School students in Police Boys Club can identify upto 120 species of birds
A group of boys assembles in Thoraipakkam on Rajiv Gandhi Salai at the crack of dawn on Sunday, armed with binoculars, books on birds and a notebook. “What are you going to do?” asks an elderly gentleman. “We are here to watch birds, sir,” replies Krishnakumar, a senior ‘bird watcher' among the young boys.
The boys are from the Police Boys Clubs in R.K. Nagar and Sembium. Except for M. Rajkumar, a student at Presidency College, the others are all still in school, in classes between V and XII. Once they all arrive, they quicklysplit into four teams, travelling in as many different directions.
The boys take turns in acting as the ‘spotter', which involves identifying the different species of birds and noting down their names and approximate numbers. In a matter of minutes, they are able to identify a dozen species. The list grows longer in a couple of hours.
“The most common birds are egrets, night and pond herons. But there also many other species such as openbill storks, pelicans, cormorants and stilts,” says S. Hemanth, who will be writing his supplementary class XII examinations in October this year. “I want to be a wildlife biologist,” he adds. For Hemanth, it was his stint at the Police Boys Club that led to his interest in bird watching and re-ignited his desire to complete class XII. The boys can identify as many as 120 species of birds, in wetlands such as Pallikaranai, Pazhaverkadu, Perumbakkam, Malani Jheel and many other lakes and tanks in Tambaram and Ambattur Taluks. They know the names of birds in both English and Tamil.
“The bird population is very rich in Chennai. Sadly, even people living around the wetlands are not aware of these winged wonders. I plan to dedicate my life to creating awareness on the need to protect birds,” Rajkumar says.
The boys are guided by K.V.R.K. Thirunaran, of The Nature Trust.
“These boys belong to less privileged sections and are all studying in government schools,” he says. “This activity is not just about sighting birds and identifying them. It also deals with learning about their habitats and the nature and characteristics of their respective wetlands,” he says, adding that he was hopeful their interest in birds would continue well into the future.
Keywords: Police Boys Club, 120 species of birds
I was really impressed with these young boys work.with the world going towards deforestation they do not know it will only affect birds first and eventually human beings. We should support these kind of activities to preserve and help the nature atleast within our home and children first. I used to see house sparrows a lot in my school days but all gone because of no awareness and poor plan from the government especially allowing cell phone towers a lot...
It's heartening to note that awareness regarding the conservation of nature, knowledge of indigenous mammals, birds and other animals and their habits, various eco- systems and tracts of forests that are host to a number of trees, shrubs and other plants in and around Chennai, is spreading and also getting increased esp. among the younger generation due to their own initiatives and also due to the efforts of people like K.V.R.K. Thirunaran who are great sources of inspiration to nature lovers esp. to those belonging to the less privileged sections of society. Best wishes to those boys for showing interest and the will to learn about nature and its life forms. They will certainly grow to become good citizens, sensitive and responsible to the needs of environment and the many challenges that crop up to protect and sustain it.
Congratulations to the members of the Pollice Boys Club. Their enthusiasm must be appreciated and their efforts to identify and enumerate the different speceis of birds must be encouraged by all nature lovers. I would like to know if these boys have any plans to bring back the little sparrows which are fast disappearing from Chennai and other cities too.
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