The Belitung shipwreck and the maritime silk road

15th March 2017

Harlem under snow, as I looked east, the morning after. 

The morning sun lit up the the maze of concrete that is Manhattan.

Down street-side, and Marion Sims seemed to be disapproving of the slushy mess, as we lurched on in the stop-go traffic besides Central Park.

                                                     









We were headed towards the Belitung shipwreck exhibition at the Asia Society.  (Left to our own devices, we would have stayed at home, played with the dog and had chai, but thanks to my dear sis in law we learnt some history, geography, foreign trade and art!)

Where on earth is Belitung and why is the shipwreck important?

Belitung is an Indonesian island, east of Sumatra, not very large, and colonised by the Dutch at some point, with beautiful beaches and coral reefs.  In the 9th century, much before Vasco Da Gama an Arabian  Dhow returning from China to Africa sank in these waters.

The wreck was only discovered in 1998, and the recovery of the cargo resulted in one of the largest collection of Tang dynasty treasures.  It also was clear proof of a maritime trade route - a rival to the inland Silk Route - between China under the Tang dynasty and West Asia, where the Abbasid Caliphate was in power.

More interestingly, the salvage and restoration was undertaken by a private agency called Seabed Explorations, in association with the Indonesian Government, and the western archeological world has sniffed at what they called a "treasure hunter" approach to the wreck and its cargo.  So much so that  the restored artefacts - which included more than 70,000 pieces of Chinese ceramic ware - were forbidden from being exhibited in the US until recently!

If I have understood it right, in 2005, a significant portion of the restored objects were sold for US$32 million to the Govt of Singapore via a holding company, who now loans them for exhibitions across the world.  I just found it amusing that the global flag bearer of capitalism objected to this private enterprise in restoration.

The cargo

The Belitung wreck had cargo from several kilns across China, each of which had their
characteristic look, glaze and designs. The ship was therefore an aggregator, much like the Amazons
of today.

A well preserved ewer, which is said to be based on the metalware of west Asia

Changsha wares were painted with iron and copper oxide based pigments of brown, green and red.  They were hand painted and quite varied, with themes usually being from the natural world.

Characteristic green pigments of the Changsha ware

These large packing jars had an inscription with a year, which has helped date the entire lot of ceramic ware to 826 AD.

Another Changsha kiln ewer - this one with brown pigment.

A variety of bowls from the Changsha kilns, with motifs that had Buddhist significance

With cloud like formations in the painting.

The Gongxian kilns on the other hand specialised on the cobalt blue and white ceramics.  Painting with blue cobalt is believed to have started with the painters in Basra and then was a specialty of Iran.    In what is reminiscent of today's Made in China label, it seems that the potters of Gongxian took the Iranian method of painting with cobalt onto their own ceramics.

These are the earliest Chinese blue and white pottery known

The Yue Kilns to the east of China specialised in a green glaze with subtle floral designs

The Xing Kilns in Hebei province in northern China produced the fines white ceramics, and the three hundred odd white ceramics on the Belitung shipwreck were probably the most expensive of the ceramics.  The exhibition write ups indicated that the wealthy in the Abbasid caliphate highly valued these white wares.

One of the white ware pieces

Besides these ceramics, the shipwreck also contained some gold and silver objects and mirrors.

It was a gem of an exhibition, and one of those things that you get to see because you happen to be in the right place at the right time, and also one that I was more amazed by upon my return and when I read further about it.

As we left, the icing on the cake was Google cardboard VR headsets that gave you a sense of how it looked under the sea!

More on the exhibition here.

It was back on the streets, with graffiti and slush.

Sunday morning ramble at GNP

3rd March 2017

My first nature outing post surgery?  No, I did go birding at the Bird Race in Jan, but this was a longer walk.  GNP,  so close to home and such a lovely little sanctuary.

Bulbuls called from everywhere, and the parakeets screeched overhead as we set off.  A Golden Oriole sang.

Is this the Ceylon Caper - Capparis zeylanica - I wondered?  

Leaves crunched underfoot as we wandered below the Banyan.  A brown breasted flycatcher flitted above.

The root tips caught the morning light and formed a screen in front of my face.

Above, the branches spread in a beautiful tangle

...of which I took several pictures.

The Torchwood Trees (Ixora pavetta) were in bloom everywhere, and there were bees and butterflies all around them.

An Indian Robin flew by as we stopped by one of the ponds.  We startled a wild dog who had come for a drink.  He watched us warily as he lapped up, thirstily. In the blink of an eye, he was gone.

The filmmaker and the entrepreneur: Shekar Dattatri and Ramki Sreenivasan - Livemint

At the M Krishnan writing awards recently, we saw Dattatri's A Race to Save the Falcons.









How appropriate to find this article shortly thereafter.



The filmmaker and the entrepreneur: Shekar Dattatri and Ramki Sreenivasan - Livemint

Among the carnivorous legless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes—snakes, in other words—is a periodic process called ecdysis, which has to do with shedding of the skin. Last August, a phenomenon called “synchrony” of ecdysis was observed among Florida Cottonmouth snakes, where snakes within an insular ecosystem shed their skin at around the same time. This is the story of a similar synchronicity. Here however, the two actors are human: a snake-loving filmmaker and a bird-loving entrepreneur. Both grew up in Chennai, both are passionate naturalists, both want to effect change in the world, and both decided to shed their previous professional skins at broadly the same time.

