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Life on a lotus
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Waterfowl are symbols of the well-being of our environment, particularly the fast disappearing waterbodies, says S. THEODORE BASKARAN. World Wetlands Day was observed on February 2.
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The Jacana ... ballerina of the lake.
AGED banyan trees flank the road from Mysore to Heggadadevankotte, which winds through rice fields and quaint little hamlets, like many of the old Mysore roads do. It frequently skirts picturesque lakes. In winter these water bodies are full and attract a host of resident and migratory waterfowl. There is one particular lake, filled with lotus blossoms, which has been a favourite stop for us. My friend, Srikantha, the bird photographer, had drawn our attention to this spot.
Under the shade of a banyan, we train our binoculars on the far side of the lake and Little grebes, Grey herons, godwits, coots and sandpipers resolve themselves into view. A spring of Common teals is resting at water's edge. A lone raptor — the Marsh harrier — comes circling over the lake, looking for a meal and the grebes disappear underwater quickly. But the most colourful of all birds is the Phesant-tailed Jacana (pronounced Yasana); a pigeon sized bird of predominantly white, black and yellow plumage. It lives on the seeds of various aquatic plants and the small creatures found in water. This bird is adapted to walking over floating vegetation. So it is long legged, and long-toed, to distribute its weight over a large area. You can see it run over the leaves, chasing prey. At times when it spreads its wings in a flash of white, to balance, you are reminded of a ballerina. In Europe it is known as the Lily-trotter. For the Tamil villager, it is the Thamarai kozhi, or literally, the lotus fowl. If you pass by a lake with lotus and other floating vegetation in winter, stop and look for this bird.
A close cousin of this bird, but much less picturesque, the Bronze-winged Jacana is also sometimes seen alongside. Both the birds are adapted to aquatic life. But the Phesant-tailed Jacana is much more trusting and can be seen in ponds close to villages. I have seen them in small tanks right inside towns in Gujarat. Its call is a soft mew that could be mistaken for a cat in distress.
In winter, the Jacana is decked in its breeding plumage, sporting a sickle shaped tail. Its nest, made of weeds, almost floats in water. The peg-top shaped eggs are arranged inside with the small ends pointing inwards, to prevent them from rolling and falling out. Wildlife filmmaker Ashish Chandola had titled the beautiful film he made on this bird as "A Floating Home". The female of this species is polyandrous and may lay more than one clutch of eggs. The respective males tend the nests and carry out the chores of incubating and raising the young. This bird is extraordinary in other ways also. It carries its young in the folds of its wings as it moves over water.
Birds, being warm-blooded creatures, their eggs need continuous warmth and so the bird has to incubate constantly. That is the reason why most of the nests are in the feeding area of the bird. Waterfowl such as the Jacana are symbols of the well-being of our environment, particularly wetlands. When you see birds in a lake, it is an indication that the water has not been polluted. But lakes and other waterbodies are fast disappearing.
Ashish Kothari points out that of all habitats it is the wetland that faces the greatest danger. If near a city, the pressure to reclaim it is great. Insidiously, it disappears right in front of your eyes. In Chennai, you can observe this happening at the Adyar estuary and the Pallikarani marshes where we have spotted Jacanas. After a few years, only the name will remind you that there was once a waterbody there, such as the Lake Area in Chennai. In Coimbatore, much of Valagulam Lake has been reclaimed. I have seen a Forest Department note of the 1930s that shows that Bar-headed geese were sighted in this lake. In Salem, a large lake has yielded place to the new Central bus-stand.
A waterbody is not merely a home to birds and other creatures; it is a resource for humans, providing water and fish. Described as "waterlogged wealth", a wetland is a self-sustaining unit. Yet, we do not even have an idea of how many lakes and wetlands there are in the country. The WWF-India brought out The Directory of Wetlands in 1993. which listed about 170 spots that are important wildlife habitats. But there are thousands of others that are sustaining agriculture and recharging the watertable. Our water shortage is directly connected with the disappearance of lakes. On the one hand, we reclaim wetlands by dumping garbage and debris, and on the other, propagate rainwater harvesting. It is a good example of being penny wise and pound foolish.
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