Save Our Tigers

The 11th Hour

Caught portions of the movie 'The 11th Hour'. This is a documentary in line with Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth'. This movie seeks to increase the awareness of the hideous condition of our environment and tries to bring about a change in how we think. Definitely liked what I saw but one para narrated by David Suzuki, an environmental activist, really stuck. Here is the paragraph:

Economists don't include all of the things that nature does for us for nothing. Some technologies would never be able to do what nature does. For example, pollinating all of the flowering plants. What would it cost us to take carbon dioxide out of the air and put oxygen back in, which all the green things do for us for nothing? It's possible to do a crude estimate of what it would cost us to replace nature. Well, it turns out, Constanza, estimated it would cost us $35 trillion a year to do what nature is doing for us for nothing. Now to put that in perspective. If you had added up all of the annual economies of all the countries in the world at that time, it would come to $18 trillion. So, nature is doing twice as much service for us as the economies of the world. And in the madness of conventional economics, this is not in the equation.

These are the kind of things that people should listen to. Everyone has their view of this world. This particular point should be noted down by economists and business people. Global Climate change is not just a problem that science alone can fix. It is not something you should think about only in your individual capacity but it is something that big Wall Street firms can sit up and take notice too. After all there is an economic formula that can applied even to this. This environmental problem that we face needs a change in everyone's thinking and at all levels...

Snakemaster

Steve Irwin is gone, RIP, leaving behind an unmatchable trail and a huge void. But there is this guy Austin Stevens on Nat Geo, who if you catch him on TV, you will not change the channel.
I am posting two videos as proof. These videos will make the hair on your hands stand, your spine tingle and whatever else that happens to you when you seriously get freaked out :-)

The first video is Austin Stevens coming face to face with a King Cobra, actually somewhere in Kerala. The King Cobra stands almost 4 feet in height when it raises its hood. Do not miss the ending when he animatedly talks about the experience with the snake and his respect for the King.
The second video is when he comes face to face with a Snout Cobra. And believe it or not, gets bitten. He does survive and goes back to photograph the snake! Making you jump even higher than you already were ;-)
Just watch both videos in full, they are just amazing...

Indian Cormorant

These two Cormorants like our politicians are just not able to make up their minds ;-)

We vote "Against"

Ummmm...We vote "For"

No wait...We vote "Against"

Two articles worth reading in the otherwise pretty much useless 'Bangalore Times'.

The first one is featuring Aparna Sen. I have loved all her films and admire her work a lot. I think she is one of the best Indian directors ever.

Here is the article about her and her upcoming film: I can't make those feelgood, laugh-a-line films

The second one is about probably a lesser known person, Gerry Martin. He is the first Indian National Geographic adventurer specializing in snakes and crocodiles. I had seen him once on Nat Geo when he was trying to catch a Cobra for an anti venom institute. In the program, even though Gerry manages to get a hold of the Cobra's head, somehow the snake manages to bite him on his hand. Gerry, actually unfazed, proceeds to bag the snake, gets behind the wheel of a car and drives himself to the hospital. He explains that the reason he himself is driving is to keep himself alert. Gerry points out that the cobra's venom affects the nervous system and in order to fight that he should remain alert and not slip into a lethargy [sic ???]. He gets an anti-venom injection and then gets discharged from the hospital the next day. He then adds "I don't hold a grudge against the snake, what would you do if someone was pinning you down, holding the back of your head?"
Here is the small article on Gerry: Gerry Martin, Wildlife Expert

Now Tigers...

Early numbers from the ongoing Tiger census being done by the Wildlife Institute of India indicate that there is a decline of 65% in the Tiger population in Madhya Pradesh, which has the largest population of Tigers in India. Also indications are that the other areas in the country will see the same or increased rate of decline. In 2001 and 2002 a Tiger census had estimated about 3700 Tigers left in the country.
Looks like while the Tigers, an endangered species, have done well in the conservation and reservation areas, they are pretty much getting wiped out from the outside areas. Poaching is the main culprit for this dramatic decline but the key thing that Wildlife Institute of India suggests is "effective tiger conservation would only become a reality if reserves are connected to one another so tigers have a larger population and area to breed and hunt." But this is not the reality today and "habitat destruction and human encroachment were leading to declining numbers."
This is just real depressing news, the final census number is likely to be anywhere between as little as several hundred to a maximum of just about 2000.

Delta and Dawn

Delta and Dawn are the two humpback mother and calf whales that lost their way while migrating from probably somewhere near Oregon on the US west coast on their way to Mexico. The mother and her calf appear injured and the mother has a deep gash which probably came after being hurt by a ship's propeller. This may have caused the mother to go off course and swim up a river. They have been swimming upstream for nearly 2 weeks now somewhere around Sacramento. The theory is that the mother may have brought the calf up to safe water to help the calf recover.

There have been rescue efforts involving scientists going on to return the whales back towards the ocean. They are nearly 90 miles up the river and returning all the way back to the ocean is a long and arduous journey that will probably end when they swim under the Golden Gate Bridge into the Pacific. Currently the whales had been successfully made to head towards the ocean but they turned back up river and returned about 3 miles. They are now about 65 miles from the ocean.

Humpback whales are an endangered species that were ravaged by unrestricted whale hunting and their population reduced by nearly 90% at one point and were almost brought to the brink of extinction. Humpbacks are famous for their 'Whale Song' which has been an area of research for long. Although whales cannot survive long in fresh water, the mother and calf are looking healthy. I really hope they make it back safe to the ocean...

Blue Mountains...

Visited the Nilgiri mountain ranges a couple of weeks back, this area is really ‘wild’ with the Mudumalai and Bandipur national forests at the base of these mountains. But in terms of wildlife the trip was fairly disappointing because the national forests were closed due to the danger of forest fires.

It was really dry all around. Check out how parched everything was…


Also in terms of trekking/hiking it was disappointing because we could do neither. But among the good things on this trip, one good thing was the weather on the mountains. Once you made your way up the mountains crisp cool breeze, clear skies and fresh air greeted you.
Oh by the way the drive up the mountains was extremely picturesque and challenging. The Zen performed beautifully, compared to some of the other bigger cars that kept getting into trouble on the steep climbs. The car was in first or second gear almost throughout, same thing coming down. The beauty around made it tough for me to keep my eyes on those 30 odd hair pin bends. My rubbernecking (rubberneck: To look about or survey with unsophisticated wonderment or curiosity) definitely gave some heartburn to the co-passengers, whose brunt I soon faced ;-)
Anyway once on top, taking all that fresh air in at the higher altitudes, you felt really rejuvenated. At night you could see about a gazillion stars in the sky. Spectacular show, it was...

Two incidents that happened were, one, seeing two porcupines darting across our jeep headlights in the middle of the night. I thought they were chickens but then I saw the spikes! Beautiful spikes with white streaks! These two porcupines looked as if they had just raided some food store in the middle of the night and were scooting away with the loot atop their heads.
The second incident was going to an animal watering hole in the middle of the night and just waiting...waiting in pitch dark, in silence. I had read somewhere that when one of our senses is deprived then the brain compensates by making the others more sensitive. This was definitely the case as we couldn't see much at all but our hearing was working overtime. There were 3 or 4 owls in the area each hooting away to glory in their own tone and rhythm. And then suddenly there was a small growl followed by a rustle and a soft sound of water trickling. It came from the opposite bank, just once, but we couldn’t spot anything or make anything out…

Here is the panoramic shot of the valley…