Two stories

This last month I read two rather different books, each in a very different way dealing with nature and the environment. One was set in Kenya and the other in an imaginary futuristic US. One was joyous and heartwarming and the other bleak and foreboding.

I shall not go into the stories or plots of each, as you can read that on Amazon, instead here's what I thought of each of them.

The Kenya book was borrowed from Chitra, and is called A Guide to the Birds of East Africa. It was a delightful, charming read, with the central character, gentlemanly Mr Malik being challenged to a bird race by the more racy Harry Khan. I think I enjoyed it all the more because of the bird descriptions that I could relate to, the vagaries of a bird race that I have also experienced, and the familiarity with descriptions of Kenya, so similar to colonial India. But above all, it was uplifting to read a book where no one is really bad, if you know what I mean, and people make ethical choices and ambition takes a back seat. Nicholas Drayson is the author. There's this bit where Mr Malik strikes it rich finding so many birds around a sewage pond, and it reminded me of our trips to Pallikaranai, and our wonder at seeing so many birds so close to garbage and polluted waters!

Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood was a completely different reading experience altogether. I picked it up from the library. So bleak, it was like being among the Deatheaters I tell you, peopled by greedy, unscrupulous, fickle characters. And yet, I could not put it down. It's one of those apocalyptic future books, where a group of committed eco groupies are fighting the system, with an alternate way of life. Why is it that every future scenario is imagined with humans at their basest character, with the only advances being made in technology? Dystopic rather than Utopic? There is no change in human thinking at all. Atwood takes our current socio-political structures to its logical extreme end, with gated communities and governments run like corporations and everything artificial - gene splicing, cloning, all kinds of new creatures.

I don't know why, but I am greatly affected when women characters are so badly abused....it just bothers me to read about women so powerless and exploited, as they are in the Atwood book. I found it completely joyless, the book I mean, and even the eco groupies (called God's Gardeners by the way), seem to have no sense of joy or wonder, more a sense of "this is my duty, and this is what I have to do".

I would readily recommend the Drayson book to all, but not the Atwood. Besides the bleakness, the plot itself and its resolution is all too pat and disappointing.

But, it is the Atwood book that had me thinking for days....does it really need us to believe in the cause of the environment like a religion to make a change? Do we need to create new gods and saints, like Adam One does in the book? Why does the Asian psyche not lead to such future-scenario books?

Spreading shade

The Hindu : Life & Style / Society : Spreading shade


Planting, nurturing and protecting trees…Nizhal, an NGO, is committed to transforming Chennai into a green city

Every morning, Vasanthi Rajiv goes for a walk along with her pet dog. And while they fill their lungs with fresh air, Vasanthi also takes time to remove the advertisements nailed on the trees.

A member of Nizhal, Vasanthi says, “This is part of our organisation's ‘ Free the Tree' campaign. I used to pull out the ads on Sundays but they would be back on Mondays. So I decided to make it a daily activity.” And with the aid of a long custom-made claw hammer, she goes about her job.

“As a result, there are no ads on trees in Alwarpet, Mandaveli and R. A. Puram,” laughs Shobha Menon, one of the founder members of Nizhal, an NGO that plants and cares for trees and promotes concern for them in the city. It is about empowering people to speak for trees. Established in 2005, by a group of five tree lovers, the organisation's first activities included planting and surveying trees.

Tree walks

With expert advice from Shekhar Raghavan, Director of Rain Centre, and G. Dattatri, their chief advisor, they then came up with the idea of tree walks where people were taught about trees, their properties, and the abuse of trees in urban areas. “The first walk was organised in Besant Nagar with around 30 participants. Ever since, we have only seen the number growing,” says Shobha. Such is the popularity of this activity that apart from corporates, even parents want to make it part of their child's birthday party!

Shobha feels that most people don't even look at a tree till the roots damage their compound wall. “Trees are our lifeline; should we not do our bit for them? If you see a tree being abused, and can't do much, just inform the Corporation about it,” she says. She nostalgically points to a tree which stands about 7-ft tall and smiles, “I remember it being knee-high. Look at it today. It feels so good to see a tree grow.”

We are in the PWD Tree Park where Nizhal is currently working along with the State Public Works Department to commemorate the park's 150 years. Four acres of barren land that was a dump is now green with grass and 240 trees belonging to 200 different species. Keeping them company are birds, multi-hued butterflies and spotted deer.

The purpose of the park apart from providing a green canopy is to educate children, who may reel out videogame names but may not be able to name more than 6-7 species of trees. The park is expected to be ready in three months' time. According to her, planting saplings has become a fad these days but it is not about the number of trees that are planted but about choosing the right species, planting them properly and ensuring there is enough space for them. One must also take care to see that after they are planted, the trees are tended to and nurtured till they can survive on their own.

Working with prisons

Into its fifth year, Shobha attributes Nizhal's success to its committed core team and volunteer network. Nizhal's other projects include school and college programmes, neighbourhood initiatives, gardening and growing vegetables as occupational therapy for patients in the IMH, and working with prisons across Tamil Nadu. It started with ‘Puzhal and Nizhal,' a campaign that helped green the prison grounds. Prisons in Cuddalore, Pudukottai and Tiruchi, and now the Palayamkottai and Madurai prisons, have been covered by the green brigade.

They are given seeds, panchakavyam and vermicompost. Dr. Dayanandan, an expert, educates them about what to plant and when. At the end of the year-long programme, the prisoners are given a certificate. So, when the vegetables and fruits grow, there is considerable excitement and gleeful shouts of “Takkali, vendakkai valandirukku… ingay avarakka valandirukku!” Says Shobha, “This way, we heal not only the minds of people but also the environment.”

WHAT'S REQUIRED

* Regenerate biodiversity

* Plant local and natural species

* Report / stop abuse of trees

For details, log on to www.nizhaltn.org

Keywords: biodiversity, Nizhal

Save as WWF, Save a Tree :�Home

The New Scientist in an article titled as File, save - the planet: Hello green Computing says,

The latest way to save the planet isn't to install solar panels on your house or drive a Toyota Prius - it's to save your computer files differently.

