Nature Orientation camp at Mydanahalli

Most schools arrange annual excursion for children in the name of Educational Tour. A series of temples, gardens and picnic spots are visited in the trip dominated by bus journey.  Precious wilderness areas en-route are vaguely ignored and never considered for a stop. But few schools plan exposure visits to wilderness areas- far and near.  TVS Academy runs one such school in Tumkur which categorically conducts exposure visits to their students. Starting from the tender fifth graders to tenth graders they have a fixed destination. The lower classes begin with a day’s visit and as the kids grow they are taken out for greater distance and duration. As the plan intends, the sixth graders are taken out within the district.  Every year the sixth grade comes here to study Grassland ecosystem. There couldn’t be a destination better than Mydanahalli for that purpose. 

Mydanahalli is close to Madhugiri and accessible by road. Mydanahalli grassland that was just a community grazing land was declared Community wildlife reserve once healthy populations of black bucks were reported from here.  A watch tower constructed by the forest Department in the late nineties was the only shelter for the visitors who stayed over night. The circular room which served as a rest place for the forest staff shoulders the watch tower. It has roof made of tiles and stands about twelve feet above the ground.

Now there is a suitable place to accommodate thirty students and few teachers. A hall measuring 15X25 has two rooms with attached bath rooms. The rooms have two cots each. There is a tiny kitchen that seems to have been built for the two watchers who stay to look after the site.

The team of thirty seven students and three teachers arrived on the noon of Dec  2010.  Manu accompanied the team to conduct the camp.  After a brief introduction the class was taken out for a Nature walk. The students were shown how to identify grass species and were asked to collect grass specimens

Children collecting grass specimen.

 

. Teams were assigned different directions to collection Grass and carry them back in the long envelope made out of drawing sheets specially made to collect plant specimen. Later they were made to lay out their collection upon a chart and enumerate the diversity in them.

The activity promoted observation and a healthy competition among the students. They not only learnt to identify grass but realized the diversity in them and the way they were distributed. After tea there were some games to encourage socializing among the students.  And in the night there were audio visual presentations on Grassland ecosystem and its importance.

The following day there was an early morning nature walk and after a solid breakfast the teams were taken out for an observation of Blackbucks. The students learnt to sit quietly at a place and observe black bucks. In the far distance there were several dozens of them and some even were mixed up with the cattle. The bucks were in fact very close to the herdsman, prompting the kids to stalk for a black buck.  However they were to be held back and encouraged to make observations through binoculars and take count of them.

Observing Black bucks

That evening Mr. Prasanna and Mr. Gundappa arrived to share new games with the kids. In the Audio Visual session they presented the story of the conservation of Black bucks at Mydanahalli. It was followed by a film show on Savannas and its animal life.

The third day was packed with more of  hands-on activities such as tracking animals, counting the cattle and assessing their pressure on the black buck population. Prasanna demonstrated the age old process of taking plaster cast of foot prints.

Children making notes of their observation.

There was a group discussion and role play regarding the issues related to Black buck conservation. Children content with high spirits to push through their view points until the camp culminated. It was a fruitful and memorable three days with a lot of learning experience for everybody in the camp.

Where Black bucks share home with Flamingoes

Any one interest in birds and has watched Shekar Dattatri’s documentary Point calimere-Little Kingdom by the Coast would definitely plan a trip to that place. I had Flamingoes on my wish-list of ‘birds to be seen’ since long. This place was one of the largest wintering grounds of the Greater Flamingoes and chances of spotting them were quite high. I planned a trip to experience the little heaven first-hand. After some hit and miss it got materialised last January.

Point Calimere Wildlife sanctuary lies on the Coromandel coast in Tamil Nadu and is virtually a miniature peninsula, protruding into the sea from the mainland. On one side you find the swamps because of its low altitude and on the other two sides you have the sea. It is one of the largest wintering grounds of Greater Flamingoes and plays host to thousands of migratory water birds. The dry scrub forests and the swampy grasslands by the sea are also home for the endangered Blackbuck, chital, Indian Wild pig, Jackal and blacknaped Hare.  It was notified as a sanctuary for the conservation of the Blackbuck as early as 1969. 

