ecology

I conducted the Campus Bird Count at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, on two days, Saturday, 13th Feb, and Sunday, 14th Feb 2016. I had already mentioned that as birders and naturalists, our team would be carrying their own water bottles, and that IIMB should only provide for filling up the bottles and not set out PET bottles of mineral water. After the count on the morning of the 13th, IIM-B hosted our birding team for breakfast. I noted the small mineral water PET bottles at each place setting and requested the Dean of Administration, Dr G Shainesh, not…

I took this picture from the top of Nandi Hill. Well, OK, technically, it's not Bangalore...yet. But remember the times when Whitefield, Sarjapura and Yelahanka were not Bangalore, either? The point I want to make is that a new layout has been created...and for all those homes, there is just one young tree, and perhaps some very small plants that one can see. What happened to our culture of planting trees on every road, so that we had shady avenues instead of bare streets? Why do we now have those in authority claiming that "Trees belong only in parks"? I…

I took this picture from the top of Nandi Hill. Well, OK, technically, it's not Bangalore...yet. But remember the times when Whitefield, Sarjapura and Yelahanka were not Bangalore, either? The point I want to make is that a new layout has been created...and for all those homes, there is just one young tree, and perhaps some very small plants that one can see. What happened to our culture of planting trees on every road, so that we had shady avenues instead of bare streets? Why do we now have those in authority claiming that "Trees belong only in parks"? I…

The cast and some of the crew taking a bow after the show. It's always a challenge to go to a play after it's done several shows. This happened to me on 28th November, 2014, when I attended the staging of "Our Iceberg Is Melting", by Bangalore Little Theatre (BLT), at MLM Convention Hall, J P Nagar. The play, the fourth of a series, was staged by BLR in partnership with the Association for the Mentally Challenged (AMC), is the dramatization-adaption of the book, "Our Iceberg Is Melting", by Professor John Kotter. The play came about after Priya Venkatesh, long…

The cast and some of the crew taking a bow after the show. It's always a challenge to go to a play after it's done several shows. This happened to me on 28th November, 2014, when I attended the staging of "Our Iceberg Is Melting", by Bangalore Little Theatre (BLT), at MLM Convention Hall, J P Nagar. The play, the fourth of a series, was staged by BLR in partnership with the Association for the Mentally Challenged (AMC), is the dramatization-adaption of the book, "Our Iceberg Is Melting", by Professor John Kotter. The play came about after Priya Venkatesh, long…

It’s a given that you should be drinking lots of water a day. Especially given air-conditioned offices, it becomes even more important to remember to drink – and have a bottle handy that’s easy to refill and keep sipping from. And from what we’ve seen, everyone uses plastic bottles! We don’t like those at all. Why? Read this. Or take a look at this. Clearly, even recycling is NOT a solution. It has to be stopped at the source of the demand – consumption! So we decided to do something about it. You’ve already seen we’ve been using these at our properties. They’re pretty popular…

It’s a given that you should be drinking lots of water a day. Especially given air-conditioned offices, it becomes even more important to remember to drink – and have a bottle handy that’s easy to refill and keep sipping from. And from what we’ve seen, everyone uses plastic bottles! We don’t like those at all. Why? Read this. Or take a look at this. Clearly, even recycling is NOT a solution. It has to be stopped at the source of the demand – consumption! So we decided to do something about it. You’ve already seen we’ve been using these at our properties. They’re pretty popular…

A group of ecologists and experts including Dr M B Krishna, have come up with a report called"Ruining the ecology of Hesaraghatta Lake - the role of bird photographers. From the report's introduction:"The Hesaraghatta lake bed is facing another assault. Parts of the lake bed have become barren and have been laid waste due to heavy vehicular movement on the lake bed. In this case most of the damage is due to nature photographers chasing migratory birds using cars and SUVs."A rapid assessment of the impacts caused by nature photographers driving on the dry Hesaraghatta lake bed reveals a wide…

A group of ecologists and experts including Dr M B Krishna, have come up with a report called"Ruining the ecology of Hesaraghatta Lake - the role of bird photographers. From the report's introduction:"The Hesaraghatta lake bed is facing another assault. Parts of the lake bed have become barren and have been laid waste due to heavy vehicular movement on the lake bed. In this case most of the damage is due to nature photographers chasing migratory birds using cars and SUVs."A rapid assessment of the impacts caused by nature photographers driving on the dry Hesaraghatta lake bed reveals a wide…

Dr. S. Subrahmanya ("Subbu"), one of the very experienced naturalists/ornithologists of Bangalore, writes:Over the recent years, I have been campaigning for planting bird-friendly plants in gardens. In the process, based on my own observations, I have developed the concept of a 'Sunbird Corner' that can be adopted in sizable home gardens and public parks.This Sunbird Corner is developed on the concept that nectar available to sunbirds is in short supply and that habitually, individual sunbirds or pairs defend known sources of nectar yielding plants. Towards this, sunbirds tend to become territorial and ward-off any unwelcome `thieves'. Thus you can spend…