The conservation organisation WWF has launched its own file type. So now as well as saving documents as .docs or PDFs, you can also save your work as a WWF file. It's just like the humble PDF, with one key difference: it can't be printed. It's a simple way to try to curb the amount of waste paper created in offices around the world.

Users can decide which of their documents don't require printing, and then save them using the new format. When these files are distributed to colleagues or friends, they won't be able to hit "File, Print", so reams of paper will be spared. That might annoy some, but it could also save hundreds of trees from the clutches of the paper mill.

With the quest to become environmentally friendly so complicated, a simple step like this towards the utopia of the paperless office can only be a good thing.

To use the file type, you need to download a small piece of software. WWFs are currently available only on Mac OS X, but a Windows version is due for release soon.

I just downloaded it and it works!

Save as WWF, Save a Tree :�Home

Truth About Tigers

YouTube - TruthAboutTigers

MNS member Shekar Dattatri's 40 minute film is now on Youtube.

Saving Chembarakkam lake

Petition - Kuthambakkam

Please do go and take a look at the linked page. The petition gives details of a proposed plan to locate a solid waste landfill project close to Chembarakkam lake. The lake is one of Chennai's important drinking water sources.

Experts from Anna University and the Supreme Court Committee for solid waste management have warned against the long-term consequences of this project. But the TN Pollution Control Board has not yet turned it down. Public protest against the project needs to be raised.

Deepavali at Rishi Valley - Eight legs & six legs

I always thought the spider was an insect. (Really, what did they teach her in school, you say?) Well, what did you think, huh...huh..go on tell me.

Its quite simple really, spiders have eight legs, insects have six. So spider not insect, ta-da!

So the spider is an arachnid. And guess what, so are scorpions and ticks, arachnids I mean.

And if you are wondering how this great insight dawned on me, it was because of our recent trip to Rishi Valley, some pictures I took of this gigantic "yettu kaal puchi", and then coming back and finding no mention of it in the book called Satpada, Our World of Insects!! I mean, its there in the title staring and screaming at me - SIX LEGS - and I still dont get it. (I can imagine Pranav, the wonder-insect-kid of MNS shaking his head in despair.)

Arachnid aesthetics first

These huge webs are those of the Giant wood spider, and I saw them for the first time in the Rishi Valley campus, and immediately the next day, up on Horsley Hills.

Oh yes look closely, there's the spider to the left and all those white lines...that's how big the web was!

The spider herself. The male is really tiny. Oh, to be a female spider!!

Trying my best to get the spider and the web together

Attempts at art photography. This web survived a really heavy downpour. You can see the water droplets glistening on the web

And this below is what we saw all over the grass, little dew patches I thought, but no, its a spider's web that has caught the morning dew. Check out the tunnel in the middle. its made by an arachnid called a tunnel spider, commonly, a type of wolf spider. I never did see this spider, but I believe its sitting there waiting in that tunnel/funnel, and will emerge as soon as its web vibrates!

If you click on the picture, you will see the funnel in the middle of the sheet-like web.

Insecta next

Lepidoptera - butterflies & moths

I saw -

Tawny costers

Blue Mormon - I wish could have photographed it

Common Mormon

Grass yellows

Plain tiger

White orange tip

And a Common Cerulean

Common Bush Brown

Hymenoptera - bees

The hard working honey bees, were hard at work making honey. I try to reduce the amount of honey I eat or buy these days, (its not making any difference to my waistline), they have a tough enough life it seems, without us eating up all their honey.

Apis dorsata at work

Heteroptera - bugs

Bugs feed on liquid mainly - so they suck, not chew, are quite a nuisance, and also smell foul!

We saw jewel bugs, water skaters, water scorpions and giant water bugs too. The water scorpions and giant water bugs we saw in the stagnant pools of water just off the RV campus, up in the rocks. The water scorpion is quite tiny, maybe an inch long, and I would have missed it, if Thyagu and Murugavel had not lifted it up on a stick and pointed it out. The "tail-like" appendage is actually a breathing tube, I discovered from the Satpada book!

Jewel bug - a shield-back bug, so attractive to look at, but pretty destructive to the plant, sucking out their sap.

Water skaters we saw in plenty at Madhinaiyanicheruvu, the freshwater body, about 20kms from RV.

Odonata - dragon and damselflies

There were so many, but they rarely sat still for me to take a good look, let alone photograph them. Dragonflies are my latest wonder-of-the-natural-world type creature. The glider is the insect with the longest migration....from India to Africa and back, if you please! 14,0000 kms in all.

A Ground Skimmer. Skimmers are found close to the ground and rarely fly more than 1m up. I saw several of these just hovering over the ground.

A Ditch jewel. Seen mainly near sewage ponds, so was this one lost?!

Orthoptera - grasshopper

Just click on the picture below, to appreciate all the colours and markings of the innocuous grasshopper. Take a look at those long legs, ready to put in a loooong jump!

Quite the agricultural pest these insects.

Cataloipus cymbifera is what I thought. But Pranav believes that "it is one of the Migratory Bird Locusts- most probably Schistocerca gregaria, a species that is very well known for its infamous gregariousness (as the name suggests). This is a grasshopper that trims foliage a little too enthusiastically, in the company of hundreds of individuals of its kind".

I made the mistake of asking him why he thought so and he gave me details about the size of the head, and markings on the pronotum, which all was too much for my middle-aged brain to process!! So, i shall just take his word for it. Thanks Pranav!

Coleoptera - beetles

Here's one longhorn beetle that Murugavel found, and placed lovingly on the tree to be photographed.

Longhorn beetle, with their extra long antennae

Hymenoptera - wasps

This looks like a mud dauber wasp of some sort...but all the references I came across show them with yellow legs....so what is this?

It was busy burrowing in the sand just outside the guest house, as the rain started. These wasps paralyse or tranquilise their victims, and then carry them off to their nest, where they are stored for their young ones!

Wasp

I also saw stick insects and mantises, paper wasps and I think even a hornets nest....but I do not have photographs of these.

All in all, a significant improvement in my knowledge of the insect world, in three days, dont you think?

Deepavali at Rishi Valley

"Lorek", my teenage son reports on the weekend. All picture credits to him as well. Taken on a Nikon FM film-roll camera.