Shekar Dattatri is a wildlife filmmaker whose films—on Olive Ridley turtles, Silent Valley and Nagarhole among others—have won him a profusion of awards including a Rolex Award for Enterprise and the Edberg Award from Sweden. A self-taught filmmaker, Dattatri made films for the Discovery channel, National Geographic and the BBC, before turning his back on them. Principled, passionate, punctilious and perfectionist, Dattatri, 54, calls himself a ‘recluse’ because he lives alone in a three-bedroom apartment in Chennai.

Across the Kaveri river lives Sreenivasan Ramakrishnan (or Ramki as he prefers to be called), 45, a garrulous Bengaluru-based entrepreneur who worked at Procter & Gamble before starting—and selling—his own successful marketing analytics firm, Marketics. When I call him garrulous, he says, “Like a laughing thrush,” referring to birds that belong to the genus, Garrulax. Ramki, no surprises, is a birder and photographer.

Ramki and Dattatri had heard of each other, of course. Most people who grow up in Chennai experience not seven degrees of separation but just one or two. When they finally met in 2009, both were ready to move from one professional avatar into another.

At that time, Ramki was in a professional limbo. After selling his 250-person firm, Marketics in 2008, he embarked on a mission to document India’s rare birds like the Austen’s hornbill, Bugun’s liocichla, and the broad-tailed grass bird among others. Sighting these birds, let alone photographing them, is the Holy Grail for most birders. And yet, something was missing. “I was growing increasingly disillusioned with wildlife photography because it does nothing for wildlife,” says Ramki. “I discovered that entire species and ecosystems were disappearing. Just because you love wildlife doesn’t mean you become a protector of wildlife. Conservation is interventional. Photography is not. In fact, today, wildlife photographers are part of the problem.”

It was at this questioning stage that he met Dattatri. The timing was fortuitous. Like Hamlet’s malaise and Arjuna’s angst, both men were experiencing the ennui that envelopes successful professionals mid-career, forcing questions about the meaning and purpose of life.

Dattatri was used to being approached by admirers with the same tired question: “What can I do to help conserve wildlife?” Dattatri would tell them about the “unglamorous” part of conservation: the hard work, the threats from vested interests, and the dogged persistence that was necessary. Most people never came back. “Ramki is one of those rare people who puts his money where his mouth is,” says Dattatri.

They met in Ramki’s house. What each thought was a casual meeting ended up laying the groundwork for Conservation India, a wildlife portal that would become their joint venture. Within a few hours, both men had agreed on a blueprint. Wildlife conservation in India, they agreed, did not need another NGO, but rather, a free, open, neutral portal that disseminated authoritative, authentic, well-curated information. Presciently, Ramki had already registered a domain called Conservation India (CI), which became the name of their nascent venture. Ramki and Dattatri had heard of each other before they met. Most people who grow up in Chennai experience not seven degrees of separation but just one or two. When they finally met in 2009, both were ready to move from one professional avatar into another.

At that time, conservation in India had very little readable material in the public domain. “It sat in people’s heads or in scientific literature,” says Ramki. Some NGOs and individuals such as the Wildlife Conservation Society-India Program (WCS) and tiger expert and conservation zoologist Ullhas Karanth drew upon science for conservation. But the general public, even avid wildlife-lovers (or wild lifers as they are called) had little knowledge about basic things such as the range of a tiger, how long it lived or what it ate. Ramki and Dattatri wanted to change that. They wanted to bridge the gap between wildlife enthusiasts and conservationists. “Both Shekar and I have been influenced by Dr Karanth,” says Ramki. “He has brought about meaningful outcomes by mixing science with advocacy, policy and ground-level action.”

They thought about how to fund the venture. They didn’t want to be beholden to sponsors. They considered selling merchandise on the portal, but discarded the idea as too commercial. In the end, Ramki decided to fund it himself. “Like the rest of us, Ramki loves the outdoors but chose to go way beyond,” says Bittu Sahgal, co-founder, Sanctuary Asia magazine. “Through CI, he helps ordinary people fight the good fight more effectively.”

Their work too was pretty much evenly divided. Besides funding the venture, Ramki designed the technology back-end including coding, hosting, security and design, and most importantly, the custom-built automated news round up, somewhat like an RSS feed. It is refreshed with the latest conservation news several times a day. “We are heavy lifting through the technology so that each of us can devote our time to our other interests. We have no fixed assets or employees,” says Ramki.

Dattatri had connections in the conservation community. His standing as a filmmaker who “would walk away if anything smelled fishy,” as he says, gave them credibility. Dattatri curates most of the content. Ramki gets involved in campaigns and networking. Together, they designed the look and feel of the site.

