Reminiscing on Bangalore of the 1960-70s

Reading this news item on Egypt's lakes, Egypt's lakes: 'a truly tragic environmental tale' http://www.egyptindependent.com/node/650181, one cannot but reminisce about the way Bangalore used to be during the childhood of the 1960-70s generation.

PNLIT Trustee Prasanna K. Vynatheya, writes:

It is tragic indeed. I thought India was the worst, but all over too (especially surprised that even in places where the water and greenery is so important to ward off the advancing desert) such blatant things continue to happen.

I am, I guess, one of the only generation that has seen what was before, and how quickly things changed.

We moved to Jayanagar 4th 'T' block in 1964, and our house on 19th Main was the end of the concrete buildings. Beyond and towards North, East and South it was all orchards and farm lands. There was no connection by road from Jayanagar to Bannerghatta Road and the only way to go on towards Bannerghatta (if at all anybody did), was from the Bangalore Diary Circle. Right from Bangalore Diary the road cut through wetlands with birds, and paddy and sugarcane fields to the left and right of the road, all along, and interspersed by water bodies (free of weeds). Today all those wetlands are converted into shanty spaces or high rises as Mantri, Apollo & Fortis Hospital and so on and on. Unfortunately the best of the agricultural lands have been converted into cities or towns, not only in India, but all over the world.

I am from the only generation who saw the Old and the New world extensively, because our fathers neither had the roads to travel nor the vehicles. Hence we were just the lot that got active on the roads when our Bangalore and surroundings were still not discovered by the Realtor.

People may not believe if I say that in 1976 when a group of us managed to find our way to a remote village beyond Bannerghatta (called Choodanahalli, infamous in recent times due to elephant trampling a man), our's were the first bikes that had entered that hutment, and many of the people there were seeing a motorbike for the very first time in their lives. Here's the surprise - that place is not more than about 10 km from Bannerghatta, as the crow flies. Today, that place, well, I have not bothered to go to though there is a good road. I want to preserve that bit of memory...

"May the Best Name Win" - competition

We plan to induct children between ages 8 and 16 as PNLIT's junior members and have already identified four children who have shown tremendous potential to be future leaders of society in some way or the other. We will have much to learn from them while we nurture their interest in the Puttenahalli lake and knowledge about the flora and fauna. They will assist us in the many activities we conduct and also take the lead on occasions themselves (such as taking other kids on a bird watch at the lake on their own). We hope to get more children to join our panel in due course.

What do we call these young champions? PNLIT what? PNLIT Juniors? Naa! PNLIT Herons? Hmmm... PNLIT Coots? No way! Coot is the name of a bird we have at the lake in plenty but it also means someone who's eccentric as in a "crazy old coot".

Can you do better? Can you come up with a name for these young enthusiasts that is catchy, captures their zeal or their association with the lake? Therefore no tigers and cubs please! Start thinking! The person who comes up with the winning name will get a handsome prize (no prizes for guessing what it will be!)

The competition is open to children between the ages of 8 and 16. We shall not object if parents, grandparents and older siblings want to help their ward but the prize will still go to the child!

All you imaginative people out there - put on your thinking caps! Email your best name before mid-night on Mon, 13th Feb 2012, to puttenahalli.lake@gmail.com.

Message posted in Bngbirds group

Puttenahalli Kere a nice bird habitat

Just felt like sharing this small write up I did on our visit to this truly

surprising lake right in the middle of our city.

It was nice to see how well the birds have adopted to living here when the
disturbance to them has been kept minimal.

Kudos again to all the people who worked to make this magic happen.

http://naturerambles.blogspot.com/2012/01/birding-in-urban-lake.html

nanda

PNLIT Stall at BM Jacaranda Fest

PNLIT's stall at Jacaranda Fest yesterday can be summarised as a successful exercise in spreading the message of conservation and more specially about Puttenahalli Lake.

At least 50 people visited the stall, looked around and left their email ids with a promise to vote and help get more votes for the next round of Spark the Rise. Some PNLIT cloth bags were sold. The highlight was the endorsement of PNLIT's efforts by a group of children who are now very keen to support PNLIT.

Purple Herons - After the tussle for the prey

The Purple Heron story is not over!

After the fight, it looks like they've decided to reconcile. These photos by Sujesh S. show the bigger bird enticing the younger one. Hopefully, we'll soon get to see their chicks and thus life will go on.

Fighting herons

The photo shows the Purple Heron with the frog (also in the last post) - fending off an adult bird. Their noisy fight alerted Srini and his photograph shows the anger and aggression not just in the bigger bird's ruffled feathers but in its eyes as well. 

The heron with the catch is almost an adult. We have been seeing it grow steadily bigger over the past four months and are proud :-) to see it grow into a survivor, a fighter! 

The photo reveals the harshness of surviving in nature. We are fortunate to be able to see this avian power play in our neighbourhood!

Classic Photos

Purple Heron with catch - Photo by S.K. Srinivas

White-cheeked Barbet - Photo by Sujesh S.

Mynahs fighting in mid-air - Photo by Sujesh S.

More of Srinivas's photographs here.

More of Sujesh's photographs here.

Veteran ornithologists visit Puttenahalli Lake

On 7th Jan 2012, Puttenahalli Lake had the honour of a visit by two very special people - Mrs and Mr Zafar Futehally!

Laeeq and Zafar Futehally are veteran ornithologists, related to the "Birdman of India" Salim Ali. Laeeq and her uncle Salim Ali co-authored a book Common Birds in 1967 which has since been reprinted several times and have run into many editions. Zafar is a passionate naturalist who was closely associated with the Bombay Natural History Society. In 1960 he started the Newsletter for Birdwatchers as a forum for birders to share their observations. 

Zafar had several questions to ask us. What is the source of the water in the lake? What is the depth in summer? How are we raising money to maintain the lake? And so on. Their passion for lake restoration and conversion to avian habitats was truly inspirational.

PNLIT wins popular vote on Spark the Rise (Dec 2011)

PNLIT is delighted to inform everyone that its project "PNLIT - Nurturing Puttenahalli Lake back to its pristine glory" has cleared the December round (Round 4) of Mahindra Spark the Rise as the most popular entry! See the results here.

We are now eligible for Rs 4 lakh though of course, we will have to submit documents to authenticate our work and make a presentation to the jury. We will also now get a direct entry into the finale (March-Apr 2012) where the stakes are very high indeed (three runners-up will get Rs 20 lakh and the most voted project will get the grand prize of Rs 40 lakh).

Our thanks to each one of you for your support. We rely on you to help us in the finale not only with your votes but also to get your family, friends and colleagues to vote as well.

PNLIT on Times Now "Amazing Indians" 7th/8th Jan 2012

Times Now, the national television channel, has a weekly programme called Amazing Indians presented by Mahindra Rise. We are given to understand that from among the projects submitted for Spark the Rise, Times Now may identify some for this Amazing Indians series.

We were pleasantly surprised when they chose PNLIT! This is certainly a great honour, more so because it was completely unexpected. The TV crew came to the lake some days ago when school children were at the lake. We are especially delighted that the children were also filmed for telecast. Their excitement at seeing the large number of birds in the lake was truly wonderful to watch!

Some people have already seen snippets of the programme featuring PNLIT that were aired on Times Now. The programme is scheduled to be aired on Saturday 7th Jan 2012, at 3:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. and repeated on Sunday 8th Jan 2012, at 9:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. It can also be viewed live on the internet here.

For more information on the Amazing Indians series, please see here.