We had checked in the previous night into Hotel Rich Garden at Sujangarh, the accommodation of choice in this little town.
The rooms were clean, as were the bathrooms (importantly!) the water in the taps was salty, and the food came from somewhere we didn't want to know I guess!
We had an early morning start, and as usual, it was quite an effort of mind over body to face the morning cold!
We went outside only to be greeted by a strange sight and a lot of roaring engines! A bunch of bikers were on their way to the hills - Dharamsala, via Amritsar!
According to me, this was even more lunacy than ours!
Breakfast was not great - it just wasn't good quality food, and thanks to Lakshmi, we discovered a great place for lunch. (More about that later.)
I was glad to get into our warmer vehicles, as we headed to the outskirts of Taal chappar sanctuary, to the "cow shed area" or goshala.
Well, I expected to see some nice Indian cows, mooing in the morning, and a familiar rustic scene of milkmen and cow dung, but instead was greeted by this!
The Khejri-tree filled landscape, made ghostly by the morning mist
There was a silence filled only with our muffled laughs and whispers, as even the birds obviously felt too cold to call.
I spent some time in juvenile games of blowing "smoke" and pretending to puff a cigarette, delighting in the morning air, as I was layered like an eskimo and not feeling miserably cold!
Suddenly Nabeel, our guide was making frantic hand signals and asking us to follow him.
And so began our saga of creeping behind the tree creeper!
Our first sighting! The Indian spotted creeper (Salpornis spilonotus)
The first time any of us were seeing this bird, and it was an amazing sight. Such a methodical and industrious hunt for food I have not seen. It would fly to the base of one khejri tree, go peck, peck peck into the bark with its long thin beak, make its way to the top of the trunk, then fly off to the next, where it would repeat the same process all over again!
Through the binoculars, we got a clear sighting of its mottled or marbled back, so well camouflaged against the tree bark. And that thin long, down-curved beak with which it extricated insects from the bark.
It was a fast worker, and no malingering at any point. Now you saw it profiled on the left.....
.....and in the blink of an eye it was on the right.
I know the pictures look brown and boring, but it was a marvellous sight, as it flitted from tree to tree, and we crept along with it. We were told that there was a group endemic to the cowshed. These birds do not migrate, and are residents in this patch.
The light had improved by now, and slowly we heard and saw some activity. Bulbuls called and flitted in the branches, while large grey babblers noisily moved around in groups in the undergrowth.
A drongo flew into view, as if seeking our attention
It perched on the branch of the scrub, seemingly glad for the weak sun that had emerged.
Rose ringed parakeets screeched and settled in the khejri trees.
And then suddenly there were flashes of orange and yellow among the branches. A group of small minivets brightened the trees like little christmas decorations!
The grey-black heads and the orange chests seemed to catch the sun. Pericocotus cinnamomeus male
They moved in flocks and wouldn't sit still. I heard the shutters of everyone's cameras madly clicking.
Through the binoculars they made for a breathtaking sight, with their little perky heads and long tails,....
....and when they flew it was a flash of brilliant colour.
The treecreeper came into view again, and with the brighter light, the colours of its feathers could be seen better.
Indian Robins hopped around on the ground, unmindful of our presence.
And so ended our outing to the Goshala - and no I did not see a single cow through the morning!
We then went off to the lovely Taal chapper grasslands, with the oh so beautiful blackbucks.
And then there was lunch at this lovely old house/mansion - hot rotis, dal and sabji of the most fresh carrot and peas, papad and a local pickle which was rather delicious. We all burped contentedly after and then lazed around on chairs and in the verandah, feeling like rock pythons after a meal, not wanting to stir.
We shamelessly invited ourselves to dinner as well, which was a good thing as we met their lovely daughters as a result.
A RARE WINTER VISITOR FROM EUROPE: The Short-eared Owl. Photo: Prakash. G
A rare winter visitor has caught the attention of
birders in the city. It has a distinct pair of short ears and goes by
the name Short-Eared Owl. Birder Prakash Gururajan spotted it on
February 26 at Pachapalayam dry grasslands on Siruvani Road. “After
that, I have made multiple trips to the grasslands along with the
members of Coimbatore Nature Society to see the bird,” he says.
It’s a winter passage migrant and is likely spend a short time here till the food supply dries out.
“The short-eared owl hunts for the prey in the day time unlike the
nocturnal ones. The body colours serve as a camouflage on the
grasslands,” he says.
Prakash had spotted small birds like larks and pipits perched on the ground and in good numbers at the grasslands.
He returned there to see if he could spot some other elusive ones such as the Oriental skylark.