Today, CI gets a traffic of anywhere from 10,000 to 60,000 visitors a day. The site has had over one million unique users. Perhaps just as important, they have earned the respect and goodwill of the conservation community because of their stance and their stories. Students of conservation visit the site, sometimes ten times a day. “Credibility is our greatest strength,” says Ramki. “And Shekar brought that to the table. He is a details guy, perfectionist, punctual—like a Rolex,” Ramki laughs.

Ramki speaks in a specific cadence that I initially cannot place. I struggle to identify it and then realize that Ramki’s cadence belongs to a subspecies: boys who grew up in Chennai, studied at Vidya Mandir perhaps, like Ramki did, then went on to college elsewhere, perhaps at BITS Pilani and did different things. This is the cadence of a highly articulate explainer who connects disparate ideas and spins webs; who doesn’t say in two words what can be said in ten. Ramki belongs to this persuasion, as do many other people in my acquaintance. They presume debate and therefore assume that they have to persuade.

If you are interested in Indian wildlife, the CI portal is a must-visit. Besides the daily news round up, there are lyrical articles about say, Mangalajodi in Orissa where villagers once killed and now protect birds. There are periodic campaigns that take on issues such as hydel projects, wetland rules, saving Amur Falcons and the Pulicat Bird Sanctuary. “Experts and authorities write for us for free out of their interest and passion, but everything gets vetted,” says Dattatri. “It is not as if they are doing me or Ramki a favour. It has to be someone with domain knowledge, not some random person’s opinion.”

Karanth was not only a mentor but also an early adopter of the site. He lists out the reasons why: “CI highlights urgent, emerging conservation issues in real time. More than that, it provides a clear signal—distinct from all the noise out there—for anyone interested in accomplishing conservation in the real world.”

It took two men. This is their storyDattatri was one of those kids who loved wildlife from childhood. Like most of his generation, he grew up in a book-loving middle-class family in Chennai. Unlike most of his peers, his parents gave him the gift of indulging his interests rather than obsessing over school marks.

When Dattatri was 10, his sister gave him a Gerald Durrell book called Rosie is my Relative, about an elephant. Soon, Dattatri borrowed his sister’s library card and began reading up other nature books in the British Council Library. By age 12, he graduated to books by Jane Goodall, George Schaller, Konrad Lorenz, Jim Corbett, Salim Ali, E.P. Gee, and many other wildlife writers. Dattatri had his life planned out. He would study wildlife biology all the way to a PhD and spend his life working with animals.

You and I may see nothing, but an Irula can spot say, 15 species of snakes, 13 amphibians, mongoose, hares, monitor lizards, jackals- Shekar Dattatri

At age 13, Dattatri walked into Chennai’s famous Snake Park and “ambushed” Romulus Whitaker, the founder. “I don’t know where I got the confidence but I said, ‘Mr Whitaker, I know how to handle snakes and I want to be a volunteer here.’ If it had been anyone else, they might have said, ‘Little boy, go away, come back when you are 21 with a letter from your parents.’ But Rom said, ‘Sure, okay, don’t do anything dangerous.’

‘And so my journey began’Dattatri was studying at Chennai’s P.S. High School then. He began volunteering on weekends at the Snake Park, first as an errand boy for the keepers, then accompanying them while cleaning the reptile enclosures, then taking tourists around the park, and then announcing tours and information over the public system. The Snake Park published a cyclostyled magazine at that time. “Rom showed me how to develop negatives. I went to the British Council library and read up on photography.” An older friend loaned him a prized Nikon camera. Pretty soon, Dattatri was spending day after day in the Snake Park dark room developing, fixing and glazing photographs. His school attendance suffered. He began spending two days a week, then three and then four days a week at the Snake Park. Being a back bencher, his classmates covered for him. “Somehow I got through from one class to another. I would get 33 marks, my teachers probably gave me 2 grace marks and promote me to the next grade,” says Dattatri.

Right in school, Dattatri decided that he would not get married. He wanted to be a “free bird” doing exactly what he wanted to do. Sometimes though, life would intervene. After spending his twelve years of schooling pretty much around snakes and animals, Dattatri realized that he had no college admission. Worse, the application deadline had passed. The only option open to him was Loyola College, which was autonomous. Dattatri applied to Loyola. On the same day, he also posted an “impassioned letter” to the principal stating why he had to give the lad admission even though he had poor grades and virtually no attendance in school. The principal called him for an interview and regarded the lad with a twinkle in his eye. Dattatri got into Loyola and continued his usual pattern of absenteeism. “At Loyola, all the students would quake when they were to enter the principal’s office because he was a stickler for attendance,” says Dattatri. “But Father Kuriakose would see me and say, ‘Ah, snake boy, what have you been up to?’ with a big smile.”

He began working with a graduate student named J. Vijaya (now deceased). They did local expeditions with the Irula tribal folks from Chingelput district. Dattatri describes them as “amazing bush people.” Dattatri would accompany Viji and the Irulas into the scrubby, thorny wastelands outside Chennai. “You and I may see nothing, but an Irula can spot say, 15 species of snakes, 13 amphibians, mongoose, hares, monitor lizards, jackals,” says Dattatri. “Irulas are incredible at finding wildlife. They know which season to go where, and which ponds to go to in order to find fresh water turtles.” Dattatri photographed them all.