The name Horsely hills will not ring an audible bell for the common man. But for members of the MNS, it is synonymous with paradise and filter coffee. And so to view this paradise and other assorted wonders along the way, 15 of us MNSites set for the Rishi Valley School, which was our base camp. I was jerked awake and zombied my way to the car, which would carry me, my mother, Pritam uncle, Vijay uncle, Tara aunty and Shashank to Madanapalle. Amid discussions of where the Pitta had been spottedin Chennai, I zoned out to the sound of Iron Maiden.

A short food stop at Arusuvai and we were well and truly on our way to the promised land. I made the most of the next leg to catch on some much needed sleep. Another food stop and several birds later, we found ourselves nearing the village of Madanapalle. 'Rishi valley?' for directions led us onto the bypass road and to the school.

At the school, we met up with the man with the plan and the everlasting smile, Mr.Shantaram. He led us to (yet another) midday meal at the school mess. The campus in itself dwarfs any other school that I have seen. It is around 150 acres or so. Just walking to the guest house found the most serious birders rubbing their hands in glee at the number of bird calls and the overall greenery!





After tea, we set out with Mr.Eversmile, Shantaram sir for a small walk. We walked up the nearby hill and got some fantastic views of the surrounding area. The birds were also in abundance and the bird watchers had a field day. We were introduced to the various rock formations around - Cave Rock, Sliding Rock, Windmill and what have you. At sunset, we sat around trying to keep quiet, and were rewarded with the call of the pitta, a nightjar and an owl too! Somewhat hungry we returned to a good dinner and sleep.

Day 2

I was awoken by Axl Rose singing about Hollywood, (my alarm!) and enjoyed some fresh tea, before we set out to scale Horsely hills. The trek started out through the fields and slowly went steeply uphill. Birds were out in hordes and there were sightings every few steps literally. If I remember right, the hunt was on for the yellow-throated bulbul, whose calls were everywhere.

The ascent was steep at first and gradually unsteepened. The climb was punctuated by a breakfast break and innumerable other inexplicable rest stops.

At long last we got off the trekking path and hit the road and Shashank, Jeyanth and I pulled away from the pack. We were later joined by Vijay uncle to be the first men to reach the top. While lunch was being arranged, I journeyed to the edge to get a better view and found the whole valley spread out like a carpet on a slightly bumpy floor. The lunch was Chettinad-spice hot, that had been mysteriously absent all this while. Fanning our burning mouths, we stormed the ice cream parlour, just as the skies opened up.

Those of us with rain gear triumphantly produced said gear and starting downhill. Three steps later the rain stopped and the smug others joined the caravan downhill. Fighting a wet shoe, a severely aching foot sole and the need to urinate. I sped downward, using all available shortcuts with Shashank and arrived at the village at the base of Horsely. The forward guard, waiting for the rear guard to show up indulged in a cup of tea and some butter cookies(yum!!).

After the whole group had regrouped and started tea, a bus with KA license plates came by and claimed it was completely legitimate. Hitching a ride on this illegality, we arrived at the Rishi valley turn off point, to find a squadron of cars summoned from the school by Mr.Shantaram! (Calculations made by the group estimated that we had walked approximately 17kms that day, starting at about 7 in the morning, and finishing by 5 in the evening.) That concluded the day for the Seniors, with Jeyanth, Sekar uncle, Shashank and I heading over to a nearby hamlet for hot coffee and shopping at the mall, which was in reality a small pottikadai.

Day 3

The next dawn, the "coffee boys" headed to the village again for the now guest house renowned coffee. Coffee done, we headed out to another of the abundant nearby hills for some lip smacking bird watching. Tiring, the journey, was, but a large horde of birds placated the ever hungry mob and breakfast saw a beaming many persons. A blue rock thrush sat, well, on a rock.

We were free, much to my delight, for the rest of the morning and a part of the afternoon. Each person headed their separate ways to do what interested them most. I headed to the terrace to capture those moments of beauty on a film negative.

Rested, birded or peeved, everyone headed for lunch with a slightly different opinion of life. I met up with Mr.Shantharam's son and engaged in a 20 minute session of guitar playing. The rest of the afternoon was spent half asleep and reading about how “bleedin' 'orrible them Nazi's were”. Tea saw some familiar fare with chikkis being on the menu.

Having done good justice to them, we headed to 'Madhunayanichiruvu'(try saying that with 3 candies in your mouth) a lake well revered for water birds. A "sniper scope" in tow, viewing of birds was plentiful, and it took the sun to forcefully tell us to move along for us to go back.

After a great dinner of noodles, I packed and read and vowed not to wake up in the morning.

Day 4

Next morning, I refused to go for a pre-breakfast walk and the rain gods obliged with showers.

After a breakfast of dosais, the Innova gang crammed into the car and headed back home and to various relatives. Along the way, we were hit hard by 'Jal', both literally and metaphorically, though Pritam saar was unfazed by all this and kept the humour and car along the right track.

In the end, we saw what we had come to see, the Yellow throated bulbul and a lot more. We enjoyed our stay, the campus, the food and the general craziness that comes with MNS. We saw, heard and smelled 100 odd species of birds and other assorted creatures. I hope the other MNSites are happy.

All thanks to our publishing team at madras wanderer, MNS and Mr.Shantaram!

*******************

Thanks Lorek!

My complete list of birds is here. This is a list of birds I saw, does not include the ones that I heard but did not see.

Tree list at Anna University

Led my first tree walk for Nizhal. Meaning, I was supposed to be the "resource person" as Shoba so sweetly puts it, spreading awareness about these trees! I went armed with my iPad. Why? Loaded on it was the Nizhal Siemens Gandhinagar Tree Guide, with more than 40 common trees of Chennai (all present in Gandhinagar, Adyar) identified via their fruit, flower, leaf or pod!

I used it successfully to identify the Mimusops elengi or bullet wood tree. I was very pleased at the fact that I was able to identify all these trees below that we found on our one hour walk. I would not have been able to do this about a year ago...probably only about five. Working at the PWD park and going for Nizhal's tree walks have really helped.

