Unstinted efforts seeking the stints of Pallikaranai
29th August 2026 I wonder why it has taken me so long to put this down. I guess life happened. Srinivas took me along to the SW tower of Pallikaranai where we met with Sagarika - to check out the waders that had arrived. Waders are cute. They are magical - little, tiny bodies that migrate long distances. How? how? We reached, and my heart sank. There were earthmovers and earth moved. Would the birds have come to this disturbed habitat? What a mess we make. The earthmoving teams were cheery as they told us how they were going to fill and level all this wasteland - "private property ma", they emphasised, as I wailed my protest to them at the mud dystopia. We clambered over piles - up and down the dunes - Srinivas with a fractured toe on top of everything else - and we reached the protected part of the marsh. I was not in a birding frame of mind, more a despairing state of mind. Familiar faces - Subbu and his son, with a scope emerged as well. As...
