Climate Act Challenge - Day 17

Reflections on Wildlife

All of us love the wilderness and connect to it because it’s the original connection we all have as homo sapiens / humans. Beyond our brief connection when we are in the wild, I think our nearest connection would be the national geographic magazine / channel or an animation film like NEMO.

My weekly connection was with a columnist in The Hindu newspaper Janaki Lenin who writes beautifully about wildlife behavior as seen by students who stay with them / observe them for a long period of time (similar to the article by Carl Safina. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/09/the-secret-call-of-the-wild-how-animals-teach-each-other-to-survive-aoe) I never imagined or thought about cultural diversity in animals. Read the article and we will observer that there is no difference between humans & animals except the houses, planes, malls etc which we have built.

Save the Bees::

There are a few tall trees which are there in our apartment and this is the time (April end - May) when bees make their bee hives in these trees and a few other parts of their apartment. Everyday when I stroll with my morning tea on the balcony in? the morning I would fine few dead bees. Interested I went and searched & understood that worker bees have a very short life of ~ 25 days. People interested can read here (https://www.perfectbee.com/learn-about-bees/the-life-of-bees/inside-and-out-of-the-beehive )

For many years, bee removers were called and the bee hives removed - killing all the bees. Few years back, few of us got together and found someone who can now remove the hives without killing any bees. Indian culture traditionally teaches us to respect wild & wild animals, Like cows were considered sacred, so were the rivers - every river had a beautiful name and there are stories around rivers and mountains. Jataka Tales was our favorite so we had comics like Tinkle - where a crow would be able to talk and there would be a moral of the story.?

So, I grew up respecting animals and the wild. My visits to the mountains, farms which are in the outskirts & even my village in Assam rekindles this spirit. I had stumbled on - My Octopus teacher last year before it became so famous & seeing it was almost like meditation.?

I think my efforts will be more towards preservation of these forests / wildlife in whatever way I can - like the FSC mark and minimizing my carbon footprint, learning more about the wildlife (birds) around my apartment where I stay & share them with children and teach them / show them the bio-diversity which exists in our backyard - rechristened as apartment gree area :( in 200's.?

Around a month back, I had spotted a baby kingfisher who keeps coming to a particular place in the apartment & every day when I walk past that place I keep talking to her in my mind - Hey Kingu where are you? I hope I see her tomorrow ??