I’ve been a resident of this city all my life, and started observing its wild creatures when I was 10. We lived in Mandaveli then, in a small house with a neem tree that was a haven for rose-ringed parakeets and palm squirrels.
Every morning, jewel-like sunbirds and big black carpenter bees flitted about, sucking nectar from the vibrant yellow, trumpet-shaped flowers of a Tecoma stans tree in our garden. At certain times of the year, visiting golden orioles took our breath away.
While many of these wondrous creatures can still be encountered in this neighbourhood 45 years later, one that you will rarely see today is the so-called ‘common’ house sparrow.
So numerous and, indeed, common, were they back then that we never imagined a time without their cheerful presence.
They would sit on the walls and hop on the ground, chirping incessantly.
Fling a few grains of rice, and a flock would quickly converge at your feet to feed. They were trusting little birds that nested in our homes and kept us company throughout the day.
In 1979, we moved to Thiruvanmiyur, then considered the outskirts of the city. Our house stood among vacant plots that had been paddy fields not too long ago. Every evening there would be so many toads hopping about our garden that we had to be careful not to step on any. Snakes were common.
Mostly, they were harmless grass snakes, water snakes or rat snakes, but sometimes a cobra would silently slither by.
During the monsoon months, when water stagnated all around, the nights reverberated with the chorus of a dozen species of amphibians.
Fish miraculously materialized in the shallow waters, attracting stunningly beautiful kingfishers. Sitting on the terrace in the evenings, we would be treated to the sight of flock after flock of parakeets returning to the city to roost after foraging in the countryside.
At twilight they were followed by flocks of returning egrets too numerous to count. And after dark, hundreds of large fruit bats, or flying foxes, would fly in the opposite direction to feed in the orchards.
Today, just like the sparrows, the toads too have disappeared from most parts of the city, and bird life has dwindled. The nature of Chennai today is vastly different from the Madras of yesterday.
(The writer is a wildlife and conservation filmmaker)