There is an unprecedented
realtime vanishing of urban biodiversity happening in our lifetime. As the
urban areas expands and rural get urbanized this pattern is replicated, and in
the last three decades the rate of biodiversity degradation is really quite
shocking. Urbanization essentially means more people less space, lesser space
for other species, noise and air pollution, and so the other species die, move
out or just vanish. Those who grew up before 1990s recall amazing biodiversity
that could be witnessed, and vividly recall flock of little house sparrows
going about their business in and around the house, the butterflies,
dragonflies and all kinds of insects in the night that gathered under the lamp.
Going out for a walk was always exciting, there were so much of wild open
spaces, bushes and trees. Though urban planners are trying to improve diversity
–as also to ameliorate heat island affect as temperature increases, the impact is
minimal as the same few type of species increase. Even in non-metros and small
towns (where I am located), going out for a walk doesn’t hold the promise of
finding something new or interesting, it is a rather uninspiring routine walk,
so lapse into thinking on something new. There are more people, more vehicles
and more big houses with plants and trees, and more walls and walls –it is as
if each inch of land is now cordoned off. Thankfully interiors of small towns
are much quieter with green spaces but diversity is quite limited. I see same
species of birds Common Mynas, Common and Jungle Crows, Black Drongo, Rufous Treepie,
Magpie Robins, Common Flameback Woodpeckers, Yellow-billed Babblers, Southern
Coucals, Asian Koels, Green Bee-eaters, Purple-rumped Sunbirds, White-cheeked
Barbet so on. These are the species I regularly see or hear, very occasionally
you could see a Black hooded Oriole or a Common Tailorbird. It is saddening. Two
decades back Indian Roller was quite common, and during my childhood I used to get
quite excited watching Hoopoe -these are no nonsense birds always busy, to see
the ants busily moving around and follow them to find out what the deal about! Or
even following a grim looking dog trotting as if to attend something very serious,
keen to know what he is up to, disappointed to find him settling for a comfortable
place to sleep! As a kid I imagined that other species are always conspiring
and had an entirely new world that we cannot see. So as biomass gets reduced,
species numbers collapse, we not only lose resilience of ecosystem and biodiversity
services that sustain life we also lose imagination and memories of the place.
*whenever I see a new species of bird I go back and draw a rough sketch in my notebook, I lose it frequently. The last one lasted a decade and had good collection of spotting -few hundred birds. I lost it few months back while traveling. It is devastating. So I am back to square one and started again. The rule is to draw only those birds that I saw, though I have included birds that one can confuse with, also in recent times I am finding scientific names, its origin, quite interesting. Though I have spotted only few dozen birds and since I don’t travel much as i used to so I guess this will take few years to reach credible collection.
