Blink issue 35 september27 2014

PRIMATE SPOTTING A community of endangered lion-tailed macaques reveals itself to a waiting camera p12 saturday, september 27, 2014

Creature comforts

rohan chakravarty

In our special issue on birds and beasts , ďŹ nd out how Bharathan the elephant outwits the jackfruit-seller. Step into the world of Rajasthani camel herders as they try to protect their ock from disease and impotency.

Travel to tea estates, and understand why pigs might hate windmills. And arrive at the conclusion that animals are like that only

cover

BL BL 222

saturday, september 27,27, 2014 saturday, september 2014

Keeping upfishy withincamels Something my hilsa The of fish —from be itRajasthan? hilsa or salmon —the from reservoirs is cause for worry Will disappearance camels soon disappear Or will hardy herds beat disease, dwindling grazing lands and troubles in the sack?

G A

rowing up, Sunday was a special day in the calendar. Apart from being allowed to watch TV longer, the point was Rajasthan, the man who arthigh Latada village, Gamnarived at ourram block of flats carrying aluminiRaika waits for thean skies to let um basketup. fullHis of fish, rightcamel after the news for 30-head herd is getthe hearing-impaired on DD. Since ting restive; had theiraired hindquarters digwe vegetarian household, never gingwere intoaslush, faces turned away he from the stopped at our door.by So,mange, I followed to heavy rain.

Afflicted somehim of his neighbours’ houses, Worry listened when he camels are limping. writinlarge on his waxed eloquent about thehis size of the face, Gamnaram surveys herd andpomfret, makes a the freshness of the prawns and pronouncement: “Pickings will the be sterling slim at qualities thesearch odd mackerel thatmahout made its Pushkar.”ofHis for a camel to way intohis theherd basket.

Sometimes, thereTough were manage has also been in vain. crabs I would spend hours, trailing him, as it istoo. to find a good camel handler in these watching deft hands slice throughisthe fish, parts now,his a more pressing problem finding scoop its don’t innards, blood dripping everybrides.out “Girls want to marry camel herwhere.

In the beginning, I wastoo more scared ders anymore.

They find them smelly, just than revolted.

Mysays mother cut vegetables, and like the camels,” Gamnaram, who is hapshe sometimes yams, but I had pilystruggled married but has twowith daughters who are never seen as bloody as fish filleting. coming of anything age.

The man was pastoral not just society sellingof fish, had In the largely thehe Raikas, caught most of them himself. could camel smell goat and sheep herders have You replaced the fish on him,prize his calloused hands toldare of herders as the catch. Their camels many nets cast. fisherman fishedmela in thethis esnot faring anyOur better.

At Pushkar tuary off the coast Bombay, in year, Gamnaram has of to sell off hisbringing male calves, find a robust one for breeding and, if made a good offer, also sell a female one. But ill-fed and prone to disease, his camels might not attract the price he wants. Or worse, his haandiyan (female camels) might not find a mate.

Poor prospects for both his camels and children have kept Gamnaram up for days.

Till a few years ago, Gamnaram’s herd was 60-camel strong. A few decades ago, his family

WILD!

Not a zoo-animal yet The Dromedary camel population is now under four lakh priyanka kotamraju

mostly marine fish. He was always in a hurry, are the ones harvested by the Fisheries Departlest the fish go “bad”. In time, his visits became ment. These men too don’t eat the fish they more infrequent and eventually, they stopped. catch. And, like most reservoir fishermen, catch is ‘State dwindling. fishermen But my obsessions withcamels. fish and allbrother things their owned more than 1,000 His than accorded animal’These status to the camonly heard of fish, they’ve fishy had just begun. years — and Thanaram, who had Fifteen a herd of 60 later till the earlyI have el, acknowledging its sea steep decline.

Thenever State one. am soliciting ideas fortwo my camels third fish tattoo. noughties, has only now, for he caught assembly will also table a bill that seeks to proSometime back documentary, Season In moved Bhopal,on while conducting fieldwork on has to other livestock for nuptial tect the camel likeI saw the acow; ban its slaughter Salmon camel on National Geographic, on fishing policy in the reservoirs of Madhya own Pra- of and financial reasons.

Gamnaram’s andthepromote products such as milk, runs along the Columbia River. At the desh, metfallen fishermen, unlike myhas BombroodI has by half,who, and the camel all salmon dung and hair.

However, several challenges redifficult forofme to reconcile with bay fisherman, cast nets in reservoirs. time, but disappeared fromtheir his village. main it — was disappearance grazing land, prolifidea of thatdisease salmonand die aafter I am They didn’t eat any of the they caught; on- the Once ubiquitous, thefish Dromedary camel eration fall spawning. in male camel ly those thathas werenosedived unsold. They spent sure if I’mAs stillthe fully reconciled to it,a but it population since theentire early not population. decline brings slow wayecology evolution flows — one nights in their boats fishing.

Bringing in in a seems noughties, falling more than 20 per cent changeto tobe thethe desert of Rajasthan, pasway for of another.

Altering catch was as muchcensus abouttoquantity, as it was generation making the last livestock less toral practices the Raikas and a river can entire about die, rigor mortis the course of Rewaris than preserving four lakh. it.

InOnce the fish desert tooalter havean lost theirecosysplace.

— the progressive stiffening that results from tem. Migration represents flow, interdependlandscape of Rajasthan — where nature of life.

Damsin—the by coagulation of muscle protein n Jojawar village, located camel caravans moved freely,— sets in. Fish ence and the cyclical In July, the need be iced as soon as they are brought out being physical barriers disconnect riverfoothillsthat of the Aravallis, the loverstorode them to clandestine government of — often cut off rivers from their of water, ifand they aren’t, they start to smell ine landscapes Maru Raikas have gathered for a meetings notorious highRajasthan accorded fishand from spawning ‘fishy’ andplied soon become inedible. funeral a fewtheir weddings.

They waymen their trade on The fisher- floodplains and ‘State animal’ status last century saw more fishoflosing men Bhopal lamented about bid farewell to one their themof — the decline is as steep as having only grounds. The will to the camel spawning the reservoirs to fish and theinlack of diversi- access to their oldest camel grounds breeders,than and ever will 50 per cent (even 70in per cent ty in the catch. fishermen in the before. For migratory whose also marryfish, off six girlsgenes of the are vilsome parts), as And per arecently, local housemove, dams disrupt thesecured codes Mettur dam inconducted Tamil Nadubytold me about their hardwired tolage for whom they have hold survey Lokof years of evolution. lives — months spent in one reservoir before set up by millions matches.

Opium pipes are lit, hit Pashu-Palak Sansthan (LPPS), In the last two the tide has slowly moving on to next; the only available of camel chaidecades, distributed and pamphlets a collective ofthe camel herders.

Atfish Pushkar me- cups against So far, the largest announcing thedams. twin ceremonies handeddam out. las, which usually attracted thousands of turned is thatthe of red-turbaned the Glines Canyon Distinct from Godwardam, Raithese ungulates, participation has reduced removal nearly 90 years cutbrothers, off the upper rekas likefor Gamnaram and his they are and trade has slumped. The Bactrian camel — which of the Elwha river for migrating salmon. a larger, close-knit community of camel herwith two humps — has already made it to the aches theThe endGodwars of this month, the final phase of the ders. and Marus wear different International Union for Conservation of Na- By removal willpink) be complete.

Already, in turbans (red and and don’t intermarry, ture (IUCN) red list as a critically endangered dam years, salmon have made their way back yet both face the same problem: a rapidly species; it won’t be too long before its cousin, three into the river.

Inpopulation.

India, the hilsa oncea shrinking camel Once was Jojawar, the Dromedary, joins it.

Allahabad and even Delhi — village inofKanpur, around 50 households, owned In July this year, the government of Rajas- caught 1,400km away from the river Ganga’s mouth.

Today, the hilsa stands obstructed at the Farakka Barrage in West Bengal. Hilsa catch continues to decline both in Bangladesh and West Bengal. The hilsa is the subcontinent’s salmon; there was a time it could be caught from every river in the region and even in the Persian Gulf, and in the Tigris and Euphrates.

Eating fish, like catching them, is seldom a solitary act. From spawning to catching to cooking, a fish brings together a veritable sea of humanity. Salmon runs have known to bring bears out of hiding. Hilsa runs bring out the Bengalis. The hilsa’s popularity For migratory fish, is a reminder of its (former) whose genes are abundance. Like the salmon, hardwired to move, the hilsa also faces hurdles. Dedams disrupt the spite its iconic status, especialcodes set up by ly among Bengalis, hilsa runs millions of years of are on the decline. evolution In Mauritania, which has some of the world’s best offthe-coast fishing, the national dish Thieboudienne — made of fish, potatoes and rice — is eaten communally.

In Malawai, locals believe “you haven’t eaten your fish until you have eaten its head”; I’m sure more than a few Bengalis will agree. As fish stocks diminish, so will ways of cooking and eating fish. This is not a premature obituary to dying fish populations, it’s just a reminder that, perhaps, eating fish is not just about eating fish.

In the mean time, I often wonder if my Bombay fisherman can still fish enough to continue being a fisherman.

Q

I

R

Q R

ND-X _ A

School is out Hilsa brought in from Bangladesh is sold at a fish market in Kolkata arunangsu roy chowdhury

ramya swayamprakash studies urban design, but spends her time obsessing about fish-centred worlds

3

BL

cover

saturday, september 27, 2014

Same same, but different (clockwise from left) Gamnaram, a Godwar Raika; elders at Jojawar village; and herders from the Maru Raika community pouring camel milk into an aak leaf cup priyanka kotamraju

13,000 camels. More than 150 Raika families today keep less than 800. Sixty-year-old Jagannath Raika blames it on the lack of grazing land. “Since Kumbhalgarh became a sanctuary, few pastures remain for grazing. Gochar bhumi (common lands) of our villages have also disappeared.” Rajasthan is a peculiar study in the problem of grazing. In the early ’90s, environmentalists believed that overgrazing by livestock had led to a decline in bird and predator populations. Subsequent studies have shown that this is not true. In fact, keeping out livestock directly led to a fall in the bird population at Bharatpur. Despite the evidence, forest departments have continued to keep cattle and camels out. Unsurprisingly, the census has registered negative growth for all livestock animals, except buffaloes.

From diagnosing illness by smelling camel piss to helping them mate, the Raikas’ repository of ungulate knowledge is enviable. “I will recognise my camel even if it has been 20 years since I last saw it,” says a confident Jagannath. While it sounds impressive, identification is made easier by the herd sign. A long, thin line on the left hind leg is the mark of Gamnaram’s camels, a circular design on the neck for Jagannath’s herd. The camels are branded with iron rods before they turn one.

“The Raika-camel relationship is unique,” says Hanwant Singh Rathore, who runs a cam- right time simply by looking at their eyes. Usuel conservation farm and LPPS at Sadri, 20km ally, at the end of monsoons, male camels get from Latada. Set up in 1996, the aggressive. Separated from the collective is a loose association herd, the males act up, stalking of camel breeders and herds. the females wherever they go.

What started with medical help While the males become ill-temIn one breeding for camels in the early ’90s, the pered, the females get friendlier. season, a male camel LPPS is now a full-fledged organiIn one breeding season, a male is expected to sation to restore camel populacamel is expected to ‘service’ at ‘service’ at least tions, market its products and least 50 females. Herders help 50 females sustain pastoral practices. the males mount the females; Even in a herd of nearly 800 the danger of a camel plonking camels, Jagannath knows them on them is ever present, as 60all by name. “Suladh, Bheral, Bhiyear-old Sojaram Raika discovran, Heran…” he prattles on. Camel herds, ered when he broke his arm one season. however large or small, are matrilineal. FeIn the ’90s, the camel population registered male calves are named after their mother — if its first big fall when a disease outbreak resultshe is red, her daughters are called Laali, if ed in many abortions. “But that’s not the case she’s black, they are all called Kaali. In Jagan- anymore; other reasons have replaced that nath’s herd, there are at least 20 Suladhs, 10 problem,” says Rathore. During that time, Bherals, 10 Bhirals, five Laalis, many Kaalis…

Rathore and German veterinarian Ilse KoehThe herders’ expertise also comes in handy ler-Rollefson, who has authored a book on once the breeding season sets in. “The camels camels, travelled for months with herders and need a lot of help to mate,” says Rathore. The their caravans. Armed with medical supplies, herders, claims Jagannath, can divine the they also maintained a roster — of the sexual

Q R

activities of the camels, the successful and notso-successful attempts. Since 2002, when trade in camel meat began, most males started being sold for slaughter, not breeding. A year later at Pushkar, female camels followed suit. “If female camels are disappearing for slaughter, then extinction can be quite fast,” says Koehler-Rollefson, as camels reproduce “very slowly, only one calf in two years.”

For the Raikas, this is an untenable situation. Their relationship with camels goes back several hundred years, they claim. Part of their religious lore, the Raikas regard camel-herding as duty, not a livelihood. Funerals, weddings and household economies are designed around them. And the nomadic Raika enjoys family life for only a quarter of a year; travelling for eight months with his herd in a 50km radius, subsisting on camel milk and stopping by at the Pushkar and Nagaur fairs, where he might realise his yearly income. When asked why they continue to keep camels, the Raika looks at the past for answers. He tells of years marked by severe drought, when their families survived on camel milk for months together, sometimes even an entire year. “Yeh ek jaanwar hai jo sabko paalta hai (this is one animal that takes care of everyone’s needs),” says Jagannath. “During the chappan ka akaal (the drought in 1956), I went for 90 days without food. Anaaj ka mooh nahin dekha maine (I didn’t see any grain at all).” Once in two months, they would chew on green chillies to clean their palates, while their camels lived on air. The hardy animals have seen the Raikas through the worst of times.

Their close relationship, perhaps, explains the community’s initial reluctance to market camel milk. In Jojawar, Amanram pulls out a few aak leaves tucked into his pink turban, twists them into little cups and pours out fresh camel milk. It is sweet, light and pleasant (similar to cow milk, except saltier). Why is camel milk so unpopular then? Dairies don’t stock it and a High Court ruling in 2000 (now overturned) called it unfit for human consumption. “We are partly responsible,” admits Amanram. Earlier, when a demand for camel milk arose from nearby villages, the Raikas did everything to arrest it. They dipped camels’ tails into the milk, contaminating it (which led to a diarrhoea scare). They spread rumours, warning unsuspecting people of frightful afterlives. Now, camel milk finds few takers, despite its documented health benefits for diabetes and autism.

T

he younger Raikas have moved on from camel-herding to more lucrative jobs in Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore. The routes that camel caravans took, skirting the foothills of the Aravallis to the deserts of Pushkar and Jaisalmer, have changed, growing shorter and shorter over the years. The vegetation too has changed — acacia bushes have given way to Prosopsis juliflora, which has now become an environmental threat. Despite the dwindling camel population, collectives have sprung up to preserve pastoral livelihoods.

But, what if the camel were soon to become extinct, much like the gharial or the civet?

How much would the food web change? “They won’t turn into zoo-animals just yet,” says Koehler-Rollefson. “But if it disappears from Rajasthan, the consequences to the food web will be substantial.” The Raika herders, many of whom refuse to keep other livestock, shake their heads in disbelief. That day will never come, their camels will “survive almost anything”. Goats may perish, sheep may die out, even cattle, but not their camels.

priyanka kotamraju

cover

BL BL 204

saturday, september 27,27, 2014 saturday, september 2014

● The biggest eater at the zoo is also its largest inhabitant. At about 2,700kg, a full-grown Asian or Asiatic elephant can wolf down 300kg of green fodder, 150kg of tree fodder, plenty of khichdi and at least two dozen bananas at a time.

Side dishes ● Like any other household, the zoo changes its menu every season — because nothing tastes as good (or is as cheap) in the season it’s traditionally grown in. The bears are not complaining. They can hardly wait for the beets to arrive in the markets this winter. ● There are exceptions to the rule, of course.

Shiva, the 34-year-old celibate rhino who was brought in from Mumbai to spawn a crash of calves, loved his ganna (sugarcane). So much so, that even when there was nary a cane to be spotted last winter, a special team was despatched to procure a bunch from a few farsighted ganne ke juicewaley; all for a king’s ransom, of course. Sadly, Shiva died of cancer earlier this year, so there won’t be no scouting for ganna anymore.

WILD!

Sugar daddy Rhino Shiva loved sugarcane best shiv kumar pushpakar ● A lavish spread was also laid out apparently, for the two ostriches that were rescued from a house in central Delhi three years ago. Plied with everything from almonds to spinach to apples (even in the off season). But the story of the big birds also ended in disappointment for the zoo staff. Just when they had begun to get used to their special status, the family that ‘owned’ the birds won a case in court and took them away. tarsh thekaekara but the ones raised in captivity rarely, if ever, ● Animals that are shifted from elsewhere also attack other animals or humans without prov- need a lot of TLC in the beginning, and food is ocation, and even if they do go for a ‘kill’, they a crucial tool to make them feel at home. The don’t really know how to tear it apart and eat Hoolock gibbons that arrived a couple of weeks ago from Mizoram, for instance, were it like their kin in the wild. ● To aid digestion, meat-eating animals obhosted at the zoo’s hospital and fed water and serve a weekly fast on Fridays. A day when they food at midnight — 10 hours after the kitchen may be at their grumpiest, so the zoo is shut. fires usually die out. The Bengal tiger cub Or wait, is it the other way round? when it first arrived got a steady supply of goat’s milk. Ostriches from Chennai (not relatMain course ed to their rescued friends in Delhi) were ● Onlearnt an average day, 95kg of bananas are weaned away from the(very foodcontropellets Wilson, in his gradually book Sociobiology have that violence and direct confrontabought forpeople the animals. wereargues raised on. tion with does not work in the long they versially) that even human behaviour, ● The haul fish is larger still at 150kg.

As the including emotions like altruism, can be fully term.

He isofcontinuously trying to outsmart skies up and the autumn clouds roll in, explained from the point of evolution. The themclear — using his brain rather than brawn — Dessert Sugar is of to animals narcotics are to huhowever, an additional isbrawn ordered — this despite having infinitely50kg more than his ●majority elephantwhat behavioural scientists the chimpanzees hear of all it. time foradversaries. the zoo’s annual visitors, which in- mans. would But agree that it is hard towon’t fully explain human only two residents of theDarwinism, zoo to get (and clude flock of sassy, long-legged Siberelephant activities through but Howa large can this rather strange behaviour be The a sugar prefer theirs stirred ian cranes. This is where the science gets mur- demand) explained? are still bound by fix, thethey limits of their discipline. ● 250kg, behaviour buffalo meat drunk every morning out of Primatologists in particular, ky.AtAnimal hasmakes tradi- up for the li- into milk. Milk on’s share been (literally too!) of theofdaily victuals. special chimphave mugs, mind you. pushing the tionally the forte been strongly idea of chimpanzees having ‘culbiology, but increasingly there are more diverse explanations ture’ — broadly thought of as the Biologists are at best process of social learning from than pure science can offer. ‘Huunaware of all the peers that is passed on through man geography’ is engaging more and more with human- literature in the social generations. These ideas are have initially animal relationships and ‘ani- sciences, and at worst thought to Stolen pleasurescome sceptical of all of it from Japanese scientists, but mal geographies’. AnthropoloFast and furious A monkey enjoys an ice Asiatic cream after on its daily Frans de Waal’s books chimps gists have been discussing thelions skip lunch once a week on Fridays dose of kheer are now the leading works in this ways in which indigenous peovv krishnan vv krishnan ple across the world interact area of study. ● Store Veena Chandra, the first ● The monkeys, however, are allergic to sugar. with andin-charge, think about animals. woman to man the post,view supervises the delividea of agency dessert is sugar-free kheer ; the Traditional biologists the animals they Their Animals with sweetness of in milk is enough to start ery and of vegetables, fruits and natural Geography’s interest animals started with study asdistribution objects, where all their actions feuds. Served the monsoons in the large saddles of meat.