There were about 20 students of the college from the Youth Red Cross who came along with me. There were two other resource persons Latha and Yamini, who went to other parts of the large and green campus. These were the trees seen and talked about, along the western driveway just inside the main gate. This is the path I took.

1. Mast tree (false ashoka) - identified by its profile
2. Copper pod - pods and yellow flowers
3. Gulmohar - smooth bark, small leaves, large pods
4. Pongamia - with the leaf galls, a hardy local tree
5. Rain tree - there were a few flowers. told them about the insects that make the "rain", and the thoongu moonji look of the leaves in the evening.
6. Neem - the wonder tree, that everyone knew.
7. Tabebuia - there are massive specimens that line the inner walls of the campus.
8. Peepul - the fig wasp story told.
9. Cassia yellow
10. Cassia pink
11. Bauhinia - we discussed the leaf shape, and there was some lovely purple blloms too.
12. Mimusops elengi - this is the one that we went step by step using the guide (since I could not identify it straight off).
13. Palmyra - TN state tree
14. Banyan - a nice large specimen
15. False rudraksh - hairy leaves and black rudraksh-like seeds.
16. Nuna - the bark was a giveaway
17. Java olive - with their palmate leaves and characteristic seed pods
18. Subabul - the "conflict" tree, that does not allow other species to thrive, with the easily identifiable seed pods.
19. Fishtail palm
20. Golden cane palm

The Tree Guide is a handy tool for Chennai. It can be loaded on a smart phone or laptop and works well. Would you like a copy? Post a comment below, or fill in the feedback form at Nizhal's contact page. It costs Rs 150.

"My husband and other animals — Take me home"

The Hindu : Life & Style / Metroplus : My husband and other animals — Take me home

Rom's mother always said that a toad or two under the kitchen sink was all one needed to keep the house clean of cockroaches. Guess what, much like everything else on our crazy farm, toads just colonised our house en masse, in a scene not different from the tree frog invasion. Like walking on a forest path, every night I had to watch where I put my foot in the house. No matter how careful I was, the magnificently-sized, sticky toad turds just jumped out, and stuck themselves to the soles of my feet! Forgetting whatever I was doing, I was forced to hobble off to wash the offending black ‘toad-gum' immediately. After a few such nightly episodes, I threw the toads out of the house, but fearlessly they returned to face my wrath.

I collected them in a plastic container and took them to the edge of the front yard, about 250 metres away, and released them. They had the temerity to return. I marked them (identification), spun the container round and round (disorientation, I thought), took them on a long detour around the farm (confusing, I imagined) before letting them go 500 metres away. There! I proclaimed in smug confidence. They were back in 25 hours.

By now, the blighters knew what was in store when the she-ogre came for them. They squeaked in distress, pissed copiously in fright, and tried to evade capture. I almost relented, but now curiosity drove me on. 750 metres. Back in 30 hours. That's a fairly long distance for small creatures to navigate. Spun the bottle, took them down the long dirt path, across the road, into the jungle and let them go by a puddle. One km away. Success? While I succeeded in chasing them out of the house, I found a couple with tell-tale markings in the outdoor planters. Now I can't tell if all of them made it back or only some did. What do other creatures do when taken far from home? Here are some interesting facts I unearthed.

In Namibia, out of eleven marked leopards that were moved 800 very long km, six returned home over a period of five to 28 months. Let me put it this way: if these cats had been taken from Chennai and released somewhere a bit north of Goa, they were able to walk right back! In the U.S., most of the 34 black bears that were moved about 200 km from their home territories returned successfully. In India, an elephant translocated from the Terai to Buxa Tiger Reserve, a distance of about 250 km, returned in less than 2 months. Salt water crocodiles in Australia were shown to home back after being moved 400 km. Put me in Bangalore, and I'm lost immediately.

However, the distance record for homing is held by seabirds such as albatrosses and shearwaters. An albatross taken from an island in the central Pacific and released about 6500 km away in the Philippines returned in a month, two others returned from Washington State, 5,000 km away.

It is not just the larger animals who have this amazing skill. In the U.K., bumblebees found their way home after being randomly dropped off 13 km from their hives. So what's a km to a toad, eh?

The fact that these animals, birds and insects return home is well-documented. But, how do they find their way through unfamiliar terrain over long distances?

Since these animals are frequently moved in covered vehicles on the outward journey (or a closed plastic container), it is unlikely they remember the route. In many cases, the animals return journey did not follow the road they were taken out on at all, but instead, took a more direct path homewards. So, how do they do it?

(To be continued)

(The author can be reached at janaki@gmail.com)

The Navaratri fortnight

Cloudy skies

dragonflies.

Sweaty, hot,

mosquitoes swat.

Lightning, thunder

leaves asunder

Cooling rains

dragonflies again!

Window sill

bulbuls trill.

Sunny day

trevally prey.

Heat abated

pitta spotted.

Swallows tease

southerly breeze.

Brilliant moon

Dusk so soon.

Ecosystems of Madras in need of some TLC

The last week has seen two articles in the Chennai Times of India on the neglect and abuse of our city's natural spaces.

Simpson estate and the Manali lake

and

The Nanmangalam Reserve Forest

A tiger spotted at Bharatpur

Bharatpur is home to the Keoladeo bird sanctuary. The article below was sent to the MNS e-group, and I was immediately transported back in time to the winter adventures of the Mad Madrasis, our 53 hour train ride to get to Bharatpur, and our daily cycling (mis)adventures at the park.

And now a tiger, identified as T7 has been spotted on camera (but not in person), devouring a boar, and suspected at having killed a nilgai as well. He seems to be a maverick tiger, sort of lone ranger, outlaw type, having made his way from Ranthambhore.

The Hindu article.

The male tiger that intruded into the Keoladeo National Park bird sanctuary near Bharatpur in Rajasthan this past Sunday is seemingly enjoying his stay and is in no hurry to leave. The animal, now confirmed as T-7 of Ranthambhore National Park, which announced his arrival in Keoladeo with the killing of a blue bull, has over the past two days hunted a wild boar and a calf of feral cattle and fed on the former ignoring the calf. Though the bird sanctuary staff has been keeping a vigil, the tiger has not made an appearance before the humans so far.

