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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