Sometimes she also family understanding howthrough species were distributed behaviour can be explained

by Darwinian of the bread, which tendswith to attract oversees the slaughtering of like freshevolution, chicken. lieu ideas, triggered by processes across earth’s surface, a morefungus, recent interloping crows join the literature melee. Forexa Chandra is a vegetarian. rise in the ‘human geography’ fitness, stimulus from their environment and even ● No meatinstinct. or poultry leaves a free lunchhow is a sweet lunch. a survival They shunthe thestore idea until of ‘culamining animals shape human culture. certificate of quality everypartly morning ture’ playing a role is in issued behaviour, be- Over the last decade, a growing group of rebanerjee by veterinary Dr NisPanneerselvam. searchers calling themselves ‘more than hucause ‘culture’officer in itself hard to define. EO soity

Lunch at the zoo What’s on the menu at the Delhi zoo this season?

More brain than brawn

Appetisers ● Twelve-odd people cook and serve over 1,500 animals at the Delhi zoo. ● The total spend on rations per month is anywhere between ₹25 and ₹30 lakh — a sum that can buy up to 12 Maruti Altos or 75,000 entry tickets to the zoo (₹40 for adults). ● All animals eat but once a day.

Bharathan, the elephant, has learnt to outsmart humans. Ideas of ‘culture’ rather than Darwinian evolution help explain this confounding elephant behaviour

WILD! Animal digest Sloth bears like beets (and alliteration, perhaps) shanker chakravarty; and (top) migratory Siberian cranes find a picturesque perch at the zoo, with the historic Purana Qila as a backdrop shiv kumar

pushpakar

ND-X _ A

Entrée ● Tree fodder, green fodder, vegetables, fruits, fish, beef,harathan chicken and make up the basis achicks ‘makhna’, a tuskless ket of supplies, arrivingand bright early ceat male elephant, a bitand of a local 6.00am. lebrity Most animals also fedaasmall concenaround are Thorapally, viltrate or alage kindalong of khichdi made of wheat bran, the Mysore-Ooty highway, germinated Bengal barley, oats, mace, right at the edge of gram, the Mudumalai Tiger Regroundnut oil Nadu. cake, He turmeric and crucially, serve in Tamil is enormous and insalt.

They arebut a discerning lot, after all. smarts, timidating, he’s also known for his ● Distribution is staggered in four lots, and is quickly learning to coexist with thestartpeoing at 9.00am ending at 2.00pm.

The pelple he comes inand contact with.

He comes out of icans (in flight) arenight the chief town this the reserve every to try andcriers get food season.

They the arrival of theinsunfrom near theannounce village. He hides quietly the shine truck long before bushesyellow waitingdelivery for the jackfruit-seller to takeita starts its slow march around 176-acre zoo. pee-break before raiding his the stock, and tolerates a large number of tourists in close proximity — one even pulled his tail to try to get some ‘action’ out of him. When the forest department dug an ‘elephant-proof trench’ to keep him inside the reserve, he took to using the highway — scaring away the guard and Loudthe and check clear post. carefully stepping around Pelicans the When the locals gathered to tryannounce and prevent the delivery him from getting acrossarrival the of check post, he truck sandeep saxena went as far as to enlist the help of another ele● For the big cats, food isacted placed a designatphant!

While the friend as at a decoy to died and cages rattled twice thrice — vertspot attention, he are quietly made hisor way up to think Pavlov’s chasers, bell — before they pounce the elephant trumpeted loudly on to lunch.

Caretakers who putquickly the food their scare them off, and then gotonacross. plates get aincredible risk allowance — just in case.

The tiThe most thread running through gers may be getting a lotBharathan of bad press lately, all the anecdotes is that seems to

B

Q R

5

BL

cover

saturday, september 27, 2014

Mammoth glories Elephants are self-aware and even respond to the mirror test. Orphaned elephants (above) play at the Nairobi National Park afp/simon maina; (below) mahouts return with their elephants and calves in Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal pti

man geographers’, have started viewing animals not just as objects, but as subjects, with their own experiences, feelings, beliefs etc. They believe animals have ‘agency’, where they make decisions based on thought and other cognitive processes.

Anthropologists also have some scintillating insights on what it means to ‘live with’ animals from an indigenous cultural perspective, given that these communities have been living relatively peacefully alongside animals for centuries. Hunter-gatherer communities’ ideas of animism are important in this, where animals, non-living beings (a stone, the sun, our ancestors) and natural phenomena (thunder or wind) are all thought to be ‘other than human persons’. Nurit Bird-David has written extensively about the Kattunayakans (a hunter-gatherer tribe) in the Nilgiris and their relationship with nature, with some fascinating

kill people, they invariably stand over them and try to cover them with leaves or mud, and are visibly distressed at what they have done.

They are also the only other species known to have rituals around death, where the herd gathers around a deceased animal, covers it with leaves and guards it against predators.

People living alongside wild elephants brim with stories about their intelligence. A herd of nine elephants between Gudalur and Ooty comes to mind. They walked along an electric fence surrounding a house for about 50 meters till they found the one fence post where the electrified wires had mistakenly been secured to the inside of the post. They neatly knocked over the post, and carefully stepped between the wires and crossed over.

They walked around the house, between flower pots, bending under a low-hanging roof, passing by large glass windows and even walked up and reversed back down a narrow stepped passage leading up to the kitchen.

They then quietly went back the way they had come, over the fence and back into the hills.

They did not eat anything — not the flowers, nor the young mango and dadap saplings, not even a clump of yellow bamboo — all elephant delicacies. The only evidence they left behind were the pile of dung and a knocked over broom near the kitchen. Everyone was intrigued by the strange behaviour, and the only feasible explanation was that they were exploring the new surroundings — making a mental map of the house that was now a part descriptions of encounters with elephants. of their new home range.

They clearly think of elephants as ‘non-human Conserving these amazingly intelligent anipersons’ and see each animal as an individual, mals in a crowded country like India is going some ‘good,’ some ‘bad’. They believe that mu- to be challenging. Only 22 per cent of the eletual respect between them and the elephants phant’s range is officially under ‘protected arallows them to coexist. She describes some eas’, and they come into contact with humans members of the community even talking to almost everywhere. And it’s not just about elewild elephants, persuading them not to dam- phants. The ability of large wild animals and age their houses or attack people. people to share space is arguably going to be Biologists are at best unaware of all this lit- one of the biggest conservation challenges of erature in the social sciences, and at worst the future. Across much of the developed sceptical of all of it. This despite the fact that world, numerous ‘rewilding’ projects are unthey are at the forefront of decision-making in der way to bring back a suite of locally extinct the field of wildlife conservation — which animals or other similar animals to the same clearly involves both humans and wildlife. ecological niche. While most of these projects Biologists and ethologists are experimental and restricted (those who study the behawithin fenced off regions, some viours of animals in the wild) large and dangerous mammals, continue to document instancincluding wolves and bears, are Elephant brains are es of animal intelligence, resomaking significant ‘comebacks’ comparable to ours in with populations increasing and lutely independent of the social terms of structure sciences’ interpretation of it. ranges expanding across Europe and complexity Elephants are one of the and North America, putting them most intelligent species after in direct contact with humans. humans, and have been the People and wildlife already live in subject of numerous cognitive close proximity and at very high tests. Their brains are comparable to ours in densities across much of South and Southeast terms of structure and complexity, with the Asia. And Africa, which David Attenborough cortex having as many neurons. They are able presents as ‘the world’s greatest wilderness’, is to use tools, learn quickly and cooperate with perhaps, only now beginning to see a signifieach other in complex tasks. They are one of cant human population expansion. the few animals that are self-aware and reThe only response from the conservation spond to the mirror test, where they recognise fraternity seems to be burgeoning literature themselves in the mirror rather than think it on the ‘human-wildlife conflict’, based on the is another animal. assumption that people and wild animals are They are even able to do basic arithmetic be- inherently incompatible. The protected area yond what any other non-human species are approach separating humans and nature has capable of. They have also been observed to be perhaps been useful for conservation in the altruistic, where they act in ways that benefit past. But with barely 5 per cent of India ‘proother animals, but not themselves. tected’, we need to take a more holistic view. A A ‘rogue’ tusker in central India recently more nuanced and interdisciplinary underknocked down a house, but when it heard a standing of animals, and elephants in particubaby crying it stopped its rampage, and care- lar in an Indian context, is essential for fully cleared the debris around the baby. A do- successful conservation. While we in India mestic elephant that was working to plant have imbibed lessons from the global consertimber posts into holes that had been dug into vation movement, we can also give back a lot, the ground refused to put the post into one of and show how it is possible to live with nature, the holes, despite its mahout’s goading. When even with large and wild animals. the mahout looked, he found a dog sleeping in the hole, and the elephant clearly did not tarsh thekaekara is a biodiversity conservationist want to kill it. When elephants accidentally and researcher working with The Shola Trust

Q R

cover

BL BL 186

saturday, september 27,27, 2014 saturday, september 2014

Victoria’s glamour Tended to with love, care and chickpeas, the horses at Kolkata’s Victoria Memorial are the pride of their owners and, grudgingly, of the city

WILD!

Neigh to the naysayers The horse carriages of Kolkata might offend the olfactory senses but they date back to the time of kings and queens shreevatsa nevatia

F

ND-X _ A

or phaeton owners in Kolkata, the Mayans had nearly proved prescient.

The year 2012 was almost apocalyptic.

Morning walkers were offended by the dung of their horses. They weren’t alone.

During one of her secret evening walks near Victoria Memorial, the West Bengal chief minister too had her olfactory receptors assaulted.

Pat came Mamatadi’s order — “Ban these carriages at once.” There were allegations of lathicharge and whispers of hushed negotiations.

The police finally softened and some new rules were enforced. “We now park here only after 11am,” says Mohammad Adil, a carriage driver. “If we know that Didi is in the area, we make sure that we stand at attention with our carriages. Nobody moves at that point of time.” The back of Adil’s phaeton even has a Mamata Banerjee poster. “She looks after us and Trinamool looks after our union,” he says, with a smile.

Of the 32 phaetons that park outside the Victoria Memorial every week, 22 are now believed to have valid licenses. Together with the single colts and mares, which provide customers a feel of the horseback, carriages account for the 80-odd horses in Kolkata’s Queen’s Way area. Many owners here believe that the process of nomenclature does more than just demonstrate their affection towards a horse; it also gives the animal an identity. A white mare, for instance, is lovingly called Gudiya — “Just look at her eyes. It’s like looking at a doll,” says her owner Sunny. The speed of a young agile steed has earned him the moniker Rocket, while a black stallion has unfortunately had to surrender to the bounty of his skin colour — Kaalu. Feeding his two horses, Biscuit and Badal, Adil explains, “Biscuit because you can hear the crunch on the gravel when he races and Badal because he is like a white cloud.”

Like many of his compatriots, eight-year-

old Biscuit was bought from the Sonepur cat- was commonly believed that when a phaeton tle fair for ₹40,000, but Badal, now 12, was pur- pulled up with sickly horses, the master had chased for the princely sum of ₹70,000 from squandered much of his zamindari wealth. AcVaranasi. “Badal was the first horse my brother cording to Debasis Chakraberti of the Combought. He is everyone’s favourite,” says Adil. passionate Crusaders Trust, a charitable Claiming that his family has now been in the organisation dedicated to animal welfare, phaeton trade for over half-a-century, the 22- none of today’s carriage owners can afford to year-old describes the daily itinerary of his be so reckless. “ Many of these carriage horses horses with meticulous precision. are used for weddings and religious procesFor breakfast, they are fed a mixture of chaff sions. They bring in a fair sum of money. If and chickpeas with some water and grass as they didn’t look healthy and well-fed, no brisupplements. They are then bathed with spe- degroom will agree to ride them on his special cialised scrubs and brushes. With morning day,” he says. ablutions completed, they are finally brought Chakraberti adds that during the years he to the city’s Maidan. “Since the walk heats up personally tended to stray horses near Victotheir bodies, we wait for a while ria, he found that many of the before giving them grass again.” phaetons used discarded race Sanju, owner of two phaetons, steeds. “Most of these are of a stands nearby, inspecting the apgood breed. They wouldn’t surIf we know that Didi is plication of Savlon on one of his vive if they aren’t well-nourin the area, we make horse’s wounds. “Do you have ished.” For the past 18 years, sure that we stand at children of your own?” he asks.

Mohammad Sattar has been masattention with our “If you did, you’d know. We take saging his employer’s eight carriages care of our horses the way one horses, polishing their skin and takes care of his or her children.” tending to their every need. “If Surprisingly, it is easy for Sanju these horses were in the wild, to substitute his analogy of they’d be eaten in no time. With offspring with one of cars. He says that even us, they are fed and looked after. Even though though he has two carriages, he makes sure he they are animals, I feel in sync with them. has six horses. “We all need a stepney from Without them, we’d have no food to give our time to time,” he says. With only October to families.” Sattar interrupts his reverie to gaze February being profitable months, it would be at Victoria Memorial. “No one needs us anyhard to look after a herd of horses, but 29-year- more, but it is because of the blessings of my old Sanju says he earns enough to make ends Mallika Rani (Queen Victoria) that we’re here meet. “Fifteen years ago, I gave up education today. Horses have been around since the time for horses. So what if they each cost me ₹500 a of kings and queens. We’re continuing that day? In the end, they also pay me more.” tradition.” Convinced that his carriages aren’t Immortalised in several Bengali period dra- going to be sent anywhere, Sattar concludes, mas such as Kartik Chattopadhyay’s Sahib Bibi “If Victoria Memorial gives Kolkata pride, we Golam (1956) and Tapan Sinha’s Atithi (1966), give the Victoria some of its glamour.” the phaeton was Kolkata’s favoured mode of transport through much of the 19th century. It shreevatsa nevatia is a Kolkata-based writer

Q R

7

BL

cover

saturday, september 27, 2014

On time is a wonderful thing A red-whiskered bulbul is often a natural alarm clock k murali kumar

WILD!

We are like that only From courting to mating, politics to territorial wars, humans and animals have more in common than you’d think

E

ver watched Indian and Pakistani border guards greet each other as they close and open the gates at Wagah every day? Decked up, they strut their stuff belligerently, each side trying to outdo the other — now watch gentlemen birds of paradise court their ladies. And it’s not just us. Check out the ceremonial uniforms world over, what with their helmets and tassels, and cummerbunds and ropes of gold braid, and shiny boots. This sort of macho military puffery and aggression happens everywhere. Because we are all like that only... Just like the animals, birds, reptiles, fishes and creepy crawlies around us.

One of the hallmarks of good ‘executive’ practice is being on time or punctuality (alas, a concept still too advanced for most Indians to grasp), and making the best of your time.

Well, I’m woken up promptly at dawn everyday by the red-whiskered bulbul, which ‘puts up’ in the bougainvillea creeper outside my bedroom window. His alarm is set for sunrise, thereby, making the most of the daylight hours. In summer, he wakes as early as 4.45am; in winter, he lets me sleep till 7.30.

Every time a flight touches down or takes off on time, I marvel. And then I think of all those migratory birds which — without the benefit of GPS, ATCs, a thousand satellites spinning around, and all the hugely expensive bundobast — land on the same tiny water body virtually on the same day every year, after flying more than 8,000km. Our ancient mariners navigated by the sun and moon and stars; those damn dung beetles were doing that long before that, let alone butterflies and moths and birds. I’m not sure what salmon and turtles use, but they get back to the very same rivers where they were spawned or the beaches they scuttled away from as babies, after roaming the oceans.

Now take romance and love, and marriage and family. Some of us are monogamous, some bigamous, some just believe in scattering wild oats far and wide and breaking hearts, others keep harems, many get a divorce, some of us have joint families, some nuclear ones, and some are single parents. The animals had all of this covered long before us:

sarus cranes are revered for their fidelity, economies often have large families for the vethough most birds, sensibly, take a new part- ry same reason.) Creepy crawlies, of course, ner every breeding season. Some like the rak- have the most enviable family life by modern ish sparrows and baya weavers have roving standards. They meet, they court, the gentleeyes, and may be adulterous or bigamous. Bur- man may bring gifts (even birds do this), they rowing owls believe in free love (they do live in may dance, the gentleman may get eaten durCalifornia after all), stags, wild bovines, si- ing the course of the honeymoon and the lady mians and sea lions try and run harems along burps delicately, lays her eggs and flies away fundamentalist lines. Males battle over fe- into the wide blue yonder. And now, we too are males, who make all the decisions and do all becoming like that only. the criticising. And we are like that only too.

And there’s always politics: ants run totaliMany wise animal families are matriarchal: tarian regimes that would put North Korea to elephants and lions, for example, where the shame; bees, wasps and ants slave tirelessly all macho dude is only allowed in when the la- their lives, go to war even, for the Great Leader, dies deem fit. Of course, he’ll throw his weight the Queen Bee. Alpha male macaques may be around and snort and stomp, but all hard de- built like bouncers, but they still have to kiss cisions are made by the ladies. Some, like the the babies to curry favour with the powerful painted-snipe go a step further: sorority of high-ranking females the lady is the one all dressed to if they want to remain in power. the nines and makes her husWild bovines allow birds to pick band — pale and etiolated by off the ticks on their hides, which comparison — sit on the eggs is just one of many bilateral Girls apart, it’s all while she goes a-philandering! about territory. Every (trade) agreements species have As for family life, in animal signed between themselves. Liliving creature — communities single-parent famonesses set up Machiavellian amhuman, animal, bird, ilies are the norm, with the bushes for their victims, in insect, fish, bacteria mom bringing up the brats by perfect synchrony with each oth— fights over turf herself. Many canines, however, er. The animals play politics like (and parking space) believe in sharing the work, with we do — only, not as dirtily. both mom and dad looking after Girls apart, it’s all about territhe brats. Once the pups hit tory. Every living creature — huadulthood — they, especially the man, animal, bird, insect, fish, raja betas — are shown the door. Daughters bacteria — fights over turf (and parking may be allowed to stay longer to help look af- space). We humans add illegal encroachments ter subsequent siblings. And some, like the to our properties. We accuse the neighbours hyenas, have extended families. Meerkats live of doing the same. We draw boundaries bein communes, and flamingoes run day-care tween countries, put up walls and barbed wire crèches, which sometimes turn into unruly fences, and go to war if someone puts a foot gangs. Elephant babies are looked after by wrong — just like them. Chimpanzees conduct their moms, sisters and aunts. And now there border raids on their neighbours. God forbid are reported cases from Ranthambore of tiger you enter the territory of a tiger boss. And I’ve dads becoming tiger ‘moms’. As I said, we are, actually been buzzed by a dragonfly for inhopefully, becoming like that only too. fringing on its airspace! Approach a beehive Even reptiles look after their broods — crocs beyond the Line of Control and… will guard their eggs and be gentle with their So the next time you visit the zoo and watch babies until they can fend for themselves. Tur- young men jump up and down and make tles alas, just lay their eggs and scuttle back in- faces and hoot in front of the monkeys’ cages, to the sea — but they make enough babies to you’ll know it’s because we are like that only. ensure at least one in a thousand lives to be a 100. (And, sad but true, people in undeveloped ranjit lal is an author and environmentalist

Q R

cover

BL BL 16 8

saturday, september 27,27, 2014 saturday, september 2014

Bird-women of India Making a pig’s ear of it

Once assumed to be the preserve of men alone, ornithology in our country has always had The anguish and hostility towards the ‘invading pigs’ were a metaphor for the villagers’ a small, yet significant number of champions who happened to be women unhappiness over their trampled efforts

WILD! WILD!

