Photo: V. Santharam
Photo: Muralidas P.V.
There were two of them on the branch of a bush and as I was hurrying to the Junior School to my class, the sharp-eyed kids stopped me and pointed out the location of the two Indian Chameleons (Chamaeleo zeylanicus). This was on Friday afternoon. I have never seen two of these creatures together. Wonder if they could be a breeding pair. It is a pity we know very little about some of the commonest creatures that inhabit our campus!
Dr Santharam
On 03 August, we received seven kgs of Cherry fruit from our Vegetable Garden. We made rasam with that. Here are the ingredients and method if you want to try.
Ingredient
Cherry fruit
Tomato
Toor Dal
Garlic
Cumin seeds
Pepper
Coriander Powder
Chilli Powder
Mustard
Hing Powder
Fenugreek Powder
Red Chillies
Turmeric Powder
Kadipatha
Salt
Oil
At School
07 Kg
07 Kgs
04 Kgs
200 gm
100 gm
100 gm
100 gm
100 gm
100 gm
25 gm
25 gm
50 gm
50 gm
01 bundle
As per taste
(For Tadka)
For 10
250 Grms
250 Grms
100 Grms
One
10 Grms
10 Grms
20 Grms
20 Grms
7 Grms
3 Grms
3 Grms
2 Nos
5 Grms
1 stake
As per taste
2 tsp
Pound Cumin seeds, Pepper and Garlic. Boil the tomatoes; smash after they are cold and keep aside. Boil the cherry fruits, strain and remove the seeds. Boil the dal; smash and keep aside. Heat kadai on the stove and add oil. As oil heats up add Mustard, Cumin seeds, Red Chilies, Hing Powder, Fenugreek powder and Curry leaves one by one. Add pounded masala and roast for a while. Add turmeric powder, Coriander powder and chili powder, again roast for some time. Add Tomato juice, Cherry liquid and boiled smashed dal liquid, salt and hot water as per requirement and boil for 15 minutes. If needed add little rasam powder (for flavour and taste).
For those who love Rasam at Dining Hall, here is how we make Rasam Powder.
Ingredient
Coriander Seeds
Red Chillies
Cumin Seeds
Red gram dal
Bengal Gram Dal
Mustard Seeds
Fenugreak Seeds
Pepper
Curry leaves
At School *
4 Kgs
2 Kgs
1 Kgs
1 Kgs
1/2 Kgs
400 gms
400 gms
300 gms
One Bundle
For 10
200 gms
100 gms
50 gms
50 gms
20 gms
20 gms
20 gms
15 gms
1 stake
* Quantity is sufficient for one month. We make Rasam twice daily.
Roast the above ingredients separately, mix together and powder.
Hareendran A K
Dining Hall Manager
TIME: 6.30 to 8.30 AM
ROUTE: DH to Perco Tank via Junior School
PARTICIPANTS: Santharam, Jyothi, Ananth, Nandu, Aruna, Damini, Lalith, Pranav, Yash, Nirad, Ishan.
The lone shikra on the tamarind tree surveying the landscape from his perch brought so much into context Ted Hughes poem:
Hawk Roosting
I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed.
Inaction, no falsifying dream
Between my hooked head and hooked feet:
Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat.
The convenience of the high trees!
The air's buoyancy and the sun's ray
Are of advantage to me;
And the earth's face upward for my inspection.
My feet are locked upon the rough bark.
It took the whole of Creation
To produce my foot, my each feather:
Now I hold Creation in my foot ...
