The Hindu Business Line : The sound of silent action

CEMENT seats have been put up under rain, copper pod and gulmohur trees lining the roads in and around the housing societies in Borivili, where one stays. They help the public to rest and chat after their long walks. Some of the old men and women have retired. They do not wear wristwatches or ask for the time. For them Time has ceased.

After a chat, the duration of which depends on their mood, they visit the Ganesh temple before going home. They follow the same routine in the evenings. "Going by our scriptures we should be spending time in the forests, Vanaprastham. But the forests — like our saints — have gone, and we have to mark time on cement benches, watching buses and cars roaring by," one overheard an old man tell his old wife. They reminded me of the fine SBI Life TV ad, where an old man presents a ring to his old wife who accepts it reluctantly with a blush.

We have known each other for the last five years and on Diwali day they insisted on coming home to have breakfast with us.

Every time one sees them, one recalls the Jane Goodall story on National Geographic, which is one's favourite. Goodall rears her son in the African forests among wild chimpanzees and adds, "How many are as lucky to walk the forests or beaches." Living with chimpanzees she is surprised (or shocked?) by the affection that a mother chimpanzee shows for her children. Goodall tries to go the animal's way in the African forests.

There is as good a story behind the Hornbill logo of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS). Seemingly, the Society did not have a logo though the mounted antlers of a barasingha appeared on the cover of the Golden Jubilee Commemorative volume. In 1938, the then Honorary Secretary advised (according to the minutes of a March meeting) "that the Journal would attract more attention on the tables of libraries and clubs if there was a coloured illustration on the cover. He had obtained a suitable design for a crest, which featured the Great Indian Hornbill, which had been always associated with the Society and recommended that this crest be printed in colour on the Society's Journal and on the prospectus of the Society. He also proposed that a replica of this crest be used for the Society's stationery."

The Society's links with the hornbill goes back to William, the Great Indian Hornbill, which arrived at the Society as a nestling in 1894 and lived in the Society's rooms till 1920. An essay on William says: "He made a great fuss of his personal appearance and painted his great casque and beak with bright yellow from his vanity box (the oil gland at the root of the tail) and he finished this daily ritual off with a dash of colour carefully placed on each wing. He was then ready to play a game with you. He would catch easily a tennis ball thrown from a distance of seven or eight yards. The long curved beak prevented him from ever drinking anything, but he got all he wanted from the juice of ripe berries and fruit, and this in no way affected his cheery disposition. Cockroaches were to his liking, and a mouse, a snake, or even a large rat he dearly loved, but it was not easy for him to get these as he was hardly ever on the ground. One rat he held in his pickaxe beak for more than an hour before finally crunching it up."

William lived in a cage behind the chair of the Honorary Secretary. This William as the logo of the BNHS will go. He will have to share space with a tree.

Will the change help? As of date the membership of BNHS is just 5,000 and could have been better if the office-bearers looked around; the circulation of Sanctuary, the only wildlife magazine, is much more.

But times are changing at Hornbill House. The BNHS, BirdLife International and Taj Enterprise, Japan, are organising a series of presentations, exhibitions and cultural events in New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai from January 10 to 20, to raise funds for bird conservation, informs Asad R. Rahmani, Director, in a newsletter. BirdLife International, the Royal Society for Protection of Birds and BNHS have completed a 4-year research study and found that India has 465 Important Bird Areas of which 199 are outside the protected areas. The newsletter says the Honorary President of BirdLife International, Her Imperial Highness Princess Takamado, will grace the events, styled "Wings of Love."

The Princess is welcome at the offices of BNHS like any other human being. It does not follow that BNHS has to be a part of a cultural show when it has been mandated to care for the forests, birds and animals. Is there not a quieter way to raise funds?

P. Devarajan

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