In the early eighties, American filmmakers, John and Louise Riber came to Chennai to do a film on snake bite. Since Whitaker was in and out of the country, he deputed young Dattatri to stand in for him. For close to two years, he followed the Ribers around, watching, listening and asking questions about framing shots, and developing content for wildlife films. This experience caused him to jettison his dreams for a PhD in wildlife biology and turn instead to photography and filmmaking. Whitaker, Dattatri and a couple of others formed a film making company called Eco Media.

An early assignment was for Sanctuary Asia with editor Bittu Sahgal as the producer. Sahgal sent a professional Bollywood cameraman to film at the Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala. Problems began almost immediately. The cameraman had no interest in filming otters and elephants. He wanted action and starlets. When the Bollywood cameraman upped and left the tiger reserve (leaving his equipment and assistant behind thankfully), Dattatri, knowledgeable about wildlife took over the filming. “Shekar is extraordinary because he is an entirely self-taught naturalist, social scientist and film maker,” says Karanth. “In his ability to communicate complex conservation stories effectively and aesthetically, he has few peers globally.”

Soon National Geographic and Discovery came calling. Dattatri made films for them for a decade. Alongside he did freelance camera work for Animal Planet, BBC and others. One about Nagarhole shows not just the elephants, tigers and frogs that inhabit the reserve but also ends with an unabashed plea for conservation: “For what is at stake here is not just the preservation of a legacy but the safeguarding of India’s very identity as the land of the tiger and the elephant.”

By the year 2000, Dattatri was well established as a wildlife filmmaker. “Work was always looking for me but I felt hollow inside,” he said. “I was at the top of my game, earning money, winning awards and yet, I was feeling depressed because I was making these beautiful films ignoring the problems all around them—the problems of conservation.”

He decided gradually to become a “barefoot filmmaker.” He consciously turned his back on television, refusing new projects and bought a smaller ‘prosumer’ camera to make the kind of films he wanted. It was in this phase that he made some of his most compelling films. SOS: Save Our Sholas, for instance, offers a poetic yet realistic glimpse into the amazing Western Ghats. Narrated by Valmik Thapar, the film is both an introduction to these shola forests and a call to action—a theme that will suffuse all of Dattatri’s later work. It was at this time that he met some friends in Bengaluru who were campaigning to close down mining operations in Kudremukh, an important biodiversity hotspot. Wildlife First, an advocacy group co-founded by Bengaluru-based Praveen Bhargav had been campaigning since 1996 to stop iron ore mining at Kudremukh. The group filed a public interest litigation and lobbied local politicians. Dattatri suggested a documentary film that encapsulated all the issues. The result was a 11-minute film called Mindless Mining: the tragedy of Kudremukh, narrated in English and Kannada. “I don’t think anyone in the advocacy groups initially realized its use or impact. They looked at it and said, ‘This is nice and maybe we will get something out of it,’” says Dattatri.

Wildlife First showed the film widely: to MLAs and at farmers’ meetings. The film, available on the Conservation India portal is a snapshot of the problem and the solution. “Shekar is one filmmaker who has sacrificed his otherwise lucrative career in making nice films for National Geographic and other channels and instead, put a huge amount of his time to help change decisions in the highest level,” says Bhargav. “His film holds the unique record of being filed in the Supreme Court as an annexure to support the petition which ultimately led to a landmark judgment which was to close down an iron ore mining in the heart of Kudremukh National Park.”

I was at the top of my game, earning money, winning awards and yet, I was feeling depressed because I was making these beautiful films ignoring the problems all around them—the problems of conservation.- Shekar Dattatri.

On December 31, 2005, the Supreme Court’s judgment stopped mining in Kudremukh. “It was hugely motivating for me because it showed that I could make these other kinds of films,” says Dattatri.

Ramki’s home office is in Indiranagar, a trendy area in Bengaluru crammed with brew pubs and restaurants. Behind his desk is a lithograph of a Malabar Trogon by John Gould. Ramki collects these and speaks with the ease of a polymath about lithographs.

“I stick to the British period, not because I am a fan of the white man but because I feel that they document Indian natural history very well,” he says. Ramki likes drawings. His first job, before he got an MBA, was as a freelance cartoonist, he says—which he did for a year.

Ramki rides to our first meeting on a bicycle. We meet at Yogisthaan, which serves good food in a garden setting. Tall, slim, and bearded, Ramki is vegan and a yoga enthusiast. He practises advanced Ashtanga yoga and pranayama, pretty much every day. Recently, he has also started running “sub 10K” distances.

Ask Ramki why he is attracted to birds or wildlife and he is, for a change, speechless. “I like birds and mammals because they are the most visible denizens of the wild,” he stammers.

“But I don’t want to give an anthropocentric reason and call it a connection to nature or that it gives me peace or whatever.” We go on to talk about other things. Later, Ramki returns to the thought. “I like wild places where I can walk: forests, grasslands, scrublands, desert. My fundamental passion is trekking.”

Ramki still manages to go on one trek a month. He and his wife, Swarna, have one adopted son, Shiva, 5.

