Owl as a strand of web of life : The Tribune India

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National Wildlife Week (October 1 - October 8)

Owl as a strand of web of life

In India, the first credible articulation of the prevalent status of and empathy for wildlife was penned by Lieutenant Colonel Richard Watkins Burton (a third generation officer of the Madras Regiment) in the Journal of The Bombay Natural History Society..

Owl as a strand of web of life

TAKE NOTE: As much as 37 per cent of our flora and fauna are at the abyss of extinction, primarily due to exploitation.Istock



Lt -Gen Baljit Singh (Retd) 

In India, the first credible articulation of the prevalent status of and empathy for wildlife was penned by Lieutenant Colonel Richard Watkins Burton (a third generation officer of the Madras Regiment) in the Journal of The Bombay Natural History Society, that “...till the 1930s, wildlife of the open country were still in much the same numbers as they had always been since ages, but following the advent of sporting firearms in increasing numbers, and the pressure on the land through growing populations (Sic. human and domesticated cattle), the stock of gazelle and antelope all over the country has been greatly reduced —almost to vanishing point in some places... it is no longer possible for the traveller to view these lovely creatures from railway or motor car windows.... nor does the former common sight of a stately Great Indian Bustard now delights the eye...In that respect the vast Indian countryside is turning into a lifeless landscape.”

He inspired two path-breaking legislations: The Bombay National Parks Act, 1950 and The Bombay Wild Birds and Wild Animals Protection Act, 1951, the first in India in this discipline.

Burton displayed far-sightedness in seeking Mahatma Gandhi’s advocacy to make conservation of forests and wildlife a people’s movement. The final meeting to frame the contours of the project was scheduled for February 1, 1948, but cruel fate felled Mahatma Gandhi to an assassin’s bullet the next day.

In law and practice 

Burton then approached Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who recognised merit and sincerity of purpose in his mission, and on October 14, 1951, the Government of India announced the establishment of the Indian Board for Wildlife. 

As its ex-officio chairman, Nehru propounded the necessity that “the youth of today must become the conservationists of tomorrow.” Besides government functionaries, Nehru appointed two self-taught naturalists (perhaps the only at the time) on the board — M Krishnan, a practicing lawyer of Madras Courts, who ran the longest column in the history of Indian press, the Country Notebook in The Statesman for over 35 years and EP Gee (a Briton tea planter in Assam) whose dream was Kaziranga Sanctuary. In line with Burton’s vision, the board put in place the National Wildlife Week (NWW) together with Nehru’s brainchild of committing Indians to keep India green forever through, “Vana Mahotsava”. 

Ground reality 

No one could deny the political direction provided by these decisions, but unfortunately no mechanism was put in place to audit the administrative commitment towards its implementation. So the NWW and Vana Mahotsava soon degenerated into sham annual rituals.

India’s oligarchy of the day (political and bureaucratic) is from the generations of 1950s-60s. They are those who were envisioned by the founding fathers as “the youth of today must become the conservationists of tomorrow,” but they did not care to learn that the living planet, the only home of man, had always been yoked to nature’s symbiotic engine that stitched together the web of life, which must be preserved at all cost. And if one strand of that web is weakened or starved, sooner than later, the entire web would begin to wither. 

Does our oligarchy know that the founding fathers of Independent India had enshrined in the Constitution of India not merely the necessity of wildlife conservation but went way beyond by demanding of its citizens to have compassion for all living creatures? It made India the only nation to have such an ennobling philosophy of nature conservation and explicitly so stated in Clause 51-A (g), “It shall be the duty of Every Citizen of India to protect and improve the Natural Environment including  forests, rivers, lakes and wildlife and to have compassion for all living creatures.” 

 A threat for real

India’s fauna (wildlife) can be divided into four categories: Butterflies (1501 species and counting), birds (1247 species and counting), mammals (about 470 species) and reptiles (still counting). Our bird species count is the highest for any nation in the world. Likewise our flora (forests) is significantly rich in species diversity. But sadly, as much as 37 per cent of our flora and fauna are on the abyss of extinction, primarily due to   exploitation. The alarm bells sounded loud and clear by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) time and again have been met by the silence of the deaf. 


Listen to hoot

As of today, extinction poses a huge threat to our birds. And extinction is forever. One such bird that may cease to exist a decade later is the spotted owlet. It was once one of the most commonly encountered birds across the length and breadth of India. We have 33 species of spotted owl of which 28 are all-time residents but five are summer visitors only. There is no part of the country, both in the rural and urban spaces, which is devoid of owl presence, but in the hurly-burly of our indoors living preferences, it is unlikely that one in 100 Indians could claim to have seen a living owl.

Partly, the reason for unfamiliarity may be attributed to the fact that owls are essentially nocturnal creatures. However, in the spotted owlet (a mere 21 cm from beak to tail) case, we have one and the only from this clan, which is crepuscular. It is a nocturnal species which prefers to hunt for food an hour before sunrise and once again an hour or so before dusk sets in. It is not shy of street lights and still more, it enjoys announcing its presence and invite human attention by its garrulous, sharp and screechy call, chirurr-chirrur-chirrur and a variety of discordant chuckles, “cheevak-cheevak-cheevak”. But what might attract you the most is this owlet’s distinct iris, pale to deep-golden yellow! 


A day in the life of an owl

WHAT is so special about seeing an owl in its habitat? In the Western cultures and philosophy, the owl is the epitome of wisdom, which would encourage people to watch and understand the bird. Sadly, in the Oriental cultures, the bird is unfairly dismissed as lacking in grace and good sense and the entire Owl clan are condemned as oolloo (daft). Believe it or not, of all the 28 resident owl species, 25 have specific names in Hindi, Bengali, Bihari, Lepcha, Sindhi, Nicobari, Assamese, Telugu, Tamil, Sinhala, Cachari, Malayalam, Punjabi, Gujarati, Baluchi, Ladakhi, Nepali, Ceylones, Himachali, Marathi, Lucknowee, but the spotted owlet alone goes by the name ‘oolloo’ in every dialect. Also, this is the only one of its tribe, which inhabits almost the entire country.   

Usually, owls retire at sunrise to the seclusion of a tree hollow or some leafy branch. In some localities, every banyan, tamarind or mango tree will hold a resident pair or two of these little owls, and one only has to tap on the trunk to bring up enquiring and surprised little staring faces. The birds dash out to a nearby branch and bob and stare at the intruder in clownish fashion, with head often screwed at 360 degrees. Hawking beetles and moths, they return to the perch to dismember and devour the quarry by holding it down under one foot (claws) and using the other foot to transfer the morsel to their beaks.

The challenge staring us in the face during NWW 2017 is, will a nature-loving child born 20 years hence long to see a live spotted owlet in its tree cavity, in the ‘smart cities’ of India?

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