“The tiger continues to be in Keoladar area of the sanctuary where the grass is standing tall. No one could spot it so far despite a strict vigil. However, we have now with us a set of 25 photographs of the animal eating the wild boar, taken with the help of a trap camera,” informed Anoop K.R., Field Director of the National Park, speaking from Bharatpur on Friday.

“The tiger seemingly consumed the wild boar fully though some of the photographs show a hyena in the background,” he said.

The tiger was on the run for the past fortnight after attacking and injuring over half a dozen persons at Mathura in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. Curiously this is the same tiger, estimated to be around four years old, which had badly mauled a range officer in a village on the periphery of Ranthambhore National Park a month back. Even prior to this, T-7 has been shuttling between Ranthambhore Park and the neighbouring sanctuary of Kailadevi before choosing the long haul to the Rajasthan-UP border. Experts are of the view that going by its past behaviour the animal is not to remain in the 29 sq km area of the sanctuary for long.

“I have watched this tiger closely. He is not to stop here for long,” said Dharmendra Khandal, Director of Tiger Watch at Ranthambhore. Dr. Khandal, who confirmed the animal in the picture as T-7, said the authorities should devise a plan for shifting it to any tiger sanctuary, preferably not Sariska. He was dismissive of taking it back to Ranthambhore or Kailadevi as the former was already “saturated for tigers” and the latter did not have an adequate prey base.

“We can exchange it for a tigress from Madhya Pradesh. The animal can be shifted to Kuno, Panna or Kanha. This could be a gene pool exchange which will benefit the tigers from both the States,” he argued.

There have been reports in local newspapers about the Rajasthan forest authorities planning to shift T-7 to Sariska to join the already existing five tigers, relocated from Ranthambhore. “There are already two male tigers in Sariska now and another male is not of any additional relevance,” he pointed out.

There is reason for the authorities at Van Bhavan, the Forest Department headquarters here, and at Keoladeo National Park to worry as T-7 is a tiger with a past. The young cat has attacked a good number of people and has seemingly lost its fear of human beings. Keoladeo is a bird sanctuary where the visitors normally move either on foot or on bicycles and cycle rickshaws. “T-7 is no more afraid of the presence of humans. That is not going to help much as it has a history of attacking humans,” Dr. Khandal observed.

Its travelled a fair distance!


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I have forgotten the darkness of the night

Monday evening, and I was out for my evening walk by the beach. My iPod to lighten the drudge that the evening constitutional has become, the zippy music puts a zing in my step that is otherwise laboured and bored as I sweat myself through another exercise routine!

Dont get me wrong, I do love the shore and the magical colours of the evening sky and the water, but without the music (or good company), I would rather just sit by the shore and take it all in!

This Monday evening however, as the sun set, darkness also descended. It dawned on me that the power had gone, streetlights were off, and the matchbox flats all around were dark. The odd apartment with an inverter or a genset looked like an incongruous, out-of-season Deepavali display.

I want to record the strange feeling that overcame me, as I stumbled along the dark path, unsure of my footing.

One, I felt foolish and inadequate as the street dogs and stray cats darted around confidently while I kind of walked blind.

Two, it seemed that the roar of the water was much more (I had turned off my iPod) than normal as a hush descended, no motors, TVs, fan whirrs I guess, and more laughter and chatter floated in the air.

Three, it brought back memories almost fifteen years ago of a night in the Himalayas when we trekked through the Great Himalayan National Park and darkness descended and we were nowhere near our destination. That pitch black, I next experienced at Mamandur on a night walk again. Its a weird feeling, like walking around blindfolded, and for a city dweller like me, I realise how I have lost touch with all my other senses, in order to navigate.

Four, my mind rambled (it does that all the time) to how night lighting has changed the way we live, changed the planet, and how every other species has had to adapt to this human intervention. We love lights, it makes us happy and cheerful, the more neon signs there are, we feel we have progressed and we are prosperous.

Will we willingly reduce our night lights, for the sake of all those other creatures, lights in advertising hoardings, buildings and public places? Maybe we need a green tax on unnecessary night lighting...or am I being a killjoy?

Nizhal's tree walk at Sembium Gardens

(Due apologies to a kids nursery rhyme)

Bus driver bus driver, can we have a ride?
OK, OK step up inside.
Round the bend, up the street, madly we go
Screeching and horning
Hold on tight!

Conductor sir, may we alight
We seem to have reached and we are alright!
Into an auto, squeezed up tight
We reach Sembium gardens, much to our delight!

Shoba is there, as usual giggling
And Arun is there to take us treewalking.

Buttress roots
New palm shoots
Subabuls are plenty
Rain tree flowers so dainty.

But where are those birds that I came to see?
Have they all gone off to have their morning tea?
Mosquitoes attack bare legs with glee
Sending my son on a hopping spree.

Coffee and biscuits, a welcome break
The caffeine ensuring we were all awake
To see Saraca indica
Which is the real ashoka
And not Polyalthia longifolia,
Our common false ashoka!

At last I see herons in the pond!
And is that a coot and moorhen beyond?
Parakeets in the raintree screeched
A flameback in the cordia, knocked

And to go home we turned around
Oops, the same mad bus driver we found!
Round the bend, up the street, madly we went
Screeching and horning
Held on tight!

The rains, trees and insects

Seen at GNP -

Pranav of MNS helped me id this!

Hi Ambika,
This is a short horned grasshopper (Acrididae) in the subfamily Oxyinae- most probably Oxya hyla hyla. I don't think there is a common name beyond "Short horned grasshopper"(which refers to thousands and thousands of other species), so these two will just have to be satisfied with the binomial name mentioned above.
Yes, they are a mating pair- the males are always smaller than the females. There is another subspecies- O. hyla intricata , which looks similar, with a deep brown shade above, instead of green. The two subspecies have been noticed mating with each other, but these two specimens seem to have stuck to their own kind... grasshoppers are strict vegetarians. In fact, they are despised for this very fact- the grasshopper in your photo is an infamous pest of rice...
Pranav

Wildlife Week Celebrations Chennai

Sign up for the quiz, and come for the storytelling...promises to be fun.

Click on the picture for the enlarged poster

Elephant - God or victim?