On weekends, they go to the Valley School to listen to lectures and also meet up with their friends, birder Shashank Dalvi, and his wife, Vishnupriya, an ecologist who live there.

Birding has been Ramki’s longest preoccupation. In between, Ramki still mentors a few start-ups—18 Herbs, a company out of Madurai is one he mentions but there are others. He likes the start-up ecosystem and speaks with the same passion about being an entrepreneur.

But for this we have to go back a couple of decades. In 1998, at the age of 25, Ramki co-founded Intercept, an advertising firm, that quickly grew to multiple locations across India. By 2002, it was obvious that the company, like many of its kind, would be the victim of dotcom bust. Yet, the founders were loathe to shut down the firm. “One day, in our guest house in Mumbai, I had an epiphany,” says Ramki. “It must have been a hot summer’s night. I was probably staring at the fan in the non-AC room and suddenly, I decided that enough was enough.”

Ramki moved from Chennai to Bengaluru with a heavy heart and started Marketics, a data analytics firm in 2003. It must have been hard for the lad from Luz Church Road to explain the move to his parents. Not only was he shutting down his firm but rather than take up a sensible well-paying job, he was starting another entrepreneurial venture. The gene must run in the family. Ramki’s only brother, C.S. Swaminathan, is a co-founder of media outlet Founding Fuel. “Once people have tasted the freedom and creativity that comes with entrepreneurship, they can never go back to a regular job,” Ramki explains.

It was at this time that serial entrepreneur and partner at venture capital firm Growth Story, K. Ganesh met Ramki. “Intercept focused on digital advertising and was way ahead of its time. The same with Marketics, which was doing big data and Knowledge Process Outsourcing before those words were invented,” says Ganesh. Ramki and his two co-founders pitched to Ganesh who ended up investing Rs1 crore or about $200,000 in their nascent venture. “I liked the fact that despite losing money through his previous start-up, Ramki was not taking the b2b (back to banking) or b2c (back to consulting) path that many of his start-up peers were doing,” says Ganesh.

In 2007, the four partners—Ganesh says that the company was divided four ways pretty evenly—sold the firm to WNS for $65 million. They distributed the money to about 120 employees. As CEO, Ramki and his co-founders decided to share the wealth, even with employees who were not eligible. “I can guarantee that 99% of his employees will come back to work for Ramki if he starts another venture,” says Ganesh. After the sale of Marketics, Ramki didn’t start another business venture. He turned wholeheartedly to conservation. “Is he capable of building much larger firms, having been a pioneer in the big data and KPO space? Yes, 100%,” says Ganesh. “But conservation needs people like Ramki, because people like me won’t do it. By saying, ‘enough’ to wealth, he has shown great maturity, equanimity and contentment.”

This yin-yang quality was evident when the two men met recently in Bengaluru. Dattatri had come to Bengaluru for a couple of days and their time together followed a similar cadence. They met with a wildlife biologist, brainstormed about what to do, met with conservation professionals and planned future campaigns. Ramki’s charisma has to do with his energy and enthusiasm tempered with his ability to back off and allow people to do their thing. At his heart, he is an egalitarian.

I like birds and mammals because they are the most visible denizens of the wild.- Ramki Sreenivasan

Ask anyone about Ramki and a few words will pop up with regularity: wildlife of course, and entrepreneur too, but more than anything, he is someone who doesn’t play by the rules. “I prefer to influence rather than command,” he said. “I am anti-establishment and I am not bound by rules.” This contrarian yet egalitarian quality is necessary in conservation. Journalist Bano Haralu knows this first hand in their well-documented, and successful campaign to prevent the massive killing of Amur Falcons in Nagaland. Ramki, she says, connected multiple groups and brought the campaign to fruition. “He was astute in knowing how to highlight the news in a manner that would get maximum impact,” says Haralu.

Thanks in part to the success of their campaign, Haralu quit her job as a television reporter and became founding trustee of Nagaland Wildlife Biodiversity Conservation Project. Ramki designed her website and logo and continues to give her his time and effort. “I never wanted to start an organization but our work together gave me the push,” says Haralu

Dattatri too has “pushed” associates into the path of wildlife, in his case, education. Bengaluru-based artist, designer and educator Srivi Kalyan heads the Master’s in Earth Education and Communication program at Shristi Institute of Art Design and Technology.

“In the four years that I have known Shekar, we have talked a lot about educating youngsters about conservation,” she says. “I would say that my current position (as an environment educator) is in part because of our conversations.”

Wildlife conservation is harder than most other causes because it demands a way of seeing and thinking that doesn’t come naturally to people. The holistic web of nature where each species is linked to the other is not obvious and cannot be explained in as clean a fashion as educating girls or erecting toilets. People who love the wild are aplenty but those who make it their life’s work to fight for it are few. And for those who choose to fight, the bad news keeps coming.

Elephants get electrocuted, entire lakes of fish die one morning, and forests get fragmented. Those who love nature, with deep and abiding passion, have to confront one sobering fact: most humans don’t care about wildlife and are oblivious to the damage that they are inflicting on the earth. Conservationists also have to routinely watch videos of their beloved animals and birds being mutilated, poached, trapped and shot. That takes spine, guts and the stomach for watching and digesting horror. It also takes a certain frame of mind.

