Paintings of birds, animals, and insects come alive on the walls of Coimbatore’s Central Academy for State Forest Service

Paintings of birds, animals, and insects at Coimbatore’s Central Academy for State Forest Service

As traffic roars on Thadagam Road, a low compound wall makes us slow down for a closer look. The wall, that is part of the Central Academy for State Forest Service (CASFOS) inside the Forest Campus, bears hand-painted images of birds, animals, sea creatures, flowers and more, done to impeccable detail. Each species is labelled with its botanical name, common name, and Tamil name. On wall that stretches from the Government College of Technology corner to Lawley Road junction, there are 217 paintings in all, with another 285 on the wall opposite Bharathi Park. Started in 2024, the project, funded by the Government of India, is the brainchild of V Thirunavukarasu IFS, Principal, CASFOS.

“The idea came up in 2024 when we renovated the compound wall of the institute,” says Thirunavukarasu. Once the damaged structures were fixed and they were left with sparkling white walls, he looked for sponsors to get them painted with India’s flora and fauna. When nothing worked, he finally got the Indian Government to sanction funds for the small but necessary project.

V Thirunavukarasu IFS, Principal, CASFOS, who initiated the project in Coimbatore. | Photo Credit: PERIASAMY M

Thirunavukarasu roped in K Muniasamy, Games and PT Instructor at the Academy to take his idea forward. “A group of officers decided on the species,” he explains. “We chose to include flora, fauna, mammals, insects and reptiles to represent the complete bio-diversity of our forests. This will also educate people.” Work began in 2024 and a team of artists from the Kerala-based Madhu Arts worked on the walls. While murals are common across our cities, what sets apart this series is the way the subject is treated.

Each bird, such as the purple sunbird, Eurasian hoopoe, orange-headed thrush, black drongo, painted stork, among a range of others, is rendered lifelike and scientifically accurate. Animals on the wall include Indian gaur, Nilgiri tahr, Indian giant squirrel, spotted deer, impala and leopard. But it is the Bharathi Park stretch that is most interesting: the wall here has reptiles, insects and moths.

True-to-life paintings of Indian flora and fauna, complete with botanical and Tamil names. | Photo Credit: PERIASAMY M