Birder weaves a green spell
TIRUPPUR: As hundreds of weavers toil away in a bustling yet quite literally run-of-the-mill garment unit at Vengamedu in Tiruppur, 50-year-old K Ravindran has the job of an overseer at hand. For he is the CEO of the unit, which was built on sweat, blood and tears.
Once running errands for the business is over, he may watch over the weavers; albeit there’s a difference. He may be gripping onto a pair of binoculars and spotting a weaver bird intricately weaving its nest, a northern shoveler dabbling in water, or a black stork hunting its prey. There he’s an avid bird watcher, a naturalist, and a wildlife conservationist who takes bird censuses, conducts wildlife awareness programmes for government school students, and takes fellow nature lovers for forest strolls.
As the president of the Nature Society of Tiruppur, he has held over 324 awareness classes in schools in the city over the years. The switching between work and passion has meant Ravindran is busy as a bee all the time. A normal weekday of his goes like this: After a morning at the garment unit, he rushes to a government school at noon to take wildlife awareness classes. He comes back and completes the business-related activities in the evening, and reads wildlife magazines and journals.
On Sundays, he takes a group of volunteers for nature walks in hillocks around Tiruppur. Every two months, he along with his friends goes on a safari to regions like Bandipur, Mudumalai, and Kabini. Ravindran was introduced to garment manufacturing through his forefathers who were in powerloom and weaving business for seven generations. In 2004, he set up his own unit with the help of his uncle Somasundaram. In the following years, caught in the tireless circle of running a business, Ravindran felt the urge to do something else. With a keen interest in photography, he began clicking snaps of birds in Nanjarayan at Mannarai.
The turning point, however, came when his friend Nallasivam observed Ravindran’s interests in birds and wildlife photography and directed him to the Natural History Trust in Pollachi. There, under the mentorship of wildlife experts such as S Mohammed Ali and Dr Yoganand, Ravindran started reading, researching, and learning more about birds and wildlife. Recalling a valuable lesson they taught, Ravindran says, “They told me they would never go to a forest as a tourist or see a forest as a picnic spot. Whenever you step inside a forest, observe, enjoy and love.”
Last week, I organised a programme in a government school at Pooluvapatti in Tiruppur, he says. “The children were excited and even after the session, a group surrounded me and enthusiastically started asking questions about wildlife and birds,” he adds. Meanwhile, after a decade of petitioning officials, MLAs and ministers to convert the Nanjarayan pond into a bird sanctuary, the efforts of Ravindran and his men bore fruit this year. With help from a top official from the forest department, they convinced the State government to declare the pond a bird sanctuary on April 25, 2022. It’s only a matter of a G.O. before it officially becomes one; yet another feather in Ravindran’s cap.
Awareness classes to kindle love for nature
Bird censuses, too, became a calming experience for K Ravindran. At Nanjarayan, he has found birds of almost 180 species and counted thousands of them. He also started taking wildlife awareness classes in schools to kindle the love for nature in children. His wish seems to be bearing fruit, he believes.