24. Redrumped swallow
25. Redvented bulbul
26. Goldenbacked woodpecker
27. Bluefaced Malkoha
28. Plain Prinia
29. Laughing Dove
30. Spotted munia
31. Indian robin
32. Common Woodshrike
33. Thickbilled flowerpecker
34. Indian Bushlark
35. Purplerumped sunbird
36. Ashy prinia
37. Jerdon’s Chloropsis
38. Shikra
39. Indian Silverbill
40. Pied crested cuckoo
41. Grey Partridge
42. Rufous- or tawny-bellied Babbler
43. Indian roller
44. Coppersmith
45. Crested Honey Buzzard
1. Magpie robin
2. Tailor bird
3. Koel
4. Purple Sunbird
5. Jungle crow
6. Common Mynah
7. Coucal
8. Roseringed parakeet
9. Spotted owlet
10. Pond heron
11. Spotted dove
12. Whitebrowed bulbul
13. Dabchick
14. Little brown kingfisher
15. Small or White-cheeked Green barbet
16. Whiteheaded (Yellowbilled) babbler
17. Common Iora
18. Short-toed eagle
19. Treepie
20. Tickell’s flowerpecker
21. Grey hornbill
22. Small green bee-eater
23. Redwhiskered bulbul
Last week I discovered that one of our favourite birding routes – from the Car Park to BBT was no longer accessible with the new fence and gate coming up as a part of the security measures in the campus. While some of us may be disappointed with this new development, I think this may be, in some ways, helpful in protecting our natural habitats and vegetation. But this of course will depend on some additional measures we may need to adopt.
This area adjacent to the Car Park (Behind the Big Banyan Tree) has for long been the “darkest Africa” of the campus. With good undergrowth, lianas and some really old trees, this area was virtually out of bounds for a long time. The “Stinky Pond”, which stores all the water from the laundry provides moisture for growth of vegetation in the vicinity and we have in the past located several interesting birds in this area. For instance several flycatcher species – Bluethroated, Asian Brown, Brownbreasted (a passage migrant), Verditer, Asian Paradise and the Blacknaped Monarch – have all been seen in the proximity of the pond in the winter months. Tickell’s Thrush, a rare himalayan winter visitor, Whitethroated ground thrush, Green Leaf warbler and several other passerines too make this their winter home. This is also a great place to look out for Honey Buzzards.
However unplanned developments over the past few years have caused the vegetation in this area to shrink considerably as chunks of the wooded areas have been taken over for vermicomposting (and since abandoned), silos, underground water tank, parking space, dumping ground for construction materials, clearing the vegetation for laying pipes etc. etc. I feel with a little thought we could still revive the vegetation in this place and make it an interesting birding spot.
Perhaps it is high time we have a Management Plan for the campus and demarcate areas for conservation based on the species of unique vegetation and other life forms they support.
Dr Santharam
We had a special dinner on 28th July (Saturday). The menu included Pineapple Juice, Cold Ginger Tea, Vegetable and Fruit Salad, Banana Chips, Multigrain Red Spicy Dosa, Multigrain Cheese Dosa, Egg Dosa, Ghee Dosa, Green/Groundnut and Coconut Chutneys, Paneer Dum Biriyani, Sprouted Green Gram Mushroom Masala, Mirchi ka Salan, Thick Curd, Rice, Sambar, Rasam, Mix Fruit Salad, Vanilla Ice Cream, Chocolate Sauce, and Butter Milk.
The most popular item was Multigrain Cheese Dosa. We required 120 kg of batter for all type of Dosa (8o kg ingredients, 40 kg liquid/water). For making Multi-grain dosa (Serving size of 650 persons), we used the following ingredients:
Rice – 8 kg
Urad Dal – 8 kg
Foxtail Millet Powder – 8 kg
Finger Millet Powder – 8 kg
Whole Wheat Flour - 8 kg
Chiroti Rava (Small Rava) – 5 kg
Butter Milk – 30 lts
To make batter: Soak rice and Urad dal and grind before 3 hours. Dry roast all powders and Chiroti Rava separately. After cooling, mix all with grinded batter and buttermilk. Keep aside for one hour for fermentation.
We used the following ingredients to make the sauce for the Red Spicy and Cheese Dosa:
Tomato – 15 kg
Red Chillies – 800 grams
Vinegar – 250 ml + 250 ml
Garlic (cleaned and chopped) – 1 kg
Jeera – 150 grams
Tomato Sauce – 2 kg
Rice Bran Oil – ½ kg
Corn flour – 250 gram
To makes the sauce: Boil tomatoes, remove the skin and make the puree. Soak red chilies in 250 ml vinegar and little water. Boil the red chilies, strain the water and grind to paste. In kadai, pour oil, add jeera. After jeera pops add chopped and cleaned garlic. Add red chili paste, balance vinegar, salt, and tomato puree. Roast till oil floats on top. Add tomato sauce and if required add cornflour mixed with water and boil for the thickness of sauce.
