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P. Devarajan

ON a Monday morning, a wind blew in from nowhere and brought down the abandoned nests the baya weaver birds had sewed up to the sharp tips of the branches of the tall palm tree adjacent to our housing complex in Borivili.

Tightly knitted, two chamber structures of grass and hay lay at the foot of the palm tree and one picked up three of the less damaged specimens of bird architecture for decorating the front hall. Under protests from wife Rama, the idea was given up and one decided to stick up a single piece in the steel grill of the balcony as a readymade home for the house sparrows.

One was curious to know whether any sparrow would use an old nest of a baya weaver bird which, in the first place, had been given up by the architect in deference to the wishes of his wife. For about three days, a female sparrow squatted on the grill and squeaked through the mornings without making her way into the nest; now she has started hopping into the nest and seems to be checking out on its safety.

The family takes turns to watch her movements in the morning as she tries to make up her mind. None is sure whether the lady bird will ever lay her legs in the custom- made nest. For the house sparrow (Passer domesticus), the nesting season is practically all year, the most favoured months varying with locality, writes Salim Ali. One wanted to check out the experiment with my friend Kishor Rithe, who was in the city last week for a study on environment, but did not as the mind gave the slip. At around 7 in the morning, on a week-day in Mumbai when everyone is busy getting squashed in local trains Kishor and his friend Uday Gaikwad from Kolhapur were discussing the behaviour patterns of the Shikra while one listened. Seemingly, both had spotted the bird, Kishor in Amravati and Uday in Kolhapur, which has the habit of nudging out of its nest the weakling in its brood.

Uday had come across on one of the fallen chicks and placed it in the nest of a Shikra some distance away, where it was fed by its foster mother. "It has something to do with the law of the survival of the fittest," thought Kishor.

The talk drifted to the happenings in the world of wildlife in India and Uday mentioned the new craze for eco-tourism afflicting wildlife officials. In Kolhapur, the municipal administration is bent on turning the famed Rankala Lake with the Shalini Palace Hotel on its banks into a tourist spot with facilities for boating, swimming and food kiosks. "They want to light up the entire Rankala Lake and we have made our opposition clear as it will hurt the lives of a large number of water birds. Rankala Lake and the Palace is unique in Maharashtra. If they persist with their plans, we will opt for direct action, " said a grim faced Uday.

In December 2002, Paul and myself had visited the area and stayed in the quaint but empty Shalini Palace Hotel and did not feel like checking out. At that time Paul had said, "Hope Kolhapur does not become Pune." In a short while, Rankala Lake will have loud tourists from Mumbai and Pune but no winter birds. That brought up the precarious status of the Wild Asiatic Buffalo (Bubalis bubalis). In June 2003, Rishikesh A. Chavan, Kishor Rithe, Ashish Fernandes, Dr Vankehde, Vishal Bansod and Pratap Thakre, did a study of the wild buffalo in Gadchiroli, Sironcha division, Maharashtra and northern boundaries of Andhra Pradesh. Heartless poaching by Gond and Maria tribals, sometimes with guns, has reduced their numbers.

The wild buffalo is the third largest mammal in the sub-continent after the elephant and the rhino, and the study believes "their numbers now remain less than hundred in Central India." Just a day ago, one got an e-mail (sent to all nature lovers) from Imran S. Sidd, referring to the plan of Andhra Pradesh government to build a hydroelectric project which will completely inundate the Itchampalli tiger reserve. The latest issue of Sanctuary says, "... the Union Cabinet took a decision to disband all environmental bodies including the Central Empowered Committee, possibly the only institution (appointed by the Supreme Court, no less) that was effectively defending wildlife from the designs of politicians... "

In a few years from now, all the rivers in India will be linked by dams. The forests and its denizens will go away. The rains will not drop from the skies. There will be no rivers left, not even a fallen leaf of poetry. Only dams will remain. The Earth will belong to us and not them. Amen.

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