World Earth Day

To mark World Earth Day yesterday, let me share a wonderful quote by great naturalist John Muir.

" A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease. Every hidden cell is throbbing with music and life, every fiber thrilling like harp strings, while incense is ever flowing from the balsam bells and leaves. No wonder the hills and groves were God's first temples, and the more they are cut down and hewn into cathedrals and churches, the farther off and dimmer seems the Lord himself."

Jerdon's Courser

What is it, one may ask ? It is the name of a bird, an endangered bird in India. As for how it got its name, Wiki says "The bird was discovered by the surgeon-naturalist Thomas C. Jerdon in 1848 but not seen again until its rediscovery in 1986. This courser is a restricted-range endemic found locally in India in the Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh. It is currently known only from the Sri Lankamalleshwara Sanctuary, where it inhabits sparse scrub forest with patches of bare ground."

The Hindu in last August 09 reported the story of its sighting thus.

"The sighting of the critically endangered Jerdon’s Courser, a ground bird found in scrub jungles, after many years has come as "major boost" to the conservation efforts of wildlife activists and environmentalists, to save the species.

Two Jerdon’s Coursers were spotted by BNHS scientist Rahul Chavan and his local assistant Rahim in the core area of Sri Lankamalleswara Wildlife Sanctuary in Cuddapah district of Andhra Pradesh on the morning of August 6, 2009.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden at Hyderabad, Hitesh Malhotra said, "This excellent news is very reassuring. We all need to increase efforts for the protection of Jerdon’s Courser with renewed vigour."

The sight of this rare nocturnal bird has come as a major boost to the conservation efforts for this near-extinct species, according to BNHS.

"It is a big boost to our conservation efforts, particularly to add some land to the Sanctuary, which the proponent of the Telugu Ganga Canal had promised," BNHS Director, Asad Rahmani said.

BNHS has been conducting field research on Jerdon’s Courser for the past years to help conserve the species, in collaboration with UK-based Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Andhra Pradesh Forest Department, University of Cambridge and University of Reading, funded by the Darwin Initiative.

P Jeganathan of Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore, who is a part of the Jerdon’s Courser Project, said that the recent sighting indicates that these rare birds exist in the area and further efforts are required to locate them in more places.

RSPB's International Officer for India Ian Barber said, "Jerdon's Courser is clearly a bird on the edge of existence. Although there is a great deal of international co-operation to prevent this bird's global extinction there are many pressures, especially habitat loss that could force the Courser into oblivion."

The ongoing research work of BNHS and RSPB in Andhra Pradesh aims to gather more information about its ecology, breeding habits, distribution and habitat use.

The survey is in progress in different areas in and around Sri Lankamalleswara Sanctuary. Automatic camera traps are being used to get photographs of this elusive bird and track strips which retain the foot prints, mainly to detect its presence, a BNHS release said."

Switch oFF Lights

On March 28th, 2009, you can switch off all lights from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm to observe Earth Hour. The lights will be switched off as an indication that you are committed to saving energy and is ready to take steps to save the world environment.

The lights out initiative, which began in Sydney in 2007 as a one-city environmental campaign, has evolved into a grassroots action that has captured the attention of the citizens of the world. In 2008, 371 cities across 35 countries turned their lights out in a united call for action on climate change.

Purely symbolic gesture, yes, but everything big has to start off with these kind of simple initiatives, right ?

Ecoconscious

Myth: We have to save the earth. Frankly, the earth doesn't need to be saved. Nature doesn't give a hoot if human beings are here or not. The planet has survived cataclysmic and catastrophic changes for millions upon millions of years. Over that time, it is widely believed, 99 percent of all species have come and gone while the planet has remained. Saving the environment is really about saving our environment - making it safe for ourselves, our children, and the world as we know it. If more people saw the issue as one of saving themselves, we would probably see increased motivation and commitment to actually do so. -Robert M. Lilienfeld, management consultant and author and William L. Rathje, archaeologist and author.

Balbir Singh Seechewal

Time in its Heroes of the Environment 2008 has honored Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal who has taken upon himself the task of "cleaning and mending the sewage-ridden, weed-choked rivulet Kali Bein" in Punjab. Here is the link:

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1841778_1841781_1841808,00.html

Here is the link for an old story on him in Outlook magazine:

http://www.outlookindia.com/mad.asp?fodname=20031201&fname=Making&sid=1

I salute him and wish we had such noble souls in my state Tamil Nadu too.

"88888" Campaign

I have been reading in newspapers for the last few days about the plan to voluntarily switch off power at 8 p.m. to 8:08 p.m. for eight minutes on August 8th in symbolic support of Exnora's campaign to create awareness about global warming . It is indeed a laudable initiative. It is heartening to read that many school students have taken a pledge to implement the plan. It is high time young school kids are sensitized to environmental concerns at an early age. I will do my bit too and switch off power on 8th August at 8 p.m. and sensitize my son Nikhil towards saving our fragile ecosystem.