“In February, I spotted the ashy Pallid Harrier taking off from the
ground. I trekked further down looking for a Pallid Harrier or a Montagu
Harrier when I spotted a raptor like bird flying low at 150 meters
distance from me and landed. I stopped at about 50 metres to ensure that
the bird is not disturbed and photographed it through the grass. It was
the short-eared owl. It stayed there till the crows and drongos chased
it away,” he says. They are competitors for the same prey.
The birder says the CNS team has also spotted the Mottled Wood Owl, at
Mathipalayam on Siruvani Road. “We have made frequent trips to record
and study the habitat of these birds. I also spotted the Indian Pita,
Malabar Whistling Thrush and Niligirs Laughing Thrush near the Paambu
Sitthar caves at Marudhamalai.”
Prakash reinforces
the need to protect the habitat. He says, “If the dry grassland is left
undisturbed, these species will thrive in good numbers and help the
ecosystem too.”
As we trundled along the flat and straight roads into the desert, visibility was just beyond our noses, and it seemed that only mad hatters and Madrasis were out. Even the Cinkara stopped and stared in surprise!
As we stared at the khejri-tree filled landscape, something moved in the morning light. "Desert fox" said Nabeel excitedly. And there it was, a diminutive little thing with a distinctive white tipped bushy tail. Vulpes vulpes pusilla
The shy fox, got us animated, and I almost forget the cold. We were still in our vehicle, and relatively warm.
We got out at Sudasari, and the wind made a mockery of my layers of warm clothing, the monkey cap and gloves I wore, and reminded me that I was meant to be in nice balmy Madras and not in this dreadful cold, looking like a cross between an eskimo and a penguin!
Even more ridiculous were the locals, wrapped in a shawl and walking around as if it was a nice pleasant morning.
The Graceful Prinia looked anything but graceful, as the wind ruffled its feathers, and (according to me at any rate) it had a miserable look on its face!
The Eurasian collared doves wore their usual mournful look
All over the desert were these bushes - kair - Capparis decidua - once a year, they produce these berries, which are pickled and eaten through the year. Kair/sangri - my culinary discoveries on this Rajasthan trip.
The doves took flight and left the Trumpeter Finches, with their yellow beaks for us to see! My numbed and gloved fingers tried to work the binoculars to focus on them. Thankfully, they hung around long enough for my inefficient focusing, and for Sekar to take these pictures. It was a lovely sight, some of them with the distinct pinkish hue.
The absent sun was higher in the sky presumably, the wind abated a bit, and the walking had warmed me into a better humour.
And then this Bengal fox, which casually crossed the track behind us, improved my mood even further. He had a cocky and casual air about him, quite unlike the desert fox which seemed to skulk around. The bushy black-tipped tail is characteristic of Vulpes bengalensis.
He sat and stared at us for a while, scratching himself. We were obviously not interesting enough as he ambled away in a bored fashion, probably looking for his next meal.
Up on a dune, starkly visible against the sand was a southern grey shrike!
It flew and perched on the scrub for us all to see. We didn't see his "larder" of insects, though.
And sudden;y, there loomed two healthy and green Khejri trees. Prosopsis cinerarea. The state tree of Rajasthan (and the national tree of the UAE I subsequently discovered!), Their greenness was a possible indication that there was a water vein below.
On closer examination, we found that they had pods. Those red legumes are what we were eating as "sangri" at dinner times - I quite loved it actually.
I guess they are like our coconut tree. Every part is used. But, excessive cutting of the tree branches for fodder is leading the the death of khejri trees in Rajasthan. Later on, on the highways, we came across these trees with all their branches completely lopped off.
Bui - Aerva javanica - is the cotton of the desert, used to stuff pillows and mattresses, and grows widely in the desert in arid conditions.
We saw the arid scrublands of the fringes of the desert and we saw the sand dunes as well.
Add caption
Unfortunately, there was cloud cover in the evening, and we missed the sight of the setting sun adding colours and hues to the sand dunes. They were still beautiful, in their vastness, and the endless and infinitely different patterns that the winds created on the dunes. The sand is soft, and powdery, quite different from the feel of the beach sand that I am used to.
Our desert "caravan". (Note the rickety plastic stool. We used that to hoist ourselves onto the cart.)
Bui to the left, khejri in the centre and khair to the right, and the beautiful sand patterns in the foreground.
It was time to say goodbye to the desert, and the "ships of the desert"!
Raju, the camel with the sweetest face and those most lovely eyes. We saw some wild camels on the way, and they were the darker colour that Raju was.
It was cold misty morning in January when we set out from our tented accommodation in Sam village, into the Desert National Park, Sudasari, in search of the Great Indian Bustard.
