Sivan Park perambulations

Sivan Park is in KK Nagar and was the venue for Nizhal's public walk in October, falling on Gandhi Jayanti.

If you are wondering where it is, take a look at the map:


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We landed up there bright and early, to see one large Sivan statue staring at us!! (I had thought the park was named after some luminary of Madras called Sivan, and did not imagine it was named after the ultimate Sivan!!).  The story goes that the park was called MGR Park, and the Sivan statue was put there for some film shooting....and then was subsequently not removed, and it became Sivan Park!! This anecdote was narrated by active Nizhal member Kasiraman, a resident of the area.

The MGR statue outside the park seems to bear testimony to this story.  And if you want to see the Sivan statue, click here.

The "we" included my poor husband coopted as driver, Sumana, Vijay and me.  Since this was my first visit to the park, I wanted to ensure that there were atleast a few trees that I could identify!!  A quick recce with Sumana.  We strolled through the army of morning walkers, who stared at us with curiosity - oddities we must have been, craning our necks to look at canopies while everyone else marched on briskly, either chattering with companions or with a grumpy oh-why-am-I-hear scowl on their faces.  Nettilingam, aala maram, arasamaram, nagalingam, neem... all there, nice and large and healthy, so I let out a first sigh of relief.

And then came the mystery tree.  Three of them, large and imposing!

Lagerstroemia microcarpa?

So, this is what we looked up to - leaves so far up that my myopic eyes were tested to the full.  Peeling bark, could it be Pride of India I wondered.

One of the younger trees

But then Sumana spotted white flowers and small berries!  (Pride of India aka Crepe Myrtle has large lavender/purple flowers.)

White flowers

Berries or buds? 

(Back at home, and with the help of flowersofindia.in, I tentatively identified this as Ben Teak, venthekku in Tamil, a native tree.  Am I right?  If it is that tree, then this is a Sivan Park highlight.)

The debate was abandoned and we moved on. Copper Pod, Gulmohar, Parklandia,  Palm, Neem, Pongam, Pooarasam.  OK, not too bad, we can still cope.

We began our walk, (with a good handful of Nizhalites, plus some firsttimers,)  next to the Nettilingam, Mast Tree...and the newbies "walked" into the Ashoka "trap", and so I unleashed the no,-this-is-false-ashoka-not-the-realmccoy story, as a chameleon looked on rather dubiously.


The Peepul photo essay

Eucalyptus microtheca?

Another unknown once again with white flowers looking a lot like eucalyptus, but with no characteristic vicks smell!


Could this be the Coolabah, introduced from Australia?


The idying was done later on, post walk.

The thenpuchi maram (Guazuma ulmifolia) revealed a flower, and had lovely fresh leaves, all hairy and ready to collect dust.

Pongamia leaves, completely covered with the characteristic leaf galls.

And we ended next to the naagalingam, a native of the Amazonian region of South America, but now venerated here!

The tree was in flower and there were a few on the ground as well, that allowed us to examine its astonishing flower structure.

Couroupita guianensis

We wound up with Mr Kasi Vishwanathan of Nizhal Anna Nagar talking about his experiences with the Metro Rail project, and how 24 large trees of Thiruvika park were transplanted, and 23 have survived and taken root again!

This is the cost of development that we as a society do need to factor in.  If we chop off these large trees, how long will it take before the new trees grow to these impressive sizes?

"What we are doing to the forests of the world, is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and one another" - MK Gandhi.

Cycling truths

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According to Danny Cohen, this one is being painted by a local artist on the sidewalks of NY!

Winged visitors

An injured semi looper moth -Trigonodes hyppasia  

Lemon pansy butterfly

Tailless Blue

Is this a Egnasia ephyrodalis moth?  

They fly in at dusk
And die at night.
Our home,
their final resting place.

Blue pansy butterfly

The same blue pansy, close to death

Loris calling!

The Hindu : FEATURES / METRO PLUS : Loris calling! reports that

There are more than 60 slender lorises in the farms and wild habitats around Nagavalli and surrounding districts, most of which have been rescued by the master and his team.

Nagavalli is 15kms from Tumkur, and the "master" is a school teacher at the local Government High School. He is quoted in the article as saying,

“I am a science teacher and am interested in wildlife and biodiversity. But, it was my students who told me about three slender lorises they had seen in the school compound. Fascinated, I started researching and then creating awareness about them.”

May his tribe grow!

Semmozhi, again

More Semmozhi trees here.

Markhamia Lutea - 

The "throat" of the flower is deeper colour as against yellow cordia, which is yellow throughout.

Terminalia bellerica - one of the "triphala" trees.  There are lights strung around this tree....not good. 

Schleichera oleosa - Ceylon lac tree - kasumbh in Hindi, a rare tree.  

I need to go back to collect some fruit and seed.

An amazing, magnificent, huge tree.  Is it a mimusops/maghizam?  The canopy was so high, we couldn't check for flowers or fruit!

 There were a few saplings like this, which was identified as Buddha coconut by Arun.  Pterygota alata, it has lovely flowers, and a fruit that looks like a coconut!  Its a medium-sized tree, and can be used to line avenues.

 Another sapling - Milettia ovalifolia - shisham, a variety of rosewood with clusters of pink flowers.

A lovely large red sanders, endemic to our region, valued for the wood, and protected as well.

It had a lovely blue vine along its trunk, so if you visit the park, that is a good way to know you are at the red sanders!

Another large magnificent tree.

Where have all the stars gone?

