I found myself sleep walking, my mind drowned in an oasis of
serenity, my eyes blinded by phantasmagorical images, my ears deafened by the
sound of silence, my sense of smell beclouded by the break of spring and my
touch gently caressed by leaves as time began to draw out like a blade and my
circadian clock frozen while I dawdled through the evergreen. Where was I and
what was I doing here were questions that did not matter as I was too engrossed
in learning about the alien world I found myself in. For once I thought I had
escaped the clutches of humanity and somehow zapped myself into a nonhuman
world. The sound of silence was at its zenith just before the break of dawn when
the world melodramatically congealed into an overture of bird chirps at ear-splitting
intensity that resonated beyond the horizon, the salubrious weather
complimented by trees embellished with colourful flowers and fruits, where creatures
of nature played themselves out with alacrity and my pliable stripes allowed me
to blend in with the convivial environment.
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A male
Taylor Bird looks for nest building material.
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As I strolled through this mystical world an entire ecosystem
unfolded before my very eyes. At the top of the food chain were four packs of
very aggressive territorial dogs that preyed on anything that moved. Several
stray Machiavellian cats lay in wait to hoodwink the dogs and prey on the
jocose birds that seem to relish in their morning activities of honey and worm
gathering, oblivious to the feral nature of cats that lie in wait close by. A
male tailor bird was engrossed in patching together every bit of fibrous material
he could lay eyes upon to construct a long extravagant looking nest in a
furtive attempt to entice his female compatriot to choose him to start a family
with. A pair of Grey Hornbills drew my attention from the tailor birds as they
made their way over to fruit bearing trees and began feeding. Soon a group of
ten Jungle babblers dived into a patch of muddy water and began frolicking
right under the tailor bird’s nest. A melodious faint distant murmur exploded
into several humming notes as a clique of Robins (Oriental Magpie Robins and
Indian Robins) burst into the scene in search of worms and other insects. Not
to be outdone, a coterie of Parakeets (Alaxender Parakeets and Rose-ringed
Parakeets) made their way over and kicked off a game that I liked to call ‘The
show of Strength’. By now some 40
species of birds were out, with the sole intent of collecting material for
constructing their nests. Some birds were building their nests on low lying
shrubs, some on dry trees and some on evergreen trees. I was flummoxed at the
carefree attitude of the birds but on closer inspection, the reason behind their
nescient attitude became all too clear. The birds seem to have a watch dog in
their midst that does the scouting while they go about their daily chores. A
quid proquo relationship seems to be at work between the squirrels and birds
while the one watches out for danger, perched high on a tree and sprouts out an
alarm call upon finding a threat, the other seems to incognisantly scrounge for
food and nesting material. The alarm call was sounded and the birds disappeared
as quickly as they appeared. A lone cat on the ground and an Eagle from the sky
were attracted by the sounds made the birds. My attention was suddenly diverted
to a spider that meticulously spun a web between adjacent plants, a bulwark
that came to her defence against creatures bigger than her and a trap for
creatures’ smaller than her. . I was bamboozled at having been stuck in a world
that was so alien to me, unable to fathom the gamut of what I was seeing and
mosaic together a complex puzzle that was being screened before my eyes. A
cacophony of loud blood curdling war shrieks seemed to make its way towards me,
and for the life of me I had no idea then what the source of it was, decided to
make a run for cover before being caught in the midst of it all. I made a
beeline for the bushes and after about half an hour I was able to see a troop
of 20 monkeys led by a dominant male, perambulate along the trees in a brave
attempt to assert his dominance over the dogs and mark their territory. The
fight left one monkey badly injured and a trail of blood that led to the dogs. Several
dogs with deep canine gashes were huddled together in a recuperative symposium
that provided solace to all members of the pack. The adult males were gearing
up for another fight by grunting at each other while the docile females
escorted the pups to a sequestered bush far away from the battle zone. A
battalion of ants, like war soldiers marched along the muddy ground, over every
fallen twig and under every dry leaf in search of food, to take back to their
hive, a complex hierarchical society nestled deep within the comforts of the
underground, away from the disturbances of the outside world. I was soon
greeted by the presence of the busiest creature on the planet, the Honey Bee, a
creature that is responsible for pollination of over 90% of our plants and the
sole reason for the continuation of life on this planet. The end of the honey
bee synchronously marks the end of life on earth.
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| The Sparrow Hawk scouting for prey. |
I was soon hit by an insinuation that this was not a dream
and that I was within the walls of my colony. For a moment I had transcended
into a world within our world and I, a human was the only incongruous element
amidst their world and yet none of the creatures seemed to feel the need to
repatriate me back into my narrow-minded human world. The prodigious
magnanimity of Mother Nature towards human kind is beyond my fabric of
understanding.
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| A White Wagtail hunting for ants. |
New Motibagh, a gated colony built on reserved forest land
plays host to more than 51 species of birds, probably one of the most diverse
ecosystems found within any residential colony. As the days flew by, I found
myself shutting the doors to my human world and spending more of my time within
the ‘Real’ world. I was awestruck at the amiable nature of every single
creature towards me and within a matter of days I became a free-living member
of their world. Every day I would walk into their world with my camera and
observe their activities. Soon creatures of all kinds right from birds to
garden lizards, accepted me as one of their own, and never hesitated to be
their jocund selves. I would especially hunker down in front of a puddle of
water and to my surprise I would see close to three hundred fractious birds
come over and play themselves out, either by bathing, drinking, chasing or
fighting amongst themselves. When the alarm calls begin to sound, the small
birds would disappear and I would be treated to cats, dogs, monkeys and birds
of prey such as kites and eagles. Almost a year passed by and my animal friends
just grew in number, though I can’t say the same for my gregarious human
counterparts nonetheless I had nothing to complain about. I was exactly where I
wanted to be and doing exactly what I wanted to do.