We celebrated Gowri and Ganesha hubba/pooja this morning, and as I listened to the mantras, my mind wandered (Sorry, but it did!), to elephants, wild ones, those magnificent large creatures with gentle eyes that for some reason always look so sad. Odd, isn't it, we have deified both motherhood and the elephant, and both are exploited and mistreated in Indian society?

While we talk a lot about the vanishing tiger, as a country we have failed the much loved elephant haven't we? These large creatures need space and food, and as we pressure them into a corner, there is an inevitable man-animal conflict. Nowadays, a fortnight doesn't go by without a report of either an elephant killed, or a man killed/injured by an elephant.

Man vs elephant - the conflict of civilization, indicates that deaths of both humans and elephants are on the rise in India. When I read some of the reports, one almost gets the sense that the elephants are angry and raging.

I would be an enraged elephant too, if I found I had nowhere to go, take my babies, no safe points to cross from one forest to another, wouldn't I?

And then Ravi Chellam writes in his article Beyond the Herd, that there are 3,500 elephants in captivity. And I see those temple elephants in shackles and everytime I do, I make a silent apology to it, wishing I could free it.......

Finally an Elephant Task Force has been set up by the Ministry of Evironment and Forests.

Beyond the herd
RAVICHELLAM Posted online: Mon Sep 06 2010, 03:34 hrs

One of the innovative recommendations of the recently submitted report of the Elephant Task Force (ETF), backed by the environment ministry, is to declare it India’s national heritage animal. The elephant is possibly the most appropriate species to be awarded this recognition. Elephants have a wide distribution across the country, living in diverse habitats ranging from the tall grasslands of the alluvial flood plains of the terai to montane grasslands, evergreen forests, and moist and dry deciduous forests of the Western Ghats. They are also a much-loved species, with very strong cultural and religious links with vast sections of our population. The elephant is one of the most recognised symbols of India, and unique in being among the few widely domesticated wild large mammals. They play very important roles in religious and cultural ceremonies across India. Three thousand and five hundred elephants are estimated to be in captivity in India, largely in temples and under private ownership.
India is home to more than 60 per cent of the remaining wild elephants in Asia, with an estimated population of around 26,000. So, as a country we have a crucial role to play for their long-term survival in the wild. While these numbers may seem high and indicate that the elephants are well conserved and secure, the field reality is actually very different.

Elephant habitats have been undergoing rapid change in the last couple of decades in India due to conversion to agriculture, development of infrastructure and other development projects including tourism resorts. Much of this change has had negative impacts on elephant populations due to fragmentation and degradation of their habitats. In many instances, elephant habitats have been totally brought under human use, resulting in the complete loss of the habitat. Poaching of elephants for their tusks has also been a problem in certain parts of India. In Asian elephants, only the males possess tusks and so poaching tends to be focused on males with disastrous consequences for the sex-ratio of the remaining elephant populations. Human-elephant conflicts (HEC) are widespread and according to the ETF, about one million hectares of crop lands are damaged by elephants annually. Every year in India, about 400 people are killed by elephants and in retaliation about 100 elephants are killed. This indicates how widespread and serious this conflict is in India today. The task force has recommended multiple approaches, some of which are very innovative and practical, in order to mitigate and manage this problem. The focus is on preventing human actions which will create fresh conflicts and to prevent and minimise existing levels of conflict. This includes integrated land use planning in and around elephant habitats, enhanced guarding of crops, higher levels of local community participation in these efforts and more efficient and just payment of compensation.

Another major and avoidable cause of elephant mortality is death on railway tracks due to collision with trains and electrocution from low-hanging high-tension wire. These problems have also been recognised in the ETF. It has identified 10 elephant landscapes where conservation would be prioritised. These landscapes include all 32 of the existing and proposed elephant reserves. Elephants are extremely mobile and social mega-herbivores and so they can only be conserved at the landscape level. These elephant landscapes contain several types of lands including protected areas, reserved forests and revenue land. Many of the protected areas are connected by vital corridors, which enable elephants to move from one part of their home range to the other and also ensure the genetic connectivity and integrity of the populations, which is vital for their long-term survival. The task force places emphasis on securing the corridors and elephant habitats beyond the protected areas for their long-term conservation.

The report supports a strong role for science in assessing and monitoring elephant populations and also in undertaking ecological and veterinary studies which will help us understand elephant populations and their behaviour in a better and more holistic manner. A clear role for civil society organisations and public participation in the conservation and management of elephants has also been outlined, with Rs 600 crore recommended as the financial outlay to implement the recommendations during the Twelfth Plan period.

Wildlife conservation in India is beginning to take a broader approach, after many decades of tightly focusing on tigers alone. Last year, the river dolphin was declared the national aquatic animal, Project Snow Leopard has been functional, there is a move to bring back the cheetah, and the latest heartening development is the spotlight on elephants. This indicates an increasingly mature approach to wildlife conservation, one which values nature in its myriad forms.

The writer is country director, Wildlife Conservation Society-India Programme

He is also an MNS member.

Saving animals from humans!!

PUDUCHERRY, September 9, 2010

The heavy odds of animal rescuers

Sruthisagar Yamunan

They are yet to be made permanent staff

AT WORK: A personnel of the Forest Department rescuing a cobra in Puducherry on Wednesday. — Photo: T. Singaravelou

For C. Vajemouny, an animal rescuer at the Forest Department here, work has no set timings. Whenever he gets a call from residents, complaining about their unwanted guests (read animals), he rushes to the spot to do the double rescue: saving the animals from humans and vice-versa.

For people like him, the satisfaction of rescuing the animal is their biggest incentive. He says that despite working for 14 years, he is yet to be made a permanent staffer of the Forest Department and continues to work as a daily wage labourer.

On an average day, such rescuers receive four to five calls informing them about different animals that lose their way out of the adjoining forest areas and find shelter in houses. Time is precious to these people as even a bit of delay can result in loss of lives, especially if the animal is a snake.

