A peacock on the garden wall in Fort Kochi, a porcupine in attack mode on the verandah in a home at Kalamassery, a dog trapped in a python’s coil on the lawns of a bungalow by the beach, pelicans in the water in Thoppumpady, giant snails, tiger spiders, barn owls and flying fox bats— our urban wildlife coexists quietly as the city expands to push it away. Unlike Mumbai or Benguluru where the stray leopard brings man-animal conflict to the fore, our encounters with the wild are limited. Greatly reduced from a time when jackals and jungle cats, monitor lizards, hares, birds, frogs and butterflies were common sightings, spotted within or close to city limits, they are now almost invisible. Yet once in a while we do find ourselves sharing space with creatures of the animal kingdom.
A delightful run-in recently was when the students of Bharat Mata College in Thrikkakara had a strange visitor to their classroom. An unfamiliar “cat-mongoose- otter” like animal atop a desk in the middle of the classroom left the girls and boys totally foxed. The palm civet sat there out of its habitat, but strangely not uncomfortable. “Also called the toddy cat and marapatti in Malayalam, the palm civet is a nocturnal creature, quite common in these parts. In olden days it inhabited the attics of wooden houses. This one sat calmly, unafraid, as if posing for photos. Nobody tried to disturb it; we let it be. As it had some froth around its mouth we are guessing it could have had rabies,” says Professor Jacob Varghese Kunthara.
Dr PO Nameer, Prof and Head (Wildlife), Kerala Agriculture University, Thrissur says, “Both the common Indian civet ( veriku in Malayalam) and palm civet are found in Kochi. The mongoose or naadan keeri is also very common. MG Road, Marine Drive, Subhash Park... all the places in the city with open drains, waste bins and sewerage will have mongooses that feed on rats.”
Nameer has spotted a hare in Kaloor stadium and heard about them in parks in the city. A boat ride from Marine Drive to Vypeen offers a good chance to spot porpoises, while the neernaya or fresh water otter too could be found near the angler’s pole, he says. The jackal, jungle cat ( kattu poocha ) and the porcupine too are likely to be spotted in the outskirts of the city where the green cover is dense.
Of our indifference to the animal world, he says, “For us a jackal is a matter of conflict. All the animals whether it be the mongoose or the jackal have a role to play for equilibrium in nature. But for the gecko your house will be filled with tiny insects. No amount of repellent will end that menace except the gecko. The same goes for the snake. Only four varieties are poisonous, the rest keep a check on rats. The barn owl too performs the task of rodent control and we say sighting a barn owl is bad omen,” he says wishing that people change their attitude towards wild animals.
Research Scholar Abin Joseph documented the urban faunal diversity with reference to Thevara and came up with an astounding variety of different species that exist in one square kilometre in the heart of the city. According to him there are 49 spiders, 48 butterflies, 44 fish, 14 reptiles, 70 birds, 10 mammals and four amphibian species in the area, living side by side with a humanity quite oblivious of their existence.
The black turtle ( karaama ), the Indian mud turtle ( veilaama ), the Brahminy skink ( arana ) are all found commonly, he says.
But it is the Common Indian monitor, udumbu , that causes most excitement in people who encounter it. Prof MK Raju, HOD Zoology, Sacred Heart College, Thevara, says, “monitor lizards have long necks, powerful tails and claws and can weigh five to ten kilograms. In the olden days soldiers used them to get a grip to climb over high walls. They did so by tying a rope to its tail and chucking the lizard on to the wall. Their claws are very strong.”
Prof Varghese remembers seeing his grandmother and the udumbu race for a ripe mango in Vaikkom, just as Raju says he chased one riding his bike in Poothotta.
Sadly people hunt the animal believing that its meat is of medicinal value.
Dr Smita S says that the sacred groves or kaavus ensure a unique biodiversity rich in birds and reptiles.
The city also has its share of outliers, the wildlife that strays in due to many factors. The python that ate the dog came sitting pretty on flotsam. The rare tiger spider found at a wood works in Edappally would have arrived in between timber logs transported from Perumbavoor. “This endangered species has been seen in Hill Palace and Thiruvankulam. People keep these as pets,” says Dr. MJ Mathew of Thevara College who has researched spider taxonomy.
The college premises itself has seen a sort of domestic-wildlife conflict when the rabbits at the college pen were attacked by civet cats. “The civet cats move in a pack. As far as the city goes, the likely places to find wildlife are the outskirts, the Container Road, Ambalamedu and such. Another probable area for sightings is the green and quiet Willingdon Island, says Dr. Philip Mathew, who teaches biodiversity at Thevara College.
Vishnupriyan Kartha K, secretary, Cochin Natural History Society, says that the city and its suburbs have 30 birding hotspots. Some of the rare birds that he has spotted in the heart of the city are the rufous woodpecker at the bustling Rajendra Maidan and the black capped kingfisher at Puthuvype beach. From 1998 since birders organised themselves in the city, more and more have joined to watch the avian richness here, he says.
If that is a sign, then the croak of the pond frog ( pachathavala ) the hiss of the blind snake ( chevipambu ), the evening chatter of the lapwings and the noisy clatter of the palm civet will be heard much more. Neither will the cricketers in the Palace Oval in Tripunithura hurl the cricket ball at the Varanus ( udumbu ) watching the game so harmlessly.
