India Post releases postcards featuring the birds of Tiruvannamalai

R Siva Kumar, a former signboard artist turned nature educator, paints accurate depictions of birds in Tiruvannamalai.

R Sivakumar was one among the several signboard and banner artists in Tamil Nadu who were replaced by flex boards in the early 2000s. While many of his contemporaries left for Chennai to work at film sets, Siva, who was born and raised in Tiruvannamalai, stayed back. He eventually found work as an artist with The Forest Way. The charitable trust, founded by Govinda Bowley and V Arun, works towards restoring forests of the Arunachala hill, apart from being involved in environmental outreach work among children and locals.

Sivakumar was tasked with painting the birds of Tiruvannamalai in 2006 at the Arunagiri Children’s Park maintained by The Forest Way and the district administration. “This was part of their documentation of birds within a 20-kilometre radius of Tiruvannamalai,” he says. On January 30, 2025, the Postcrossing Welfare Society of India, under the aegis of India Post, released a set of 25 postcards featuring Sivakumar’s oil-based paintings.

Sivakumar, who is also a nature educator at the park, spends his days bird-watching, painting, and talking to visitors, most of whom are school students, about the flora and fauna of the region. The recently-released postcards feature birds such as brahminy starling, grey-headed swamphen, Indian pitta, northern pintail, painted spurfowl, pheasant-tailed jacana, among others.

As someone who chiefly painted portraits of celebrities during his stint as signboard artist, Sivakumar says that he initially found it challenging to draw birds. “Since this was for scientific documentation, the birds had to be spot-on in terms of size and colour,” he says. “I had to bring out the difference in plumage between the male and female side of the species.”

The deeper he delved into birds, the deeper he fell in love. Sivakumar eventually started photographing and learning tips from birders from Chennai and Bengaluru who frequented Tiruvannamalai. Today, he is among the top contributors from the region of bird checklists on the eBird citizen science platform. He participates at birding meets of the Tamil Birders Network. Sivakumar also helped put together a Tamil field guide on the birds of Tiruvannamalai by The Forest way.

As part of his job as nature educator, Sivakumar takes visitors at the park on nature walks, bird watching, also sharing his knowledge on native trees. While birders from far and wide travel to the Western Ghats, Sivakumar prefers to focus on what is in his backyard. “When I’m free, I travel to the Javvadhu hills nearby to document birds in the valley,” he says, adding that his aim is to cover birds within a 50-kilometre radius of Tiruvannamalai.

“For most of us, forests bring to mind dense sholas,” says Sivakumar. But it is the birds of scrub jungles in the Eastern Ghats and uncultivated lands in and around Tiruvannamalai that interest him. “I share what I know with the people I meet,” says the 48-year-old who spent his boyhood days at the Ramanasramam. Today, he works in the same neighbourhood. “I came here to paint birds and eventually turned into a nature lover,” he says.