Chirps of a Forest Bird

  You might be wondering why this banyan tree is talking. Well, because it is time to talk. I’ve been in this world for almost 200 years. I was born in the Asiatic cholera pandemic time. And now I am dying in the time of covid pandemic time. Between these two pandemics, I’ve seen amazing changes. I’ve been the witness to many historical incidents. I’ve seen your growth, your developments, disruptions, your success, and your failures… Ah, it feels like, yesterday, you humans invented your first airplanes. But now, thousands of planes fly over my head every day. When I was born, this place was a complete forest. I had so many friends to talk with. Now, I’m alone. Around me, there are shops, malls, and huge buildings. It was just yesterday, you were arguing whether plants are lives or not. But now, you are developing devices to talk with plants! It feels like yesterday, you people were talking about first space travel. Now, I’m hearing things about living on Mars. You developed very fast!

  Since I was a kid, my father used to tell me the stories of camera trapping the wild animals and many of his own experiences with them. I’ve heard tons of stories by him, especially about big cats. In his stories, there was one thing in common – forest officers. When I was 11, a pair of trap cameras came home. We used to fix them in the forest almost every day. Every winter, we find one or two camera trap footages and several leopard pugmarks near our house. My grandmother always tells a lot of stories about leopards killing puppies. The stories of dogs and calves who went missing mysteriously… also with all these stories, Keneth Andreson’s stories about man-eating tigers are always my favorite. My father showed me a lot of videos about camera trapping and tigers and big cats. This is how I started to like big cats. After listning to all the big cat stories, yesterday I watched an amazing movie on amazon prime called ‘Sherni’ which means tigress in Hindi. It mainly revolves around wi

 ಅದು ಆಗಸ್ಟ್ ತಿಂಗಳಿನ ಸಮಯ. ಅಪ್ಪ ಮತ್ತು ನಾನು ರಾತ್ರಿ ಎಲ್ಲಿಗೋ ಹೋಗಿದ್ದವರು ಮನೆಗೆ ಹಿಂದಿರುಗುತ್ತಿದೆವು. ಕಾಡಿನ ಆ ರಸ್ತೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಅಪ್ಪ  ಇದ್ದಕ್ಕಿದ್ದಂತೆ ಕಾರು ನಿಲ್ಲಿಸಿ ಎಲ್ಲ ಲೈಟ್ ಗಳನ್ನು ಆಫ್ ಮಾಡಿ, ಒಂದು ಮರದ ಬುಡ  ನೋಡುತ್ತಿರಲು ಹೇಳಿದರು. ನನಗೆ ಮೊದಲು ಆ ಮರವನ್ನು ನೋಡಿದಾಗ ಏನೂ ಗೊತ್ತಾಗಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಕೆಲವು ನಿಮಿಷಗಳ ನಂತರ ಅದು  ಹಸಿರು ಬಣ್ಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಹೊಳೆಯಲಾರಂಭಿಸಿತು.ಫೋಟೋ ತೆಗೆಯಲು ಹೋದರೆ ಫ್ಲಾಶ್ ಲೈಟ್  ನ ಬೆಳಕಿಗೆ ಏನೂ ಕಾಣಲೆ ಇಲ್ಲ. ನಂತರ ತಿಳಿದದ್ದೇನೆಂದರೆ ಅದು ಹೊಳೆಯುವ fungus. ಇದು ಮಳೆಗಾಲದಲ್ಲಿ ನಮ್ಮ ಕಾಡುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಬೆಳೆಯುತ್ತದೆ ಎಂದು.  ಎಷ್ಟು ಆಶ್ಚರ್ಯವಲ್ಲವೇ? ನಾವೆಲ್ಲರೂ bioluminescence ಜೀವಿಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಪುಸ್ತಕಗಳಲ್ಲಿಯೋ, ಅಥವಾ ಟಿವಿಯಲ್ಲೊ ನೋಡಿರುತ್ತೇವೆ. bioluminescence ಎಂದರೆ ಜೀವಿಗಳು ನೈಸರ್ಗಿಕವಾಗಿ  ತಮ್ಮಲ್ಲಿ ಬೆಳಕನ್ನು ಹೊಮ್ಮಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವುದು ಎನ್ನಬಹುದು. ಇವು ಸಾಮಾನ್ಯವಾಗಿ ರಾಸಾಯನಿಕ ಕ್ರೀಯೆಯ ಕಾರಣದಿಂದಲೇ ಆಗುತ್ತವೆ. ನಾವೆಲ್ಲರೂ ಮಿಂಚುಹುಳ (firefly )ಗಳನ್ನು ನೋಡಿರುತ್ತೇವೆ. ಕೆಲವು ಜೆಲ್ಲಿ ಫಿಶ್ಗಳು, ಸಮುದ್ರ ಜೀವಿಗಳು ಸಹ ಇದನ್ನು ಬಳಸುತ್ತವೆ. ಅವು ತಮ್ಮ  ಸಂಗಾತಿಯ ಹುಡುಕಾಟಕಾಗಿಯೇನೋ ಈ ಗುಣವನ್ನು ಬೆಳೆಸಿಕೊಂಡಿವೆ. ಆದರೆ ಈ fungi ಗಳು? ಇವಕ್ಕೆ ಅಂತಹ ಯಾವುದೇ ಕೆಲಸವಿಲ್ಲ. ವಿಕಾಸವಾದದ ಪ್ರಕಾರ  ಇವು ಈ ರೀತಿಯ ಗುಣವನ್ನು  ಬೆಳೆಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳಲು ಯಾವುದಾದರೊಂದು ಕಾರಣ

  25th May, 2050 ”Why Areca nuts in our farms aren’t growing ?” I asked. ”I don’t know..” My big brother, Mahesh sighed. I am Mira , a 9 year old girl from the farming background. But now, me and my 3 friends were wondering why there no enough crops in their farms. From last year. the whole area didn’t had enough crops to feed on. What happened? ”Let’s find out! Let’s go and ask someone” Ramu suggested. He seemed pretty excited. ”What are you going ask anyway?” Chaitra asked, crossing her arms. ”Let us see what they say” Mahesh said. Chaitra nodded. We all went to find the best person to answer – our grandmother. After searching for a while, we finally found her! You know where she is? Near the Mango tree! But this year, we don’t have any mangoes. There are three other people with her. They looked like they were some officers. What she’s doing there anyway? ”Grandma?” Chaitra called. Grandma turned at us. The officer-looking people turned too. What they are doing here? ”What are you do