Mumbai Diaries - a chance encounter with composting worms via an art exhibition

4th October 2024

Nine Fish Art Gallery, Mumbai

We happened to walk into this gallery as a rendezvous point to meet Sekar's cousin Viji more than anything else.  Sometimes I am moved by art and sometimes astounded, and of course quite often indifferent as well.  The evening brought all 3 emotions.

There were two exhibitions - one by a set of nine woman artists under the theme of Symbols of Care and Nurturing, and another called Factory 5.0 by architect Aditya Mandlik.  

I was moved by the insect-centred art of Nisha Dhinwa, Shalini Dutt's warm tapestry art, and the drama of Shayonti Salvi's ceramics.  They had a connection to the natural world that worked for me.  I did not personally connect with the other artists in this collection

And then we moved into another space, all dark and spotlit.  And this is what the write-up at the entrance said:

"FACTORY 5.0

This Pavilion envisions a future where dasign transcends human-centered thinking, fostering deeper collaboration with nature. Composed of 546 digitally manufactured wooden elements, 210 Styrofoam plates, and 10,400 non-human collaborators- enclosed in transparent acrylic containers_the installation challenges contemporary urban environments. 

Styrofoam represents matter once believed impossible to decompose - plastic. Through this collaborates with nature, the Pavilion demonstrates how decomposition itself can become an act of creating architecture. 

At the heart of the exhibition is the "Factory" concept, illustrating how creation can flourish through the cooperation of human innovation and natural systems. The installation embodies co-creation, where diverse approaches converge to reshape the future of our habitats. This living structure engages visitors in a dynamic experience where their movements influence light, subsequently affecting the worms' activity, thus fostering a dialogue between nature and design, continuously reshaping itself. 

As the Pavilion undergoes a curated aging process, the plates gradually develop openings, orchestrating a dynamic interplay of light and shadow. At the conclusion of the exhibition, these plates wil be frozen as 'objects of memory; capturing the essence of time and space. Factory 5.0 redefines creation as a collaborative process, inviting reflection on the post-anthropocentric future, where human and non-human collaborators begin to coexist towards a symbiotic future."

Yes - 210 Styrofoam plates encased in acrylic.
And 10,400 "superworms" - Zophobas morio larvae of (what I later discovered) the Darkling Beetle!  
Busy chomping through the styrofoam in any which way they pleased.

Here are a couple of videos from the astounding installation, with the architect Aditya Mandlik explaining to us bemused lot including cousin Viji.

So of course, I was intrigued, and also a doubting flower girl and therefore I had to put google search to full use.

I came across a  2015 Stanford Study quoted in an article The Science behind Composting Styrofoam.  

Article in The Guardian from June 2022 - Foaming at the mouth: the superworms making a meal of polystyrene waste

Donna Lu

For three weeks, researchers at the University of Queensland fed superworms a polystyrene foam commonly used in building insulation.

The larvae that snacked on plastic were able to complete their life cycle, becoming pupae and then adult beetles. However, they gained less weight than superworms that were fed a bran diet, and had less healthy gut microbiomes.

Dr Chris Rinke of the University of Queensland, a co-author of the study, said within 24 hours, the superworms started “attacking the polystyrene and eating their way into it”.

“Within 48 hours … the faeces they produce turn from their usual brown – when they eat bran – to white.”

Rinke said the superworms first mechanically shredded the polystyrene foam, and microbes in their gut contained enzymes capable of breaking down polystyrene chains into styrene molecules.

The New York Times also reported on this study at the same time, and it made cynical me wonder if the Styrofoam lobby was at work at that point in time, trying to stave off the PS Foam ban that was upcoming in Australia. 

How Superworms Make Styrofoam Into a Healthy Meal

When the time came for the insects to metamorphose into beetles, those that ate bran completed the transition successfully nearly 93 percent of the time; those that had starved mustered only 10 percent. Strikingly, 66.7 percent of the polystyrene-eating larvae that were given the chance to pupate were successful. They managed to get enough energy from the notoriously indigestible substance to transform.

“Polystyrene is definitely a poor diet,” Dr. Rinke said. But “the worms can survive it — they don’t look sick or anything.”