These large birds are under stress from hunting and habitat loss. At one time, they reportedly were found across peninsular India. And now, they are isolated to two pockets - one in AP and this outpost in Rajasthan. They need the grasslands for their survival.
The beautifully colourful bee eaters. I never tire of seeing them, as they flash through the air in search of insects or sit on wires sunning themselves. Every trip I've made into the forests is "greened" with a sighting of these birds. And even the backyards of Chennai for that matter.
So I was especially thrilled to received these pictures from Mr Ramanan, a veritable bee eater photo festival!
The blue-tailed bee eater, seen at Sholinganallur. A little bigger than the green bee eater. Merops philippinus
The same chap. They love to sun themselves and also watch for insects from these perches.
Notice the beak. Sharp and pointed to catch those flying insects. They generally bang about their insect morsel before eating it, to get rid of the venom. They love bees incidentally.
Mr Ramanan photographed this pair of blue-tailed beeeaters at Corbett. They are pretty gregarious birds, hang around in large groups, and are also monogamous for a season, so this may have been a "pair"?
The smaller green beeeater, seen at Corbett. Merops orientalis, the more common one that we see around our cities as well. seen at Chennai near the marshes.
The chestnut headed bee eater seen at Thengumaragada, Kotagiri, Nilgiris. Merops leschenaulti. I have not yet seen this bird. The chestnut head glints in the sun!
And neither have I seen this one. The blue bearded bee eater! Nyctyornis athertoni. Amazing isnt it? It is o the largest bee eater in India I'm guessing at about a foot in height, with a different square-ended tail.
Check out the beard feathers in this profile shot! They are supposedly loners, and have a loud cackling call.
Little birds, with prominent sharp beaks, the bee eaters are a delightful introduction to birding, as they are active and busy and not so shy either.
How a village near Odisha’s Chilika Lake, once infamous for hunting, transformed into a haven for migratory birds
A whiskered tern. Photographs by Ananda Banerjee/Mint
Today, the
Mangalajodi marshes on the northern fringes of Odisha’s Chilika Lake are
again a haven for water birds. Thousands of them flock there every
winter, from November-February. The black-tailed godwit, the Siberian
bluethroat, an assortment of ducks, geese, grebes, harriers, bitterns,
herons, snipes, gulls, terns and crakes—you get to see them all. Many of
them fly thousands of miles southto beat the harsh winter in
their breeding grounds. According to local bird guides, some migratory
birds have even started staying back in the area.
Chilika is the
largest coastal lagoon in the country. It is spread over 1,100 sq. km
and three districts: Puri, Khurda and Ganjam. Mangalajodi is one of 132
villages that dot this vast lake adjoining the Bay of Bengal. It is a
poor, sleepy fishing village with a population of about 5,000, most of
whom live off the land. So a wild duck for the pot or a waterfowl for a
feast is not uncommon.
But in the early
1990s, the birds came under attack on a much bigger scale as Mangalajodi
gained notoriety for the exploits of Kishore Behera. He is said to have
begun poaching as many as 4,000 ducks daily, using nets, traps and
pesticides, supplying the birds to markets nearby. Behera came to be
known as the “Veerappan of Chilika”, a reference to the infamous
sandalwood smuggler who eluded the authorities for years.
By 2001,
Mangalajodi had begun to be described as a “poachers’ paradise”. The
Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) reported that the number of birds
had dwindled to an estimated 5,000 during the migratory season, down
from the many thousands, or hundreds of thousands, that would be spotted
earlier.
That was a time when
“villagers were expected to carry a wild duck as a gift to officials to
get work done, or if they were visiting family or friends outside
Mangalajodi,” says Nilanjan Behera, founding chairperson of the
Mangalajodi Ecotourism Trust (MET), a community-owned and operated
eco-tourism enterprise that has been working on conservation issues
since 2010.
Slowly but surely,
efforts such as MET’s have brought about a remarkable change in
Mangalajodi. The villagers are now involved in conservation. Binod
Banik, 29, who dropped out of school in class VIII and was my guide for
the two days I spent in the village, can easily spot about 70 of the 211
bird species recorded in the village. Bala, who effortlessly navigates
the boat through the tangle of floating vegetation, knows exactly where
to find an elusive crake in the reed beds.
Both Binod and Bala
are members of MET. Their new-found winter professions have given them a
certain social status and a better life; in summer, Banik works at a
shop, while Bala goes back to fishing. The number of visitors to their
village has been going up every season, and there is a growing pride
among villagers in showcasing the avian diversity and setting an example
in conservation.
