Bird watching at Puttenahalli Lake

Date: Sat, Sep 10, 2011

Today's bird watching at Puttenahalli Lake was a huge success. At least 30 people had come on this inaugural bird watching. One family came from Jayanagar 4th Block because their little daughter is fascinated with birds and someone had told them about our outing! The very first people to come though were TV9 cameramen and reporter! We asked how they got to know about the bird watching and they said simply that "they have their sources." From 7 a.m. to about 8.30 a.m., they filmed the lake, the birds, the bird watchers and wanted to know how PNLIT ever thought of organizing a bird watch in an urban area! Well, we want to share with everyone the excitement of our lake thriving and attracting so many birds and butterflies.

The TV9 report will be telecast tonight between 10 to 10.30 in both Kannada and English channels.

Our inhouse bird expert, Prasanna Vynatheya and two of his friends, Vishnu and Khusro (the one with the huge lens and camera in the photo) pointed out the various species of birds to an engrossed crowd.

Children were busy taking down notes and adults were scanning the sky and the water, eager to spot a bird before the others! Some of the new birds that the experts sighted were Little Blue Kingfisher, Little Grebe (also called Dabchick), Great Cormorant and of course, our more or less permanent residents the Coots, the Swamp Hens, the Bronze-Winged Jacanas, the Spotted-Bill Ducks and the shy Purple Herons.

All in all, a very satisfactory beginning to the weekend.

PNLIT walking the anti-corruption talk

September 7, 2011

Simple steps to walk the anti-corruption talk. Here is a recently published article.

At PNLIT, we are happy to say that we have really walked the anti-corruption talk.

• Trust registration at the sub-registrar's office.
• Income tax 12AA exemption.
• Income tax 80G exemption for donors.
• MOU with BBMP.

We are happy to say that we got past each one of these without giving a single naya paisa for 'chai - kaapi'. How did we do it? We took the time to do the ground work, got all documents that were required, avoided using the submission services of a CA or any other middlemen... but we did it!

If we can, everybody can!

Beautiful birds of Puttenahalli Lake

September 3, 2011

According to Dr S. Subramanya, an authority on lakes, nearly 110 species of birds fully or partially dependent on water have been recorded utilizing the lakes/ tanks in Bangalore. This diversity of birds belongs to 6 avian orders and 25 bird families.

At Puttenahalli Lake, JP Nagar, we have positively identified about 15 species on this list. To see a full list of the birds of Bangalore Lakes and the birds that have been identified at Puttenahalli, check here.

There are a few spotted, some photographed, but yet to be identified.

We are yet to spot any of the migratory birds (expected in Blr end Sept-April). We really hope we are lucky enough to see them at our lake.

We are very happy to share the photos of beautiful birds taken by a well-wisher and photography enthusiast Mr Sujesh S. in August. Here is his picasa web album.

Happy viewing!