In the withering heat of north Karnataka’s Deccan plateau, birds are discovering oases of food and water created by two young members of the Bidar Photographic Society.
Vangapalli Vinayak, a postgraduate student of the Karnataka College, hearing about people hanging empty pots and nests outside their homes to help birds, came up with a simple contraption himself. He prepared a tripod to hold pots in less than one sq ft space. He filled them up with niger millet and water and placed them in an empty housing plot opposite his home.
Within minutes, hundreds of birds flew into the garden. “We wake up to the chirp of hundreds of birds every day,” he says. “Bidar is suffering from unprecedented heat. Temperatures have averaged around 43 to 44 degrees Celsius for a week now, the highest in 70 years. Most of the water bodies, wells and borewells are drying up. While cattle and pets are fed at least once a day by their owners, wild animals and birds are on their own. We thought we should do something about it,” he adds.
Sainath Sharma has gone a step further. The engineering student has recorded the chirping sounds and calls of birds on a mobile phone that he keeps hidden in a bush in his garden. This attracts the birds in hordes. He keeps feed and water in cups on branches of trees and on his terrace.
“We are encouraging friends to hang bird-feeders in front of their homes. A lot of people are calling up to ask where to get the feeders. Some say feeding the birds has been gratifying,” Mr. Vinayak said.
“We are also trying to distribute saplings of the Japanese cherry plant, also called the ‘bird magnet’. A single plant tends to attract 40 varieties of birds,” says Mr. Sharma.
Two youths have come up with interesting ways
to feed and hydrate birds this summer
