An Indian Bureaucrat’s Diary

After the monsoons, Flamingoes – the lesser and the greater ones – and a lot of other migratory birds come to the coastal mudflats of India from the North.They feed on the mudflats during the next five or six months and return to their homelands in April or so.

They also come to Sewree in Central Mumbai in large numbers. Read the rest of this entry »

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Once upon a time, Bombay (Mumbai) had vast areas of mangrove forests.
Over the years, most of these  were cut down.
And the Maharashtra Government and its impotent officials remained mute spectators.

Bombay High Court to the rescue

In India, the Supreme Court and the High Courts – even though they are horribly overburdened with work – are able to do what the governments fail to do. Read the rest of this entry »

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When I was about 9 or 10 years old (well,                                                          

that was a good five and a half decades ago),

I first read about the Flamingo in Lewis Carroll’s

wonderful book – Alice in Wonderland.

So strange was the depiction that I thought the Flamingo was an imaginary bird.

Flamingoes are truly strange looking birds.
And they feed in a peculiar fashion.
They immerse their entire heads in the mud in the bottom of the water – upside down.

Description

There are six species of flamingoes in the world.
Of these, only two species – the Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) and the Lesser Flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor) are found in India.

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the largest mass nesting site of
Olive Ridley turtle
in the world

Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary is the only marine sanctuary in Orissa (Eastern India).
This Sanctuary is extremely important because it is the largest mass nesting site of the Olive Ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys olivacea) in the world.

There are only four mass nesting sites of the Olive Ridley turtles in the world.
Of these four, the ‘Playa Ostional’ is in Ostional village in Costa Rica.
The other three are in Orissa.

The three mass nesting sites of the Olive Ridley turtles in Orissa are: Read the rest of this entry »

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Unique Wildlife Sanctuary

According to the Ramayana, Lord Ram himself stood at this point and carried out reconnaissance of Ravana’s kingdom in Sri Lanka just 48 kms. away.
A stone slab at Ramarpatham (meaning Rama’s feet), the highest point of Point Calimere, bears the foot prints of Ram.

Now it is a unique wildlife and bird sanctuary.

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Unique Temple of the Formless Shiva

I have visited Chidambaram several times for three reasons.
· To meander through the Mangrove Forests of Pichavaram to the beach beyond.
· To visit, attend or give lectures at the Annamalai University.
· And to visit the Chidambaram Temple.

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Land of the Royal Bengal Tiger

Largest Delta in the World

The two great rivers, Ganges 2,510 km. (1,560 miles) and Brahmaputra 2,900 km. (1,800 miles), are born in the snowy peaks of the Himalayas. On the last lap of their long journey, just before they enter the Bay of Bengal and merge with the oceans, they meander through the plains of Bangladesh and West Bengal (India) creating the largest delta in the world.

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