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Photos: A. Muralitharan

In the wilderness Scenes from the Nanmangalam forest

Organisms that go through a daily cycle that is repeated the next day lend themselves to be written about in this column. As it can’t be slotted into a system that is repetitive and can be mapped, a Reserve Forest is not one such organism. Except for a few routines, most activities take place at varied times. Therefore, you can only have a sketchy pattern of how a day will go at this ‘managed’ wilderness. And so, despite assembling a group that is engaged with the Nanmangalam RF on a daily basis, I know I am going to experience the place rather than the system that makes it tick.

As I go around this scrub forest in the company of three staffers from the wildlife department and two naturalists (Thirunaranan of Nature Trust and R.T. Sriram of Adyar Poonga Trust), I discover this RF’s charms and understand its challenges.

Forest guard J. Selvin and watcher S. Dhanashekaran have a job on their hands. In the morning, they do a routine three-hour round that covers a section of the forest. The next morning, they patrol another section. This process comes a full circle at the end of the week. In this manner, they familiarise themselves with the 320-hectare spread. They look for trespassers who misuse these tracts. They might have fixed hours of work, but are expected to intervene whenever forest rules are violated. To this end, they have been provided quarters within the RF. Their job is made difficult by the RF’s size, porous borders and proximity to thriving villages and busy roads.

Near one of the disused quarries, we notice pieces of broken bottles and feathers of ducks, vestiges of a weekend revelry. Forester Somasundaram, who supervises Selvin and Dhanashekaran and gives them a hand when a hole has to be plugged, brushes aside a suggestion to put up a ‘Warning Board’. “Watch this space closely and remand the offenders. When word about it spreads, others will keep away,” he says. Selvin and Dhanashekaran can remand offenders under the instruction of the Tambaram Range Officer M.S. Ramadhas, who operates from an office in Tambaram. The Nanmangalam RF and the Pulikaradu RF are part of the Tambaram Section, which along with the Vandalur and Sriperumbudur Sections form the Tambaram Range.

As there is very little activity within the RF, any human presence can easily be equated with trespassing. The forest staff is, however, lenient towards harmless villagers who take an extended stroll into the RF or who make use of the forest without damaging it. I am told these villagers are a natural ally, tipping them off about movement of strangers. Three girls, who seem to be in their early teens, are let off with a warning. “It is not safe to enter the forest alone. Next time, bring an elder along.” Apparently, these girls are residents of the adjoining Koyilambakkam village and entered the RF to climb trees and swing from their branches.

And the Indian Great Horned Owl, which the Nanmangalam RF is home to, puts up with a small traffic of people who use the water in the quarries to wash clothes.

We climb a hillock at whose summit are neem leaves and sacred ash, used in ritual and have been placed inadvertently on what is the survey point for the city. From time to time, a group of surveyors sets up camp on the summit, usually for a week.

My best moments are spent watching a pop-eyed Great Horned Owl which, according to Sriram, is a male that is trying to divert our attention from its nest and family. For the last four years, Sriram is studying and photographing this bird through daily visits to this RF. He imitates the gait of a tiger and compares it to how this owl walks. He holds up a bundle, which are the remains of a rodent that a Great Horned Owl has regurgitated. We had other bird sightings (crow pheasant, shikra hawk, pipit, marsh harrier, flycatcher and sandpiper), but the encounter with the Great Horned Owl remains etched in my mind.

As a wetland, woodland (mostly of artificial creation) and scrub forest rolled into one, this RF supports 83 species of birds. And I am disappointed at not sighting a stone curlew dashing across the glade or a nightjar doting on its chicks.

Thirunanranan of Nature Trust offers to join me for another visit to meet these birds. Thirunaranan studies the ecology of the Nanmangalam forest and regularly takes school children on trails through it. He and forester Somasundaram explain the medicinal value of many plants. Apparently, this RF contributes greatly to the sale of medicinal plants, organised at the State Forest Research Centre at Kolapakkam, on the road fromVandalur to Kelambakkam.

We also visit a teak plantation, a sore point with naturalists. They are sceptical about this programme undertaken under the ‘forest extension project’ for Nanmangalam RF. They believe this effort will bring about the opposite of what it is expected to achieve. It will destroy what lends this forest its character and damage its ecology beyond repair. That is not good news for the Great Horned Owl and for me, who has been delighted at having had a wilderness experience within the city.

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