WHEN WE HEARD THE CHIRP OF BIRDS

Sketch of a birdie using Extra Dark and 2B pencils. I am doing sketching after a pretty long time. This was a cathartic experience and helped me to swim through my periods of stress.

I had been working on this over a week, as getting to sit right through is a real challenge. On the whole it has taken just less than an hour. I posted this on a night, after I got back from work and it is coincidental that the following morning, when I was singing a prayer song, I heard at least three different chirps of the birds in the trees around our house. I felt blessed.

A few weeks back, one of our neighbours approached us with a request to get a tree that has been there with us for years, cut and taken off at the root level. The roots had spread and the flooring that lay in front of their house, was opening out because of this. I was fine with the idea, but my daughter did not want to. She was so attached to the greenery and the birds that lived in them. She even asked me if I could fund my neighbour to get their flooring repaired each time it opened up, so as to save the tree.

I wish I implemented her idea, but practically speaking, we will lose this tree soon. I feel sad every time I think of it.

BIRDS AT THE KARANJI LAKE, MYSORE

I never knew that there was one place in India where we could get so close to birds and that too in a huge cage left open for us. A beautiful lake nearby for us to sit and spend time was another great thing here.

I have heard that peacocks can give us a tough time if we got close. But we took the risk and it paid off well.

PLAYING HIDE AND SEEK WITH THE KINGFISHER

I believe this stint of photography has been the most successful attempt that both me and my daughter have made in taking a picture of the kingfisher in our digicam. This kingfisher visits our garden frequently.

Very much like me, my daughter also tends to take everything seriously. I am yet to come out of that lock fully, but lots of training of my mind, I have managed to come out a little.

When we were trying to take a snap of this bird, I saw my daughter getting desperate with every miss that happened, or every mistake she made. The kingfisher hopped and flew from one tree to the other. Many times it just flew away and came back after sometime.She was on the point of giving up, very much like a mathematics problem that never gave in.

Although it was like one blind leading the other, I still spent some time with her explaining that everything in life should not be treated like a school subject or a school exam. I told her that it was important to have some hobbies where we could just enjoy making mistakes and explore without conditions or boundaries.

I believe that that instilled more self belief in her, and relieved her from the burden of having to achieve accuracy, each time she attempted anything.

It is more important to keep getting up and walking tall after every fall, than to just keep winning always without taking any risks.

WHAT CAN WE DO FOR THIS MARSH AND THE BEAUTIFUL BIRDS OUT THERE???

Atleast thrice every week, I spend some time watching the Pallikaranai marsh from the top floors of my office building. This wetland is part of the Pallikarnai Forest Block in Thoraipakkam. This is a wonderful swamp with bio-shield reeds that saves Chennai from floods. It has been declared a Reserve Forest and approximately 114 bird species have been recorded.

This is the remaining part of the huge marsh that once existed and where a large number of birds flocked. A large part of this marsh got eaten up, by the dumping of waste and the still unquenched real estate thirst of real estate heroes that hit the city years back. Birds still flock this wetland and the surrounding trees in huge numbers during the seasons.…

An aquatic ecosystem is an ecosystem located within a body of water. Here we have communities of organisms that are dependent on each other and on their environment.

The Wikipedia states that the topography of the swamp is such that it always retains some storage, thus forming an aquatic ecosystem. It has been a home for naturally occurring plants (61 species), fish (50 species), birds (106 species), butterflies (7 species), reptiles (21 species) and some exotic floating vegetation such as water hyacinth and water lettuce, which are less extensive now and highly localized.
Recent reports of the appearance of the White-spotted garden skink which belong to the family of lizards, for the first time in Tamil Nadu, and Russell’s viper, the largest and the most widespread among Asian viper snakes, confirm its invaluable ecological status. Fish such as Dwarf gourami and Chromides that are widely bred and traded worldwide for aquaria, occur naturally in Pallikaranai.
Besides, the Windowpane oyster, Mud crab, Mullet, Halfbeak and Green chromide are some of the estuarine fauna present in the marsh. Birds like the Pied avocets and the Greater flamingo also frequent this wetland.

The pictures below are a proof, of the extremely bad situation of a part of this lake, lying on the opposite side, of the road that cuts across this lake. The city's garbage dump is growing in size out there and right now it's almost the size of a small mountain.What is seen as greyish stretches beside the water is the garbage slowly attaining mountainous proportions. We can see almost a small road running through this garbage mountain.


The waste and bacteria that seep out of these dumps, have started slowly polluting the water in this lake.

Extracts from an article published in the HINDU on the 6th February is below:
“Chennai is running short of dumping space: The Chennai corporation area has a population of 4.2 million people. The solid waste generated in daily is 3225 tonnes – ends up in dumping yards in Kodungaiyur and Perungudi. This is excluding 400 tonnes of construction debris generated daily. The city is running out of dumping space and fast. According to Chennai Corporation’ s estimates, the capacity of the dumping yards will be exhausted in eight years.
The non-composite waste like plastic has increased from 10 per cent to 30 per cent of the total garbage in recent years. The corporation should dialogue with ragpickers and recyclers, who play an informal and insignificant role in waste management.”
The Hindu, 6 February 2007, page 3.

The situation is so grave. I am still carrying on with my life......but am not sure what I can do to see some good things happening here for the birds, the flora and the fauna...not sure whether I can do anything at all..........