Wildbuzz | Shylock’s ounce of bird flesh
With the passage of time, Banerjee’s grief did not ebb but he reconciled to the inevitability. Should he have harboured an inclination to save his buddy from Batalvi’s hawk --- a remorseless killer who would rip morsels from the heart and sip his friend’s fresh blood?
When photographing birds, it is best to be a detached observer of the cosmic dance of life and death. For, being eats being: the hawk the little bird, the little bird the insect. However, the human heart is vulnerable, it gets emotionally involved and pains at the play of nature’s amoral ways.
Computer sciences teacher, Sanjay Banerjee, from Burdwan (WB), broke his heart. It was over a shy little beauty, a migratory Bluethroat, that breeds come summer in the northern latitudes from Europe to Asia and Alaska. The male’s chest and neck are bedecked with falling necklaces of glowing feathers, or as if rainbow rows of colour had cast a half-dome upon the bird. It is of such small-boned elegance, coy eyes and reticent manner that one would imagine it an avian answer to Waheeda Rehman or Audrey Hepburn!
Last Monday, Banerjee went to the Damodar river for birding and, unexpectedly, again came across his little friend. This specimen was late for the return migration and had probably missed the bus.
“I was surprised to see my old fellow, the Bluethroat. I prepared my photography gear and took position to sit and talk with my old buddy. All of a sudden, a Shikra came in between us, snatched my fellow in front of me, and flew away. My impulse was to somehow save my friend from the hawk’s clutches. I tried to follow the Shikra, but it flew too far. Using my camera, I saw the Shikra holding my friend firmly and perched on a pole. The hawk’s eyes were stony, and of ruby fire. I saw my little friend crying for help. I could do nothing, I was too far away. Within no time, the Shikra again took flight and disappeared. I was so sorry for my little fellow,” Banerjee told this writer.
With the passage of time, Banerjee’s grief did not ebb but he reconciled to the inevitability. Should he have harboured an inclination to save his buddy from Batalvi’s hawk --- a remorseless killer who would rip morsels from the heart and sip his friend’s fresh blood?
“Upon reflection, I realised that the hawk has a right to life, it must kill to eat, live and breed,” said Banerjee.
Oh dear, a lost teddy bear
The proverbial ‘highway to hope’ has no end. So, it was with the turn of the wheels of fortune for a desolate Sloth bear cub. It was found by a stroke of luck. It was without its mother in a culvert under a highway near the Bandhavgarh National park (MP). The distress the lost cub must have suffered can be gauged from the little-known fact that the mother is so tender in her care that she even feeds little ones at night. The warmth of her body is the cub’s invincible shield against the vagaries of nature, and increasing human negativities.
Forest officials, who stumbled upon the cub, suspect highway disturbances disoriented the mother and she lost contact with her ‘dear teddy bear’. Officials watched the cub for four days in the culvert expecting the mother would return but with no sign of her, and the cub showing acute emotional distress and hunger, the little one was rescued and handed over to the Wildlife SOS Van Vihar Bear Rescue Facility, Bhopal.
The cub has been placed under intensive caring and feeding every four hours to mirror the care his mum would have given. He has also been christened, Jim, after the noted actor and singer, Jim Sarbh, who is an ardent supporter of Wildlife SOS.
“It is an honour to have this resilient little soul named after me. Knowing that Jim the bear has been given a second chance at life through love and care means more than what words can say. I hope little Jim’s story inspires more compassion for our wild animals, our wild spaces, and the incredible biodiversity our country offers,” Sarbh stated.
vjswild2@gmail.com