For a long time, these men have worked even without basic protective gears and have exposed themselves to the risks of poisoning by these animals. But they do believe that catching a snake with the equipment is a difficult task and that "charming the snake with their bare hands" is much easier than with the gloves as they are used to such techniques. Apart from calls they receive from residents, they also develop sources in different parts of the town to get information about poaching and illegal sales of endangered animals. Karthickeyan, another rescuer at the department, says that this task becomes hectic during the migration season when a variety of birds visit the lakes in Puducherry. He says that rescuing such birds poses the risk of encounter with criminal elements that go to any extent to sell these birds in a thriving illegal market.

Their demands are a few in number, but the most important is that of being made permanent employees of the department which would provide them with a higher income.

An ode to Cubbon Park, Bangalore

My good friend Shoba finally writes something that I agree with! It deserves a cross post here. Anyways, dear Shoba, I am glad you met Karthikeyan - may his tribe grow - and I love the bit about nature surrounding us, like "God is Everywhere"!!

Cubbon Park was one of those parts often visited in my childhood, and her descriptions of the activities there were spot on.

At Cubbon Park, under the greenwood trees - Columnist - livemint.com

For a park that’s in the centre of the city, Bangalore’s Cubbon Park is remarkably deserted during the day. The Page 3 people who populate nearby UB City are absent here. Instead, the park is left to pedestrians, plebeians and proletariat, which is exactly as it should be. Unlike Central Park, Hyde Park, Lodhi Gardens or Tokyo’s Shinjuku, Cubbon Park hasn’t been overly gentrified: overtaken by stroller-moms in True Religion jeans, joggers in neon tights, or bare-chested drummers who jam all evening. Instead, Cubbon Park remains sedate, even somnolent, offering refuge for tired Bangaloreans who want to decompress in anonymity.

I visit Cubbon Park three times a week to walk my dog off-leash while my daughter plays tennis. Often, I see the same people. Law clerks from the nearby Attara Kacheri walk across, discussing cases and files. Weary men who look like Arthur Miller’s Willy Loman sit in grey pants and beige shirts under the broad canopy of a fading rain tree, making peace with their thoughts. Furtive lovers lurk in the shadows. Boys speaking Bhojpuri climb trees and chase each other. Burqa-clad women clutch toddlers in shimmering frocks. Two dreadlocked men play frisbee. A British man walks two sleek Weimaraners off-leash. Men urinate under the bamboo bushes. Retirees walk by in eye-popping attire: monkey cap, bright red tilak or namam, white banian, khakhi shorts, mismatched purple socks and chalk-whitened Bata shoes. A drunk auto driver gives a loud but perfect rendition of Mere naina, sawan bhadon.

Humans are a minority in Cubbon Park though. It really belongs to the trees, and boy, are they characters. There is this grandmotherly fig tree with stomach-folds that seems to have compressed itself to spread its canopy to the maximum extent. People sit on benches under it. Geckos breed in its fold. Fur-balled squirrels run spirals before jumping off its trunk. Eagles rest on top.

An upstart silk cotton tree arches sideways and upwards like a ballet dancer, surrounded by matronly peepal, gulmohar and banyan trees, all shivering and hovering. You can almost see this young tree navigating and negotiating with these matrons to get its place in the sun.

After walking amidst these trees for three months, I did something I have never done. I hugged a Laburnum. This Cassia fistula is a common sight in Bangalore. One evening, I wrapped my arms around this Cassia for 6 seconds—that’s how long it takes for the beneficial oxytocin hormone to release itself and make you feel good, so if you are hugging your spouse, lover, friend, child, or pet, make sure you hug for 6 seconds at least. So I hugged this tree in Cubbon Park. That was the turning point. Like a drug addict, I wanted more.

Also Read Shoba’s previous Lounge columns

I googled “Trees of Cubbon Park”, and came across just one worthwhile site that documented the trees, done by S. Karthikeyan, the chief naturalist of JLR, or Jungle Lodges. Called Wildwanderer.com, this site, or “Karthik’s Journal”, documents the flowering trees of Bangalore. I cold-emailed him and asked if I could walk with him the next time he was in Cubbon Park, which was how I found myself with the Wild Wanderer.

“Trees as a group can do amazing things,” says Karthikeyan. “We don’t notice because they operate in a different timeline than we humans do.” When I ask for an example, he asks, “Have you ever seen a fig flower?” I say “No.” “Then how do we get the seed?” He talks about inflorescence and the fig wasp, a co-evolutional relationship for the last 80 million years.

Karthikeyan points to an Albizia lebbeck or woman’s tongue tree, so called because the rattling of its pods sounds like women chattering. A proud peepal arches to the sky like a dad giving a lecture to a drooping millingtonia just across. Pink bauhinias are blooming and the sausage tree is shedding thick flowers. A Desi Badam or Terminalia catappa stands, slim and strong, like a teenage girl, preening before guests.

Karthikeyan spent 45 minutes identifying trees in Cubbon Park, but the high point was when I asked about a native “Pongam” tree. He held its discoloured leaf and said softly, “Lovely”. Turns out that there were two jumping spiders in the leaves and off he went into an explanation about their mating.

The true gift of spending time with a naturalist is not the species that he identifies, although that is a highlight. The true gift is how naturalists quietly transmit their enthusiasm for nature. Karthikeyan has the kind limpid eyes of a musician who operates in a different dimension. He notices different things than perhaps you and I. He thinks, for instance, that “arachnids are quite amazing”. When I asked him to repeat the sentence in plain English, he said, “You know, most of us take a vacation to experience nature—we go on wildlife safaris and such. Nothing wrong with that. But nature surrounds us every day. Every urban Indian is exposed to bees, bugs and spiders. Why not observe and enjoy them? Why give up those pleasures?”

Here is the takeaway: Next time you or your kids see a spider, ladybug, or even a cockroach, try not to squeal. Instead, become still and observe. Oh, and consider hugging a tree. Like a pet who will listen to you sob your broken heart out, without any seeming reaction, these trees will make you feel better. I know this because I was a sceptic converted into a regular tree-hugger. Just like Prem Koshy (of Koshy’s in Bangalore) and others like him.

Bangalore, by the way, is full of tree-huggers. It is one of the best things about this city.

PS: Shoba, Bangalore full of tree huggers?? Really? This I have to see.