R

ocks protruded dramatically out of the hillside. Weathered and evenly grooved, they looked like petrified wood. I recognised neem and Indian mulberry trees dotting the landscape. Down in the valley, a linear grove of verdant date palms marked an unseen water course. Tussocks of grass with tall seed heads brushed against my salwar. Head bent, I was engrossed in identifying plants and on the lookout for mammal droppings as I found my way up the hillside. The expanse of forest was so vast, I couldn’t gauge distances, nor could I estimate the height of distant trees. This is one of the largest restoration sites in India: the Timbaktu Collective-promoted Kalpavalli forest in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur District.

Siddharth Rao, the resident ecologist, had just pointed out a blackbuck latrine site. These graceful antelopes habitually visit the same spot to drop their black, oval pellets. Wolves, jackals, leopards, foxes and sloth bears also call this place home, and I was keen to find some evidence of their presence. The constant, distant hum of airplanes overhead rnithology birdwatching had made me think even this or remote area was untraditionally been a male preserve, der an air corridor.

Absent-mindedly, I worldwide certainly in looked up atboth the blue sky and and realised India.

But there were a handful of there were no airplanes.

The sound brave women who broke came from the gigantic bladesthat of nu-mould and emerged as significant players in in their own merous windmills slowly turning right.

The British, who ruled us for many years, the golden evening light.

I had werethem passionate birders, and they are comseen on arrival but forgotmemorated the names of birds they either ten them as I in focused on plants discovered and creatures.or named. Even amateur Indian birders are Iwell acquainted The more wandered alongwith the names like Hume, Swinhoe, Tickell, hill slope,Blanford, the more I realised the Hodgson and Jerdon.was an unsung conservarestoration my study Indian ornithological histotionIneffort.

Folksoffrom eight villages ry, the first woman birder was Lahad slogged to restore 7,500I came acresacross of dy Elizabeth Gwillim (1763-1807), wife of Sir Henry Gwillim, a Madras High Court judge.

She painted a series of 121 watercolours of Indian birds that are now housed in the BlackerWood Library at Canada’s McGill University.

Lady Gwillim died of unknown causes and is buried at the St Mary’s Church in Chennai.

But perhaps, the most significant contribution to avian studies in the subcontinent was made by Lady Mary Impey (1749-1818), wife of Sir Elijah Impey, the chief justice of Bengal and a well-known patron of local art and music. As soon as the Impeys arrived in India, they set up a menagerie in their house in Calcutta’s Middleton Row, and starting in 1777, commissioned several local artists to come and paint the fauna and flora they had collected. Their collection is an important example of what is called the Company School of paintings. With the decline of the Mughal courts, the artists sought the patronage of Europeans who had come to India to seek their fortunes. These painters had to change their traditional techniques to suit their new masters. These revisions included a more accurate representation of the subject, change in perspectives and the use of shading. Watercolours (rather than gouache) and pencil drawing or sepia wash on imported European Whatman paper was most common.

Lady Impey also kept extensive notes about the habitat and behaviour of animals and

O

Wasteland no more The unsung conservation effort that is the Timbaktu Collective’s Kalpavalli forest janaki lenin

ND-X _ A

completely denuded pasture land that’s com- Sari to the rescue monly dismissed as wasteland. I just had to A couple of years ago, I received an email from see the barren, rocky hills outside the Kalpa- Timbaktu asking how to keep pigs away from valli area to know what the villagers had crops. I shared the wisdom of farmers in other achieved. They planted seeds, protected sa- parts of South Asia: the crackling noise of clusplings from livestock, created fire lines, built ters of magnetic tape tied to the fence, and check dams, dug trenches and put out fires cordoning fields with old saris and fishing day and night. Not a mean feat in the coun- nets were said to scare away pigs. If none of try’s second-driest area, where summer tem- these worked, I jokingly offered to share a peratures can sear the pale of skin and heart. If good pork recipe. the meagre rainfall failed, drought was cerI didn’t know how the farmers had fared. tain. Even after 20 years of hard When the opportunity arose, I work, the hill slopes were only headed to Anantapur District to lightly wooded. If the annual see for myself. I wondered if the rainfall was higher or had the restoration had a role to play in They planted seeds, topsoil remained intact, the outthe villagers’ wild pig problems. I protected saplings Brush with avian colours come would have been a thick followed Rao up the hill, lost in from livestock, built (clockwise from left) Lord and Lady Impey green canopy. my thoughts. with Wheat-brown their children in a blackbuck painting by Johann check dams, and The villagers went through doe Zofanny; a portrait of Lady Gould; and a put out fires day this punishing regimen of creand fawns eyed us suspiciously sarus crane from Lady Impey’s collection and night ation and protection for a very before over the courtesy bikramdisappearing grewal good reason. They could harvest rise. Moments later, a lone, scrufgrass to thatch their roofs and fy wild boar raced away in alarm. make brooms, lop leaves for After nightfall, we walked their livestock and gather dead down to the stream. Fish darted wo Indian also playedonanthe imporbirds, which were great use later biolo- underwater, branches forof firewood.

Fortothe poorest frogswomen hung suspended watant role the country’s ornithological gists. Her three principal were Sheikh people, thisartists improved their ter surface, andinclots of algae moved slowly history: JamalWater Ara and Usha even Ganguly.

Ara was Zain al-Din, and the brothersofBhawani and downstream. standard living. Das Their flowed though it the wife of anin Indian forest officerWe from Bihar, Ram Das. Collectively, they labour made over 300 hadn’t collective benefitrained several months. walked and in 1970, published a book called wary Watching paintings. Sir ElijahedImpey waspoor later farmers implicat- through rich and the dense thickets of palms, of BirdsIf with the National Trustthey under the ed and disgraced inalike. whatEven was known as the pigs. the groundwe snuck too closeBook to them, could NehruThe Baleyes Pustakalya Series the plates ‘Raja Nuncoomar’ case afterhas which was rewater risenhefrom a attack. of a civet and where jackal reflected were made JP torches.

Irani. It was so successful it called to England. The collection wastodisdepth of 100 feet a the light fromby our into several regional persed to several museums and private was mere 18 feet.

A seasonThetranslated next morning, we were back languagin the es. Herdriving contemporary, Ganguly was the collections in an auction al in 1810. stream turned plains, down theUsha highway.

Colourful of the then in vice chancellor perennial, feed- clothes tied towife fences flapped the breeze. ritain’s John Gould ing and of forests the Delhi and a into the 400- Even though the were University a few kilometres American John Jones Auduleading member of the thriving acre, 500-year- away, every lush field had a low platform with bon are considered the greatest Bird Club.

In 1975, Ganguly old Mushtikoa tarpaulin-lined roof.

These machans were a Gould’s work became Delhi bird painters the world has ever published A Guide to the crops.

Birds of vila tank.more refined surewhen sign of sleepless farmers guarding produced. But few are aware of the Delhi Area, a book that continshe honed her craft Gould’s long-suffering wife Eliza- under the nonsensical ued to be the birding bible of the beth. When Gould was planning region till it was replaced by Atpoet Edward Lear, to produce A Century of Birds from las of the Birds of Delhi and Haryawho was himself the Himalaya Mountains, he enna in 2006. a renowned bird couraged his wife to learn the More recently, Carol Inskipp, painter new printing method of lithogalong with her husband Tim, raphy. She used her husband’s and Richard Grimmett, prosketches and produced several duced the first modern guide to works on Indian hill birds. These Indian birds — Birds of the Indian were rather stiff, but her work became more Subcontinent. Till date, it remains the highestrefined later when she honed her craft under selling bird guide to India. Inskipp has also the nonsensical poet Edward Lear, who was worked in Bhutan and Nepal. himself a renowned bird painter. Elizabeth The publication of another book, the twoproduced more than 600 lithographic plates, volume Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide by raised their six surviving children and circum- American ornithologist Pamela C Rasmussen navigated the world. Together the Goulds in 2005 also proved to be crucial to the timeformed an extraordinary team. But Elizabeth line of avian studies. Now in its second edidied early leaving her husband bereft. Despite tion, the brilliantly researched guide is her wonderful work on Indian birds, she never significant for its taxonomic approach, leadvisited the country and worked from speci- ing to a number of species-level splits. mens sent all the way to England.

From Impey to Gould, Ganguly to Inskipp, Another remarkable lady was Margaret the intrepid bird-women of India, have been Bushby Lascelles Cockburn (1829-1928), both for long a source of inspiration. So much so an amateur ornithologist and artist, who lived that India has now thrown up several women in the Nilgiris. Born in Salem to a civil servant researchers who are doing sterling work in father, she made some brilliant drawings of this field. A tradition, one hopes, will remain the local flora and fauna. In 2002, the Natural as vivid and bright as the colours of Lady ImHistory Museum produced her work as a won- pey’s sarus crane. derful diary. Little is known about her, other than the fact that she spent most of her life in bikram grewal is a conservationist and author of several books on Indian birds Kotagiri and she’s buried at the local church.

Q R

T

B

Q R

9

BL

cover

saturday, september 27, 2014

I asked Akulappa, one of the key people in the Kalpavalli project who grew up in the area, if the problem of wild boars was related to forest restoration. He answered thoughtfully, “There were no wild boars before. The first time I heard of one was in 1990 or 1991 when villagers from Nyamaddala killed one. Now pigs are everywhere. Not only wild boar, but also leopards, jackals, everything. This area was infamous for factionalism. In 1986, when NTR [Rama Rao] was the chief minister, he seized all firearms. Maybe that’s why all these animals came back five to six years later.”

Limited access Wild pigs are not as welcome as people at Timbaktu; and (above) blackbuck doe and fawns janaki lenin

Trouble in the air The restoration project began only in 1992 and, according to Akulappa, pigs had already started making a comeback. Could it be that the lack of hunting more than the creation of a forest caused wild boar to surge in numbers?

Akulappa continued, “People say the forest provided shelter and that’s why these animals came. That’s not true. These animals don’t need habitat as much as we think. They are adaptable; they can live under rocks and thorny shrubs. Even newspapers say crops failed because of wild boar. Come, let’s go to

that village and show me where the forest is.

Neelakant cultivated 130 acres for the TimThere are no forests, it’s all agricultural land, baktu Kutumbham Trust. Even if pigs didn’t and there’s still a problem of wild boar. So like the crop, they rooted around and dedon’t say growing trees brings wild boar. They stroyed the plants. He picked up hair clipdon’t need forests to destroy your crop. They pings from barber shops and spread them on are everywhere.” his fields. “It worked well in the dry season.

I quizzed farmers about their relationship When the pigs sniffed the ground, the hair enwith the forest, and they revealed a whole oth- tered their nostrils and irritated them. They er dimension of the problem. don’t like that. When the rains came, it didn’t Nagaraju, one of the directors of Kalpavalli work anymore.”

Tree Growers’ Cooperative and a groundnut He continued, “I also tried old saris, gunny farmer from Kogira, said he sacks, plastic bags, plastic dolls.... faced severe problems from On the first day they won’t come. pigs. He claimed the increase in The second day, they listen and forest had brought a greater diwait. If it makes the same noise, versity of birds that ate a lot of How many nights can they’ll approach cautiously, and crop pests. Forests didn’t create then they lose all fear. Even magI stay awake? the pig problem, but windmills netic tape works for one day, but During the day, my did. I was taken aback and the next day it doesn’t. Same with wife and I take our looked at him quizzically, wonfirecrackers.” sheep grazing dering if I had heard right. He exI burrowed into details: how plained that the whine of the much of the crop was lost, which wind turbines and disturbance crops suffered less damage, and caused by maintenance crews did pigs eat crops in a particular driving up and down have chased the wild season. It was several minutes before I realised boar away from forests and into the plains. pigs were a metaphor for the villagers’ unhapWindmills also blew away rain clouds and piness with the windmill companies. sucked groundwater dry. The only thing that While wind energy is celebrated as a suscould protect crops was a high wall, he said, tainable source of power, a green energy, here but he couldn’t afford it. in Anantapur, wind farms have come at a cost Ramanjanaiyya from Kambalapalli grew to the community forest. Wind power compagroundnuts and lentils, and pigs made a mer- nies hacked wide roads around hillsides, dery meal of them. He had tried tying saris stroying the trenches villagers built to arrest around the fence but that didn’t work. He and the flow of rainwater and toppling two-dechis wife took turns walking around the fields, ade-old trees. Since retaining walls haven’t yelling and beating a drum all night long. He been built, boulders and loose soil sit precarisaid the moment he sat down for a rest, they ously. The 10- to 14-feet embankments are too muscled their way through the fence. “How high for livestock to scramble up. Villagers are many nights can I stay awake? During the day, forced to drive animals in circuitous paths to my wife and I take our sheep grazing. At night, their destinations. The companies also flatone of us guards the animals at home, while tened peaks of hillocks to install windmills. the other watches the crops,” said RamanjaBut one incident upset villagers more than naiyya. He also blamed the windmills for his any other. Farmers in the area donate cattle to wild boar woes. the Guttur Gopalaswamy temple deep in the forest. This herd of holy Hallikar cattle, an inThe emboldened invader digenous breed, grazes in the restored forest.

Chinna Narasimha, of the same village, said Soon after the windmill construction, about the pigs were bold. “Even if I stand right next 100 cattle died. They had eaten the plastic careto them and shine a light on their faces, they lessly discarded by the construction workers. still try to enter the fields.” While pigs ate anyBy trampling villagers’ efforts, the wind thing, blackbuck preferred lentils. The wind- farms have unleashed the pigs of conflict. mills were the reason he lost almost half his crop to pigs, he complained. Only a deep wide janaki lenin writes on wildlife and conservation.

Her last book was My Husband and Other Animals trench would stop the pigs, he said.

Q R

cover

saturday, september 27, 2014

BL

14 10

It’s the animal instinct Investment banker Hemendra Kothari brings to the task of wildlife conservation the very skills he deploys in managing assets worth ₹33,000 crore for his clients

WILD! WILD!

I

t’s usually a vacation in Paris or Switzerland for most investment bankers, but Hemendra Kothari, founder of DSP group, invariably headed to forests and wildlife sanctuaries whenever he wanted a break from deal-making. Twice a year, he sought the company of tigers and leopards even at the height of his investment banking career. Today, he is applying investment banking principles to promote and protect wildlife across India through the Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT).

“Although the two (wildlife and investment banking) are different, my experience in setting up and running an organisation (DSP Group) helped inject corporate culture into an NGO,” says the chairman of DSP Blackrock India, a leading mutual fund that manages assets worth over ₹33,000 crore.

“The increase in the cases of poaching around the early years of this century was a big trigger,” says the 67-year-old businessman, explaining the need for businesslike efficiency in wildlife protection.

“Corporates face shortage of labour in reWhile forest conservation is one aspect of tail, fabrication and other businesses, while WCT’s efforts, anti-poaching is another. Since people in and around forest areas don’t have 2013, at more than 1,600 anti-poaching camps jobs. We bridge this gap by bringing them to- in over 60 protected areas, the WCT has gether and, in turn, reduce dependence on equipped frontline forest staff with gear rangforests,” says Kothari, whose great grandfa- ing from shoes and utensils to solar lighting ther was one of the founders of the Bombay and naturally insulating bricks.

Stock Exchange.

His investment banking career taught him Earning their stripes that growth is quicker through multiplica- An important part of WCT’s conservation eftion rather than division. DSP Financial Con- forts is the scientific mapping of the big cat. sultants, set up by him in 1975, tied up with Going beyond pugmarks, WCT uses camera Merrill Lynch in 1995 to become trapping and DNA mapping to a sought-after investment banktrack tiger movements. Interesting firm. The alternative was to ingly, a tiger in Kanha (Madhya compete with Merrill Lynch for Pradesh) today is likely to be the same goals and companies. found in Pench (Maharashtra) in The idea is to create Similarly, in wildlife conserva- livelihood, health and two to three years. tion too, Kothari prefers to partCamera trapping images help education facilities ner with NGOs for various identify individual tigers as their for people living near projects. “We identify and develstripes like fingerprints are forests op the project and get in the unique. “Several tigers live outNGOs. We give money and supside protected areas and often port to them as that works bettravel through human-dominatter,” he says. ed areas at night,” Kothari says.

At villages in and around the Pench Tiger ReSo while camera traps are used in protected serve in Maharashtra, WCT has tied up with areas, the movement of tigers elsewhere is the NGO Pratham, the State forest department mapped using faecal DNA studies. WCT teams and the Taj Group to provide hospitality train- walk nearly 12 hours a day for four to five ing to unemployed youth. Similar pro- months in a year, collecting field data. The grammes are on in Ranthambore, Kanha and DNA from the faeces helps identify individual Mudumalai. WCT is active in over 100 parks tigers unambiguously. State governments are of neatly pruned metre-high bushes spread urged phants,totigers, Indian rhinoceros, across 18 States. safeguard tiger corridors, lion-tailed which are out in look tightfor lines, punctuated by well-spaced macaques, hornbills other “We tie-ups with companies in close vital for the great big cats to move and frommany one park to and heavily-lopped silver 150sqkm oak trees.ofInthese the another species, and including smaller and lesser-known vicinity, preferably within prevent inbreeding. mountains of the Western the edge reptiles and amphibians nowhere and else villages,” says Kothari, evenGhats, as heatpersuades “Sometimes tigers can’tfound find territories of the AnamalaitoTiger Reserve, you are jobs. walking man-animal in the world.conflict starts. Our objective is to big corporates come up with more through a large tea plantation.

Today,this teaconflict,” plantations, like those near the reduce says Kothari.

Tea plantations often get bad press from en- Anamalai abut some of the The DNATiger studyReserve, costs ₹5,000 per sample. vironmentalists as ‘green deserts’. They tend “We mostspend important wildlifeeach sanctuaries and the na$3-3.5 million year towards to support far fewer wild species parks places like Kaziconservationtional efforts andinwill continue to than comparable areas under Eravikulam and Buxa spend more,”ranga, he asserts. native forests as large estates ofTiger Reserve. Many of the wildten grow only one crop. Still, life protected areas are isolated Wild dream team when one takes a broader perfrom hands other forest tracts, and tea In June, with environmental The critical first stephe joined spective, tea estates, too, can plantations are often embedded philanthropists from China, the US and UAE to for a ‘truly green’ tea play a role in wildlife conservain intervening areas are now funding to that Panthera, a landscapeprovide is to $80-million tion. Recent field studies show large plantation districts.

If for the conservation of wild protect all global naturalalliance that by modifying conventional threatened wildlife species can cats.

DSP Blackrock is a global name and Kothecosystems that land-use practices and protectbe enabled toefforts survive inhave tea disari’sand wildlife conservation too exremain, within ing some neglected parts of the tricts, it increasesdomain. their conservapanded into the international around plantations tea estate landscape, these plantion includes prospects as a larger His wish list the protection of tations can help conserve wild population can persist inwith the snow leopards in the Himalayas.

“Areas species. They also illustrate how wider landscape. snow leopards need to be protected. Apart important it has become to widappreciate thehelp potential for from protectingToforests, it will mitigate en the scope of conservation into the country- climate tea estates to support wildlife, one needs to enchange and foster tourism.

That, in side, outside wildlife protected areas, such as turn, visionwill thecreate tea landscape a space that injobs in theas region.” national parks and sanctuaries. cludes tea work fields and human settlements As WCT’s extends from forests and anialongtowith forest patches, grasslands, mals hydrology and ecology, Kotharirock has A landscape view outcrops, rivers and streams. tea landbuilt his team accordingly.