To make grated cheese and vegetable dosa, the following ingredients were used:
Mozzarella cheese grated – 10 kg
Grated carrot – 10 kg
Finely chopped onions – 8 kg
Capsicum finely chopped – 3 kg
Green chili pasted – 250 grams
Keep kadai in the stove and add little oil. When oil heated up add chopped onion, grated carrot, capsicum and green chili paste. Roast for a while and cool the vegetable and add grated cheese and required salt. Mix well.
Making of Dosa: Heat up the grill/tawa. Add salt and mix the batter well. Pour one spoon of batter in the tawa. Spread in round shape. Pour sauce of the dosa and over that spread grated cheese and vegetables. Wait for a while to melt the cheese.
We hope to share more recipes and other dining hall news in this forum.
Hareendran A K
Dining Hall Manager
TIME: 6.30 to 8.30 AM
ROUTE: DH to Bio diversity park
PARTICIPANTS: Santharam, Jyothi, Dr Johnsingh, Anjali, Ram, Lakshman, Ishaan, Yash, Yashvardhan, Damini, Lalith, Nirved and Taashi
Walking with the master: Having Dr Johnsingh for bird watching was like having a live interactive encyclopaedia. The vastness of his knowledge was further enhanced by the richness of the stories, anecdotes and folk wisdom that he shared. Students were tickled by the story of the greedy fox that died of an overdose of ‘ber’ fruit. He told us why Ficus tree is called the keystone species. He picked up a twig from the tree and quoted from an ancient Tamil text ‘alum verum pazhiki urudhi’ which translates into: the banyan twig and root are guarantees for teeth. The sap is said to be medicinal.
16. Common woodshrike
17. Small minivet
18. Jerdon’s chloropsis
19. White-cheeked barbet
20. Greater Coucal
21. Indian silverbill
22. Purple-rumped sunbird
23. Tawny eagle
24. Rufousbellied babbler
25. White-headed babbler
26. Pond heron
27. Yellow eyed babbler
28. Pied bushchat
29. Indian robin
30. Plain prinia
1. Spotted babbler
2. Grey partridge
3. Tailor bird
4. Coppersmith
5. Roseringed parakeet
6. White-browed bulbul
7. Jungle prinia
8. Red-vented bulbul
9. Small green bee-eater
10. Spotted dove
11. Laughing dove
12. Pied crested cuckoo
13. Crested honey buzzard
14. Tickell’s flower pecker
15. Redwhiskered bulbul
This week we observed 27th Anniversary of the Rishi Valley Bird Preserve by inviting Dr. A.J.T.
Johnsingh, Senior Wildlife biologist and conservationist, to talk to our students and Staff on July 27, 2018.
It was a thrilling experience to listen to Dr Johnsingh as he took us through his various experiences in the wild in his career spanning over four decades. The students listened to him with rapt attention and flooded him with a barrage of questions at the end of his presentation. Dr. Johnsingh also had interactions with some classes and with the birdwatching team this morning and pointed out the various trees and explained their medicinal and ecological values. He pointed out that the presence of bats (pipistrelles), hawking insects especially mosquitoes, in the Senior auditorium as an indication of the pristine nature of the surroundings in Rishi Valley. He said he has been seeing the decline of these bats elsewhere in urban areas and in rural landscapes with heavy pesticide use.
Dr Johnsingh was also concerned with the presence of Cassia spectabilis in the campus and pointed out this species tends to become an invasive as has happened in Bandipur Tiger Reserve and other forest areas and that it must be eradicated. He said the Biodiversity Park could be left alone to regenerate naturally.
During the Anniversary celebration, we also released a booklet titled “Common Reptiles of Rishi Valley Area”, a bilingual publication (English-Telugu). This booklet is illustrated with colour photographs and includes accounts of some of the common reptiles found in our Valley. The objective of this publication is to educate the rural people about the ecological importance of reptiles as natural pest control agents and to emphasise their conservation. The booklet talks about the precautions that need to be taken to prevent snake-bites and steps to be taken in case of a snake-bite.