“You cannot be pessimistic if you want to be a conservationist,” says Dattatri. “Because we lose so many battles. But someone has to do it and if you don’t do it whatever little else is there will also go.”

Madras' waterways - in need of help

I usually return on late night flights and rarely get to see the coastline from the air.  In the recent past, as I returned home during the day, I enjoyed the views of the Bay of Bengal and our Coromandel coast, with its lovely beaches.

Bapatla beach, Pulicat lake and then down to Ennore.

Ennore creek - when you see it from the air, you realise how large and important this ecosystem is. I wondered what that green stagnant pond was.

8,000 acres which should be protected under the Coastal Zone Management Map of 1996.

This CZMP seemed to have mysteriously vanished and has surfaced, after many a RTI to show blatant violations.

The New Indian Express published this article in 17th June 2017,

State and Central government entities have converted over 1,000 acres of the ecologically sensitive Ennore creek — and have more in the pipeline — in violation of mandatory procedures, alleged activists on Friday in a revelation that raises serious concerns.
The creek’s 8,000-acre water spread area is classified as CRZ-1 (Coastal Regulation Zone), where development is strictly regulated, according to Coastal Zone Management Plan (CZMP) of 1996. As per CRZ notification, this is the only approved map, and the state and district coastal zone management authorities have to refer to it while appraising all applications seeking clearance.
In two separate RTI responses to Coastal Resource Centre, an NGO, the Tiruvallur district Coastal Zone Management Authority (CZMA) and the State CZMA have revealed that neither has a copy of the approved map for Ennore creek. The district authority admitted that it relied solely on the maps submitted by the project proponents.
“The CZMP of 1996 has so far been kept under the carpet. Major establishments like Kamarajar Port and the thermal power plants have got clearances based on unapproved maps prepared by their consultants. This is a serious violation by State and Central public sector undertakings,” said Nityanand Jayaraman of Save Ennore Creek Campaign.
Some of the activities like port and oil storage containers are permitted in CRZ-1, but the basis on which the clearances were obtained was wrong.
Kamarajar Port is now converting 280 acres of waterbody into land for a coal yard, TANGEDCO is also dumping sand and blocking the creek to construct a coal conveyor belt for the Ennore Thermal Power Station and Bharat Petroleum is building a storage facility on 102 acres of the wetland. “Such activities are strictly prohibited in CRZ-1 and clearances can’t be granted as per the CZMP approved in 1996.”
For obtaining clearance, BPCL submitted maps prepared by Institute of Remote Sensing (IRS), according to which the project site falls in CRZ-1(A), CRZ-1(B) and CRZ-3. Based on this map, the State coastal zone management authority has issued clearance with the condition that no activity be carried out in CRZ-1 areas. However, IRS maps are not approved, and CZMP map shows the entire project site falls in CRZ-1 area, which meant clearance shouldn’t have been granted.
Releasing the documents, retired Madras High Court Justice D Hariparanthaman, and former expert member of the National Green Tribunal, R Nagendran, noted that the creek automatically enjoys protection under Wetland Rules, 2010.
Meanwhile, an open letter endorsed by Environmentalist Foundation  of India, Poovulagin Nanbargal, Ilanthamizhagam and Arappor Iyakkam has been sent to chief secretary seeking to further halt encroachment and declare it as a ‘climate sanctuary’.

The Ennore Creek sees the confluence of Kosasthalaiyar river, North Buckingham Canal and the sea.  Flash dumping has also caused silting of the canal and almost brought to a halt flow into the sea.

The "Save Ennore Creek" movement hopes to do, well just that - save the creek.  In January this year TM Krishna sang the poromboke song as a bid to increase awareness of the dreadful state of the creek.

On another flight back home, I came in over the Adyar estuary.

Beautiful waterways, but where is the mouth?  A huge sandbank means that water (or, what I like to believe is water) really does not flow to the sea.  

In the foreground, is the successful Adyar Poonga project, which has restored one bit (about 58 acres) of the Creek that is part of the estuarine ecosystem.  It has  restored the natural ecosystem and flora and fauna is once again thriving in this little part of the whole estuary.

The green lung of the TS is the saving grace on the southern side of the river bank, while the northern side faces the relentless pressure of development.

As we came down to land, I enjoyed the view of the GNP, and the polo grounds, once again a green space that keeps the pollution levels down and is a precious refuge for urban wildlife.

Idiosyncratic, humid and hot it may be, but it is still home.  Every time I land back, there is that inexplicable joy in the heart that I cannot explain.  More than one more bridge, more than one more mall, I wish our planners show the will to save our waterways, restore the green cover and safeguard our poromboke lands.

TADOBA through the lens of Mr Ramanan

Mr Ramanan visited Tadoba in April this year, and the temperatures of 49 degrees Celsius thankfully did not affect his photography!  The TATR - Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve - is in the centre of India, in Maharashtra, and a reserve that I have not visited.