WCT The president AnHistorically, tea plantations have been located ish scapes in the has Western Ghats may more Andheria a doctorate fromhave Mumbai’s in regions of great biological diversity. Over Institute than 250 animal species, including porcupine of Chemical Technology, while the 90 per cent of India’s tea comes from West rest and of gaur that use tea fields, to lawyers, threatened the team includes doctors, enBengal (Darjeeling) and Assam in north-east gineers hornbills and lion-tailed macaques sheltering and experts in fields as diverse as eduIndia, and the southern states of Kerala and Ta- cation in forest endemic frogs and andremnants, herbivores.to“We have a young mil Nadu. While Darjeeling and the southern very small-clawed ottersteam, livingpossibly in hill streams. enthusiastic one of the states lie within global biodiversity hotspots biggest in the Indian wildlife conservation of the Himalaya and Western Ghats respective- space,” Five steps to truly green tea he says. ly, most of Assam’s tea comes from equally val- The first step for a ‘truly green’ tea Butcritical Kothari, as always, swears by multiplicauable conservation landscapes in the tion: landscape is to protect ecosystems “My objective is toall seenatural that more people Brahmaputra valley. These regions also hold join that us remain, within and around plantations. in 10 years’ time.” the most significant remaining populations Tea estate maps detail tea fields, roads, factoof endangered wildlife — such as Asian ele- rashmi ries andpratap housing, but often leave gaps marked

Q

R How green is your tea?

Forest in safe hands He realised that the best way to protect wildlife is by protecting their habitat (the forest), which in turn can happen only if the dependence of people on forests was reduced.

So his approach has been to create livelihood, health and education facilities for peocould have imagined youvisit werethe on ple livingou near forests.

WCT teams a forest trail. metres away, the villages and survey theFifty unemployed youth. hulk solitaryskills bull gaur, over NGOs are dark roped in of to aprovide training, five feetare tallapproached at the shoulder with while companies to provide taut muscles them jobs. and thick, curving horns, looks up from the swampy valley where he stands in his white-stockinged legs. Eyes locked with gaur, your ears pick up the harsh bark of a great hornbill resounding through the cool mountain air from a patch of tall trees on the hill slope beyond. As you skirt the gaur and walk quietly down the trail, stepping past fresh scat of a sloth bear and dropped quills of a porcupine, a stripe-necked mongoose darts across, a flash of crimson bright against the background green. The green is not the multihued mosaic of a real forest, but a more uniform smear of a monoculture. Row upon row

Plantations can be seen as ‘green deserts’ but they play a crucial role in wildlife conservation

Eye on the tiger Hemendra Kothari, runs his Wildlife Conservation Trust like a corporate entity paul noronha

Many a splendid thing (top) People and wild species like elephants can share spaces and coexist in tea estates kalyan varma; for species like great hornbills, retaining rainforest fragments and native trees is essential tr shankar raman

Y

Q R

ND-X _ A

BL

cover

saturday, september 27, 2014

Space for all Wild animals like gaur often graze in grasslands and swamps and pass through tea estates; (below) an aerial view of a rainforest remnant and eucalyptus plantation in a tea estate in the Anamalai hills kalyan varma; (all photos courtesy tr shankar raman)

WILD!

Snapped (clockwise from left) waterbuck with bull’s-eye bottoms; a leopard in South Africa’s Kruger National Park; and a pied kingfisher ambika kamath

Matching steps as ‘blanks’ or ‘estate jungle’. These spaces,

especially where the Forest Department pa-

to adjoining areas in the Western Ghats were

To watch animals, we adjust totrolling theirand rhythms vary by the hour, daywildlife andwould season along with the streams andmust rivers (sometimes used, more thrive in the landprotectionthat are lax.

Still, support

merely considered ‘drains’), are the most in- for wildlife conservation is increasing with scape as the trees would provide food and foteresting and valuable parts of the landscape. the rise of a new breed of planters who have raging and nesting spaces. Bringing greater It is in these that it one finds e all spaces know what feels likeevergreen to courting diversity into the landscape may also help immoved on to the more rewarding females andenjoy chasing away rivals, if pascome to you. This works best if you position scrub, grassforests, regenerating change pace.forest Fromand weekday soil and control pests, thereby trekking, watching and yourself na- prove any. Mytimes own of activity levelswildlife rise concurrently, nearthe something that you know the benelands, bamboo patches, to weekend, fromswamps workdayand to water tea cultivation itself.isTea research ture photography. as I rush to keep a video camera trained on the animalsfitting want. Often, that ‘something’ water. bodies that support diverse To I’mAwatching, holiday, from city wildlife to townspecies. to lizard institutes and planters third measure concerns thetree tea fields or quickly move from I once had the chance to sit forhave a fullhundreds day at a of naforested areas our firmly on estate village place to thethese middle of nowhere, movespecies choose Park from,inand they only thewhat production area. of tive in to tree themselves: to write down the lizards are Instead do- waterhole KrugertoNational northmaps them, and not clear ments in timeand andprotect space are linked to shifts in and theAfrica. will and foresight to begin trials. seeing teathings plantations ‘green desing. Bymerely noon, however, begin as toaslow easternneed South Over the course of the convert a monoculture area, is down the for how quickly wethem moveinto through life. Adjusting ert’,the ecologists whome have studied thefor land-use lizards and — it’s too hot day, we got to know many inhabitants of the need conservation.

In addition, to thesefirst shifts is of tricky — waking up grumpy plantCoexistence and connections find that in convenboth ofpractices us. Afternoon napssmall can bechanges a good idea savannah quite intimately — a stately fish eaers canmornings retain ormust, regenerate strips be of native on Monday I imagine, Havingthe wildlife in from the landscape tionaland teaanimals cultivation for humans alike.can make a big differgle surveyed water its perchbrings on a with it vegetation along rivers or as windnear-universal.

Butasifbuffers the day-to-day changes a fourth consideration, ence to conservation.

Tea estates Sometimes, watching animals means mov- dead tree, inquisitive hornbills hopped ontothat of breaks on life slopes, which help protect of a single human can span such a range of water theirthe safe passage withcanfurther avoid using the most ing much and much fastertoxic than them our jeep and peekedenabling in through window, crop while creating speeds,and imagine adjusting to thehabitat varied corridors paces —for out harassment. presence of agrochemicals, and should en- jeep waterbuck sipped carefully driving across a landscape in a sturdy from theThe edge of wildlife.

Planters can also connect with local of the rest of nature.

To watch animals, howevtea to estates, by itself, sure for thatexample. the chemicals are ap-been a the waterhole beforewildlife on a safari, I’ve only ever turninginaway show us In the Anamalai hills, conservation groups animals to carry depends out wildlifepassenger in- plied er, we must adjust. Watching does not signify a problem. But judiciously by trained on safaris, but I imagtheir white bull’s-eye-patterned some estates have ventories ecological restoration of ine de-thatpeople on looking at theand world from their occasionally, lead to conwearing protective knowledge of the biolo- gear bottoms.

I watched ita does pied kingleft spaces for gradedunderstanding areas. perspective, thewaterhole damage to propcrop by pests gyonly of allon kinds of affected animals in fisher flicts dive such into as the animals such as wild habitat and restraining land without that theyProtecting too live their ertyagain or unexpected encounters the chemical drift enthe landscape must enagain and and again, never elephants and gaur to owners fromtofurther land conversion are not teringter lives according animals so and peoadjoining natural ecosysinto a complex strikingbetween fish butwild nonetheless On cloudymove days,through my enough if it does not accompany another tems and rhythms that vary ple. Small significant meawater bodies. calculation with- sun-based scheme for determined that but it remained form of restraint, a critical second step: preby hour, day, sures cantwo be young adopted to avoid Tea plantations can also watching do in the jeep-drivoblivious to the male lizards fails month,venting seasonhunting. In some plantation districts, much better conflicts.

In the Anamalai on the kind of miserably er’s head — if elephants play-fighting in the hills, although habitats remain, wildlife is scarce shade treeswe and year. some estates have left spaces for used for 6km tea bushes. drive water nearby. because of snaring and shooting. Besides For instance, Sometimes, suchanimal as wildinteractions elephants and in over east and one re- lakh hectares of tea animals The I’vegaur to poachers, some estate managers too, in a plantations ach watching anithrough. Some fences to in south India, planters mostly move described the waherehave arerealigned the times to the British colonial period, still use a singleterhole mals throwback means specific fields or propAustralian by tree species: silver oak protect when my newly-planted changes in pace paid If shade tree sport guns and shoot unsuspecting wildlife, (Grevillea robusta). mimicking as buildings housing, sunset, how likely arespecies we to native off. Buterty like such the pied kingfisherand I watched at while their daily roukeepingforsubstantial parts ofmatch the landscape see the pack of wild dogs the waterhole whom the perfect betine. As a lizard for animal These that we spotted there two tween open dive trajectory andmovement. fish location re- have biologist, I reduce conflict while helping conserve days ago? Like the conver- mainedhelped elusive, I sometimes feel out of sync spend the sumthese wide-ranging animals. gence in time of afternoon with the creatures I’m trying to watch. On mer months leadFinally,forit example, helps to my enhance awareness, naps, here a spatial convergence cloudy days, sun-based ing a lizard-paced life. I managers, workers and local residents between humans and other ani- schemeamong for watching lizards fails miserably.

It get out of bed at sunrise enable coexistence people and mals assists us — many animals choose is then to that the sheer variety ofbetween nature comes and reach the forest or park or wildlife, among citizens each who drive to move on the same roads that we drive on. in handy — withand so many creatures, mov- the infield where the lizards live just as the sun’s My most memorable animal sightings have ing at its dustry by their purchase and consumpown pace, it isdaily overwhelmingly likely rays become warm. As the lizards bask serene- occurred on roads — tigers sprinting and leop- that mytion of whatever tea. India’s hectares pace, it 0.56 maymillion be, matches the under ly in the sun, waiting to heat up before begin- ards calmly walking across roads; a two-foot- pace oftea cultivation employ overof2 million workers something.

The first rains the monning the day’s activities, I can spend a little long, impressively armoured giant plated liz- soon may andsignal produce 1.2 billion kilos of tea the more end ofthan the lizards’ season time waking up fully myself. As the day gets ard basking on a sandy road; a whole troupe of of maximum annually, whichbut millions of consumers activity, it marks the emer- relish. hotter, the lizards become more active. They baboons stretched across 50 metres of road, gence of Yet, the distantly connected teaal-drinker, theeven red velvet mites, and there will start running down tree trunks to snap in- grooming themselves and each other in fad- ways bebyanlearning about the landscapes tea comes animal to watch. sects out of the grass. They begin interacting ing evening light. from, the ecosystems and people who sustain kamath studies organismic and evolutionary with each other, the males putting on a show can help conserve wildlife by choosing to And, sometimes, watching animals means ambikait, Harvard University to advertise their presence at a certain spot, slowing down completely, waiting for them to biology atconsume only tea that is truly green.

Even a cup of tea reveals our enduring connections to nature, shows how conservation can be effective outside the boundaries of wildlife sanctuaries and requires efforts that involve all.

W

Q Q R R

tr shankar raman and divya mudappa are scientists at the Nature Conservation Foundation based at the Rainforest Research Station in the Anamalai hills

ND-X _ A

11 15

shoot

saturday, september 27, 2014

BL

12

WILD!

Green cover The macaques’ home is a tropical evergreen forest like this one in the Anamalai hills in Tamil Nadu

On the tail of primates An endangered species, the lion-tailed macaque is fast disappearing from the Western Ghats

I

Not so pearly Only the males have canines, though mostly to show them off to rivals.

These large canines come in use when the lion-tailed macaques feast on fruits like jackfruit and Cullenia

have been photographing tropical rainforests around the world for a decade now, and one of my toughest shoots till date was the one where I was trying to capture a liontailed macaque on camera for the very first time. We were at Kudremukh in Karnataka, and hours of waiting had yielded little but a fleeting glimpse of a single macaque on top of the forest canopy. A few months later, however — this time in the Anamalai hills — I found a community of macaques so friendly that 20 minutes after we met, one of them was sitting on my camera.

A symbol of the endemic diversity of the Western Ghats in south-west India, these macaques are now endangered.

Habitat specialisation and a slow reproduction rate are responsible for their plight, as is the destruction and fragmentation of such forests. The macaques, unlike monkeys that troll the cities, have a memory of their habitat and even know which tree bears fruit at what time of the year.

But despite their intelligence and keen survival instincts, less than 4,000 of them grace the planet today, making them one of the most endangered primates in the world. Rapid development in the region is only putting the macaques at further risk. kalyan varma is a Bangalore-based naturalist and wildlife photographer

BL

shoot

saturday, september 27, 2014

Lunch break Feasting on wild jackfruit

Window shopping Macaques are intrepid explorers, and sometimes discover easy ways of ďŹ nding food

Life source Sometimes called the keystone species of the Western Ghats, the Cullenia plants are a source of nourishment for many species of rainforest birds and mammals, including the macaques

At a crossroad Many roads pass through these forests, breaking them into isolated fragments. These primates rarely step on the ground, but they are now forced to come down to cross these broken canopies, and often get injured

ND-X _ A

13

cover

saturday, september 27, 2014

BL

14 10

It’s the animal instinct Investment banker Hemendra Kothari brings to the task of wildlife conservation the very skills he deploys in managing assets worth ₹33,000 crore for his clients

WILD! WILD!

I

t’s usually a vacation in Paris or Switzerland for most investment bankers, but Hemendra Kothari, founder of DSP group, invariably headed to forests and wildlife sanctuaries whenever he wanted a break from deal-making. Twice a year, he sought the company of tigers and leopards even at the height of his investment banking career. Today, he is applying investment banking principles to promote and protect wildlife across India through the Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT).

“Although the two (wildlife and investment banking) are different, my experience in setting up and running an organisation (DSP Group) helped inject corporate culture into an NGO,” says the chairman of DSP Blackrock India, a leading mutual fund that manages assets worth over ₹33,000 crore.

“The increase in the cases of poaching around the early years of this century was a big trigger,” says the 67-year-old businessman, explaining the need for businesslike efficiency in wildlife protection.

“Corporates face shortage of labour in reWhile forest conservation is one aspect of tail, fabrication and other businesses, while WCT’s efforts, anti-poaching is another. Since people in and around forest areas don’t have 2013, at more than 1,600 anti-poaching camps jobs. We bridge this gap by bringing them to- in over 60 protected areas, the WCT has gether and, in turn, reduce dependence on equipped frontline forest staff with gear rangforests,” says Kothari, whose great grandfa- ing from shoes and utensils to solar lighting ther was one of the founders of the Bombay and naturally insulating bricks.

Stock Exchange.

His investment banking career taught him Earning their stripes that growth is quicker through multiplica- An important part of WCT’s conservation eftion rather than division. DSP Financial Con- forts is the scientific mapping of the big cat. sultants, set up by him in 1975, tied up with Going beyond pugmarks, WCT uses camera Merrill Lynch in 1995 to become trapping and DNA mapping to a sought-after investment banktrack tiger movements. Interesting firm. The alternative was to ingly, a tiger in Kanha (Madhya compete with Merrill Lynch for Pradesh) today is likely to be the same goals and companies. found in Pench (Maharashtra) in The idea is to create Similarly, in wildlife conserva- livelihood, health and two to three years. tion too, Kothari prefers to partCamera trapping images help education facilities ner with NGOs for various identify individual tigers as their for people living near projects. “We identify and develstripes like fingerprints are forests op the project and get in the unique. “Several tigers live outNGOs. We give money and supside protected areas and often port to them as that works bettravel through human-dominatter,” he says. ed areas at night,” Kothari says.

At villages in and around the Pench Tiger ReSo while camera traps are used in protected serve in Maharashtra, WCT has tied up with areas, the movement of tigers elsewhere is the NGO Pratham, the State forest department mapped using faecal DNA studies. WCT teams and the Taj Group to provide hospitality train- walk nearly 12 hours a day for four to five ing to unemployed youth. Similar pro- months in a year, collecting field data. The grammes are on in Ranthambore, Kanha and DNA from the faeces helps identify individual Mudumalai. WCT is active in over 100 parks tigers unambiguously. State governments are of neatly pruned metre-high bushes spread urged phants,totigers, Indian rhinoceros, across 18 States. safeguard tiger corridors, lion-tailed which are out in look tightfor lines, punctuated by well-spaced macaques, hornbills other “We tie-ups with companies in close vital for the great big cats to move and frommany one park to and heavily-lopped silver 150sqkm oak trees.ofInthese the another species, and including smaller and lesser-known vicinity, preferably within prevent inbreeding. mountains of the Western the edge reptiles and amphibians nowhere and else villages,” says Kothari, evenGhats, as heatpersuades “Sometimes tigers can’tfound find territories of the AnamalaitoTiger Reserve, you are walking in the world.conflict starts. Our objective is to big corporates come up with more jobs. man-animal through a large tea plantation.

Today,this teaconflict,” plantations, like those near the reduce says Kothari.

Tea plantations often get bad press from en- Anamalai abut some of the The DNATiger studyReserve, costs ₹5,000 per sample. vironmentalists as ‘green deserts’. They tend “We mostspend important wildlifeeach sanctuaries and the na$3-3.5 million year towards to support far fewer wild species parks places like Kaziconservationtional efforts andinwill continue to than comparable areas under Eravikulam and Buxa spend more,”ranga, he asserts. native forests as large estates ofTiger Reserve. Many of the wildten grow only one crop. Still, life protected areas are isolated Wild dream team when one takes a broader perfrom hands other forest tracts, and tea In June, with environmental The critical first stephe joined spective, tea estates, too, can plantations are often philanthropists from China, the US embedded and UAE to for a ‘truly green’ tea play a role in wildlife conservain intervening areas are nowa funding to that Panthera, landscapeprovide is to $80-million tion. Recent field studies show large plantation districts.

If global alliance for the conservation of wild protect all natural that by modifying conventional threatened wildlife species can cats.

DSP Blackrock is a global name and Kothecosystems that land-use practices and protectenabled toefforts survivetoo inhave tea disari’sand wildlife be conservation exremain, within ing some neglected parts of the tricts, it increasesdomain. their conservapanded into the international around plantations tea estate landscape, these planprospects a larger His wish tion list includes the as protection of tations can help conserve wild population can persist in with the snow leopards in the Himalayas.

“Areas species. They also illustrate how wider landscape. snow leopards need to be protected. Apart important it has become to widToforests, appreciate thehelp potential for from protecting it will mitigate en the scope of conservation into the country- climate tea estates to support one needs to enchange and wildlife, foster tourism.

That, in side, outside wildlife protected areas, such as turn, visionwill thecreate tea landscape a space that injobs in theas region.” national parks and sanctuaries. cludes tea work fields and human settlements As WCT’s extends from forests and anialongtowith forest patches, grasslands, mals hydrology and ecology, Kotharirock has A landscape view outcrops, rivers and streams. tea landbuilt his team accordingly.

WCTThe president AnHistorically, tea plantations have been located ish scapes in the has Western Ghats may more Andheria a doctorate fromhave Mumbai’s in regions of great biological diversity. Over Institute than 250 animal species, including porcupine of Chemical Technology, while the 90 per cent of India’s tea comes from West rest and of gaur tea fields, to lawyers, threatened the that teamuse includes doctors, enBengal (Darjeeling) and Assam in north-east gineers hornbills and lion-tailed macaques sheltering and experts in fields as diverse as eduIndia, and the southern states of Kerala and Ta- cation in forest endemic frogs and andremnants, herbivores.to“We have a young mil Nadu. While Darjeeling and the southern very small-clawed ottersteam, livingpossibly in hill streams. enthusiastic one of the states lie within global biodiversity hotspots biggest in the Indian wildlife conservation of the Himalaya and Western Ghats respective- space,” Five steps truly green tea he to says. ly, most of Assam’s tea comes from equally val- The first step for a ‘truly green’ tea Butcritical Kothari, as always, swears by multiplicauable conservation landscapes in the tion: landscape is to protect natural ecosystems “My objective is toall see that more people Brahmaputra valley. These regions also hold join that us remain, within and around plantations. in 10 years’ time.” the most significant remaining populations Tea estate maps detail tea fields, roads, factoof endangered wildlife — such as Asian ele- rashmi ries andpratap housing, but often leave gaps marked

Q

R How green is your tea?

