Myna takes the Metro

On Perumbakkam Main Road in chennai, CMRL delivers the promised ‘better tomorrow’ to the common myna ahead of deadline

Inconvenience today for a better tomorrow. That familiar line brings to mind an entity, face red with remorse and hands folded in supplication. This entity delivers that line in a conciliatory tone to Homo sapiens. That line cannot be spouted for the ears of Acridotheres tristis. For Acridotheres tristis — the common myna, for those who are repulsed by bionomial nomenclature — the promised “better tomorrow” has well and truly arrived in the midst of Metro Rail construction, amidst TMT roads and partially completed Metro Rail work.

The common myna has outsourced nest-building duties to Metro Rail engineers.

Of course, that statement comes dipped in hyperbole. The hole-nesting common myna is not resting on its haunches, and still diligently building nests. Only that the species is being spared the effort of scouting for crevices to have their nests in and raise their young. It builds nests in spaces provided by Metro Rail construction — that is the latest adaptation story from Perumbakkam-Sholinganallur.

On Perumbakkam Main Road, where Line 5 under Phase II is taking shape and where some pillars are crowned with piers and even U-girders, common mynas make their presence felt. Unstopped holes (there by design) in the pier are used by these birds as nesting nooks. The number markings on the pillars provide a sophisticated sense of these birds moving into a flat in a high-rise apartment. To illustrate, the image shows a common-myna pair having moved into a hole on a pier marked P990.

How about P990 for a block in a vertical gated community?

There are other myna-pairs that have moved into the other “blocks”.

As Perumbakkam Main Road is organically linked to the “high-ceilinged” IT Corridor, that idea blends into the landscape, both architectural and social.