A Delhi political reporter’s life is seldom monotonous, more so when you also get to sight the rich bird and animal life of the political power centre.
Bats are in the news for all the wrong reasons in Kerala. But in the national capital, they are safely hanging upside down from trees enclosed by the high walls of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Motilal Nehru Place residence. Occasionally fanning themselves vigorously, they negotiate the branches of the trees almost like monkeys — though if you carelessly look, their jet black wings could be easily mistaken for crows.
Tamarind trees are planted near Akbar Road. Perhaps, even the colonial horticulturists knew back then that many dour faces in severe need for some colour would come to occupy this road. Here, one can see the grey hornbills gliding one after the other. They are recluses, much like many Lutyens’ residents, and try to keep themselves hidden in the canopy.
Those of us who stalk the corridors of Shastri Bhawan, where the key ministries are located, invariably see brown-headed barbets knocking at the windows, their beady eyes peering at bureaucrats bent over files and sipping green tea. Experts will be able to decipher their behaviour better, but to an untrained reporter’s eye, they look like auditors issuing warnings.
Barbets also nest in Parliament House premises, though they are overrun by pigeons, and reporters taking a break in the pillar-lined corridors of Parliament have to be careful to not get marked by their droppings. The cacophony of cut-throat politics and sound bites is often broken by plaintive cries of the black kites screaming, “Enough!”
A short walk ahead, at the lawns of Vijay Chowk on Rajpath, the melting pot of reporters, the red-wattled lapwing can be seen flitting around. This one is the eternal activist among birds, its high-pitched call sounding like, “Did-he-do-it?” On these very lawns one can also spot the red-naped ibis taking a stroll, like an old gentleman with his hands behind the back, pondering over the knotty affairs that mandarins inside North and South Block are breaking their heads over.
Another regular on the lawns of the government bungalows is the peacock. A long-time MP from Kerala recently pointed to the bird in his house: “The peacock and I have been living together here now for nine years. But who knows, next time if I lose, he will continue to stay on without rent, while I will be evicted without delay.”