Forest in safe hands He realised that the best way to protect wildlife is by protecting their habitat (the forest), which in turn can happen only if the dependence of people on forests was reduced.

So his approach has been to create livelihood, health and education facilities for peocould have imagined youvisit werethe on ple livingou near forests.

WCT teams a forest trail. metres away, the villages and survey theFifty unemployed youth. hulk solitaryskills bull gaur, over NGOs are dark roped in of to aprovide training, five feet are tallapproached at the shoulder with while companies to provide taut muscles them jobs. and thick, curving horns, looks up from the swampy valley where he stands in his white-stockinged legs. Eyes locked with gaur, your ears pick up the harsh bark of a great hornbill resounding through the cool mountain air from a patch of tall trees on the hill slope beyond. As you skirt the gaur and walk quietly down the trail, stepping past fresh scat of a sloth bear and dropped quills of a porcupine, a stripe-necked mongoose darts across, a flash of crimson bright against the background green. The green is not the multihued mosaic of a real forest, but a more uniform smear of a monoculture. Row upon row

Plantations can be seen as ‘green deserts’ but they play a crucial role in wildlife conservation

Eye on the tiger Hemendra Kothari, runs his Wildlife Conservation Trust like a corporate entity paul noronha

Many a splendid thing (top) People and wild species like elephants can share spaces and coexist in tea estates kalyan varma; for species like great hornbills, retaining rainforest fragments and native trees is essential tr shankar raman

Y

Q R

ND-X _ A

BL

cover

saturday, september 27, 2014

Space for all Wild animals like gaur often graze in grasslands and swamps and pass through tea estates; (below) an aerial view of a rainforest remnant and eucalyptus plantation in a tea estate in the Anamalai hills kalyan varma; (all photos courtesy tr shankar raman)

WILD!

Snapped (clockwise from left) waterbuck with bull’s-eye bottoms; a leopard in South Africa’s Kruger National Park; and a pied kingfisher ambika kamath

Matching steps as ‘blanks’ or ‘estate jungle’. These spaces,

especially where the Forest Department pa-

to adjoining areas in the Western Ghats were

To watch animals, we adjust totrolling theirand rhythms vary by the hour, daywildlife andwould season along with the streams andmust rivers (sometimes used, more thrive in the landprotectionthat are lax.

Still, support

merely considered ‘drains’), are the most in- for wildlife conservation is increasing with scape as the trees would provide food and foteresting and valuable parts of the landscape. the rise of a new breed of planters who have raging and nesting spaces. Bringing greater It is in these that it one finds e all spaces know what feels likeevergreen to courting diversity into the landscape may also help immoved on to the more rewarding females andenjoy chasing away rivals, if pascome to you. This works best if you position scrub, grassforests, regenerating change pace.forest Fromand weekday soil and control pests, thereby of trekking, watching andyourself na- prove any. Mytimes own activity levelswildlife rise concurrently, nearthe something that you know the benelands, bamboo patches, to weekend, fromswamps workdayand to water tea cultivation itself.is Tea research photography. as I rushture to keep a video camera trained on the animalsfitting want. Often, that ‘something’ water. bodies that support diverse To I’mAwatching, holiday, from city wildlife to townspecies. to lizard institutes and planters third measure concerns thetree tea fields or quickly move from I once had the chance to sit forhave a fullhundreds day at a of naforested areas our firmly on estate village place to thethese middle of nowhere, movespecies choose Park from,inand they only the production area. of tive in to tree themselves: to write down what the lizards are Instead do- waterhole KrugertoNational northmaps not clear ments in timeand and protect space arethem, linkedand to shifts in and theAfrica. will and foresight to begin trials. seeing teathings plantations ‘green desing. Bymerely noon, however, begin as toaslow easternneed South Over the course of the convert a monoculture area, is down the for how quickly wethem moveinto through life. Adjusting ert’,the ecologists whome have studied thefor land-use lizards and — it’s too hot day, we got to know many inhabitants of the need of conservation.

In addition, to thesefirst shifts is tricky — waking up grumpy plantCoexistence and connections find that in convenboth ofpractices us. Afternoon napssmall can bechanges a good idea savannah quite intimately — a stately fish eaers can retain ormust, regenerate strips be of native on Monday mornings I imagine, Havingthe wildlife in from the landscape tionaland teaanimals cultivation for humans alike.can make a big differgle surveyed water its perchbrings on a with it vegetation along rivers or as windnear-universal.

Butasifbuffers the day-to-day changes a fourth consideration, ence to watching conservation.

Tea estates Sometimes, animals means mov- dead tree, inquisitive hornbills hopped ontothat of breaks on life slopes, which help protect of a single human can span such a range of water theirthe safe passage withcanfurther avoid using the most ing much and much fastertoxic than them our jeep and peekedenabling in through window, crop adjusting while creating speeds,and imagine to thehabitat varied corridors paces —for out harassment. presence of agrochemicals, and should en- jeep waterbuck sipped carefully driving across a landscape in a sturdy from theThe edge of wildlife.

Planters can also connect with local of the rest of nature.

To watch animals, howevtea to estates, by itself, sure for thatexample. the chemicals are ap-been a the waterhole beforewildlife on a safari, I’ve only ever turninginaway show us In the Anamalai hills, conservation groups animals to carry depends out wildlifepassenger in- plied er, we must adjust. Watching does not signify a problem. But judiciously by trained on safaris, but I imagtheir white bull’s-eye-patterned some estates have ventories ecological restoration of ine de-thatpeople on looking at theand world from their occasionally, does kinglead to conwearing protective knowledge of the biolo- gear bottoms.

I watched it a pied left spaces for graded areas. perspective, understanding thewaterhole damage to propcrop by pests gyonly of allon kinds of affected animals in fisher flicts dive such into as the animals such as wild habitat and restraining land without that theyProtecting too live their ertyagain or unexpected encounters the chemical drift enthe landscape must enagain and and again, never elephants and gaur to owners from lives according tofurther land conversion are not tering animals so and peonatural ecosysteradjoining into a complex strikingbetween fish butwild nonetheless On cloudymove days,through my enough if it does not accompany another tems and rhythms that vary ple. Small significant meawater bodies. calculation with- sun-based scheme for determined that but it remained form of restraint, a critical second step: preby hour, day, sures cantwo be young adopted to avoid Tea plantations can also watching do in the jeep-drivoblivious to the male lizards fails month,venting seasonhunting. In some plantation districts, much better conflicts.

In the Anamalai on the kind of miserably er’s head — if elephants play-fighting in the hills, although habitats remain, wildlife is scarce shade treeswe and year. some estates have left spaces for used for 6km tea bushes. drive water nearby. because of snaring and shooting. Besides For instance, Sometimes, suchanimal as wildinteractions elephants and in over east and one re- lakh hectares of tea animals The I’vegaur to poachers, some estate managers too, in a plantations ach watching anithrough. Some fences to in south India, planters mostly move described the waherehave are realigned the times to the British colonial period, still use a singleterhole mals throwback means specific fields or propAustralian by tree species: silver oak protect when my newly-planted changes in pace paid If shade tree sport guns and shoot unsuspecting wildlife, (Grevillea robusta). mimicking as buildings housing, sunset, how likely arespecies we to native off. Buterty like such the pied kingfisherand I watched at while their daily roukeepingforsubstantial parts ofmatch the landscape see the pack of wild dogs the waterhole whom the perfect betine. As a lizard for animal These that we spotted there two tween open dive trajectory andmovement. fish location re- have biologist, I reduce conflict while helping conserve days ago? Like the conver- mainedhelped elusive, I sometimes feel out of sync spend the sumthese wide-ranging animals. gence in time of afternoon with the creatures I’m trying to watch. On mer months leadFinally,forit example, helps to my enhance awareness, naps, here a spatial convergence cloudy days, sun-based ing a lizard-paced life. I managers, workers and local residents between humans and other ani- schemeamong for watching lizards fails miserably.

It get out of bed at sunrise enable coexistence people and mals assists us — many animals choose is then to that the sheer variety ofbetween nature comes and reach the forest or park or wildlife, among citizens each who movdrive the into move on the same roads that we drive on. in handy — withand so many creatures, field where the lizards live just as the sun’s My most memorable animal sightings have ing at its dustry by their purchase and consumpown pace, it isdaily overwhelmingly likely rays become warm. As the lizards bask serene- occurred on roads — tigers sprinting and leop- that mytion ofwhatever tea. India’s hectares pace, it 0.56 may million be, matches the under ly in the sun, waiting to heat up before begin- ards calmly walking across roads; a two-foot- pace oftea cultivation employ overof2 the million something.

The first rains mon-workers ning the day’s activities, I can spend a little long, impressively armoured giant plated liz- soon may andsignal produce 1.2 billion kilos of tea the more end ofthan the lizards’ season time waking up fully myself. As the day gets ard basking on a sandy road; a whole troupe of of maximum annually, whichbut millions of consumers activity, it marks the emer- relish. hotter, the lizards become more active. They baboons stretched across 50 metres of road, gence of Yet, the distantly connected teaal-drinker, theeven red velvet mites, and there will start running down tree trunks to snap in- grooming themselves and each other in fad- ways beby about the landscapes tea comes anlearning animal to watch. sects out of the grass. They begin interacting ing evening light. from, the ecosystems and people who sustain kamath studies organismic and evolutionary with each other, the males putting on a show can help conserve wildlife by choosing to And, sometimes, watching animals means ambikait, Harvard University to advertise their presence at a certain spot, slowing down completely, waiting for them to biology atconsume only tea that is truly green.

Even a cup of tea reveals our enduring connections to nature, shows how conservation can be effective outside the boundaries of wildlife sanctuaries and requires efforts that involve all.

W

Q Q R R

tr shankar raman and divya mudappa are scientists at the Nature Conservation Foundation based at the Rainforest Research Station in the Anamalai hills

ND-X _ A

11 15

cover

BL BL 168

saturday, september 27,27, 2014 saturday, september 2014

Bird-women of India Making a pig’s ear of it

Once assumed to be the preserve of men alone, ornithology in our country has always had The anguish and hostility towards the ‘invading pigs’ were a metaphor for the villagers’ a small, yet significant number of champions who happened to be women unhappiness over their trampled efforts

WILD! WILD!

R

ocks protruded dramatically out of the hillside. Weathered and evenly grooved, they looked like petrified wood. I recognised neem and Indian mulberry trees dotting the landscape. Down in the valley, a linear grove of verdant date palms marked an unseen water course. Tussocks of grass with tall seed heads brushed against my salwar. Head bent, I was engrossed in identifying plants and on the lookout for mammal droppings as I found my way up the hillside. The expanse of forest was so vast, I couldn’t gauge distances, nor could I estimate the height of distant trees. This is one of the largest restoration sites in India: the Timbaktu Collective-promoted Kalpavalli forest in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur District.

Siddharth Rao, the resident ecologist, had just pointed out a blackbuck latrine site. These graceful antelopes habitually visit the same spot to drop their black, oval pellets. Wolves, jackals, leopards, foxes and sloth bears also call this place home, and I was keen to find some evidence of their presence. The constant, distant hum of airplanes overhead rnithology birdwatching had made me think even this or remote area was untraditionally been a male preserve, der an air corridor.

Absent-mindedly, I worldwide certainly in looked up atboth the blue sky and and realised India.

But there were a handful of there were no airplanes.

The sound bravefrom women who broke mould and came the gigantic bladesthat of nuemerged as significant players in their own merous windmills slowly turning right.

The British, who ruled us for many years, the golden evening light.

I had werethem passionate birders, and they are comseen on arrival but forgotmemorated the names of birds they either ten them as Iin focused on plants discovered and creatures.or named. Even amateur Indian birders are Iwell acquainted The more wandered alongwith the names like Hume, Swinhoe, Tickell, hill slope,Blanford, the more I realised the Hodgson and Jerdon.was an unsung conservarestoration my study Indian ornithological histotionIneffort.

Folksoffrom eight villages ry, the first woman birder I came was Lahad slogged to restore 7,500 acresacross of dy Elizabeth Gwillim (1763-1807), wife of Sir Henry Gwillim, a Madras High Court judge.

She painted a series of 121 watercolours of Indian birds that are now housed in the BlackerWood Library at Canada’s McGill University.

Lady Gwillim died of unknown causes and is buried at the St Mary’s Church in Chennai.

But perhaps, the most significant contribution to avian studies in the subcontinent was made by Lady Mary Impey (1749-1818), wife of Sir Elijah Impey, the chief justice of Bengal and a well-known patron of local art and music. As soon as the Impeys arrived in India, they set up a menagerie in their house in Calcutta’s Middleton Row, and starting in 1777, commissioned several local artists to come and paint the fauna and flora they had collected. Their collection is an important example of what is called the Company School of paintings. With the decline of the Mughal courts, the artists sought the patronage of Europeans who had come to India to seek their fortunes. These painters had to change their traditional techniques to suit their new masters. These revisions included a more accurate representation of the subject, change in perspectives and the use of shading. Watercolours (rather than gouache) and pencil drawing or sepia wash on imported European Whatman paper was most common.

Lady Impey also kept extensive notes about the habitat and behaviour of animals and

O

Wasteland no more The unsung conservation effort that is the Timbaktu Collective’s Kalpavalli forest janaki lenin

ND-X _ A

completely denuded pasture land that’s com- Sari to the rescue monly dismissed as wasteland. I just had to A couple of years ago, I received an email from see the barren, rocky hills outside the Kalpa- Timbaktu asking how to keep pigs away from valli area to know what the villagers had crops. I shared the wisdom of farmers in other achieved. They planted seeds, protected sa- parts of South Asia: the crackling noise of clusplings from livestock, created fire lines, built ters of magnetic tape tied to the fence, and check dams, dug trenches and put out fires cordoning fields with old saris and fishing day and night. Not a mean feat in the coun- nets were said to scare away pigs. If none of try’s second-driest area, where summer tem- these worked, I jokingly offered to share a peratures can sear the pale of skin and heart. If good pork recipe. the meagre rainfall failed, drought was cerI didn’t know how the farmers had fared. tain. Even after 20 years of hard When the opportunity arose, I work, the hill slopes were only headed to Anantapur District to lightly wooded. If the annual see for myself. I wondered if the rainfall was higher or had the restoration had a role to play in They planted seeds, topsoil remained intact, the outthe villagers’ wild pig problems. I protected saplings Brush with avian colours come would have been a thick followed Rao up the hill, lost in from livestock, built (clockwise from left) Lord and Lady Impey green canopy. my thoughts. with Wheat-brown their children in a blackbuck painting by Johann check dams, and The villagers went through doe Zofanny; a portrait of Lady Gould; and a put out fires day this punishing regimen of creand fawns eyed us suspiciously sarus crane from Lady Impey’s collection and night ation and protection for a very before over the courtesy bikramdisappearing grewal good reason. They could harvest rise. Moments later, a lone, scrufgrass to thatch their roofs and fy wild boar raced away in alarm. make brooms, lop leaves for After nightfall, we walked their livestock and gather dead down to the stream. Fish darted wo Indian women also playedonanthe imporbirds, which were great use later biolo- underwater, branches forof firewood.

Fortothe poorest frogs hung suspended watant role the country’s ornithological gists. Her three principal were Sheikh people, thisartists improved their ter surface, andinclots of algae moved slowly history: JamalWater Ara and Usha even Ganguly.

Ara was Zain al-Din, and the brothersofBhawani and downstream. standard living. Das Their flowed though it the wife of anin Indian forest officerWe from Bihar, Ram Das. Collectively, they labour made over 300 hadn’t collective benefitrained several months. walked and in 1970, published a book called wary Watching paintings. Sir ElijahedImpey was poor later farmers implicat- through rich and the dense thickets of palms, of BirdsIf with the National Trustthey under the ed and disgraced inalike. whatEven was known as the pigs. the groundwe snuck too closeBook to them, could NehruThe Baleyes Pustakalya Series the plates ‘Raja Nuncoomar’ case afterhas which hefrom was rewater risen a attack. of a civet and where jackal reflected were made JP torches.

Irani. It was so successful it called to England. The collection wastodisdepth of 100 feet a the light fromby our into several regional persed to several museums and private was mere 18 feet.

A seasonThetranslated next morning, we were back languagin the es. Herdriving contemporary, Ganguly was the collections in an auction al in 1810. stream turned plains, down theUsha highway.

Colourful of the then in vice chancellor perennial, feed- clothes tied towife fences flapped the breeze. ritain’s John Gould ing and of forests the Delhi and a into the 400- Even though the were University a few kilometres American John Jones Auduleading member of the thriving acre, 500-year- away, every lush field had a low platform with bon are considered the greatest Bird Club.machans In 1975, Ganguly old Mushtikoa tarpaulin-lined roof.

These were a Gould’s work became Delhi bird painters the world has ever published A Guide to the crops.

Birds of vila tank.more refined surewhen sign of sleepless farmers guarding produced. But few are aware of the Delhi Area, a book that continshe honed her craft Gould’s long-suffering wife Eliza- under the nonsensical ued to be the birding bible of the beth. When Gould was planning region till it was replaced by Atpoet Edward Lear, to produce A Century of Birds from las of the Birds of Delhi and Haryawho was himself the Himalaya Mountains, he enna in 2006. a renowned bird couraged his wife to learn the More recently, Carol Inskipp, painter new printing method of lithogalong with her husband Tim, raphy. She used her husband’s and Richard Grimmett, prosketches and produced several duced the first modern guide to works on Indian hill birds. These Indian birds — Birds of the Indian were rather stiff, but her work became more Subcontinent. Till date, it remains the highestrefined later when she honed her craft under selling bird guide to India. Inskipp has also the nonsensical poet Edward Lear, who was worked in Bhutan and Nepal. himself a renowned bird painter. Elizabeth The publication of another book, the twoproduced more than 600 lithographic plates, volume Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide by raised their six surviving children and circum- American ornithologist Pamela C Rasmussen navigated the world. Together the Goulds in 2005 also proved to be crucial to the timeformed an extraordinary team. But Elizabeth line of avian studies. Now in its second edidied early leaving her husband bereft. Despite tion, the brilliantly researched guide is her wonderful work on Indian birds, she never significant for its taxonomic approach, leadvisited the country and worked from speci- ing to a number of species-level splits. mens sent all the way to England.

From Impey to Gould, Ganguly to Inskipp, Another remarkable lady was Margaret the intrepid bird-women of India, have been Bushby Lascelles Cockburn (1829-1928), both for long a source of inspiration. So much so an amateur ornithologist and artist, who lived that India has now thrown up several women in the Nilgiris. Born in Salem to a civil servant researchers who are doing sterling work in father, she made some brilliant drawings of this field. A tradition, one hopes, will remain the local flora and fauna. In 2002, the Natural as vivid and bright as the colours of Lady ImHistory Museum produced her work as a won- pey’s sarus crane. derful diary. Little is known about her, other than the fact that she spent most of her life in bikram grewal is a conservationist and author of several books on Indian birds Kotagiri and she’s buried at the local church.