Residents take a walk around Pallikaranai Marshland

The Hindu:Residents take a walk around Pallikaranai Marshland


As part of the Madras Day Celebrations, the 33-year-old nature conservation body Madras Naturalists Society organised a ‘Nature Walk' at Pallikaranai Marshland on August 14. People in the age group of seven to 70 took part in the walk which was led by the Society's founder member K.V. Sudhakar.

The walk highlighted the importance of conserving wetlands which is not only a water aquifer helping to recharge groundwater levels, but also serves as an ideal feeding and resting ground for migratory birds.

The Society has recorded sighting of 134 species of birds in the Marsh. Chennai was fortunate to have right in its bustling midst a place such as the Pallikaranai Marshland and it was vital to preserve this precious natural resource. Senior members of the Society Rama Rajaram and A. Rajaram assisted participants to spot and identify the birds in the Marsh with the help of a powerful Spotting Scope. Birds sighted that morning include the Spot-billed Pelican, Pheasant-talied Jacana, Spot-billed Duck, Glossy Ibis, Purple Heron, Caspian Tern, Black-winged Stilt, Purple Moorhen, Indian Moorhen, Coot and Dabchick.

With persistent efforts from environmentalists, the Wetland was declared as a Reserve Forest area some years ago. A huge portion has been irreversibly damaged due to the dumping of garbage. What remains of the Marshland now is a fraction of its original expanse of several thousand acres.

Rains!

Skyblue clustervine
August rains, unusual but welcome. It was a wet weekend in Hyderabad and a wetter week that followed in Madras. The papers are full of gripes - bad roads, potholes, overflowing drains, Stadia roofs leaking....Man's woes.

But I look around and I see that every other non-human creature around me is celebrating! The dust and pollution has been washed off the leaves, the cactii greeted the rain with more flowers, I heard the croaking of frogs after aeons, and the morning skies were oh so blue.

So here's my photo offering to that wonderful season of monsoon.

There was torrential rain one night, accompanied by all the sound and light effects that go with a thundershower.

I woke up in the morning to the call of sunbirds, koels and mynahs. This was in Shameerpet, near Hyderabad at a place called Celebrity Resorts.

I also awoke later than I would've liked, thanks to hysterical friends who insisted on hearing strange knockings and feeling imaginary rats crawling up their sheets, in the night!

All were much relieved to see daylight, reassured that all was well with the world, and the sun streaming through the trees was most welcome.

This butterfly (that I thought was a Common Crow) in the rain tree was blissfully unaware of all this nightly drama, as it went about its butterfly day briskly and flightily. As Amila pointed out, its actually a Great Eggfly! Take a look at both the links and this picture and you'll see that there are differences in the way the dots are aligned on the wing tips! Thank you Amila!

A female garden lizard basked in the grass, and obligingly held her pose for me. Some metres away, grown men were yelling like boys as they played a tennis ball cricket match as if their life depended on it.

As I explored the rear garden of our cottage, I saw these wasps hard at work. Are those white dots in the middle of the hexagons their eggs, I wondered.

The rains, I assumed, had led to hatching of hordes of these millipede-like arthopods all over the campus.

They just lay there in clumps, crawling all over each other and moving collectively across the fields. Hundred had been squished under car tyres, and it was not a very pleasant sight I tell you.

I have never seen them in clumps like this, and I wondered what they were. Anyone knows?

The bird life at the resort was amazing. The grounds are vast and wild, and I only hope it remains that way - wild I mean. It would be a pity if the grounds are landscaped.

Not wanting to miss out on the company of friends, and unable to convince them to walk with me in the middday sun, I went for an hour's meander, and did regret not having more time.

There were doves, scaly-breasted munias, mynahs, jungle babblers, bee eaters and sunbirds by the dozens. Red-vented bulbuls called out from everywhere, and I heard coucals and even peacocks!

Strangely, I did not hear a single barbet nor did I hear tree pies. I heard orioles and I caught a flash of scarlet - could it have been a minivet?
Scaly-breasted munias

They were all over the resort, and a first-time for me! I love the stout bills of the munias.
They were a gregarious lot, and I saw flocks like this on trees and in the tall grass. My most memorable moment was coming upon a group of them having a bath in the rain puddle. I delighted in their pleasure, as they whirred around and flew up and down from the nearby shrubs, the whirr of their wings so loud in the quietness.

This one looked busy picking at all the seeds in the grass heads. Everytime a munia landed on a grass, it would bend over with the weight, but they hung on...yoyoing up and down!

So entranced was I with the munias that I almost missed this purple sunbird that came and perched right over my head!

Back in Madras, and the rains continued. A wet Kingfisher sat on the Millingtonia outside my window, waiting for its wings to dry.

The rains also brought a large number of damselflies to my balcony. Strange, delicate creatures and I watched them flit from plant to plant, with their slender bodies bending, almost to form a circle.

I thought this one is a Golden dartlet. Amila says (see comment below) that its probably an Agriocnemis. Hmmm.

I used the Macro setting in my Panasoic Lumix digicam. Not bad, huh?


As I watched the dartlet, I was startled by this grasshoppper that whirred in front of my face, and landed on the leaf ahead. We eyeballed each other for a while, before it took off again for the next plant.




A crow called excitedly overhead, and I wondered if this grasshoppper was going to be lunch. It didn't. It came indoors that evening, and explored our apartment at leisure. It has a strange mannerism of using the foreleg to clean its antenna, and I must say it was more entertaining to watch than the cricket on the telly.

(By the way, I am sick of the over commercialism, greed and ridiculous marketing that is happening through the cricket telecast...impossible to watch.)

Tigers & butterflies

Arun was in Tadoba, for a weekend trip, along with his camera.

He writes:, "The forest was unbelieveably brilliant green , with the rain everyday . The rivers and streams were a raging torrent and a number of 'roads'/paths were underwater. Very often we would have to turn back and look for another place to cross. Sometimes the passage would be one-way(the water level having risen by the time we returned). Birdwatching was limited , notable being Monarch flycatcher sitting in its nest in full view at a height of about 15 feet. And a number of Streak-throated swallows."

I enjoyed being there, via these lovely pictures. Enjoy!

Arun's TADOBA recce - mid monsoon 2010