Skywatch Friday: Sunset on ECR

Sun setting behind palmyra trees of ECR 

I witnessed a beautiful sunset when I drove to Mamallapuram (on ECR) last month. Around six o'clock in the evening, the sun was setting down the west in bright red color or almost looked like a crimson sun. But since we kept moving and with the trees' interruption, I couldn't capture the sight of the sunset.  

We moved further on the road, and while coming into a clear view, the sun went below the horizon, leaving some lovely hues across the sky. As I was sitting in the front passenger seat, I could only capture through the windshield, and when driving over the bypass road, I got a broad view of the twilight sky. 

I shot many photos with the mobile, and many of them have similar views. So, I am sharing some best photos. I hope you all enjoyed these photos, like how I enjoyed shooting. It's been a long time I watched a sunset because only during travel or visit to the beaches in the evening offer me the sight of sunset and fantastic twilight sky.  I'm happy watching the sunset or its remanent hues. 

A panoramic view of the road and sunset.

Linking this post with Skywatch Friday

வண்ண விதானம் / Colored Umbrella

ஒரு வானவில் நடந்து சென்றது 

சாலையில், வண்ணத்திருவிழா! 

கோடையில், ஒரு வண்ண விதானம் 

மழையில் நனைகையில்; வண்ண நிழல்குடை   

வண்ண இழையில் நெய்த வானவில் 

மடங்கிவிடும் கைப்பிடிக்குள். 

A rainbow walked

On the road, color festival! 

In summer, a colored canopy

When soaking in the rain, a colored umbrella; 

Rainbow weaved in colored fabric

Folded into the handle. 

Human-Animal Conflict and The Man-Eater

Tiger - the national animal of India - spread all over the country from the foothills of the Himalayas to the southern tip of India Kanyakumari. India has many National Park and Tiger Reserve. It was Project Tiger - a tiger conservation program that began in 1973 to prevent the animal from becoming extinct and preserving its natural habitat - the tiger population in India has increased to nearly 4000.

Tiger wall painting from Amirthi zoological park, near Vellore

There are five tiger reserves in our state (Tamil Nadu), and the Mudumalai in the Nilgiri District is the oldest National Park and Tiger Reserve. Nilgiri is the largest biosphere covering about 80% of the forest, and Ooty, a popular south Indian hill-station, is the administrative town of the district. And Nilgiri being a great forest terrain with widespread tea plantations and small towns and villages,  the human-animal conflict has been a common thing, and sometimes it costs human lives. 

Most of the time,  elephants cause damage to materials and lives of people, and seldom tigers or leopards, or bear cause death. Human-animal conflict is mainly because of humans occupying forest space and interfering with the path of animals. Human encroachment and building of houses and cultivation on the migratory path lost track of animals to invade human habitation and confront lives. 

Now coming to the man-eater that has taken away the lives of four people in the last few months in the Nilgiris has become a threat to lives adjoining the Tiger Reserve. The higher officials have issued an order to shoot the man-eating Tiger against the initial decision of capture it alive using the tranquilizer to sedate. The decision to kill the Tiger was taken based on 4th victim, who was killed and ate by the Tiger,  while in the other incidents, the victims were just stroke to die. 

Tiger is said to be a shy animal and mostly seems to avoid the human presence and stay away in the dense forest area, infiltrate the human habitation only when it was unable to survive in the forest, due to wound or aging. The case of the man-eating Tiger, which caused the death of 4 people, has taken place in the buffer zone - an area adjoining the forest, where people drive cattle for grazing. 

We can't justify here where the villagers would go - who lives inside or adjoining the forest - to feed their livestock.  I think it's the human mistakes that we can't blame animals, and they don't know the boundaries, and deforestation has shrunk their habitation.  So the only way to protect their existence was by giving before animals and staying away from the forest. 

They say, once the man-eater would always like to taste human flesh, and driving it away could never be a solution than hunt down or cage the Tiger at some protected place. I watched a Bollywood movie lately called Sherni - acted by Vidya Balan as a woman forest officer - trying to catch (believed to be) a  man-eating Tigress and create peace in a remote village adjoining forest. But the movie ends with Tigress falling prey to human pride and official injustice, leaving back its cubs. 