The researchers sequenced all the DNA they could extract from the guts of the larvae. They were less interested in which specific microbes were present than in what enzymes were being made as the microbes worked to break down polystyrene. They pinpointed a handful of likely candidates — all types of enzymes known for their slicing-and-dicing abilities — that were possibly shearing polystyrene down into smaller pieces.

“The next step will be to express those enzymes in the lab and experimentally verify that they are doing what we think they are,” Dr. Rinke said.

So that's what Mr Mandlik is trying to do - get the superworms to eat the styrofoam and create spaces. 

The lab experiments are trying to isolate the enzymes and maybe solve our landfill problems in the future...but this architecture thing is a bit weird for me, ethically - keeping larvae from pupating and feeding them rubbish styrofoam does not sound like co-creation to me, more like another means of putting the non-human world to work in unhealthy conditions.  

So yes, it is a factory, with super worm slaves.  Let us not say "cooperation" and "co-ceation", please.

The Wiki page on Zophobas morio  is euphemistic when it says "Zophobas morio larvae fed a polystyrene diet were more active and managed to gain a slight amount of weight compared to the same type of larvae on a starvation diet" - Yeah right, eating plastic is better than starving...

Mumbai Diaries - Karvi blooms and butterflies galore

October 3rd 2024

I was excited to learn that I was not too far from BNHS CEC.  

Various friends urged me to go - "it's a beautiful drive through the Aarey forests", said one. Another said, there are lovely bird trails  inside.  And then I saw that the Karvi flower was blooming there, and that sealed the deal, and I decided to go on the 3rd (and not the 2nd which was a public holiday and bound to see many a tourist.)

This was the scenic route I was looking forward to, as I hopped into the auto around 730 am.

This was the actual route taken by the speeding auto, who kept insisting that his map said this was faster.

It was around 9am by the time I got dropped off at the supposed gate, with not a soul in sight, after speeding on the expressway, standing still at innumerable traffic signals, winding our way through Film City, its various guards, potholes and vanity trucks.  The auto driver asked me if I was sure this was the place, and I confidently and cheerily told him so, and sent him off.

(It did cross my mind as to how would I make my way back from here...but at that point, just getting out of the rattling auto, away from the highway, and into bird call - it seemed like paradise.)

This was my first glimpse, as I crossed an empty school bus - whose kids must be wandering around the trails I surmised.  Sunbirds and Tailorbirds called incessantly.

A family of macaques observed me from the canopy above, sitting quite peaceably and grooming one another.  

And then, just like that both sides of the path were filled with these purple blooms!  Oh is this the Karvi flower, I thought and looked more closely, and yes it was.  Initially I must admit I was a bit underwhelmed - I mean one has to undergo some hardship and search high and low for rare one-in-8-year-blooms I thought - but here they were strewn on both sides of the path, in wild higgledy piggledy fashion!

I did warm up to them, eventually.  They reminded me of the Railway Creeper flowers, Morning Glories.  

I loved the buds more than the flowers, eventually.

Strobilanthes callosa - the Latin name - is an interesting shrub.  A favourite of all sorts of caterpillars and butterflies, I learnt, and is kind of brown and all dried up before the monsoons, turning all green and leafy after the rains, and then once in 8 years, it does this, bloom like there's no tomorrow.  

I learnt a new word - Plietesials - plants that flower occasionally and in synchrony.  Nature is quite amazing and marvellous.  Now if one didnt know this plant, it is quite imaginable that it will be discarded when looking all brown and shrivelled.  

Ruminating such thoughts, I walked on, and spied a building and heard some voices.  There were the kids from the school bus, with some harried looking teachers, and a very enthusiastic nature educator explaining the life cycle of butterflies.  A few children in the front were curious and eager, while those at he back had a "what am I here?" look to them.

I went to the "office", where the cheery guard asked me to sign in, pay the entrance fee of Rs 150 (only UPI please, no cash), and then I was free to wander on.

There is a Karvy trail and what's referred to as a Leopard Trail  - leopards have been seen in the park.  I did a bit of both.

Observations � iNaturalist - will give you the complete set of fungi, caterpillars, spiders and butterflies that I was able to capture on my phone camera.  Through my binoculars, I saw a huge number of chocolate pansies, Greater Orange Tips, Yellow Orange Tips, small white butterflies, Sailors, and many unidentified ones.

However, my bird list was small - the trees were quite silent for a lot of the time, was I too late for the morning chorus?  I was hoping for a sighting of the oriental dwarf kingfisher, but this is not the season I was told.

