Yay!

I was on the beach last weekend, helping some youngsters clean up about a km of the beach near the mouth of the river, where the estuary meets the sea. This was organised by the SSTCN and the Lets Restore Our Beaches voluntary bodies.

This is where, if I'm not mistaken the elevated highway will come across the estuary, according to government plans, and there has been general anxiety about the government's plans among most of the city's citizens. The fishermen dont seem to want it, the residents dont want it, the environmentalists think its a completely batty idea, but no, the government is all gung-ho.

The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : CRZ nod denied again for Elevated Expressway

CRZ nod denied again for Elevated Expressway

A. Srivathsan
Chennai: For the second time, the Ministry of Environment and Forest has refused clearance for the elevated expressway from Chennai Port to Maduravoyal proposed by the Chennai Port Trust.

The Expert Appraisal Committee for Coastal Regulation Zone (Infrastructure Development and Miscellaneous Projects), convened a few weeks ago, scrutinised the project and did not recommend it for Costal Regulation Zone (CRZ) clearance.

This time, the Chennai Port Trust argued that the project is neither a National Highway nor an expressway but only a connecting road between the port and the existing National Highway. Hence, it claimed that the project is permissible under CRZ Notification, 1991.

However, the expert committee was not convinced and has asked Chennai Port Trust to explain the basis on which this project is now presented as a link road.

It has also directed the Port Trust to obtain a clear recommendation from the Tamil Nadu State Coastal Zone Management Authority (TNSCZMA) that the proposed link road will be permissible under CRZ Notification.

The four-lane elevated expressway running for a length of 19 km is proposed by the Ministry of Shipping, Road Transport and Highways through National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). It is to be partly constructed along the Cooum and partly over Poonamallee High Road at a cost of Rs.1,655 crore.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laid the foundation stone for this project in January 2009. About 34.58 ha of the proposed elevated road falls within the CRZ and of the 506 foundation pits proposed, 35 fall in the riverbed.

When this project was first submitted for CRZ clearance in May 2009, the expert committee refused clearance stating that part of the proposed expressway fell between High Tide and Low Tide Lines and it was against the recommendations of the Tamil Nadu State Coastal Management Authority. The proposal was retuned with the suggestion that it be revised.

The Jacana Junkies at the bird race

There were 4 birders from Madras

who had not birded for a while, alas!

So they decided to change their ways

And take part in the Chennai bird race.

Jacana Junkies, there were four

One slept over

And then were three!

Never mind, we thought, off to GNP!

Bird calls everywhere and we were so excited

I heard the bulbul, but an oriole was sighted!

Parakeets and sunbirds, all so restive

And the butterflies added to make it all so festive.

Oh man, I thought, I am really out of touch

Spotting that calling coucal is proving too much.

The boys from Olcott School

I tell you, were way too cool.

An ashy drongo they showed us

Lurking in the bushes.

On we went to the polo ground

Where blackbuck and chital do abound.

A screeching shikra was identified

And was that a sparrow hawk we spied?

Two jackals with bushy tails, sauntered past

With my camera I should have been more fast.

Baby chitals peered with curiosity

Were we three such an oddity?

An Asian Brown Flycatcher

Had us JJs in a lather

Books were perused and binos viewed

before we deduced

the id of this winter visitor!

Pallikaranai marsh was next on our path

But only after a hearty repast

Pongal, kichdi and dosai with ghee

And good south Indian sweet and strong coffee!

To provide us Pallikaranai never fails

A bountiful supply of feathers and tails!

Jacanas and moorhens,

egrets and herons

Swallows and Swifts

Ducks and Stilts.

But it was the pelicans that were delightful

A couple in the water, unusually busy and cheerful.

Then we looked up in the sky and gasped

Like a busy airport with planes a-circling

Another fifty pelicans lazily gliding

Riding the thermals, waiting and watching.

A Marsh Harrier rounded up our sally

45 was our final tally.

By now, one Junkie was sneezing and snuffling

Another's phone was ringing and calling

Yours truly's car was low on petrol

And so we all headed on home.

I watched Cilic and Wawrinka do battle that night

As they hit the tennis ball with all their might

But guess what I found in the ladies' bathroom

next to the pots and pails and brooms?

A white-browed wagtail,

a fitting end to this Bird Race tale!

******

(The 3rd Chennai Bird Race was organised by the Madras Naturalist Society along with India Bird Races and HSBC on 10th January, 2010. Our team was the Jacana Junkies, after my favourite new bird of 2009, the pheasant-tailed jacana. )

For more sensible accounts of the bird race, read:

Bird watchers have a field day

Rare winged visitors enthral birdwatchers | Deccan Chronicle

Some photo albums as well:

The second placed team Rajali saw munias, terns and crotchety moorhens

Third Chennai bird race

Birding to turn fun for nature lovers from dawn to dusk on January 10 - Chennai - City - The Times of India

No, we dont race the birds, just race to spot birds!

We - the Jacana Junkies - will be doing a leisurely search (no racing for us) at a couple of spots in and around south Madras on Sunday.

Chennai Open final also beckons in the evening.

PS: There's a storm approaching, reportedly on Sunday!