Sugyan Behera, a
bird guide, shows off a photo album in which his father, also a guide,
has neatly pasted the currency notes of different countries that he and
12 other guides got as tips. George Washington, the first US president,
looks down from the one-dollar bill in the plastic album, which also
has a Bhutanese ngultrum, Bangladeshi taka, United Arab Emirates dirham
and currencies from South-East Asian countries.
Mangalajodi is
slowly turning into a birding destination, says Nilanjan. India Post has
recognized the change, releasing a special cover on Mangalajodi in
association with the Eastern Indian Philatelic Association.
The transformation,
however, wasn’t easy. Nilanjan recalls the day he was mocked by his
college teacher as someone who belonged to a village of poachers. That
was in the 1990s. “I wanted to do something to change the image,” he
says.
“The marshland of
Mangalajodi comes under the revenue and irrigation departments. So the
forest department had no land or presence in and around Mangalajodi.
There was no control over poaching. Also, the village had little idea
about conservation and wildlife protection,” says Nilanjan.
With the help of
Wild Orissa, a non-profit, they formed a bird protection group called
Sri Mahavir Pakshi Suraksha Samiti (SMPSS) in 2000. In 2010, this became
the MET, with the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) Foundation India and
Indian Grameen Services, a non-profit, playing a pivotal role in its
establishment. Today, it provides alternative livelihoods for 70
households.
The turning point
came in 1996, when they managed to convince Kishore Behera to give up
poaching and take up pisciculture. Other poachers followed suit.
It took another
decade or more for the SMPSS to get organized as a community-based
conservation project, but this was the period when birdlife began
returning to the village. Gradually, the villagers, too, began to
understand how avian tourism could help them. Many villagers work under
MET as boatmen, guides, souvenir shop operators and hospitality service
providers.
Today, the
marshland teems with birds. According to the BNHS, Mangalajodi sees
around 150,000 migratory birds every year; it’s designated as an
Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International, the world’s largest
nature conservation partnership.
N. Sunil Kumar,
director, RBS Foundation India, says: “Mangalajodi has struggled to get
out of the infamy it had gained due to bird poaching in the 1990s.
Today, the place is considered one of the best to spot different species
of birds.”
It is now off the
radar of Kishore Behera, who has left the village, and on the radar of
tourists. Around 1,000 tourists visit every season. A number of hotel
chains are showing interest in the area.
It is equally
clear, however, that Mangalajodi cannot sustain mass tourism. Much,
then, will depend on how Mangalajodi and MET walk the tightrope between
economics and environment.
Pakistanis last year in Baluchistan Province with their catch of houbara bustard. Foreign hunting permits have been canceled.Credit Talha Ali
For decades, royal Arab hunting expeditions have traveled to the far reaches of Pakistan in pursuit of the houbara bustard — a waddling, migratory bird whose meat, they believe, contains aphrodisiac powers.
Little expense is spared for the elaborate winter hunts. Cargo planes fly tents and luxury jeeps into custom-built desert airstrips, followed by private jets carrying the kings and princes of Persian Gulf countries along with their precious charges: expensive hunting falcons that are used to kill the white-plumed houbara.
This year’s hunt, however, has run into difficulty.
It started in November, when the High Court in Baluchistan, the vast and tumultuous Pakistani province that is a favored hunting ground, canceled all foreign hunting permits in response to complaints from conservationists.
Those experts say the houbara’s habitat, and perhaps the long-term survival of the species, which is already considered threatened, has been endangered by the ferocious pace of hunting.
That legal order ballooned into a minor political crisis last week when a senior Saudi prince and his entourage landed in Baluchistan, attracting unusually critical media attention and a legal battle that is scheduled to reach the country’s Supreme Court in the coming days.
Anger among conservationists was heightened by the fact that the prince — Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, the governor of Tabuk province — along with his entourage had killed 2,100 houbara over 21 days during last year’s hunt, according to an official report leaked to the Pakistani news media, or about 20 times more than his allocated quota.
Still, Prince Fahd faced little censure when he touched down in Dalbandin, a dusty town near the Afghan border on Wednesday, to be welcomed by a delegation led by a cabinet minister and including senior provincial officials.
His reception was a testament, critics say, to the money-driven magnetism of Saudi influence in Pakistan, and the walk-on role of the humble bustard in cementing that relationship.
“This is a clear admission of servility to the rich Arabs,” said Pervez Hoodbhoy, a physics professor and longtime critic of what he calls “Saudization” in Pakistan. “They come here, hunt with impunity, and are given police protection in spite of the fact that they are violating local laws.”
The dispute has focused attention on a practice that started in the 1970s, when intensive hunting in the Persian Gulf nearly rendered the houbara extinct there, and with it a cherished tradition considered the sport of kings.
