Nov 052011
 

Little Creatures around us found in cities

Our cities and suburbs are daily loosing their green cover and slowly but steadily becoming concrete jungle.
Especially the suburbs have changed their character drastically from once encroaching on the green cover and fields today they the concrete jungle has firmly taken root and this change is irreversible. When we moved in my parents home in distant suburb of Rohini in Delhi some 20 years agoone could still hear Peacocks in distance and an occasional sighting was not rare. Those days are a distant memory, so when we moved to Kondapur in Hyderabada recently concretized suburb I was wondering if any of the native fauna is surviving?The quest started one day when I was strolling in our buildings compound with my toddler daughter, while running around she suddenly screamed as if she has seen one of the monsters in one of her animation movies. On close examination it turned out to be a scream of joy on discovering a small frog in the grass of the compound. Being a city bred kid she has seen a frog only in picture and she was very excited on discovering a living specimen. We followed the scared to death creature for some time till he managed to melt in the greenery.
garden animals
A little Frog in garden
The discovery of the frog was the highlight of the evening for my daughter and she starting boasting to everybody she met in the compound that she has seen a real live frog that was actually jumping.
This led me to think are there any more surviving creatures adapting to the lifestyle around humans. So I decided to keep my eyes open and try to find out as many creatures in and around building. While we have been to many safaris to various wild life reserves the process of discovering small animals and insects around us was truly amazing. In the beginning it was very difficult as our eyes are just not used to looking at these small critters but once I was taking thing in a little more leisurely manner I started discovering more and more friendly creatures around us, and I am not talking about house pests like cockroaches and mosquitoes but real creatures that one normally would think are found only in pristine surroundings.
In the next few days I discovered more frogs, lots of insects including butterflies, praying mantis, caterpillars and a whole lot of birds in our building, including a small one that has built a nest on a palm tree in the central green space of the building.
Indian monitor lizard
The Monitor Lizard In The IT Park
But the highlight of the discovery was a close encounter with a monitor lizard in our office compound in V IT park This guy was almost 3 feet long from head to tail and was lazily basking in the morning sun next to a cannas patch.
Praying Mantis
I am not sure how long these creatures will be able to cope with the pressure of loss of habitat and food while there home for millions of year is slowly converted into concrete jungle. But one thing is for sure most of these creatures are harmless to humans and we should leave them alone, I am pretty sure one day when we humans will destroy mother earths these creatures being the survivors they are will rule the planet once again.
Another Praying Mantis
How about starting your own journey to discover some of these small animals and birds around you and work towards protecting them? There is a lot we can do to protect birds and small creatures around us. Check this post about putting sparrow nests in Hyderabad to see how you can help small birds near you to find a home and give you a sense of being one with nature.
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  3 Responses to “Its A Jungle Out There”

Comments (3)
  1. that was a wonderful post!
    and yes we just have to be more aware of our surroundings!

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