The targeted man-eater seems to keep moving since the victims don't come from the same place, and the last man reported to die was from Masinagudi, about 30-35kms from the previous victim. Masinagudi is a small town located in the middle of Mudumalai Tiger Reserve is one place that greatly infiltrates the forest land by building plenty of resorts in the buffer zone. Due to strict action lately, many resorts built on elephant corridors were closed.

The latest update was the man-eater escape the official surveillance! And a search operation is launched with the help of Kumki elephants - trained elephants to trap and rescue wild elephants. As a piece of good news, the Tiger will be caught alive, said the officials. 

 (sorry for the long post) I just went with the flow of thought and info. Thank you 

Time

pic: google

Time is precious, and it never waits for anybody, and what I intensively know was I have a limited time. Though no one can predict the end of our lifetime, the fact is that no one lives beyond a limit, and for some, the time works short or lasts longer. Something that I utter often was 'no time. Not that it means I'm busy. My activities had slow down or cut short due to the progressive downgrade disability despite my intention of doing many things. Perhaps because of it, my writing has come down, or I'm taking a long time to write to improve myself to a standard of writing without mistakes. Not only writing, but all my daily activities take a toll, including the time I take for dinner or breakfast is had not less than half an hour. 

I realize the importance of time and its cruciality to be creative. I try as much as I can to use the time rather than just being idle, and I see how satisfied I am at the end of the day, either it helps someone or not. But one of the things I don't like is the division of time into good and bad times. I think it's good or bad depends on our intention and if we intend to do good all time is a good time.   

Some people always watch time to do things, some hurry to do within a time limit or delay up till the right time come. I know religious people follow a custom of watching good time to begin an event or any activity they take in front, similar to the Hindus who follow Rahu kalam and yamagandam - a time considered to be inauspicious. Though I don't believe in the mentioned above, I can't appreciate people-watching time for everything. Just because things didn't work for them, blame always falls on time. 

Like I said in the beginning, time never waits for anybody or hurry up for our impatience, and we need to adjust things according to the availability of time. 

Masks and Events

Masks have become mandatory in the period of the pandemic. Just because I didn't go out much, I did not experience the difficulties of wearing a mask much - except going through my brother's engagement and marriage last year, and the baby showers of my cousin at the beginning of the year and sister-in-law's yesterday. Mask doesn't become a matter in my life. I wear a mask only when I go for an evening walk on Sundays or guests visit our home. Since the members in our home follow the protocol sincerely leaves me pretty casual at home, and even seldom do they miss a thing or two, I remind them in earnest. 

The difficulty I experience - wearing a mask - is most difficult to speak and respond through a smile. It's not easy for me to lift my hands above the elbow unless I use a board or the wheelchair tray to support the hands, so usually, my response to those gestures by hands to say hi or bye is replay through a smile and headshake.  I got mild neck pain yesterday at the sister-in-law's baby shower responding to the relatives and friends visited the venue. I wore a mask the entire occasion, though it wasn't much difficult to complain rather than talking and responding to the guests, I hesitated to speak and converse wearing the mask. 

I saw two kinds of people at the event, those who wore the mask and those don't. And there's a third kind that masks the mouth alone or covers their cheeks. It has been proved that the events like these are the spreading ground of Covid, and keeping this in mind, we invited only close relatives and friends to count about 100 total, but it reached out of hand to about 150 members. 

I decided to stay in a corner to keep distance myself from others. I also minded them neither they check me nor not; I tried to stay away until finding me on their own. I like to interact with people and hear stories from their corners, and occasions like these are bridges to connect with people from distant relatives and friends, but now it is out of reach due to pandemic block. Though we know it's a temporary block, the occasion like these are limited in my life as I don't attend every event that takes place in our family, the pandemic has suppressed the leftover chances. 

The venue (of the event) is close to my house, so I went there in my wheelchair, and the hall located on ground level made my attendance easy. My uncle accompanied me to and fro the hall, And also, the event ended well, and those who could not attend the wedding (due to the cyclone then) made a visit to bless the couple. It's also one of the reasons for the rise in the number of visitors. 

Instead of turning better, the situation in our state continues to be the same or to say the cases of covid is slightly rose in last few days increases the anxiety. This event was something possible only because of the decrease in covid cases and relaxed lockdown. It's all in our hands to make such events possible only if all followed the protocol and sustain self-discipline.