We did not see a supernova this weekend.  M husband forwards me the article, and while I'm all enthu, and in a "let's take out the telescope" mood, he mumbles and mutters, about the polluted night sky and how we have to look at the northern sky etc etc.  Talk about a wet blanket!

But sadly he was right, I looked up and there were hardly any stars seen.  I was also a bit shocked and saddened.  When we moved into this part of town, a decade and a half ago, the night skies were beautiful, and I was introduced to the Big Dipper, the Great Bear, Mars, venus, even the rings and moons of Saturn.  I looked out for Orion's belt, which was as far as my idying skills went!

Even then, the Milky Way of my childhood was not seen.  Summer nights in Coimbatore as a child, used to be magical, not least because of the splash of starlight that would stretch across the sky

But atleast there were some stars to show our son.  Now even that has gone..as the country has got electrified, so too the night skies have disappeared.  That is inevitable, but could we be reasonable and innovative in how we light up?

I came across this post, which seems to indicate we can....

Weekend Diversion: Protecting the Night Sky : Starts With A Bang

Rhinos, elephants and waved albatrosses

Its been a fascinating last few days of TV watching. India lost her T 20 match, Messi is in Kolkata and I have been watching BBC Entertainment, weekdays at 7pm.

And so I learnt that there were four Northern White Rhinos in a Czech zoo, which were successfully relocated back to Africa, by the same person who took them there in the first place! Well, almost. The zoo culture sucks in the 21st century, and I'm glad for these rhinos, which got sedated, shipped in crates and moved by cranes before arriving in Ol Pejeta conservancy in East Africa.

The footage of the BBC documentary with Stephen Fry was amazing and endearing.  But also alarming and depressing.

An article in The Economist on Game Conservation in Africa puts it succinctly,

The problem is not that the rhinos are half-blind, lumbering, and often infertile—which they are. It is economic: the ornamental and medicinal value of rhino horn makes it hard for the rhino to pay its way alive.

The fate of the northern white rhino then, rests with Fatu and Suni, two of the relocated rhinos and their desire to start a family. I wish them well.

And then I learnt about one more large, magnificent creature also threatened by poachers also in Africa.  The forest elephants of Dzanga Bai.  So, these forest elephants found in the forests of the Central African Republic, are different from the regular African elephants, and not much is known about them, supposedly.

The BBC Entertainment episode on these elephants, centred around the amazing work being done by a woman called Andrea, who has been there some eighteen years, and now recognises the elephants one from the other, understands their different calls and has been a reason for the reduction of poaching.  I was just enthralled to see the footage, the low rumbles of a mother elephant to her calf, the high-pitched "lost" call of an errant baby, the intertwining of trunks of family when they emerged out of the forest into the clearing of Dzanga bai. There are calls that the human ear cannot pick up, and a whole social life which is rather complex.

This was the evening of Ganesha chaturthi, and I was pensive at how little I know about these gentle giants, so provoked nowadays by pressures of space and development.  I wonder, do the Indian elephants also have similar social structures and vocalisations?

Today I watched half an episode on the Galapagos islands and caught the bit about the waved albatrosses.  Galapagos has always meant Darwin, island and tortoise!  I was amazed to learn that these large birds with webbed feet, and huge gull-like bills, partner for life, can live up to fifty years and breed on only one of the Galapagos islands, Espanola.  Each year, the pair will raise one chick at Espanola, and it is five to six years before the chick will be ready to mate and breed!  And once the chick is off, the mum and dad go their ways, (hanging out at sea or on the coasts of Ecuador/Peru), and then dad returns next year to Espanola, hangs around waiting for his missus to show up.

And when she does show up, they go through this elaborate courtship dance.

Crazeeee! The wonders of the natural world!

Memories of my childhood

Isn't it unfortunate, when its there you take it for granted, and when its gone you sorely miss it. I was reminded of my maternal grandfather's home when I read this quirky description. The Green Ogre:A tree may be our primary connection with the universe.

Summers spent hanging around under a huge peepul tree there, watching the huge black ants scurry among the roots and fallen leaves. Teasing and getting teased by cousins and my brother, reading a book a day, wandering off to the cow shed to feed the calf. Nungus from the tree in the evening, picking parijatha with my grandmother in the mornings, listening to the never ending koels. Slapping the gigantic evening mosquitoes with irritation and frustration. Mosquito nets, dim lights.

A lifestyle disappeared?

Semmozhi Poonga at last

Sunday Aug 20th. Madras Day Celebrations. Tree walk by Nizhal.

Dr Vijaya retired HOD from Stella Maris led the walk, ably assisted by Chitra.

I quite like the design of the entrance, though the gate could have been wider?
Terminalia arjuna. I have not seen such a magnificent specimen.
Strychnos nux-vomica. Loved by Agatha Christie and ayurveda!
Erythrina indica and the diamond shaped leaves of the kalyan murungai
The light fades as we reach the Brazilian Ironwood

Valley of Flowers - the trip that never was

We bought our trekking shoes
and paid our travelling dues.

We were off to the mountains, we three
From our town in the south by the sea.
But it seems it was not to be
Oh, so woe is me!

No monal pheasant, no whiskered yuhina
No Himalayan Poppy, no Potentilla
Himalayan Griffon I shall not see
Nor the snowy peaks of Badri.

Valley of Flowers, I missed for sure, but dear Raji and Gapi, most of all,
with you two it would have been such a blast, we would have had such a ball!

Valley of Flowers - cancelled

The VOF trip ended even before we started.
Rain & landslides continue.
The trip is wisely called off.
Deflated
Disappointed
Relieved
Our little loss minor in comparison to what those living there must be going through.