The forest awaited the monsoons, the teak trees were bare and all creatures big and small looked for shade.

This Brown fish owl (Ketupa zeylonensis) was spending its days in the shade, probably close to a water body.At night, it would be out to hunt.

Orange headed Rock Thrush on the dry teak leaves of the forest floor.  Tadoba is predominantly teak forests.  But is that a largestromia flower peeking at us?

A Crested Serpent Eagle surveys the forest floor for prey

Oriental Honey Buzzard - at the lake.  The sanctuary has the Andhari river running through it, and the Tadoba lake.  The lake is a great place for sightings.

Chousingha (Tetracerus quadricornis), a small four-horned antelope, solitary by nature, and whose numbers are dwindling, as forests have become isolated.  Tadoba is one the few refuges left for this herbivore. A dove walks by in the background.

A barking deer, moving close to a bamboo grove, probably looking for some shade. No antlers as yet for this one.

A massive gaur also at the watering hole.  Their numbers have swelled and they are now a common site in plantation towns in the hills.

The sloth bear on the other hand is an uncommon sighting in the wild   I have not seen one as yet.  Whenever I see pictures of them, I feel that they desperately need a grooming!

As Thyaga remarked, what is it that you didn't see, Mr Ramanan?!  The summer heat meant that all animals looked to minimise their movements.   In a way its arguably the best time to visit a sanctuary, if you are interested in sightings.  Physically uncomfortable, but great sightings!  I personally love to visit when forests are green, and so usually end up not seeing very much beyond the lovely magnificent trees.  The trees are wonderful in themselves, and I do not regret the lack of sightings.

There were a spate of killings by leopards of villagers around Tadoba in 2013, and there was a move to radio collar some of them.  This one obviously not one of them.  

And just when I thought, ok he did not spot a tiger, I saw these pictures!

A summer snooze for the top carnivore.

This is the cub of the tigress named Rani

There are a 100 + tigers in the 650 odd sq kms of the TATR.  Tadoba, Pench, Kanha... one contiguous forest not so long ago, but now islands separated by human habitation.

And as I write this, the forests have been further decimated as the Pench-Kanha corridor is witnessing the development of an elevated highway.  The elevated sections are supposed to mitigate the effect on wildlife by allowing them to cross underneath.

Is this realistic and what about the interim displacement and habitat loss?  Could not the highway skirt this corridor?

The comb duck at Sholinganallur

Comb Duck (Sarkidiornis melanotos).  Males have the "comb".

One of the largest of the duck species and seen if freshwater wetlands.

They are found in southern Africa and south Asia.  But not so often in Madras.

While I first saw them in significant numbers in Bharatpur and at Chilika, the 2017 bird race was the first time I saw them in my city.

All these beautiful pictures from Mr Ramanan, who visits the marshes almost every weekend!

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Great Cormorants at Chinapannahalli Lake in Bangalore

9th June 2017

Bangalore was a city of lakes, big and small.  Most have been lost to development, others foam and burn like from some end-of-the-world science fiction movie, and there are a few that hang on desperately and precariously.

The lake, off Brookefield Main Road

One such little jewel that I discovered through my friend Raji was Chinapanahalli lake, off Brookefield Main Road.  Raji had come across it recently, and we walked there one morning last week. She wanted to show me the bunch of Great Cormorants that she had seen there.

It was a typical cool and overcast Bangalore June morning.  We got off the main road and into the byelanes, There were Markhamia trees lining the roads, dotted with yellow flowers and their telltale long hanging seed pods.  Street dogs were having their own territorial battles that did not include us thankfully, and a fruit seller pushed his cart full of tempting mangoes down the street.

My eyes widened with delight as we came on to the lake bund, and my first site was a bunch of large black cormorants with webbed feet, sunning themselves on a rock in the middle of the lake.  Just as I was looking at them in the distnace, we saw people milling around and staring at the edges of the lake.  There were agitated conversations in Bengali, Hindi, Kannada and Tamil as various families stopped and pointed.

Fish gasping for air

We looked too, and then discovered the source of dismay - dead fish on the surface, dozens of them - large and small.

We walked a little further and came across this huge school of big fish literally gasping for air at the surface.  Quite clearly the oxygen in the water was insufficient, and they needed oxygen from the air.  it seemed that the overnight rain had washed the effluents into the lake.  It was a downer for sure, and we walked despondently and helplessly, wondering where to begin in this big mess that we are causing.

A manmade bund in the middle of the lake was a good perching point

One species problem was another's feast, however, and the Cormorants were indulging in sheer gluttony, as the sluggish fish were easy prey.  They dived under and would come up with large fish that they would swallow in three gulps, before diving again.

Egrets, grey herons and a solitary night heron also fished, and pond herons were caught between displaying their breeding plumage and enjoying the fish.  

Brahminy Kites glided across, and a solitary Spot billed duck went on a flypast.

But for me, the bird of the day was the Great Cormorants. (Phalacrocorax carbo) that sat on the rocks, flew overhead and fished merrily and greedily.  We recognised them from their large size, the gular pouch which one chap was gurgling away, and the white on their flanks.  I have not seen these cormorants frequently, and I remember last spotting them at Dungarpur in 2008!

