had to do over the Kutch peninsula, those dotted lines symbolising the area being under water for certain periods of the year, post-monsoon. I learnt that more than half of India's salt comes from here.

When we went, it was bone dry, as is typical of the summer months, and it was hard for me to imagine this whole stretch under shallow waters! What a treat that must be, and no wonder its a paradise for migratory birds! We do need to go back post-monsoon, I tell myself.

Here's a clip of the landscape, and some wild ass and a nilgai we saw.

The lunar landscape is the only home to the Indian Wild Ass, called khur. As I jolted along under the Kutchi sun, I could not help but be amazed at this strange country I live in, grinding poverty all around, and yet a safe home for the wild ass.

Here are some absolutely wonderful photos taken by Mr Ramanan