Protect from Corona

Corona, the crown of virus, is threatening the world like anything done before. This invisible to eyes, virus, has shaken the masses of all despite however strong the countries are. No one anticipated the virus would spread at this vast but India being the second largest population country in the world had drastic control over the virus. Like any other countries the virus entered India through passengers landing from foreign countries, though the number of affected has rose to 150 now the awareness among people to hands clean had greatly turned down the spreading of virus and shutting down on places wherever people gather  should help prevent further and downstream the virus. Though the media creates lot of hype and make news’s to panic people, the widespread knowledge shared on corona is quite dynamic.

Tamils is a community where hands and legs washed is practiced on daily basis whenever someone enter the home from outside but this culture was forgotten in the urbanisation and city life where people live on apartments the most, we can’t expect this to continue  as water is not available always outside the home. Now, this corona has created an opportunity to retrace this practice and make realize people the importance of hand washing and schools in particular insisted this in kids/students which became obvious when one my nephew (age 5) rushed to washbasin when we offered him something to eat when he visited us. Still I feel not many people are fully conscious about this spread of virus and are indifference thinking it won’t affect us as the number the victims are less compared to many developed countries, but I can’t image what a similar situation could India face if the virus spread seriously.

Though the economy of the country going to hit hard due to block of trade and entertainment but in a state of life-and-death we can’t think better and it is all in our hands and limiting our activities is the only way to enhance the downgrade of the virus. Let’s stay home and watch things settle for good as we have nothing to do to stop it immediate or bring remedy, let stick to the adage  ‘prevention is better than cure’ and all work towards that.

Natural Beehive

Honey Bees have built a natural beehive in the Indian tulip tree opposite our house. Popularly known as Portia tree or Pacific rosewood, a flowering tree from mallow family, continue to bloom throughout the year but shows great blossoms in warm weather should inspired the honey bees to build their hive.

The beehive shot here was from early monsoon in Nov and the beehive disappeared later and I thought the rain and winter cold should have washed away. But again in February the honey bees started to build the hive and its bigger now than what you see in these photos. I couldn’t capture it now as the density of leaves have hid the beehive

Linking this post with SATURDAY CRITTERS

Summer Breeze is Back

The summer breeze is back;
A favourite time of the year
Is here, and it embrace me;
The tender cool invisible wind
Inspires to take a break, to breathe
A refreshing sort of wind
Caressed me to goose bump.
While the sun shines bright
The simple cool sea breeze
Is a pleasure, immeasurable by levels;
Hold back lot in memories
I cherish solely sitting in the living room.
The trees shoot leaves outside
Brought spring in the air
Doubles the delight of summer
That ever leased alone to warm up.

Indian Black Turtles

From my visit to Amirthi zoological park last month, I took time to watch and shoot the Indian black turtles or pond turtles left in a partial glass tank. I think I last saw live turtles and tortoises in Madras Crocodile Bank, a decade back, but I continue to see these in images from blogs I follow inspired me not to miss shooting these medium-sized freshwater turtle found in South Asia.

Though it named black turtle, the colour of its upper shell or carapace can vary from reddish to dark brown and black with yellow streaks running along its length. The underside is uniformly brown and the turtle’s face may have yellow or orange marks and spots, with color varying between subspecies.

... quiet listeners

The black turtle still appears to be common in India and Nepal is classified as threatened in Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Visit to Amirthi Zoological Park, near Vellor

Two weeks before, I visited the Amirthi Zoological Park in the vicinity of Amirthi forest on the foot of Jawadhu Hills, near Vellore.  Though the zoological park comes under Tiruvannamalai district, the Vellore city is closer by 25 kms.  I was planning to visit the park for last few years, and when I made a visit to Balamathi Hills, adjacent to Vellore city in Feb 2018, I couldn’t make up to the park due to lack of time and I too did not want the visit to be a hurried one.

I learned the zoological park is accessible by wheelchairs and visiting a park in the forest environment could never miss out of my pocket, because I’m someone always enjoy visiting forest and stay close to nature. We started the trip from home (Chennai) at 8am and get there by 12.30 pm, meanwhile stopping the car for breakfast and buying lunch (biryani) at Arcot, and the route from there was scenic and beautiful as it took us through mountains and countryside scenes.

'The Arcot – Kannamangalam is the best and shortest route to reach Amirthi for people coming from Chennai; and Arcot is the right place to buy food stuffs because there's nothing available at Amirthi, even though there’s a canteen run by the forest department, outside the zoological park, we could not expect anything surely. They don’t allow carrying foods inside the park, so we had our lunch at the parking lot and there are slabs to sit around the trees to have lunch but there’s lot of monkeys and stray dogs to cause fear.

Indian pond turtles

Amirthi is a small zoological park, developed on 25 hectares of forest land, which covers 25 km of forest, made as a wildlife sanctuary and tourist spot the other half. The park opened in 1967 has minimum number of animals and birds and during my visit I found many empty cages to make me disappoint.  The zoological park seemed to be renovated lately or the works haven't finished yet, as many cages left with a note of under repair; the park is well paved to reach every corner of the park without difficult and it helps to take closer looks at animals and birds in cage. 

Python relaxing at its room

I saw Indian pond turtles inside a glass tank and Golden fox in a den like setting, roaming alone sadly.  There’s a section for snakes with a series of glass rooms but only a python and Russell’s viper is available to see, while other rooms are empty. I saw a sign board at the park, warning people on snakes since the park is located in the vicinity of forest snakes are supposed to wander freely on the campus.  Mongooses are enclosed in a room next to snakes and porcupines in another small cage, peacocks, pelicans and herons are put in subsequence cages.

Golden Fox (see on the right) in its cage

 Pelicans and herons

There are many colourful images of animals, birds and reptiles painted on the walls inside and outside of the park captured our attention. The park, established in a forest land makes feel its presence though the number of trees that exist from the forest environment had made a natural canopy throughout the park to make feel always cool and shady. Amirthi zoological park could be a best picnic place for family and friends to spend a day on natural environment and shadows, apart watching animals.

Amirthi is a very small zoo where you could not expect more; even the children’s park in Chennai has more animals to attract visitors. Apart the park, there’s a seasonal waterfalls about a km from here which had to be reached by trekking. The best time to visit the park is from September to February to make use of more greenery and to enjoy the waterfalls and river run beside the park, but even on midsummer you won’t be feel the weather once entered the forest environment.

I really enjoyed the place despite being a Sunday; there weren’t much people around the park and only at the time of leaving found a bus full of school kids having lunch at the parking lot. Staffs at the park were kind to inquire about my convenient there, and was I able to go everywhere? The only thing that bothers me was to see fewer animals than expected. Though I don’t like seeing birds or animals in enclosed cages while they have wing to fly and legs to run… I’m at least happy to see them because even if we go to forest seeing them is doubt. 

I took many photos and I can't post all at a time here... so my future posts will carry those.