There were also Little Cormorants, that we see quite often.  A couple of possibly Juvenile Indian Shags as well, though of this I was not very sure.  Raji has promised to go back and take a better look and confirm the id in the course of the week!

Our bird list in an hour

Great Cormorant
Little Cormorant
Red Wattled Lapwing
Pond heron
Little Egret
Intermediate Egret
Black crowned Night Heron
Grey Heron
Purple Heron
White breasted water hen
Brahminy Kite
Black Kite
Little Grebe
White breasted Kingfisher
Common myna
Spotted Dove
Red vented bulbul
Tailor bird


Raji spotted a Little and Pied Kingfisher the next day, and also reported that the fish were not in distress.  However, on the 11th June, once again they were gasping for breath, and the lake had many dead fish.

She has also seen Painted Stork at the lake, but obviously they are not resident.  

Lets hope this lake continues to thrive.  According to an article in TOI, the lake area has shrunk from  50 to 15 acres, and has been restored by a trust after the BBMP cited lack of funds for inaction.   

The icing on the cake was some balcony birding as well - rose ringed parakeets, bee eaters, a magpie robin, flameback and bulbuls.

The unusual ecological tale of Sippighat, Andamans

Our wonderful week at the Andaman islands included stopping by at Sippighat.  (The place names on the islands are a delightful mixture, and warrant an independent post - ranging from Junglighat, Dollygunj, Guptapara and Sippighat to Aberdeen and Rifleman Island!)

The newly formed Sippighat "wetlands".  All those black dots are waterbirds - whistling ducks, cotton teals and coots.

The tsunami of Dec 26th of 2004 changed many things all around us, and Andamans was affected in several ways, with an enormous human toll and ecological changes.  Some islands sunk by as much as a metre because of the earthquake, and at Sippighat, which is about 10kms from Port Blair the seawaters rolled in on a 10m high tsunami wave, and the land was inundated, and has remained waterlogged ever since.  The army has built a bridge to get across the newly formed water bodies.

Why could they not use these boats, I wondered.  or did the
tsunami wave wreck them?

We drove by the morning we arrived, on our way to ANET at Wandoor, and we saw the skeletons of drowned boats, submerged homes and abandoned building projects.

As we gawked in astonishment at this, a bunch of whistling teals took off from the water, with their characteristic whistling call, did a sortie and landed back in.  These freshwater ducks had obviously adapted to the now brackish waters of Sippighat, just like the Cotton Teal groups?

White-bellied sea eagle - Photo by Pritam

Up above, a White-bellied sea eagle glided lazily as a common myna flapped its wings busily, trying to keep up with it.  

We clearly saw the characteristic wedge-shaped tail, and raised wings while gliding

The Sea Eagle was a delight - it swooped down into the waters and picked up a fish in its talons, with one expert dive, and the bunch of us "aahed" involuntarily!

The waters were abuzz with bird life - swamp hens, coots and egrets of all sizes.  The swallows swooped around in the air above, but there was no sign of the Andaman Teal which supposedly is found here.  

Cotton Teal  Nettapus coromandelianus - Photo by Sivakumar

Cotton Teals swam by in groups - and in our excitement, the females were first mistaken for Andaman Teals.  A closer look and much discussion ensued, since none of us had seen an Andaman Teal earlier, it was worse than the one-eyed leading the blind!

The Forest Dept board finally did help, as quite clearly, the ducks we were seeing had an eye stripe and not the white ring around the eye.

It was a cloudy morning, and every now and then there would be a welcome thundershower for a few minutes, but yet we sweated inside our raincoats, the showers increasing the already high humidity levels.

The relatively new army bridge across the waters.  The waters have become a means of moving goods across the island.

We watched some feral ducks, kingfishers and a lone Great Knot busy in the mud.  Suddenly there was a commotion among the Cotton Teals, and three males were mobbing one hapless female, who was trying to get away, quite unsuccessfully.  I was sorely tempted to throw a stone at those male ducks and scatter them....should I have?

We were commandeered into the bus by Vijay, as Manish and team waited at ANET, and the cloudy sky looked ominous.

On another evening visit, on the way back from Chidiyatapu, we stopped again and this time Zoya from ANET took us in to another part of Sippighat and there we did see the Andaman teals (Anas albogularis) with their characteristic eye patch.  These are endemic to these islands, and are now considered as a separate species from Sunda Teals.  There are supposedly about a thousand of these teals. and we were privileged to see a large flock of them. 

Andaman teals (Anas albogularis) - Photo by Sivakumar

Once again though, for me, it was the White Bellied Sea Eagle that was most memorable.  We saw a pair of them, roosting in the trees beyond the waters, and what appeared to be a nest was spotted through our binoculars.

They took turns gliding over the waters, before perching majestically on the tree, settling down for the evening.

White Bellied Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster) -
Photo by Sivakumar

Andaman endemics

Andaman Crested Serpent Eagle - pic courtesy Pritam Kukilaya

Andaman Woodpecker - pic courtesy Pritam Kukilaya