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| Alexandrine Parakeet defending her nesting site. |
My bird friends taught me a lot about the real world and the
true meaning of life and its hardships. The Parakeets for example take hold of
a hollow burrow in the tree and defend it for four hard long months. They
expend their valuable energy in gathering nesting materials, food supplies and
fending off predators’ right from the month of October to February after which
they choose partners and lay their eggs. The horn bills, one of the few birds
that mate for life, spend a lot of their time in selecting a tree site for nesting. The female makes a hole within the main bark of the tree and enters it. The male from the outside seals the hole with a residue like paste that is created from mashed leaves, fruit seeds and excreta. The hole is just big enough for the female to stick her beak out while the male feeds her from the outside. There in the tree the female sheds her wing feathers and doesn't come out until the hatchlings are big enough to fly. The ever
reticent and sedentary Owls, find it very difficult to locate their prey such
as rats whose numbers are depleted to alarming lows due to incessant efforts by
humans to eradicate them. Birds love to feed on mosquito larvae that thrive in
stagnant water and so help keep a check on the robust mosquito population,
similarly birds such as the woodpecker and barbets, feed on termites which if
not kept under control tend to feed on various wooden materials such as chairs,
doors and tables.
A pair of Spotted Owlets that allowed me to film them for over a year.
The more I saw, the more I felt the burgeoning need to
combine both worlds. Humans, ever since breaking out of the ‘circle of life’
are doing all they can to control every aspect of the planet. The inexorable thirst
for destruction is embedded deep within our DNA which automatically triggers
the need to manipulate and beat everything around us into submission. The human
world is a world that is primarily concerned with the interests of its own
species, the ever shrinking forests, uncontrolled consumption of finite earthly resources and the folly importance given to the human life over every other
creature on this planet along with a host of other man-made reasons has signed a
post-dated death warrant to every living species on this planet. Take the mosquito
menace for instance. If humans were to live on friendly terms alongside nature
by planting trees without over cutting, trimming and pruning, we would have an
abundance of birds living amidst us along with a host of other creatures such
as frogs, toads, their young tadpoles, bats and dragonflies that would ensure
that the mosquito and other bug populations are under control. It’s a service
provided to us free of cost, in exchange for a home in our environment. Take
away the plants, birds and the ecosystem that were to follow and we have an
arid land to live on, coupled with mosquito, termite and mice infestations. We
would then spend lakhs of rupees each year on ‘manmade’ hazardous chemicals
that would be sprayed unceremoniously around the land. These chemicals are
extremely dangerous as many of them are fatal cancer causing sprays. Their
modus operandi on the human body is yet unknown, the medical bills on each
person would run into the lakhs of rupees and their cumulative cost almost
incalculable. These chemicals would seep into the ground and poison underground
drinking water thus entering our food cycle. Studies are currently being
carried on how the human tissues and organs store these chemicals and their
side effects that they pose several decades later. Birds and other animals
drink from these chemical infested waters and are poisoned by the thousands
each year. People use various chemicals to eliminate various pests and these
chemicals conglomerate at various water bodies such as ponds, streams, rivers,
lakes and seas thus creating a cocktail of toxins that no scientist would even
dare create under extremely safe laboratory conditions. So my question is,
without going into various other manmade tragedies in the making, just sticking
with mosquitoes and termites for now, all worth it?
Words begin to fail me.
One fine day to my shock and horror, I was treated to a
sordid sighting where words even to this day fail me. Trees that took several
decades to grow have been pulled down without qualms of conscience, shrubs that
supported over a thousand birds cleared in one go and patches of forest land
that lie in the periphery were stripped bare naked under the pretext of a
security threat. Security threat? From whom I asked, from humans I was told.
But what about my friends I asked, I got no reply.
The Common Myna with her hatchlings Just before losing their home.
Trees that took several decades to grow have been pulled down without qualms of
conscience!
Birds that defended their homes and raised their brood for
over three years lost their once untrammelled homes. Nests, eggs and hatchlings
all destroyed with the swing of an axe while tractors in their vast numbers
leave with freshly cut lush green vegetation. Urbanization spells the proliferation
of the human world and the destruction of the real world that has been in
existence for over 4.5 billion years. Many of my friends are now dead, some of
them lucky to survive but for how long? Where do they go and can they live
amidst this concrete jungle? Within a
span of two months, 30 out of the 51 species of birds have been driven out of
my colony; the friendly ecosystem that once existed now lies in turmoil, the
exemplum of a peaceful world overrun by the brutality of the human race. I was
overwhelmed by an apoplectic attack and my mind was barraged with several emotions
but such ad nauseam actions were rampant everywhere. Humans are a species that
are above all and every living thing on this planet is theirs to control.
The Green Brigade is fighting for them.
But I was not going to stand by and watch the humans massacre
thousands of innocent lives even though they do not belong to the same species.
Their inane actions will cost them dearly with time but as an ad hoc measure, a
group of likeminded residents have come together and formed a phalanx known as
the ‘Green Brigade’, a nature loves club that will work tirelessly to bring
back nature into our lives through the power of education and spreading
awareness amongst the residents. The sacrosanct fetishisms that were once
embedded in our beliefs have now been discarded which is where the danger lies.
Conservation through education seems
like the only way ahead. The Green brigade would serve as a recourse for nature
and her creatures during this time of peril. All one can do is fight for her
and hope that her resiliency brings back all the creatures that were wrongfully
harmed and one day by an incredible stroke of good luck humans and nature can
once again live alongside in harmony .
