Forest guide at Thattekkad Bird Sanctuary, Sudha Chandran, speaks of a lifetime in bird watching

Sudha Chandran, a forest guide at Thattekkad Bird Sanctuary, shares her passion for birds and nature with visitors.

The racket-tailed drongo is one of the first birds to wake everyone up. The whistling jingle of the drongo’s call is almost always the sound Sudha Chandran starts her day with. “By 5.30am, there is a veritable symphony playing in the forest, if you care to listen,” she says. Sudha is a forest guide at Thattekkad Bird Sanctuary and an authority on the birds in the region. 

Having been in the sanctuary for over 24 years, Sudhamma, as is fondly known, can identify over 300 bird species – their calls, breeding season, feeding season, habits and habitats and migration patterns. The Thattekkad bird sanctuary, which sprawls across 25 square kilometres, is home to about 330 bird species. “I love the forest and nature and all the creatures in it; I sometimes feel I know them all,” she says.  

Sudha has been chosen for this year’s PV Thampy Memorial Endowment Award for Environment Protection, given to ordinary people for their extraordinary contribution to environmental protection. 

Sudha first came to Thattekkad in 1971 as a young bride. “It was a thick forest at the time and I was extremely scared to venture out. The sounds from the forest used to unnerve me,” she says. Her husband owned a tea shop at Thattekkad. But after his untimely death 35 years ago, Sudha had to rise up to a volley of challenges. She had to raise two children and make enough for the family to survive. With only a Class X education, Sudha took to doing odd jobs, while managing the tea shop. “I taught myself how to drive, I can row the boat; I can take photographs. I also got a job as a part time sweeper in the Government UP School, Thattekkad.” 

When the sanctuary was inaugurated in 1983, the tea shop began to get scientists, bird watchers and naturalists as its visitors. Sudha would often visit the sanctuary on errands and gradually got acquainted with bird watching. She would listen in on sessions handled by renowned ornithologist R Sugathan, a protege of pioneer Salim Ali. “I would hang around outside the class to listen and Sugathan sir would ask me to get inside and attend the class,” Sudha says.

Sudha gradually learnt about birds and has been accompanying visitors, ornithologists, naturalists and scientists on their bird watching trails into the forest. “I have learned so much from the scholars and experts and I am still learning. I pass on whatever I know to people who want to learn.” Sudha can handle English and can understand most Indian languages, she says. 

One of the first licensed women forest guides, Sudha has won awards including the Sanctuary Wildlife Service Award 2023.