Q R

T

B

Q R

cover

saturday, september 27,27, 2014 saturday, september 2014

WILD! EXTRACT

He with ‘the look’ Dogs An Anthology Captain Bijli Comics ₹325

A collection of comics on our canine companion throws up a world that is as dark as it is warm, as gritty as it is romantic. Gingerly, a comic by Priya Kuriyan, is a gentle love story — first comes shameless resistance, then more awkwardness. But I asked Akulappa, one of the key people in that village and show me where the forest is. the Kalpavalli whohandshake, grew up in the area, the Therefirst are no forests, it’s all agricultural land, after theproject first lick and the first if the problem of wild boars was related to for- and there’s still a problem of wild boar. So belly rub, Helifeanswered will never be the same est restoration. thoughtfully, don’t say growing trees brings wild boar. They “There were no wild boars before. The first time I heard of one was in 1990 or 1991 when villagers from Nyamaddala killed one. Now pigs are everywhere. Not only wild boar, but also leopards, jackals, everything. This area was infamous for factionalism. In 1986, when NTR [Rama Rao] was the chief minister, he seized all firearms. Maybe that’s why all these animals came back five to six years later.”

Limited access Wild pigs are not as welcome as people at Timbaktu; and (above) blackbuck doe and fawns janaki lenin

Trouble in the air The restoration project began only in 1992 and, according to Akulappa, pigs had already started making a comeback. Could it be that the lack of hunting more than the creation of a forest caused wild boar to surge in numbers?

Akulappa continued, “People say the forest provided shelter and that’s why these animals came. That’s not true. These animals don’t need habitat as much as we think. They are adaptable; they can live under rocks and thorny shrubs. Even newspapers say crops failed because of wild boar. Come, let’s go to

Neelakant cultivated 130 acres for the Timbaktu Kutumbham Trust. Even if pigs didn’t like the crop, they rooted around and destroyed the plants. He picked up hair clipdon’t need forests to destroy your crop. They pings from barber shops and spread them on are everywhere.” his fields. “It worked well in the dry season.

I quizzed farmers about their relationship When the pigs sniffed the ground, the hair enwith the forest, and they revealed a whole oth- tered their nostrils and irritated them. They er dimension of the problem. don’t like that. When the rains came, it didn’t Nagaraju, one of the directors of Kalpavalli work anymore.”

Tree Growers’ Cooperative and a groundnut He continued, “I also tried old saris, gunny farmer from Kogira, said he sacks, plastic bags, plastic dolls.... faced severe problems from On the first day they won’t come. pigs. He claimed the increase in The second day, they listen and forest had brought a greater diwait. If it makes the same noise, versity of birds that ate a lot of How many nights can they’ll approach cautiously, and crop pests. Forests didn’t create then they lose all fear. Even magI stay awake? the pig problem, but windmills netic tape works for one day, but During the day, my did. I was taken aback and the next day it doesn’t. Same with wife and I take our looked at him quizzically, wonfirecrackers.” sheep grazing dering if I had heard right. He exI burrowed into details: how plained that the whine of the much of the crop was lost, which wind turbines and disturbance crops suffered less damage, and caused by maintenance crews did pigs eat crops in a particular driving up and down have chased the wild season. It was several minutes before I realised boar away from forests and into the plains. pigs were a metaphor for the villagers’ unhapWindmills also blew away rain clouds and piness with the windmill companies. sucked groundwater dry. The only thing that While wind energy is celebrated as a suscould protect crops was a high wall, he said, tainable source of power, a green energy, here but he couldn’t afford it. in Anantapur, wind farms have come at a cost Ramanjanaiyya from Kambalapalli grew to the community forest. Wind power compagroundnuts and lentils, and pigs made a mer- nies hacked wide roads around hillsides, dery meal of them. He had tried tying saris stroying the trenches villagers built to arrest around the fence but that didn’t work. He and the flow of rainwater and toppling two-dechis wife took turns walking around the fields, ade-old trees. Since retaining walls haven’t yelling and beating a drum all night long. He been built, boulders and loose soil sit precarisaid the moment he sat down for a rest, they ously. The 10- to 14-feet embankments are too muscled their way through the fence. “How high for livestock to scramble up. Villagers are many nights can I stay awake? During the day, forced to drive animals in circuitous paths to my wife and I take our sheep grazing. At night, their destinations. The companies also flatone of us guards the animals at home, while tened peaks of hillocks to install windmills. the other watches the crops,” said RamanjaBut one incident upset villagers more than naiyya. He also blamed the windmills for his any other. Farmers in the area donate cattle to wild boar woes. the Guttur Gopalaswamy temple deep in the forest. This herd of holy Hallikar cattle, an inThe emboldened invader digenous breed, grazes in the restored forest.

Chinna Narasimha, of the same village, said Soon after the windmill construction, about the pigs were bold. “Even if I stand right next 100 cattle died. They had eaten the plastic careto them and shine a light on their faces, they lessly discarded by the construction workers. still try to enter the fields.” While pigs ate anyBy trampling villagers’ efforts, the wind thing, blackbuck preferred lentils. The wind- farms have unleashed the pigs of conflict. mills were the reason he lost almost half his crop to pigs, he complained. Only a deep wide janaki lenin writes on wildlife and conservation.

Her last book was My Husband and Other Animals trench would stop the pigs, he said.

Q R

ND-X _ A

9 17BL BL

cover

BL BL 186

saturday, september 27,27, 2014 saturday, september 2014

Victoria’s glamour Tended to with love, care and chickpeas, the horses at Kolkata’s Victoria Memorial are the pride of their owners and, grudgingly, of the city

WILD!

Neigh to the naysayers The horse carriages of Kolkata might offend the olfactory senses but they date back to the time of kings and queens shreevatsa nevatia

F

ND-X _ A

or phaeton owners in Kolkata, the Mayans had nearly proved prescient.

The year 2012 was almost apocalyptic.

Morning walkers were offended by the dung of their horses. They weren’t alone.

During one of her secret evening walks near Victoria Memorial, the West Bengal chief minister too had her olfactory receptors assaulted.

Pat came Mamatadi’s order — “Ban these carriages at once.” There were allegations of lathicharge and whispers of hushed negotiations.

The police finally softened and some new rules were enforced. “We now park here only after 11am,” says Mohammad Adil, a carriage driver. “If we know that Didi is in the area, we make sure that we stand at attention with our carriages. Nobody moves at that point of time.” The back of Adil’s phaeton even has a Mamata Banerjee poster. “She looks after us and Trinamool looks after our union,” he says, with a smile.

Of the 32 phaetons that park outside the Victoria Memorial every week, 22 are now believed to have valid licenses. Together with the single colts and mares, which provide customers a feel of the horseback, carriages account for the 80-odd horses in Kolkata’s Queen’s Way area. Many owners here believe that the process of nomenclature does more than just demonstrate their affection towards a horse; it also gives the animal an identity. A white mare, for instance, is lovingly called Gudiya — “Just look at her eyes. It’s like looking at a doll,” says her owner Sunny. The speed of a young agile steed has earned him the moniker Rocket, while a black stallion has unfortunately had to surrender to the bounty of his skin colour — Kaalu. Feeding his two horses, Biscuit and Badal, Adil explains, “Biscuit because you can hear the crunch on the gravel when he races and Badal because he is like a white cloud.”

Like many of his compatriots, eight-year-

old Biscuit was bought from the Sonepur cat- was commonly believed that when a phaeton tle fair for ₹40,000, but Badal, now 12, was pur- pulled up with sickly horses, the master had chased for the princely sum of ₹70,000 from squandered much of his zamindari wealth. AcVaranasi. “Badal was the first horse my brother cording to Debasis Chakraberti of the Combought. He is everyone’s favourite,” says Adil. passionate Crusaders Trust, a charitable Claiming that his family has now been in the organisation dedicated to animal welfare, phaeton trade for over half-a-century, the 22- none of today’s carriage owners can afford to year-old describes the daily itinerary of his be so reckless. “ Many of these carriage horses horses with meticulous precision. are used for weddings and religious procesFor breakfast, they are fed a mixture of chaff sions. They bring in a fair sum of money. If and chickpeas with some water and grass as they didn’t look healthy and well-fed, no brisupplements. They are then bathed with spe- degroom will agree to ride them on his special cialised scrubs and brushes. With morning day,” he says. ablutions completed, they are finally brought Chakraberti adds that during the years he to the city’s Maidan. “Since the walk heats up personally tended to stray horses near Victotheir bodies, we wait for a while ria, he found that many of the before giving them grass again.” phaetons used discarded race Sanju, owner of two phaetons, steeds. “Most of these are of a stands nearby, inspecting the apgood breed. They wouldn’t surIf we know that Didi is plication of Savlon on one of his vive if they aren’t well-nourin the area, we make horse’s wounds. “Do you have ished.” For the past 18 years, sure that we stand at children of your own?” he asks.

Mohammad Sattar has been masattention with our “If you did, you’d know. We take saging his employer’s eight carriages care of our horses the way one horses, polishing their skin and takes care of his or her children.” tending to their every need. “If Surprisingly, it is easy for Sanju these horses were in the wild, to substitute his analogy of they’d be eaten in no time. With offspring with one of cars. He says that even us, they are fed and looked after. Even though though he has two carriages, he makes sure he they are animals, I feel in sync with them. has six horses. “We all need a stepney from Without them, we’d have no food to give our time to time,” he says. With only October to families.” Sattar interrupts his reverie to gaze February being profitable months, it would be at Victoria Memorial. “No one needs us anyhard to look after a herd of horses, but 29-year- more, but it is because of the blessings of my old Sanju says he earns enough to make ends Mallika Rani (Queen Victoria) that we’re here meet. “Fifteen years ago, I gave up education today. Horses have been around since the time for horses. So what if they each cost me ₹500 a of kings and queens. We’re continuing that day? In the end, they also pay me more.” tradition.” Convinced that his carriages aren’t Immortalised in several Bengali period dra- going to be sent anywhere, Sattar concludes, mas such as Kartik Chattopadhyay’s Sahib Bibi “If Victoria Memorial gives Kolkata pride, we Golam (1956) and Tapan Sinha’s Atithi (1966), give the Victoria some of its glamour.” the phaeton was Kolkata’s favoured mode of transport through much of the 19th century. It shreevatsa nevatia is a Kolkata-based writer

Q R

cover

saturday, september 27,27, 2014 saturday, september 2014

On time is a wonderful thing A red-whiskered bulbul is often a natural alarm clock k murali kumar

WILD!

We are like that only From courting to mating, politics to territorial wars, humans and animals have more in common than you’d think

E

ver watched Indian and Pakistani border guards greet each other as they close and open the gates at Wagah every day? Decked up, they strut their stuff belligerently, each side trying to outdo the other — now watch gentlemen birds of paradise court their ladies. And it’s not just us. Check out the ceremonial uniforms world over, what with their helmets and tassels, and cummerbunds and ropes of gold braid, and shiny boots. This sort of macho military puffery and aggression happens everywhere. Because we are all like that only... Just like the animals, birds, reptiles, fishes and creepy crawlies around us.

One of the hallmarks of good ‘executive’ practice is being on time or punctuality (alas, a concept still too advanced for most Indians to grasp), and making the best of your time.

Well, I’m woken up promptly at dawn everyday by the red-whiskered bulbul, which ‘puts up’ in the bougainvillea creeper outside my bedroom window. His alarm is set for sunrise, thereby, making the most of the daylight hours. In summer, he wakes as early as 4.45am; in winter, he lets me sleep till 7.30.

Every time a flight touches down or takes off on time, I marvel. And then I think of all those migratory birds which — without the benefit of GPS, ATCs, a thousand satellites spinning around, and all the hugely expensive bundobast — land on the same tiny water body virtually on the same day every year, after flying more than 8,000km. Our ancient mariners navigated by the sun and moon and stars; those damn dung beetles were doing that long before that, let alone butterflies and moths and birds. I’m not sure what salmon and turtles use, but they get back to the very same rivers where they were spawned or the beaches they scuttled away from as babies, after roaming the oceans.

Now take romance and love, and marriage and family. Some of us are monogamous, some bigamous, some just believe in scattering wild oats far and wide and breaking hearts, others keep harems, many get a divorce, some of us have joint families, some nuclear ones, and some are single parents. The animals had all of this covered long before us:

sarus cranes are revered for their fidelity, economies often have large families for the vethough most birds, sensibly, take a new part- ry same reason.) Creepy crawlies, of course, ner every breeding season. Some like the rak- have the most enviable family life by modern ish sparrows and baya weavers have roving standards. They meet, they court, the gentleeyes, and may be adulterous or bigamous. Bur- man may bring gifts (even birds do this), they rowing owls believe in free love (they do live in may dance, the gentleman may get eaten durCalifornia after all), stags, wild bovines, si- ing the course of the honeymoon and the lady mians and sea lions try and run harems along burps delicately, lays her eggs and flies away fundamentalist lines. Males battle over fe- into the wide blue yonder. And now, we too are males, who make all the decisions and do all becoming like that only. the criticising. And we are like that only too.

And there’s always politics: ants run totaliMany wise animal families are matriarchal: tarian regimes that would put North Korea to elephants and lions, for example, where the shame; bees, wasps and ants slave tirelessly all macho dude is only allowed in when the la- their lives, go to war even, for the Great Leader, dies deem fit. Of course, he’ll throw his weight the Queen Bee. Alpha male macaques may be around and snort and stomp, but all hard de- built like bouncers, but they still have to kiss cisions are made by the ladies. Some, like the the babies to curry favour with the powerful painted-snipe go a step further: sorority of high-ranking females the lady is the one all dressed to if they want to remain in power. the nines and makes her husWild bovines allow birds to pick band — pale and etiolated by off the ticks on their hides, which comparison — sit on the eggs is just one of many bilateral Girls apart, it’s all while she goes a-philandering! about territory. Every (trade) agreements species have As for family life, in animal signed between themselves. Liliving creature — communities single-parent famonesses set up Machiavellian amhuman, animal, bird, ilies are the norm, with the bushes for their victims, in insect, fish, bacteria mom bringing up the brats by perfect synchrony with each oth— fights over turf herself. Many canines, however, er. The animals play politics like (and parking space) believe in sharing the work, with we do — only, not as dirtily. both mom and dad looking after Girls apart, it’s all about territhe brats. Once the pups hit tory. Every living creature — huadulthood — they, especially the man, animal, bird, insect, fish, raja betas — are shown the door. Daughters bacteria — fights over turf (and parking may be allowed to stay longer to help look af- space). We humans add illegal encroachments ter subsequent siblings. And some, like the to our properties. We accuse the neighbours hyenas, have extended families. Meerkats live of doing the same. We draw boundaries bein communes, and flamingoes run day-care tween countries, put up walls and barbed wire crèches, which sometimes turn into unruly fences, and go to war if someone puts a foot gangs. Elephant babies are looked after by wrong — just like them. Chimpanzees conduct their moms, sisters and aunts. And now there border raids on their neighbours. God forbid are reported cases from Ranthambore of tiger you enter the territory of a tiger boss. And I’ve dads becoming tiger ‘moms’. As I said, we are, actually been buzzed by a dragonfly for inhopefully, becoming like that only too. fringing on its airspace! Approach a beehive Even reptiles look after their broods — crocs beyond the Line of Control and… will guard their eggs and be gentle with their So the next time you visit the zoo and watch babies until they can fend for themselves. Tur- young men jump up and down and make tles alas, just lay their eggs and scuttle back in- faces and hoot in front of the monkeys’ cages, to the sea — but they make enough babies to you’ll know it’s because we are like that only. ensure at least one in a thousand lives to be a 100. (And, sad but true, people in undeveloped ranjit lal is an author and environmentalist

Q R

ND-X _ A

7 19BL BL

cover

BL BL 20 4

saturday, september 27,27, 2014 saturday, september 2014

● The biggest eater at the zoo is also its largest inhabitant. At about 2,700kg, a full-grown Asian or Asiatic elephant can wolf down 300kg of green fodder, 150kg of tree fodder, plenty of khichdi and at least two dozen bananas at a time.

Side dishes ● Like any other household, the zoo changes its menu every season — because nothing tastes as good (or is as cheap) in the season it’s traditionally grown in. The bears are not complaining. They can hardly wait for the beets to arrive in the markets this winter. ● There are exceptions to the rule, of course.

Shiva, the 34-year-old celibate rhino who was brought in from Mumbai to spawn a crash of calves, loved his ganna (sugarcane). So much so, that even when there was nary a cane to be spotted last winter, a special team was despatched to procure a bunch from a few farsighted ganne ke juicewaley; all for a king’s ransom, of course. Sadly, Shiva died of cancer earlier this year, so there won’t be no scouting for ganna anymore.

WILD!

Sugar daddy Rhino Shiva loved sugarcane best shiv kumar pushpakar ● A lavish spread was also laid out apparently, for the two ostriches that were rescued from a house in central Delhi three years ago. Plied with everything from almonds to spinach to apples (even in the off season). But the story of the big birds also ended in disappointment for the zoo staff. Just when they had begun to get used to their special status, the family that ‘owned’ the birds won a case in court and took them away. tarsh thekaekara but the ones raised in captivity rarely, if ever, ● Animals that are shifted from elsewhere also attack other animals or humans without prov- need a lot of TLC in the beginning, and food is ocation, and even if they do go for a ‘kill’, they a crucial tool to make them feel at home. The don’t really know how to tear it apart and eat Hoolock gibbons that arrived a couple of weeks ago from Mizoram, for instance, were it like their kin in the wild. ● To aid digestion, meat-eating animals obhosted at the zoo’s hospital and fed water and serve a weekly fast on Fridays. A day when they food at midnight — 10 hours after the kitchen may be at their grumpiest, so the zoo is shut. fires usually die out. The Bengal tiger cub Or wait, is it the other way round? when it first arrived got a steady supply of goat’s milk. Ostriches from Chennai (not relatMain course ed to their rescued friends in Delhi) were ● Onlearnt an average day, 95kg of bananas are Wilson, weaned in away from the(very foodcontropellets his gradually book Sociobiology have that violence and direct confrontabought forpeople the animals. they wereargues raised on. tion with does not work in the long versially) that even human behaviour, ● The haul fish is larger still at 150kg.

As the including emotions like altruism, can be fully term.

He isofcontinuously trying to outsmart skies clear up and the autumn clouds roll in, Dessert from the point of evolution. The them — using his brain rather than brawn — explained ● Sugar is of to animals narcotics are to huhowever, an additional ordered — this despite having infinitely50kg moreisbrawn than his majority elephantwhat behavioural scientists mans. But the chimpanzees hear of all it. time foradversaries. the zoo’s annual visitors, which in- would agree that it is hard towon’t fully explain human The only two residents of theDarwinism, zoo to get (and clude largethis flock of sassy, long-legged Siberactivities through but Howa can rather strange behaviour be elephant demand) a sugar prefer theirs stirred ian cranes. This is where the science gets mur- are explained? still bound by fix, the they limits of their discipline. ● AtAnimal 250kg, behaviour buffalo meat drunk every morning out of Primatologists in particular, ky. hasmakes tradi- up for the li- into milk. Milk on’s sharebeen (literally of theofdaily victuals. special chimphave mugs, mind you. pushing the tionally thetoo!) forte been strongly idea of chimpanzees having ‘culbiology, but increasingly there are more diverse explanations ture’ — broadly thought of as the Biologists are at best process of social learning from than pure science can offer. ‘Huunaware of all the peers that is passed on through man geography’ is engaging more and more with human- literature in the social generations. These ideas are have initially animal relationships and ‘ani- sciences, and at worst thought to Stolen pleasurescome sceptical of all of it from Japanese scientists, mal geographies’. AnthropoloFast and furious A monkey enjoys an but ice Asiatic cream after on its daily Frans de Waal’s books chimps gists have been discussing thelions skip lunch once a week on Fridays dose of kheer are now the leading works in this ways in which indigenous peovv krishnan vv krishnan ple across the world interact area of study. ● Store Veena Chandra, the first ● The monkeys, however, are allergic to sugar. with andin-charge, think about animals. woman to man the post,view supervises the delivTheir idea of agency dessert is sugar-free kheer ; the Traditional biologists the animals they Animals with natural sweetness of in milk is enough to with start ery and of vegetables, fruits and Geography’s interest animals started study asdistribution objects, where all their actions family feuds. Served the monsoons in the large saddles of meat.

