Are Chennai’s wetlands suffering from irregular heartbeats?
The Hindu
Out-of-turn showers seem to have reset Perumbakkam wetland’s ecological clock this year
If one wants to know for a certainty that the planet has been “rewired” for the worse, by anthropogenic activities, they only have to watch a set of barometers, one of which are wetlands and their workaday functions and features. The most significant of them all is the ticking of their internal, ecological clock.
Take the Perumbaklkam wetland for instance: It has an unmistakable dry period, at the height of summer, when the soil looks creased like an aged one’s face having been drained of all water. The pattern was noticeably broken this year due to out-of-turn and unexpected showers, and in mid-June now, there is still sogginess left in the soil. Due to the showers around the cusp of April and June, efforts by a colony of black-winged stilts to raise new families were stillborn. These birds are back at it now, incubating their eggs on the same platforms they had to abandon then. Usually when the water is draining out of a wetland, the small pratincoles put in an appearance.
As expressed by some birders through prolonged observations and also by ornithologist V Shantaram, the water flow dynamics having changed in the Pallikaranai Marsh, the sight of dozens of small pratincoles in the draining period is a thing of the past.
“We are judges and therefore, cannot act like Mughals of a bygone era ... the writ courts in the guise of doing justice cannot transcend the barriers of law,” the High Court of Karnataka observed while setting aside an order of a single judge, who in 2016 had extended the lease of a public premises allotted to a physically challenged person to 20 years contrary to 12-year period stipulated in the law.
The High Court of Karnataka on Monday declined to interfere, at present, in the investigation against a Bharatiya Janata Party worker, who is among the accused persons facing charges of circulating obscene clips, related to “morphed” images and videos clips related to Prajwal Revanna, former Hassan MP, in public domain through pen drives and other modes.
The 16th edition of Bhoomi Habba was held on June 8, at the Visthar campus. The festival drew a vibrant crowd who came together to celebrate eco-consciousness through a variety of engaging activities, creative workshops, panel discussions, interactive exhibits and performances, all centered around this year’s theme: “Save Water, Save Lives.”