I could hear the Film City crews with their PA systems, shouting Action! Cut! etc etc.

It was a humid and hot and sweaty day.  I climbed up to the top of the Karvy Trail, and I could see a little stream below.  I think in a guided walk, they probably go down as well, but I did not venture.

As I headed back, I met one of the researchers coming up.  He was changing the card on the camera trap - they are tracking the leopards.  He said that he had just seen a rat snake.  I missed it.

Up in the skies above, there seemed to be two Oriental Honey Buzzards circling - they are not Black Kites for sure, but I could not find anyone to confirm the id.

Down below, the kids were complaining about mosquitoes and the heat - and the Guide was reassuring them that these mosquitoes did not carry dengue or malaria, and in fact were "tiger mosquitoes", with stripes.  I listened with amusement.  Another boy was hot and wanted water, a girl wanted to use the washroom - I was so glad I was not a teacher.  We really cannot thank our teachers enough.

It was time to return.  I did book an auto, who kept getting lost, but finally did show up, and was cheerful and apologetic for his lateness - he did not realise I was just grateful for a ride back!  I once again suggested Aarey road - but he told me - the "jungle road is karaab" and looking all jammed, and we came back also by the highways - more traffic and signals.  Oh well.

Sekar and Vish tried to reason that maybe the auto drivers knew something we/google did not, but I was not convinced. 

And so ended the BNHS CEC visit.

Mumbai Diaries - Kites and Sparrows, Cats and Dogs

eBird Checklist - 30 Sep 2024 - Raheja Vihar Circular Road - 16 species

I am in Mumbai, and quite close to Powai lake.  The area is wooded with exotics, but wooded nevertheless, and these are the birds seen in incidental birding - I did not have my binoculars with me, and I am sure I would have identified a few more warblers and possibly an oriole, if I did have one.

What I find interesting compared to Chennai bird-wise in this highly urbanised city is - 

# the strong presence of sparrows (I see them every time I come to Mumbai)

#  the very few crows (as compared to Thiruvanmyur) - I actually am not waking to crow caws, which is a pleasant change

# this neighbourhood also has less pigeons very interestingly

But the most heartwarming thing is the presence of small street dog kennels/shelters across the community...

and well-fed streeties, which seem to have been inoculated  - they have clipped ears and collars.  I am not a fan of random feeding without adoption, but this community seems to have adopted and care for the dogs.  Kudos!

Back to the birds and the trees.

Black Kites soar above all through the day.

The area is hilly, and I love the fact that there are some untended rather wild spaces, along with the buildings and the exotics.

One street has a lot of Australian Acacia in bloom, then there are Copper Pods, Gulmohars, Terminalia catappa (badams), and the ornamental palms.

But there is also the pink powderpuff tree, a few sarakonrai, mango and even a jackfruit tree!

A hillside that is wild - and I hope it stays that way.

"What would the world be, once bereft Of wet and of wildness?

Let them be left,

O let them be left, wildness and wet;

Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet."

Gerard Manley Hopkins, poet

7th October update

Ebird list of 7th October evening

Came across Dusky Crag Martins nesting under the eaves of the Scottish Union school this evening!

Now all I need is a Peregrine.  Come on Mumbai!  Chennai is up to 14 Peregrines incoming as of date.  

9th October

A drizzly evening and I strolled in the building.

So many sparrows I see in this neighbourhood.  Usually I find them difficult to photograph as they zip from one bush to the other. In the day, they chirp away, and somehow to my human ear, it's such a heart lifting kind of sound, gives me a feeling of cheer and hope.  They come and visit our flat windows, perching on the railings momentarily before flying off.  I see them in many window railings across the community.

I have located three favourite evening roosting trees - one a Jackfruit tree, one an overgrown bougainvillea bush, and the third an ornamental ficus bush!  I love to watch them 

Today, however, in the rain, they sat and chirped on this railing, taking shelter from the drizzle, and I managed this vide from under my umbrella!

And there are many cats too, but they thankfully do not attack/stalk the sparrows - they seem well fed!

The cats are not like Chennai cats - where they scoot and make themselves scarce when they see you.  Here, they sit in the middle of pavements, bold as brass, fix you with a stare, with their tail swishing, sizing you up - will this human feed me or not?  

More updates, as and when.