Sometimes she also understanding howthrough species were distributed behaviour can be explained

by Darwinian lieu of the bread, which tendswith to attract oversees the slaughtering of like freshevolution, chicken. across ideas, triggered by processes earth’s surface, a morefungus, recent evenininterloping crows join theliterature melee. Forex-a Chandrastimulus is a vegetarian. the ‘human geography’ fitness, from their environment and rise No meatinstinct. or poultry leaves free lunchhow is a sweet lunch. a● survival They shunthe thestore idea until of ‘cul-a amining animals shape human culture. certificate of quality is issued everypartly morning ture’ playing a role in behaviour, be- Over the last decade, a growing group of resoity banerjee by veterinary Dr NisPanneerselvam. calling themselves ‘more than hucause ‘culture’officer in itself hard to define. EO searchers

Lunch at the zoo What’s on the menu at the Delhi zoo this season?

More brain than brawn Appetisers ● Twelve-odd people cook and serve over 1,500 animals at the Delhi zoo. ● The total spend on rations per month is anywhere between ₹25 and ₹30 lakh — a sum that can buy up to 12 Maruti Altos or 75,000 entry tickets to the zoo (₹40 for adults). ● All animals eat but once a day.

Bharathan, the elephant, has learnt to outsmart humans. Ideas of ‘culture’ rather than Darwinian evolution help explain this confounding elephant behaviour

WILD! Animal digest Sloth bears like beets (and alliteration, perhaps) shanker chakravarty; and (top) migratory Siberian cranes find a picturesque perch at the zoo, with the historic Purana Qila as a backdrop shiv kumar

pushpakar

ND-X _ A

Entrée ● Tree fodder, green fodder, vegetables, fruits, fish, beef,harathan chicken and make up the basis achicks ‘makhna’, a tuskless ket of supplies, arrivingand bright early ceat male elephant, a bit and of a local 6.00am. lebrity Most animals also fedaasmall concenaround are Thorapally, viltrate or alage kindalong of khichdi made of wheat bran, the Mysore-Ooty highway, germinated Bengal barley, oats, mace, right at the edge of gram, the Mudumalai Tiger Regroundnut oilNadu. cake, He turmeric and crucially, serve in Tamil is enormous and insalt. They arebut a discerning lot, after all. smarts, timidating, he’s also known for his ● Distribution is staggered in four lots, and is quickly learning to coexist with thestartpeoing he at 9.00am ending at 2.00pm.

The ple comes inand contact with.

He comes outpelof icansreserve (in flight) arenight the chief town this the every to try andcriers get food season.

They the arrival of the from near theannounce village. He hides quietly insunthe shine yellow truck long before bushes waitingdelivery for the jackfruit-seller to takeita starts its slow march around 176-acre zoo. pee-break before raiding his the stock, and tolerates a large number of tourists in close proximity — one even pulled his tail to try to get some ‘action’ out of him. When the forest department dug an ‘elephant-proof trench’ to keep him inside the reserve, he took to using the highway — scaring away the guard and Loudthe and check clear post. carefully stepping around Pelicans the When the locals gathered to tryannounce and prevent the delivery him from getting acrossarrival the of check post, he truck sandeep saxena went as far as to enlist the help of another ele● For the big cats, food isacted placed a designatphant!

While the friend as at a decoy to died spot and cages rattled twice thrice — vert attention, he are quietly made hisor way up to thinkelephant Pavlov’s chasers, bell — before they pounce the trumpeted loudly on to lunch.them Caretakers who putquickly the food their scare off, and then gotonacross. plates get aincredible risk allowance — just in case.

The tiThe most thread running through gersthe may be getting a lotBharathan of bad press lately, all anecdotes is that seems to

B

Q R

cover

saturday, september 27,27, 2014 saturday, september 2014

Animal eating habits

kill people, they invariably stand over them and try to cover them with leaves or mud, and are visibly distressed at what they have done.

They are also the only other species known to have rituals around death, where the herd gathers around a deceased animal, covers it with leaves and guards it against predators.

People living alongside wild elephants brim with stories about their intelligence. A herd of nine elephants between Gudalur and Ooty comes to mind. They walked along an electric fence surrounding a house for about 50 meters till they found the one fence post where the electrified wires had mistakenly been secured to the inside of the post. They neatly knocked over the post, and carefully stepped between the wires and crossed over.

They walked around the house, between flower pots, bending under a low-hanging roof, passing by large glass windows and even walked up and reversed back down a narrow stepped passage leading up to the kitchen.

They then quietly went back the way they had come, over the fence and back into the hills.

They did not eat anything — not the flowers, nor the young mango and dadap saplings, not even a clump of yellow bamboo — all elephant delicacies. The only evidence they left behind were the pile of dung and a knocked over broom near the kitchen. Everyone was intrigued by the strange behaviour, and the only feasible explanation was that they were exploring the new surroundings — making a mental map of the house that was now a part descriptions of encounters with elephants. of their new home range.

They clearly think of elephants as ‘non-human Conserving these amazingly intelligent anipersons’ and see each animal as an individual, mals in a crowded country like India is going some ‘good,’ some ‘bad’. They believe that mu- to be challenging. Only 22 per cent of the eletual respect between them and the elephants phant’s range is officially under ‘protected arallows them to coexist. She describes some eas’, and they come into contact with humans members of the community even talking to almost everywhere. And it’s not just about elewild elephants, persuading them not to dam- phants. The ability of large wild animals and age their houses or attack etarianism, like the wheel,people. is one of the most but it’s to made from beans excreted by civets. people share space is arguably going to be Biologists are at bestinunaware of all this lit- The important inventions human history.

Howcall it weasel coffee. challenges of one English of the biggest conservation erature in thewas social sciences, and 8,00,000 at worst theYou ever, cooking invented around mightAcross think these aredeveloped restricted future. muchhabits of the sceptical allperfected of it. Thisonly despite the fact years agoof and recently by that San- to the peculiar inhabitants strangeare counworld, numerous ‘rewilding’ofprojects untheyKapoor. are at the forefront decision-making in tries, jeev This means,offor the better part of andtothat youback can relax with white people. der way bring a suite of locally extinct the million field ofyears, wildlife conservation — which two we’ve been eating meat raw. This is not brain sandwich is asame delianimals ortrue. otherFried similar animals to the clearly involves both humans and we wildlife.

Why did civilisation develop after start- cacy in large parts of central States, ecological niche.

While most of United these projects Biologists andIt was ethologists ed eating meat? because it helped our and tongue are is a experimental favourite in classy establishand restricted (those grow. who Meat studycontains the behabrains high-quality pro- ments fromwithin coast-to-coast. is freely fenced offHaggis regions, some vioursasofwell animals in theamino wild) acids and mi- available in large teins, as essential Scottish supermarkets.

It consists and dangerous mammals, continue to document instanccro-nutrients.

Today, there are vegetarian of the liver, heart and lungs of aand sheep cooked including wolves bears, are Elephant brains are es of animal intelligence, reso-like beans and in a sheep’s making foods that can provide these, stomach.significant They add onions, herbs ‘comebacks’ comparable to ours in lutelybut independent theonly social tofu, agricultureofwas invented 12,000 and oatmealwith for flavour. populations increasing and terms of structure sciences’ interpretation of it. years ago, and without bigger brains, we Which brings us to sex. As many devout Hinranges expanding across Europe and complexity Elephants are invented one of the might never have it. No one knows dus have surmised, sexAmerica, and non-veg are closeand North putting them most tofu intelligent speciesThe after when was invented. inventor chose to ly connected. consumption of sex organs inThe direct contact with humans. humans,anonymous. and have The been the remain combiis common across cultures.

People and wildlife already live in subjectofofmeat numerous cognitive nation and cooking was Rockyproximity Mountainand oysters, exclose at veryforhigh tests.key Their are comparable to ours in densities across the tobrains our development. ample, areofnot oysters.

They are much South and Southeast terms offood structure complexity, with Cooked takes and less time to deep-fried calfAttenborough testicles, also Asia. And Africa, whichbull David The the quick energy cortex having as many are able bypresents digest.

An adult gorillaneurons. spends Theyprovided known as greatest criadillas in Mexico. world’s wilderness’, is cooked as ‘the to usehours tools, alearn andhis cooperate with nine day quickly digesting Apparently, they make men more perhaps, only now beginning to see a signifimeat left us free to each other inhim complex They are oneonofother food, leaving little tasks. time for virile. As do tiger penises, a cant human population expansion. focus things, the few animals that are self-aware and repainting or composing sonnets. sought after delicacy in China. It The only response from the conservation such as Candy Crush, spond to theenergy mirrorprovided test, wherebythey recognise The quick would seem obvious that confraternity seems to be burgeoning literature and trying to themselves theusmirror it onwhy cooked meatinleft free torather focus than think suming itsconflict’, penis is based counter-prothe ‘human-wildlife on the understand is another animal.such as Candy on other things, ductive, as this further assumption that people and hampers wild animals are Arnab is angry Theyand are even able to do basic arithmetic be- inherently incompatible.

Crush, trying to understand reproduction.The Butprotected the Chinese area yondArnab what is any other non-human species are approach separating why angry. are yet to realiseand this,nature and they humans has capable of. They havehow alsowe been Who we eat and eatobserved to be perhaps beenare willing pay high prices. useful for to conservation in the altruistic, where they actculture in ways that benefit past. But with them varies widely from Those who can’t afford tiger‘prosetbarely 5 per cent of India other animals, but not themselves. to culture.

Caution is called for while travell- tle for donkey penis, sliced like holistic salami, view. served tected’, we need to take a more A A For ‘rogue’ tuskerif in ing. example, ancentral EskimoIndia offersrecently you ice on lettuce.

It’s a and specialty at the Guolizhuang more nuanced interdisciplinary underknockedyou down a house, but when heard a restaurant cream, should probably refuse,it because Dongsishitiao Street. in particustanding ofon animals, and elephants babymake cryingititfrom stopped its rampage, and carethey reindeer fat. In Mexico, you larByinnow non-veg friends be lookanyour Indian context, is must essential for fully cleared debris aroundwhich the baby.

A do- ing should avoidthe the escamole, is made far more inoffensive than successful conservation.

Whileyou wehad in origiIndia mestic that accepting was working to plant nally from antelephant larvae. While an invitation thought,lessons with their kababs and have imbibed fromshami the global consertimber intotell holes that had been dugnakji’ into their to dine posts in Japan, them you have a ‘no nuggets.

Be kind them, and be vationchicken movement, we can alsoto give back a lot, the ground to put the post into one of thankful policy.

Nakjirefused is a small, whole octopus, eaten live in China. just and showyou howdon’t it is possible to liveAnd withlet’s nature, the holes, despiteoften its mahout’s goading.

When live.

The suckers stick to the mouth and hope yourlarge brainand isn’twild shrinking. even with animals. mahoutcausing looked,several he found a dog sleeping the throat, deaths every year. tarsh thekaekara biodiversity chowdhuryis isa the author ofconservationist The in some the hole, and the elephant clearly not shovon In cases, the non-veg creeps up did on you. and researcher working with The Shola Trust Authority want to kill it. elephants In Indonesia, theWhen Kopi Luwak looksaccidentally like coffee, Competent

It was only after we started consuming animals that human civilisation began to develop, beginning with animal husbandry and agriculture, and culminating in the iPhone

WILD!

W

e all love animals in different ways. I prefer them fried. According to French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, this means I’m part of the economic striving class, as opposed to the cultural striving class. The cultural strivers prefer them boiled, roasted or sautéed, because this is far more cultured.

Not everyone agrees with him. Many of my friends are vegetarian. Whenever they come to dinner, we make sure we have some vegetarian food. On the other hand, whenever we go to their houses, they never arrange for nonveg. In all other respects, they are perfectly nice people, yet they never see how wrong this is. Because we eat meat, are we not human?

Must common decencies not be observed?

How did we end up divided like this? What historical or socio-political forces caused this schism? How has the pernicious practice of non-vegetarianism developed over the years, manhow geographers’, have started viewing and does it manifest itself in different culanimals not are justsome as objects, but as issues subjects, tures?

These of the critical we with examine their own experiences, feelings, beliefs shall today.

Gruesome details will be etc. They believe animals have not ‘agency’, where fearlessly revealed.

If you’re vegetarian, theyhoping make you decisions thought and I’m will bebased by theon time you finish other cognitive reading this. processes.

Anthropologists also have some scintillatThree million years ago, all of us were vegeing insights on what it on means ‘live with’ anitarians.

We subsisted treetobark, nuts and mals fromWe an indigenous perspective, berries. were justcultural another animal, given thata these have grunting been livamongst host communities of other animals, ing relativelyatpeacefully alongside for pleasantries each other when weanimals met at the centuries. hole, Hunter-gatherer watering rather like the communities’ Madras Race ideas of animism are important in this, where Club.

Around 2.7 million years ago, we started animals, non-living beings (a the sun, eating meat.

The evidence is stone, the cut-marks our ancestors) naturalon phenomena (thunthat have been and discovered fossilised bones, der or wind) are all thought to betools. ‘otherItthan indicating butchery using sharp was human persons’.

Nurit Bird-Davidanimals has written only after we started consuming that extensively about the Kattunayakans hunhuman civilisation began to develop,(abeginter-gatherer tribe)husbandry in the Nilgiris their rening with animal andand agriculture, lationship with nature, some fascinating and culminating in the with iPhone.

Thus non-veg-

Mammoth glories Elephants are self-aware and even respond to the mirror test. Orphaned elephants (above) play at the Nairobi National Park afp/simon maina; (below) mahouts return with their elephants and calves in Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal pti

Q R Q R

Aliens all Could the brains of the PETA activists be shrinking? pv sivakumar; and (above) the face-off between vegetarians and meat-eaters is a product of sociopolitical and historical forces shutterstock

ND-X _ A

5 BL 21 BL

cover

BL BL 222

saturday, september 27,27, 2014 saturday, september 2014

Keeping upfishy withincamels Something my hilsa The disappearance of fish —from be itRajasthan? hilsa or salmon from reservoirs is cause for worry Will camels soon disappear Or will—the hardy herds beat disease, dwindling grazing lands and troubles in the sack?

G A

rowing up, Sunday was a special day in the calendar. Apart from being allowed to watch TV longer, the point wasRajasthan, the man who arthigh Latada village, Gamnarived at our block of flats carrying aluminiram Raika waits for thean skies to let um basketup. fullHis of fish, rightcamel after the news for 30-head herd is getthe hearing-impaired on DD. Since ting restive; had theiraired hindquarters digwe vegetarian household, never gingwere into aslush, faces turned away he from the stopped at our door.bySo,mange, I followed to heavy rain.

Afflicted somehim of his neighbours’ houses,Worry listened when he camels are limping. writin large on his waxed eloquent about the size of the face, Gamnaram surveys his herd andpomfret, makes a the freshness of the prawns will and the pronouncement: “Pickings be sterling slim at qualities odd mackerel that made its Pushkar.” of Histhe search for a camel mahout to way intohis theherd basket.

Sometimes, thereTough were manage has also been in vain. crabs I would spend hours, trailing him, as it istoo. to find a good camel handler in these watching deft hands slice through fish, parts now,his a more pressing problem isthe finding scoop its don’t innards, blood dripping everybrides.out “Girls want to marry camel herwhere.

In the beginning, I was scared ders anymore.

They find them toomore smelly, just than revolted.

Mysays mother cut vegetables, and like the camels,” Gamnaram, who is hapshe sometimes yams, but pilystruggled married but has twowith daughters whoI had are never seen anything as bloody as fish filleting. coming of age.

The man waspastoral not justsociety sellingoffish, had In the largely the he Raikas, caught most of them himself. couldcamel smell goat and sheep herders have You replaced the fish on him,prize his calloused hands toldare of herders as the catch. Their camels many nets cast. fisherman fishedmela in thethis esnot faring any Our better.

At Pushkar tuary off the coast of sell Bombay, in year, Gamnaram has to off his bringing male calves, find a robust one for breeding and, if made a good offer, also sell a female one. But ill-fed and prone to disease, his camels might not attract the price he wants. Or worse, his haandiyan (female camels) might not find a mate.

Poor prospects for both his camels and children have kept Gamnaram up for days.

Till a few years ago, Gamnaram’s herd was 60-camel strong. A few decades ago, his family

WILD!

Not a zoo-animal yet The Dromedary camel population is now under four lakh priyanka kotamraju

mostly marine fish. He was always in a hurry, are the ones harvested by the Fisheries Departlest the fish go “bad”. In time, his visits became ment. These men too don’t eat the fish they more infrequent and eventually, they stopped. catch. And, like most reservoir fishermen, catch is‘State dwindling. fishermen But my obsessions withcamels. fish and things their owned more than 1,000 Hisallbrother than accorded animal’ These status to the camonly heard of they’ve fishy had just begun. years later — and Thanaram, who had aFifteen herd of 60 till the earlyI have el, acknowledging its sea steepfish, decline.

Thenever State one. am soliciting ideas my camels third fish tattoo. noughties, has onlyfortwo now, for he caught assembly will also table a bill that seeks to proSometime back a documentary, Season Bhopal,onwhile conducting on tect hasInmoved to other livestockfieldwork for nuptial the camel likeI saw the cow; ban its slaughter Salmon camel on National Geographic, on fishing policy in reasons. the reservoirs of Madhyaown Pra- of and financial Gamnaram’s andthepromote products such as milk, runs along the Columbia River. At the desh, metfallen fishermen, unlike myhas BombroodIhas by half,who, and the camel all salmon dung and hair.

However, several challenges rewas difficult forofme to reconcile with bay fisherman, cast nets in reservoirs. time, but disappeared fromtheir his village. main it — disappearance grazing land, prolifidea of that salmon dieaafter I am They didn’t eat any of the they caught; on- the Once ubiquitous, the fish Dromedary camel eration disease and fall spawning. in male camel ly those thathas werenosedived unsold. They spent sure if I’mAsstill fully reconciled to it, it population since the entire early not population. the decline brings a but slow be the way evolution flows — pasone nights in their boats fishing.

Bringing inina seems noughties, falling more than 20 per cent changeto to the desert ecology of Rajasthan, way for of another.

Altering catch was as much abouttoquantity, as it was generation making the last livestock census less toral practices the Raikas and a river can entire about preserving die, rigor mortis the course ofRewaris than four lakh. it.

InOnce the fish desert tooalter havean lost theirecosysplace.

— the progressive stiffening that results from tem. Migration represents flow, interdependlandscape of Rajasthan — where nature of life.

Damsin—the by coagulation of muscle protein n Jojawar village, located camel caravans moved freely,— sets in. Fish ence and the cyclical In July, the need be iced as soon as they are brought out being physical foothills barriers that disconnect of the Aravallis,riverthe loverstorode them to clandestine government of — often cut have off rivers from their of water, ifand they aren’t, they Maru Raikas gathered for a meetings notorious high-start to smell ine landscapes Rajasthan accorded fish from spawning ‘fishy’ andplied soon their become inedible. funeral and a fewtheir weddings.

They waymen trade on The fisher- floodplains and ‘State animal’ status last century saw more fish men Bhopal lamented about bid farewell to one oflosing their themof — the decline is as steep as having only grounds. Thewill to the camel spawning the reservoirs to fish and theinlack of diversi- access to their oldest camel grounds breeders,than and ever will 50 per cent (even 70 in per cent ty in the catch.