The booklet is authored by Suresh Jones, a naturalist who has been associated with our school for nearly two decades and translated into Telugu by Padmavalli akka, formerly a staff of the school. Photographs were contributed by several well-known nature photgraphers and herpetologists and the design and lay-out was done by our own Rajeshwar sir. It was unfortunate Suresh Jones could not attend the release function due to an injury and we missed
him a lot.
We hope this useful publication will reduce the unwarranted deaths of snakes in our neighbourhood.
Dr Santharam
TIME: 6.30 to 8.30 AM
ROUTE: DH to Bio diversity park
PARTICIPANTS: Santharam, Jyothi, Manju, Lalith, Yash, Pranav, Bharathi, Kiya, Niloy, Nirad
Some birds are like jewels. Chloropsis is one such bird with its brilliant green hue which vividly stands out amongst the green leaves. Small minivet is another with its bright orangish-red plumage. Having these birds frolicking around was like having emeralds and rubies shine forth from trees. The highlight of the day, however, was the Peregrine (Shaheen) Falcon that flew leisurely overhead, giving good views of its distinctly shaped pointed wings.
19. Bluefaced Malkoha
20. Tickell’s flowerpecker
21. Spotted dove
22. Painted spurfowl
23. Common Woodshrike
24. Laughing Dove
25. Jungle Prinia
26. Plain Prinia
27. Rufous or tawny-bellied Babbler
28. Yellow-eyed Babbler
29. Indian Silverbill
30. Tawny eagle
31. Peregrine (Shaheen) Falcon
32. Crested Honey Buzzard
33. Purple Sunbird
1. Treepie
2. Common Iora
3. Whitebrowed bulbul
4. Jungle crow
5. Spotted babbler
6. Tailor bird
7. Redrumped swallow
8. Redvented bulbul
9. Shikra
10. Whiteheaded (Yellowbilled)babbler
11. Coppersmith
12. Small green bee-eater
13. Munia sp.
14. Purplerumped sunbird
15. Grey Partridge
16. Small Minivet
17. Jerdon’s Chloropsis
18. Small or White-cheeked Green barbet
TIME: 6.30 to 8.30 AM
ROUTE: DH to Percolation Tank
PARTICIPANTS: Santharam, Jyothi, Srinivas, Sai Jagan, Sailendra, Suhel, Amy, Aditya, Nirved, Lalith, Pranav, Prajna, Hiya, Sanjana and Sanvi
Having Suhel in the group is a guarantee that many nuggets about bird behaviour will be shared. When we saw the magpie robins, he could immediately tell that they were foraging for food to feed their young ones. We also learnt that some birds are excellent ventriloquists and can often fool the humans but other predators too.
17. Red-rumped swallow
18. Spotted dove
19. Little brown kingfisher
20. Little Grebe or Dabchick
21. Spotted owlet
22. Indian pond heron
23. Weaver bird
24. White breasted water hen
25. Spotted munia
26. white headed babbler
27. Indian bush lark
28. Ashy prinia
29. Black drongo
30. Red-whiskered bulbul
31. Tickell’s flower pecker
1. Tailor bird
2. Coucal
3. Loten’s sunbird
4. Iora
5. Spotted babbler
6. Purple sunbird
7. White-browed bulbul
8. Coppersmith
9. Rose-ringed parakeet
10. Pied bushchat
11. Magpie robin
12. Redvented bulbul
13. Small green bee-eater
14. Shikra
15. Common mynah
16. Koel
A week of dry weather has gone by. There are clouds racing overhead but we have not had any rains. In fact, it was quite hot in the daytime.
The Koel is still singing in the valley. The Brainfever bird has quitened down. There are no signs of the Cuckoo-shrikes, which feed regularly on caterpillars. Maybe we haven’t had enough rains yet this season and so there are no caterpillars and those that feed on them. The percolation tank, which had substantial water last month is now a puddle.
Yet, last Sunday we found six Dabchicks in the waterbody. Half-a-dozen Pond Herons stalked along the margins of the tank and a pair of White-breasted Waterhen were seen along the waterside. Nearly two dozen Baya Weaverbirds had built their nests on the Acacia trees on the tank bund but their activity level was low, again owing to the dry weather conditions.
