From a roar to a meow

The latest CSR based ad campaign by a new teleco caught my attention...More so because I am an animal lover and the campaign highlights the alarming decline of our beloved national animal- The Tiger. From 40,000 to just 1411 that is an almost 100% percent decline. The fall has beaten the stock market crash across the world. In India there seems to be a wave of optimism and some industry experts are hopeful that the sensex will gradually & eventually move northward, especially with the stimulus and corrective measures taken by the finance ministries. But I don't feel the same optimism when it comes to the tiger population, especially given there seems to be more lip service than actual action. I love tigers..so what if I've never been fortunate enough or rather have been fortunate enough to not have a rendezvous with one.I still feel strongly for this specie, especially because my first love was a tiger's cub, whose picture I had seen in one of the animal magazines in my childhood days.Pray, with the way things are going, future generations might well have to resort to movies and books to look at this magnificent creature. But don't get me wrong my love for tigers has nothing to do with my background, as in my community identity. My fondness is restricted to the stripped four legged man-eater and not to any individual whose considered the human equal of it.The only dissimilarity and a striking one that too remains that one is a national animal & the other one would rather want to be viewed as a regional member. Interestingly though, it appears that somehow their fates seems to be entwined.Both seem to be losing their battles to control territory and fight extinction...

The Flight for survival

Mumbai is an overcrowded city, but not just because of it’s people. It plays host to other thriving species that spans its skies, scooter seats, offices windows, residential buildings etc. Here I refer to crows and pigeons & in the minority & conitnously diminshing are our sparrow friends. Mumbai’s skyline is more often than not dotted with our black feathered friends and they seem to be the only birds one imagines to exist in this cemented jungle, apart from the pigeons which seem to blend into the buildings. Sparrows seem to have relocated altogether.

If it’s your lucky day you could spot a flock of parrot and maybe a mayna or two but that’s how far it goes. Most times you have to wake up to the cooing of a pigeon, and if your unlucky like me, a dozen pigeons. Normally the Mumbai skyline offers an overhang of pollution, an entanglement of wires, the bright lights of hoardings, a flight of our feathered friends and sometimes even a beautiful sunset that makes you feel hopeful about the next day is what keeps us going.

But today im not here to tell you’ll what you all already know. What I want to talk about is how Mumbai’s politics isn’t restricted to just it’s people. The fight for calling Mumbai home isn’t just an issue with us humans, even our feathered friends fight over it tooth and nail or should I say feathers and beaks.

It was well known that Mumbai had many visiting birds of different variety. Then suddenly with the turn of time crows grew and came to power. Their population itself made them daunting enemies that little sparrows were forced to keep a low profile. The power equation seems to be increasingly in favor of the new entrants & now permamnent residents- Crows. Yes, blasphemous according to the city's political environment. They are the new owners of the skyline and my guess is that their sheer size and might has made them fight the incumbents.

Everyday I’ve been noticing them in becoming more and more bolder as compared to other birds. This crow mafia fears nobody & they have aligned themselves to the national agenda of becoming the country with the higesht population. The drama it seems to be unfolding right here in front of us…