Koonthankulam: Nature Never Fails
By Veena M
18 May, 2015
Countercurrents.org
This is in continuation with what i wrote to Counter Currents on 24 May,2014, in the name Koonthankulam - Will It Survive The Impacts Of Climate Change? An year later so many things happened in the Government sector and the village, that is amazing and all too glorious of the role of Nature, which nurtures and make sure things should move on in spite of the policies, and the policy makers or the decisions they make. Though four years the rain gods refused to shower their blessings, once it decided to visit the area, it really made the desert bloom into thusands of migratory birds and other visitors.
Four years people were waiting for rains in Koonthankulam. Four years in a continuous row the migratory birds failed to visit or even breed here. People were even thinking of abandoning the rain-scarce villages in and around. But even towards the end of the season, into February and beginning of March 2015, it rained well in the Thirunelveli, Thoothukudi districts of Tamilnadu, bringing along with it the huge flocks of migratory birds, the strange bag-beaked pelicans, long-legged multi-coloured painted storks, whistling ducks, bar-headed geese and an array of birds and insects too.. And along with it arrived the graceful, elegant flamingos in hundreds, blazing the waters with their reflections.
The laymen along with Palpaandi the birdman, had knocked the doors of various government offices asking them to let the tank be filled with water when it rained up in the mountains and the dams get filled up. But their pleas were unanswered as the southern Tamilnadu received scanty rains all these years. The huge tanks of Koonthankulam and Kaadankulam which is a sustenance to humans and animal world alike, has become a brooding and breeding ground to many. The sky and land are filled with the cries and colours of the wonderful feathered friends.
State Planning Board, chaired by Mrs. Santha Sheila Nair and others have held meetings to look into the situation. But they were also challenged by the fact that there is no water up in the mountains too. Since Koonthankulam was one of the oldest bird sanctuaries, government on the whole was worried about what to do. But Nature proves again, she might be a bit late but that she won’t keep out of the scenario. And this is how the place looks like now.
Painted storks and pelicans, nesting and with nestlings on almost all the thorny, Babul or the Accacia nilotica trees, thousands of birds scanning and sieving the water for fish and other food, newlyweds flying up and down, gathering stuff for their nest and building it, untired parents flying up and down feeding their babies and have to say, it is a sight once you got a chance, you want to relish it for a lifetime. And the people happily relieved that they don’t have to abandon their villages at all, as they can continue their life of tilling the land and culturing it for planting and propagation. And very very happy the birds are back...
"May Day"
By Sara Teasdale
A delicate fabric of bird song
Floats in the air,
The smell of wet wild earth
Is everywhere.
Red small leaves of the maple
Are clenched like a hand,
Like girls at their first communion
The pear trees stand.
Oh I must pass nothing by
Without loving it much,
The raindrop try with my lips,
The grass with my touch;
For how can I be sure
I shall see again
The world on the first of May
Shining after the rain?
Veena M is working with an NGO - Eco-Solutions. Photos by Jean Nettar
Tags
.
Comments are moderated