It lies in Nagapattinam district and is close to Rameshwaram, the town where Hindus believe that Lord Rama built a bridge to SriLanka. In fact Srilanka is just about 16 kms from here as a crow flies. The nearest small town is Vedaranyam which is poorly connected to the other major towns in Tamilnadu.  From Chennai, one must change buses at Thanjavur, Thiruturaipundi and Vedaranyam. The last leg of 10 kms to Kodikarai could be done in local transport.

Salt being loaded to be dispatched of to far off places.

Disturbed shoreline.

 Salt making is a prime occupation of many people and large swathes of coastal plains are converted into salt pans. These pans are flooded with sea water during the high tides and are allowed to evaporate in the hot sun. Salt pans are rich in crustaceans like shrimp sand crabs and attract a lot of birds. We took the suggestion of staff in the rest house and choose to go some bird watching near these salt pans early morning.  We saw large number of little stints, plovers, in their feeding frenzy and taking to air without any hint and performing acrobatics. 

A pair of Little ringed plovers.

There were many terns and gulls of different kinds but we were desperate to see the flamingo. As it got hotter we were about to give up our search for flamingoes while a man supposedly a guard with the Forest Department appeared. He enquired where we were from and what were we looking for. “Flamingoes”? He enthusiastically pointed towards the island in front of us where he had seen them some time ago. He borrowed our binoculars and gazed towards the sea and spotted a flamingo far, far away from us. All we could see was a spot of pink in the blue waters. We had to strain our eyes to perceive the shape of the flamingo.

The man suggested that we walk on the bund and if luck prevailed we could find more of them.  We walked briskly in that direction for more than a km. Suddenly a group of tall birds appeared to me in the distance. Our excitement went up by folds as we walked towards them. There were about 30 flamingoes, adults and juveniles feeding-we watched them for more than an hour. We also spotted a flock of bar tailed godwits and other birds like marsh sandpiper, red shanks, and green shanks.

A flock of Flamingoes.

After lunch we visited a place called Muniyappan Lake, the area around is supposedly a bird sanctuary. We were busy identifying some waders while a few blackbucks dashed from the background as though to draw our attention. This is one of the very few places where black bucks are so close to the sea. The Tamilnadu Forest department estimates their numbers to be around 150. 

An adult male buck in it's prime.

We trotted among the puddles and saw more groups of Black bucks. These seem to be adept at drinking saline water. In fact they are not very shy and seem quite tolerant to humans. One male casually stood unperturbed at less than 20 feet from us.

 In the far distance were a couple of dark brown horses racing across the mudflats with their tails streaming out behind them. The sanctuary has about 26 of these feral horses.

A walk towards the watch tower on the undisturbed beach becomes even worthier if you have the mind to appreciate some marine life. Snails and crabs and hermit crabs are in vast profusion. From the top of the tower it is an amazing view. The confluence of sea and the land is a breath taking sight. The bird’s eye view clearly shows the coastline changing its course by 90 degrees out right. 

Mudskipper seen during a low tide.

A lobster stranded on the shore.

The beautiful swampy grasslands transform into a different world in the evening light. A whole lot of wild flowers add color to the beauty of the grassland. We enjoyed spotting few more birds, Pacific Golden plovers, more Terns and Gulls, Little Ringed Plovers; whole lot of Larks and Doves, Blue tailed bee eaters and rosy starlings. 

A patch full of invasive species.

This tiny sanctuary in whatever way one looks at it is an area worthy of protection not just for its blackbucks or flamingoes but the sheer diversity it shelters. We went back to the rest house, pledged to come back to this beautiful place again. It was bye-bye Point Calimere early next morning.

Article by Deepika Prasad.