Several birds of prey or raptorial birds are now seen in the valley, often in overhead flight. It is a marvellous sight to spot the Short-toed Snake Eagle standing still against the strong current of winds, scanning the ground for their slithering prey. Tawny eagles, Crested Honey Buzzards
(often calling their single-noted calls as they fly about), Shikras and the rarely seen Black Kite have been some of the raptors spotted this week. This morning we had a good view of a Peregrine Falcon (most likely the resident subspecies – also known as the Shaheen) as it flew overhead for a good three minutes. We were hoping to see the bird dive down at its prey but just as we watched it, the bird disappeared behind the hillside.
A pair of Scaly-breasted Munias is bringing in dry grass to refurbish their old nest of last year placed under the tiled roof on the wooden rafters of my residence. They are quite bold and can be seen very close (within a couple of metres) provided you don’t take them by surprise.
Dr Santharam
A short hike was organised for the students of Class 8 to Nandu’s farm on the hill, close to Thettu (Diguvapalem hamlet) on Saturday. The weather was perfect – overcast, cloudy skies, cool winds..
We intended to spend half a day, learning about various things – life in a remote village, organic farming, tree-planting etc. We visited the three acres of land that Nandu’s family had set aside for raising trees (over 500 trees were planted over the last couple of years), a couple of percolation pits were dug to make water available for the plants and a thorn fence erected to keep out grazing animals. Nandu has been collecting seeds of native forest plants from the neighbouring forest areas and raising them in his nursery. They also had planted trees along the road going to Thettu village. All this without any monetary support from outside!
We divided the group of 51 students and six staff members into three groups – one went for tree-planting on the hillside, a second helped harvest tomatoes and the third watered the trees planted along the roadside, collecting water from the two water tanks (where water was pumped from the ground, 400 feet below the ground).
While we expected this would be a great learning experience for our kids, we were quite disappointed with the way the students behaved. The group that went for plucking tomatoes started throwing tomatoes around and trampled the plants. The group that went to water the avenue trees wanted to know if they could play with the water, throwing it on each other. Some students, despite being told not to litter the place after eating their breakfast (packed by our DH workers with so much of care and made it available to us at 6.30 am), left behind their half-eaten food packets and
grudgingly picked them up only after several teachers repeatedly asked them to do so. These instances of insensitive behaviour displayed despite several reminders and reprimands make us wonder why our kids are so indifferent when they are in a group, mostly self-absorbed and not aware
of their surroundings and their responsibilities.
Dr Santharam
I had a new “student” in my class last Thursday, just three feet tall (long)! I was in Class 8B a few minutes before the afternoon class to make a few drawings on the board before the classes began. I was almost done when I saw the first students coming down the corridor - “Sir, Sir... There’s a snake!” I heard this and turned around to see something slithering in through the door and coming towards me. I just stepped behind, trying to see if the snake was a venomous species. It was, fortunately, a rat snake, three feet long, a juvenile and very active. It took over 25 minutes for Seetha akka to catch the snake and release it. By then the whole junior school was out, trying to come into the class to catch a glimpse of the snake. My colleagues had a tough time controlling the crowd while I was in the classroom, making sure the snake did not disappear into one of the lockers.
This morning I had a lovely individual of the Blue Mormon in my garden, as it fluttered about the lemon tree. I was hoping it would rest on a twig and allow a good look at it but it did not oblige. There are several individuals of this large (wingspan 120-150 mm) butterfly this year. It appears to be a seasonal visitor to our campus, seen mostly during the monsoon months. Do look out for it.
We had a unusually large turnout for bird-watching this morning – over 15 students and 7-8 adults! The view of the campus, as we went towards the sunrise point, was breath-takingly lush. We hoped to see the YTB (Yellow Throated Bulbul) – two lucky souls saw one bird while the others were happily chattering away! But there were other highlights – a large bird of prey (possibly the Black Eagle), male Baya weavers in their resplendent breeding plumage and dusky crag martin (Craig Martin or was it Martin Craig? according to some kids!) gave us good views. The balmy weather conditions with overcast skies, a light drizzle and cool breeze made this outing an enjoyable one.
Dr Santharam