As the houbara migrated from its breeding grounds in Siberia, newly enriched Persian Gulf royalty flocked to the deserts and fields of Pakistan, where they were welcomed with open arms by the country’s leaders.
For the Pakistanis, the hunt has become an opportunity to earn money and engage in a form of soft diplomacy.
Although only 29 foreigners have been permitted houbara licenses this year, according to press reports, they include some of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the Middle East, including the kings of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, the Emir of Kuwait and the ruler of Dubai.
Their devotion to the houbara can seem mysterious to outsiders. The bird’s meat is bitter and stringy, and its supposed aphrodisiac properties are not supported by scientific evidence.
But falcon hunting, and the pursuit of the houbara, occupy a romantic place in the Bedouin Arab culture.
In Pakistan, the lavish nature of the winter hunts, which take place largely away from public scrutiny, have become the stuff of legend. In the early ’90s, it was reported, the Saudi king arrived in Pakistan with a retinue of dancing camels.
To curry favor with local communities, the Arab hunters have built roads, schools, madrassas and mosques, as well as several international-standard airstrips in unlikely places.
The only airport, at Rahim Yar Khan in the south of Punjab Province, is named after Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan, the former ruler of Abu Dhabi.
In recent times the hunts have also played a role, albeit unwitting, in the United States’s war against Al Qaeda.
Osama bin Laden took refuge at a houbara hunting camp in western Afghanistan in the late 1990s, by several accounts, at a time when the C.I.A. was plotting to assassinate him with a missile strike.
Photo
A falcon, right, tried to catch a houbara bustard during a falconry competition in Hameem, the United Arab Emirates, last December. Baluchistan is a popular place to hunt the bustard.CreditKarim Sahib/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The journalist Steve Coll wrote in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Ghost Wars,” that American officials declined to take the shot, fearing that the Arab sheikh who was hosting Bin Laden would have been at risk of dying in the attack.
For several years starting in 2004, the C.I.A. used an Arab-built airstrip at Shamsi, a barren desert valley in central Baluchistan, to launch drone strikes against Islamist militants in Pakistan’s tribal belt.
When news of the American base stirred a scandal in Pakistan’s Parliament in 2011, the country’s air force chief sought to deflect blame onto the United Arab Emirates government.
The deserts around Dalbandin, where Prince Fahd landed on Wednesday, were the site of Pakistan’s first nuclear test explosion in 1998, and are an established way station for heroin smugglers and Taliban insurgents.
But the growing influence of Gulf Arab countries is not universally appreciated. Progressive Pakistanis bemoan their conservative influence on society, and the infusion of petrodollars for jihadi groups.
The hunts have also come under attack. In Baluchistan, where the houbara is the provincial symbol, some royal hunts had to be curtailed after Baluch separatist rebels opened fire on hunting parties.
Now the battle has shifted to the capital, Islamabad. The prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, enjoys close relations with the rulers of Saudi Arabia, where he spent much of his exile between 2000 and 2007 — one reason, critics believe, for the indulgence shown toward Prince Fahd.
Mr. Sharif sent his federal planning minister, Ahsan Iqbal, to greet Prince Fahd in Dalbandin, as well as Baluchistan’s minister for sports and culture.
“Not a single political leader reacted against illegal hunting by Arab princes,” Asma Jahangir, a prominent human rights campaigner, posted on Twitter.
Although Mr. Sharif never confirmed it, Saudi Arabia is widely believed to have injected $1.5 billion into Mr. Sharif’s government last year to help prop up the ailing economy. Last year in Islamabad, Mr. Sharif laid out a lavish welcome for the other Saudi hunting permit holder: Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, who last month was inaugurated as king.
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has termed the houbara a vulnerable species, and India has banned the hunt. The Baluchistan court order in November cited Pakistan’s obligation to international conservation treaties.
Hunt supporters say the houbara population has never been scientifically surveyed, and complain that the royal visits are being unnecessarily politicized.
“The foreigners are a blessing, not a problem,” said Ernest Shams of Houbara Foundation International Pakistan, a charity that works with the United Arab Emirates government to boost houbara stocks. “They bring so much money into the country.”
In a bid to overcome the court ban, the Baluchistan government has lodged an appeal in Pakistan’s Supreme Court that is likely to be heard on Wednesday, officials in Islamabad said Friday.
Prince Fahd is currently at his hunting camp in Bar Tagzi, surrounded by his falcons and a contingent of security — and most definitely not hunting any houbara, according to Pakistani officials.
“They are visiting development sites,” said Obaidullah Jan Babat, an adviser to the Baluchistan chief minister. “They are not hunting.”
