nimmijay

Monday, May 01, 2006

Dr.Salim Ali

MID NIGHT JAR

My good friend Sridhar inspired me to write this article, when I narrated my seven day stay with the GURU of Indian Ornithology, Dr.Salim Ali. My mentor and inspiration Prof. K.K.Neelakantan, invited me one day to a talk by Dr.Salim Ali in Maharaja’s College , Ernakulam, where I was studying first year degree in 1962. After the inspiring talk , he introduced me to the great man , who promptly invited for a 7 day camp at Chenganoor, Kerala. I did not need a second invitation and I was in the next bus to Chenganoor. We travelled 10 kms from Chenganoor to a village and crossed by boat to another village full of Cane Sugar fields. I do not remember the name of the village. Dr himself received us ( 2 students from the college) and impressed me with his down to earth simpilicity to make sure that we were comfortable. We stayed in a small house sleeping on the floor, with Dr sleeping in the open on a foldable camp cot. There were two more Zoology students from Bombay working on their PhD.

Yellow Wagtails were the migratory birds visiting the village in large numbers. In my estimate around 10,000 birds were roosting on the sugar cane fields. The project undertaken by BNHS was to ring them. We used to tie mist nets around the fields and drive the birds from underneath the sugarcanes. The birds would fly sideways and get stuck in the nets. Then we would collect them in bags, bring them to camp, insert light aluminium alloy rings in their legs and release them. It was hard work starting tying the nets early morning around 4 a.m., collecting birds till 10 a.m. The ringing would be completed by 12 noon. We would tie the nets by 4 p.m. and again collect birds from 6 p.m. till 8 p.m. The ringing would go on till 10 p.m. The hard work , untiring energy and enthusiasm of Dr at that age ( he must have been 60 plus) is to been seen to be believed. One night at around 1 a.m., we were all woken up by Dr and we had run behind him half asleep tosee a rare night jar whose call Dr had heard in the night. He showed us the bird high on a tree with his powerful torch. It was an unforgettable experience to spend a few days with great man. I got hooked to birds for life.

K.Jayaraman

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