Shattered idyll

Until last month my first-floor office room commanded a nice view of a verdant hillside fringing the stream that gives Munnar its name. Thi...

Until last month my first-floor office room commanded a nice view of a verdant hillside fringing the stream that gives Munnar its name. This sprawling patch of vegetation, dense and impenetrable, was a mini-sanctuary of sorts for a variety of water-birds that surprisingly thrived despite the town8217;s all-pervasive pollution and cacophony.

Indeed the birds were a welcome and soothing diversion from my often stressful work schedule, enticing me to take time off to observe them. The kingfishers, perched motionless on rocks in midstream, were the embodiment of patience as they waited endlessly to swoop down on an unwary minnow or crab. The drab-coloured egrets blended perfectly with their surroundings as they foraged around on stilt-like legs. The long-necked darter, its head sticking snake-like out of the murky water, had an aura of mystery about it.

There were also several timid waterfowl that disappeared underwater at the merest hint of danger to resurface a safe distance away. I once espied a hen with six chicks paddling behind her in perfect formation in what appeared to be a swimming class 8212; a truly heart-warming sight. And, of course, the snipe were always around, stepping warily through the reeds. At night the birds roosted in the surrounding shrubbery and seemed quite at home despite their nearness to the town.

Further, the dense undergrowth used to effectively shelter 8212; from both humans and canines 8212; the odd barking deer that sometimes strayed to the stream to slake its thirst. Over the years, several of these timid creatures, I recall, had safely holed up there when pursued by predators.

Sadly, this idyll was rudely shattered last month when the local panchayat decided to develop the area into 8212; of all things 8212; a shopping-complex. For, next to tea, Munnar has an undoubted surfeit of shopping-complexes which, locals quip, outnumber shoppers!

One morning I was dismayed to find the hillside being shorn of all vegetation. A few days later, a bulldozer noisily tore it up, cutting deep trenches across it and, in the process, muddying the already heavily polluted stream below. Soon trucks thunderously dumped huge heaps of granite on the slopes and construction workers descended on the site.

Today the area is a beehive of human activity. All avian life has been permanently banished from it 8212; their home for decades. A haven, abuzz with a host of water-birds until a month ago, today lies denuded, desolate and totally devoid of them. Soon another concrete monstrosity will rear its ugly head there.

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It8217;s tragically true. Development 8212; whether rural or urban 8212; is invariably at the expense of nature.