Andarecently, fishermen in the before. For migratory whose also marryfish, off six girls genes of the are vilsome parts), as per local housemove, dams disrupt the codes Mettur dam in Tamil Nadu me about their hardwired tolage for whom they have secured hold survey conducted bytold Lokof years of evolution. lives — months Sansthan spent in one reservoir before set up by millions matches.

Opium pipes are lit, hit Pashu-Palak (LPPS), In the last two the and tide pamphlets has slowly moving on to next; the only available of camel chaidecades, distributed a collective of the camel herders.

Atfish Pushkar me- cups against So far, the largest announcing thedams. twin ceremonies handeddam out. las, which usually attracted thousands of turned is that the Glines Canyon Distinct from theofred-turbaned Godwardam, Raithese ungulates, participation has reduced removal nearly 90 and yearshis cutbrothers, off the upper rekas likefor Gamnaram they are and trade has slumped. The Bactrian camel — which of the Elwha river for migrating salmon. a larger, close-knit community of camel herwith two humps — has already made it to the aches theThe endGodwars of this month, the final phase of the ders. and Marus wear different International Union for Conservation of Na- By removal willpink) be complete.

Already, in turbans (red and and don’t intermarry, ture (IUCN) red list as a critically endangered dam years, salmon have made their away back yet both face the same problem: rapidly species; it won’t be too long before its cousin, three into the river.

India, the Once hilsa Jojawar, was oncea shrinking camelInpopulation. the Dromedary, joins it. and even Delhi — village in ofKanpur, aroundAllahabad 50 households, owned In July this year, the government of Rajas- caught 1,400km away from the river Ganga’s mouth.

Today, the hilsa stands obstructed at the Farakka Barrage in West Bengal. Hilsa catch continues to decline both in Bangladesh and West Bengal. The hilsa is the subcontinent’s salmon; there was a time it could be caught from every river in the region and even in the Persian Gulf, and in the Tigris and Euphrates.

Eating fish, like catching them, is seldom a solitary act. From spawning to catching to cooking, a fish brings together a veritable sea of humanity. Salmon runs have known to bring bears out of hiding. Hilsa runs bring out the Bengalis. The hilsa’s popularity For migratory fish, is a reminder of its (former) whose genes are abundance. Like the salmon, hardwired to move, the hilsa also faces hurdles. Dedams disrupt the spite its iconic status, especialcodes set up by ly among Bengalis, hilsa runs millions of years of are on the decline. evolution In Mauritania, which has some of the world’s best offthe-coast fishing, the national dish Thieboudienne — made of fish, potatoes and rice — is eaten communally.

In Malawai, locals believe “you haven’t eaten your fish until you have eaten its head”; I’m sure more than a few Bengalis will agree. As fish stocks diminish, so will ways of cooking and eating fish. This is not a premature obituary to dying fish populations, it’s just a reminder that, perhaps, eating fish is not just about eating fish.

In the mean time, I often wonder if my Bombay fisherman can still fish enough to continue being a fisherman.

Q

I

R

Q R

ND-X _ A

School is out Hilsa brought in from Bangladesh is sold at a fish market in Kolkata arunangsu roy chowdhury

ramya swayamprakash studies urban design, but spends her time obsessing about fish-centred worlds

scan by grumpy cat cover

saturday, september 27,27, 2014 saturday, september 2014

Same same, but different (clockwise from left) Gamnaram, a Godwar Raika; elders at Jojawar village; and herders from the Maru Raika community pouring camel milk into an aak leaf cup

I am the grumpiest!

No animal can replace me. priyanka kotamraju Not even that ugly frog

I

t is an atrocity when people or their better halves — animals — quote themselves.

But at times like this I am forced to repeat my own wisdom. I once said, “Is ‘ugh’ an emotion? Because I feel it all the time.” I feel UGHest right now. I earned my grumpy stripes — from years of being smarter and savvier than everything else. But now some upstart Grumpy comes along. Something called Black Rain Frog, if you please, is said to be the ‘new face of grumpy animals’ on — the only place that matters — the internet. It can frown and bulge all it wants. But it will never be a cat. Ugh!

activities of the camels, the successful and notso-successful attempts. Since 2002, when trade in camel meat began, most males started being sold for slaughter, not breeding. A year later at Pushkar, female camels followed suit. “If female camels are disappearing for slaughter, then extinction can be quite fast,” says Koehler-Rollefson, as camels reproduce “very slowly, only one calf in two years.”

For the Raikas, this is an untenable situation. Their relationship with camels goes back several hundred years, they claim. Part of their religious lore, the Raikas regard camel-herding as duty, not a livelihood. Funerals, weddings and household economies are designed around them. And the nomadic Raika enjoys family life for only a quarter of a year; travelling for eight months with his herd in a 50km radius, subsisting on camel milk and stopping by at the Pushkar and Nagaur fairs, where he might realise his yearly income. When asked why they continue to keep camels, the Raika looks at the past for answers. He tells of years marked by severe drought, when their families survived on camel milk for months together, sometimes even an entire year. “Yeh ek jaanwar hai jo sabko paalta hai (this is one animalpup that takes care ofYawn. everyone’s needs),” o, another goes missing.

What’s the fusssays reka akaal (the Jagannath.

“During the chappan ally? Sure, three-year-old Charlie is Rajasthan health drought little in 1956), I went without minister’s precious Beagle.

But for did90 andays entire police ka for mooh nahin dekha maine to (I station havefood. to goAnaaj looking it, launching a doghunt didn’t pet see“asap” any grain at all).”

Once in two find the missing and then getting nowhere? months, they would chew onsigned green chillies to I’m on a book tour in Michigan, where copies of clean their their camels lived on my latest bestseller, Thepalates, Grumpywhile Guide to Life: Observations air. have The hardy animalsdisappeared. have seen the

by Grumpy Cat, mysteriously TheRaikas FBI is through the of times. looking into it, but is it worst making news? Huh? Apparently, Theirthat close relationship, explains another Labrador went missing theperhaps, same time as the thetocommunity’s initial to market Beagle tried hog attention andreluctance confuse the police. camel milk.

Inup Jojawar, Amanram pullshappy out a Charlie, of course, turned a few days later, most leaves tucked into hisdivas. pinkGrumpy turban, few aak to see his comfy bungalow.

Dogs are such them into little cups and pours out Cat does nottwists approve. fresh camel milk. It is sweet, light and pleasant (similar to cow milk, except saltier). Why is camel milk so unpopular then? Dairies don’t stock it and a High Court ruling in 2000 (now overturned) called it unfit for human consumption. “We are partly responsible,” admits Amanram. Earlier, when a demand for camel milk arose from nearby villages, the Raikas did everything to arrest it. They dipped camels’ tails into the milk, contaminating it (which led to a diarrhoea scare). They spread rumours, warning unsuspecting people of frightful afterlives. Now, camel milk finds few takers, despite its documented health benefits for diabetes and autism.

Finding Charlie

Dead or alive, who cares?

It’s a pointless exercise, trying to save old mice

Pup goes missing; police on toes

S

13,000 camels. More than 150 Raika families today keep less than 800. Sixty-year-old Jagannath Raika blames it on the lack of grazing land. “Since Kumbhalgarh became a sanctuGochar ary, few pastures for grazing. just don’tremain get it. When cats have spent an eternity chasing lands) of ourand villages havehave al- invented traps, cages bhumi (common those pesky rodents, people so disappeared.” a peculiar study paid millions to keep and poison,Rajasthan why are isscientists getting in the them problem of grazing.

In theBusybodies early ’90s, enyoung and healthy? at Harvard University, I’m vironmentalists believedblood that from overgrazing by and injecting it into told, are drawing young mice livestock hadold ledrats. to a decline in birdofand predhoary The objective this pointless experiment, you ator populations. studies have ask? With theSubsequent young blood coursing through their veins, the showndying that this is not In to fact, out cured of all ailments. mice willtrue. spring lifekeeping once again, livestock directly ledpainful to a fall in the bird popIf that wasn’t enough, the researchers have decided to ulation Bharatpur. theexactly evidence, tryatit on humans. Despite Now, that’s what the world needs — 80forest year-olds departments have skipping continued keep hopping, andtojumping.

I hope I’m dead by cattle and out.

Unsurprisingly, the centhen.camels All nine times. sus has registered negative growth for all livestock animals, except buffaloes.

From diagnosing illness by smelling camel piss to helping them mate, the Raikas’ repository of ungulate knowledge is enviable. “I will recognise my camel even if it has been 20 years since I last saw it,” says a confident Jagannath. While it sounds impressive, identification is made easier by the herd sign. A long, thin line on the left hind leg is the mark of Gamnaram’s camels, a circular design on the neck for Jagannath’s herd. The camels are branded with iron rods before they turn one. he younger Raikas have moved on from “The Raika-camel relationship is unique,” camel-herding to more lucrative jobs in says Hanwant Singh Rathore, who runs a cam- right time simply by looking at their eyes. Usuel conservation farm and LPPS at Sadri, 20km ally, at the end of monsoons, male camels get Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore. The routes that from Latada. Set up in 1996, the aggressive. Separated from the camel caravans took, skirting the foothills of collective is a loose association herd, the males act up, stalking the Aravallis to the deserts of Pushkar and Jaiof camel breeders and herds. the females wherever they go. salmer, have changed, growing shorter and What started with medical help While thehouse males become ill-tem- shorter over the years. The vegetation too has e could never enter the In one breeding for camels in the early ’90s, the pered, the females get friendlier. changed — acacia bushes have given way to through the pet door.

He could season, a male camel LPPS is now a full-fledged organiIn one breeding never sit onto the mantelpiece.

He season, a male Prosopsis juliflora, which has now become an is expected sation to restore camel populacamel is expected to ‘service’ at environmental threat. Despite the dwindling couldn’t ride on the front seat of cars. ‘service’ at least his is how youpopulation, ruin your weekend.

Even I couldn’t camel collectives have sprung up tions, market its products and least 50 females. Herders help But50he could drink water straight females have planned a more embarrassing outing for the to preserve pastoral livelihoods. sustain pastoral practices. males mount the females; from the kitchen sink.the He was called cats and humans of Losif Angeles.

But, what the camelOver were10,000 soon topeople become Even in a herd of nearly 800 of a camel plonking Zeus, the Great Dane.theHedanger was the many inmuch cat costumes to fuss over a like the(ugh), gharial or the civet? camels, Jagannath knows them them is the ever present,turned as 60-up, extinct, world’s tallest dog. Andon now he is cats with delusions of grandeur at the LA Feline How much would the food web change?

“They all by name. “Suladh, Bheral, Bhiyear-old Raika few discovworld’s tallest dead dog.

SevenSojaram feet Film Festival last weekend.

They tell me thatjust Lil Bub won’t turn into zoo-animals yet,”was says ran, Heran…” he prattles on. Camel and herds, ered when he broke his 4 inches standing onarm his one season. there, the “internet sensation”“But bestif described by her Koehler-Rollefson. it disappears from however large or small, are matrilineal.

In the ’90s, the camel registered hindFe-legs, I wonder if they got a population spedad as “silly looking like a superhero.”

Tara, Rajasthan, thebut… consequences to the food web male calves are named after their mother if itsfor first bigBut fall when a disease resultcial—coffin him. maybe I will outbreakcat “real-life” feline superhero who off a dogmany to will be substantial.”

The fought Raika herders, she is red, her daughters are called Laali, in many “But that’s not the case miss ifhim.edWhen it abortions. rained, I could savethat her owner’s son,refuse was there too.

Word is that she of whom to keep other livestock, shake she’s black, they are all called Kaali. In stand Jagan-below anymore; him andother neverreasons get wet. have replaced made it to the feline hallin of disbelief. fame; let me tellday youwill there’s their heads That never nath’s herd, there are at least 20 Suladhs, 10 problem,” says Rathore. During that time, noKoehsuch thing.

Thetheir only cat who will really“survive deserved to be in come, camels almost anyBherals, 10 Bhirals, five Laalis, many Kaalis…

Rathore and German veterinarian Ilse LA was the Goats Kleptomay Kitty, cat burglar extraordithing”. perish, sheep may die out, The herders’ expertise also comes in handy ler-Rollefson, who has authored a book onDusty naire.

Was Ieven there to promote sure-to-be-blockbuscattle, but notmy their camels. once the breeding season sets in. “The camels camels, travelled for months with herders and ter-film Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever? You wish. need a lot of help to mate,” says Rathore. The their caravans. Armed with medical supplies, herders, claims Jagannath, can divine the they also maintained a roster — of the sexual priyanka kotamraju

I

It’s a dog’s life

T

Farewell Zeus, some man’s best friend

Q

Almost Famous

H

This feline film festival was a waste of time

R

T

ND-X _ A

3 23BL BL

HANG

saturday, september 27, 2014

BL

24

cornerstone in-faq by joy bhattacharjya Animals

S 1 2 3

trictly about animals. Of all shapes and sizes.

Think hard, look far, and have fun.

Which African country has the maximum elephants, more than one lakh at last count?

What are grolars? Or, for that matter prizzlys?

The colossal squid is a deep-sea inhabitant and the largest known invertebrate with adult sizes ranging between 39 and 46 feet.

Which is the only known creature that preys on adult colossal squid?

4

Rinca, Flores, Gili Motang and Padar are four of the only five islands in the world where you can see a specific species in the wild. What is the species and, for good measure, name the fifth island?

5

Which dog breed was developed in southern Africa when colonists crossed their dogs with the hunting dogs of the Khoikhoi to create an animal that could help hunt lions? It is also known as the African lion hound or the lion dog.

6

Fiction. This non-resident Indian was named after the author of the 17th century work Leviathan. His many designations include Club Mascot, Court Stenographer, Cartographer and Special Agent in charge of munitions. Who am I referring to?

the new york times crossword-1229

good one!

7

White House pets. Which American President claimed that he had more success with the Palestinians and Israelis than he had trying to solve the differences between his cat, Socks, and his Labrador retriever, Buddy?

8 9 10

What connects Lord Shiva, a British plumber named Cyril Henry Hoskins and the Tuatara, a lizard endemic to New Zealand?

The Coelacanth is perhaps the most famous example of a Lazarus species. What is a Lazarus species?

The 1997 comedy Fierce Creatures, a ‘spiritual successor’ to the 1988 hit A Fish Called Wanda, which also features the same stars, was dedicated to Peter Cook and which wellknown writer and naturalist?

ANSWERS

1. Botswana. Kenya, the most famous safari destination, has just over 25,000.

2. A grolar is the product of a male grizzly and a female polar bear. A prizzly is the other way round.

There are at least three recorded instances of grizzlypolar bear hybrids in the wild.

3. The sperm whale, the largest toothed whale.

Most of its diet comprises giant and colossal squid.

4. The Komodo Dragon; the island is Komodo.

5. The Rhodesian ridgeback 6. Hobbes, also First Tiger and Club President of G.R.O.S.S (Get Rid Of Slimy girlS). After all, he is a Bengal Tiger.

7. Bill Clinton 8. The Third Eye. The Tuatara is unique in having a third eye in the middle of its forehead at birth. Cyril Hoskins claimed to have been the spirit of a Tibetan Lama named Lobsang Rampa and wrote The Third Eye. Lord Shiva’s third eye burned Kama to ashes.

9. A species believed to have been extinct for many years when it suddenly reappears — named after the biblical character Lazarus, who was raised from the dead. The Coelacanth was believed to have been extinct at least 65 million years ago when a live specimen was found in 1938.

10. Gerald Durrell

ND-X _ A

joy bhattacharjya is a quizmaster, director Kolkata Knight Riders and author of Junior Premier League — The First XI t@joybhattacharj

Note: When this puzzle is done, draw a line connecting the 21 circled letters from A to U in alphabetical order. The resulting shape will provide a clue to 6-, 8-, 14-, 53- and 70-Down.

ACROSS 1 Help to harm 5 Part of a pharaoh’s headdress 8 Worker with a trowel 13 Much 16 Mideast capital 17 Symbol of mass density 18 Mercurial 19 “The Caine Mutiny” captain 21 Many an early French settler in America 23 More off-putting 24 European capital 25 Special seating area in an airplane 26 Cry from Scrooge 27 With 63-Down, 1997 P.G.A. champ who captained the 2012

U.S. Ryder Cup team 29 Good scores in diving 30 Like many coats and tunes 33 Make calls 34 General ___ chicken 35 Special mall event 37 Bride of 1981 39 Jules or Jim in “Jules et Jim” 40 Amarillo-to-Dallas dir.

41 L.G.B.T. rights advocate 42 Iowa city 43 Done: Fr. 45 Lands 47 Without ___ (dangerously) 48 It may be full of icons 51 Tease, with “on” 54 2-Down, for one 55 Some H.S. math 56 Slanting 58 “Say what?”

59 One more 61 Words that precede “Born is the King …”

63 House committee chairman Darrell 64 Mexican sauces

65 Ear-related study 66 Hilarious types 67 Strain 68 Reproductive stock 70 New hire, typically 72 Hydrocarbon suffix 73 Target number 74 Fr. holy woman 75 British rule in India 76 [I’m mad!]

77 “Don Quixote” composer 79 Idiosyncrasies 81 Overseas assembly 83 Number-crunching grp.

84 Bach’s “___, Joy of Man’s Desiring” 85 Greek earth goddess 86 Robe closer 89 Nuke 90 Chef Lagasse 92 Unseen scenes 94 Taunt 95 One ___ customer 96 Name on a swim cap 98 Funny Anne 100 Giving a boost 103 How-___ 104 Moneymaker for Money 106 Compact Olds

107 Futuristic weapon 109 Like a rendition of “Deck the Halls” 110 He’s no Einstein 111 Boo-boos 112 Thriller writer Follett 113 Rural storage 114 Preserve, in a way 115 China producer 116 Nettle 117 Half of a noodle dish?

DOWN 1 Gray 2 Good source of aluminum 3 What cowlings cover 4 Took up the slack in 5River of Pisa 6 [See blurb] 7 Something it’s not good to go to 8 [See blurb] 9 Cousin of “aargh!”

10 Lose traction 11 Mrs. ___ cow 12 Braced (oneself) 13 Give it the gas 14 [See blurb] 15 Expulsion, as of a foreign diplomat 18 Majority owner of Chrysler 19 Play callers, for short 20 Big money units, in slang

22 Lead-in to while 26 ___ cheese 28 Beatles tune from “A Hard Day’s Night” 31 Some wings 32 Broad 36 ___-Coeur (Paris basilica) 38 Unknot 44 Suffix with sentimental 46 Cries of joy 47 Throw for ___ 48Common game piece 49 Expulsion 50 Futuristic weapon 51 One of 11 pharaohs 52 Bedub 53 [See blurb] 55 Termite’s nemesis 57 Item in Santa’s sack 60 Eastern holiday 62 Ransacks 63 See 27-Across 65 Home of Thunder Bay: Abbr.

66 ___ Rao, “The Serpent and the Rope” novelist 68 Tailors’ inserts 69 Sister of Helios

70 [See blurb] 71 Charged 73 In the role of 78 Guest-star in, say 80 Nile deity 81 Mideast ruler 82 Symbolic effort in support of equal rights 84 “Cloud Shepherd” artist 85 Departs 87 Writer Ann 88 Mideast national 89 Self-sealing bag 91 Vintage wedding gown fabrics 93 Mideast ruler 94 Spanish cession in the Spanish-American War 97 Millennia on end 99 Extension 101 Charge carrier 102 Greek diner order 105 Winter sports locale 108 Son of ___ 109 Bit of winter sports equipment

By Elizabeth C. Gorski / Edited by Will Shortz

Reach us at blink@thehindu.co.in. Follow us on t@Ink_BL and facebook.com/hbl.blink or log on to thehindubusinessline.com/blink