JP Nagar

I guess the heat was too much and not many volunteers turned up this weekend. Those who did brave the sun did a wonderful job though. Yesterday, 6th April, some eight of us were scattered on the lake bed, bent over or squatting on the ground. We were searching for lurking bits of the Salvinia between the cracks and under stones since even a teeny bit is enough for it to sprout and cover the water in no time.  Fresh Salvinia spotted earlier in the week (Pic: Nupur Jain) Searching for Salvinia (Pic: Usha Rajagopalan) It was back breaking work…

The Sloth Bear Foundation presents: Wildlife Conservation and You at S Hotel 60, 13th Cross, 2nd Main, Phase III, J P Nagar Bangalore 560078 +91 80 4245 6060 and at Aloft Hotel 17C, Sadaramangala Road · • Off Whitefield Main Road, Opposite ITPL · Bengaluru 560066 Phone: (91)(80) 6670 7777 · (Click on the name of each hotel to go to the website) Click to see some of the speakers A 2 day seminar with eminent speakers from the sphere of wildlife conservation seeks to address the questions you may have across multiple facets of the topic. The two days…

In this season of colours, our lake bed may seem drab, devoid of water but for us at PNLIT, it is a sign of hope. The brown piles of drying Salvinia is the final leg of a battle we've been fighting since Aug. last year to remove the invasive fern Salvinia Molesta and to infuse new life into the lake. The way the BBMP's JCB and the men are working, we are hopeful that the last of the Salvinia will be removed by the end of the week. THEN we can welcome the rain to fill up the lake.In spite…

Volunteers who attended last weekend's deweeding sessions at Puttenahalli Lake admit it was hard, but satisfying work. Though we had dissuaded children from "working", there were several who accompanied their parents and finally joined in.Here is what some of the volunteers had to say, after putting in a good few hours last Sat/ Sun morning.  Shankar Iyer It was a great feeling to get down to the surface of the lake and  "de-weed." I had a feeling that Mother Nature was asking for a small assistance  from our side to help her bloom and extend "her healing effects of calmness" on us for the…

Saturday, 9th March 2013With some 20 volunteers responding to our call to remove the drying aquatic weed from the lake bed, it was a most satisfying morning today! Their enthusiasm was infectious and several people stopped jogging/walking to see what they were doing, then joined them to remove the drying Salvinia Molesta. Working with a rake, a spade or simply scooping up the weed with bare hands, they filled plastic bags, formed a line on the slope, handed each bag over the grill where others waited to cart them away. The dry Salvinia can be used for mulching or composting.…

We at PNLIT feel blessed and privileged to get an opportunity to see the revival of a lake at such close quarters. We cherish the experience and want to share it with everybody. After all, how many people get such a fantastic opportunity to save a lake?  Yesterday morning the workers began laying the pipes to complete the diversion channel. Using a JCB to dig the trenches and a crane to lift the 45 in dia pipe and keep it in place in the trench was quite a sight!  By late afternoon, the sky darkened. Out of 18 pipes only three…

All of us have problems with our banks from time to time. But when the problem lasts, unresolved, beyond 30 days, many of us are not aware that we can turn to the Banking Ombudsman at the Reserve Bank of India.Please click here to go to the Reserve Bank Ombudsman's website, and file your complaint. One of my techie friends was very impressed by the quality of the site...there's a provision to send the whole mail trail of your correspondence with the Bank as a pdf, too, or send a screenshot. click here for the list of Ombudsmen.Hope this helps…

Click here for the website of an NGO called Sarvodaya. They help Bangalore citizens with issues regarding stray dogs, and implement the ABC (Animal Birth Control) process instead of killing the dogs.The mobile no. is 91 98801 19900The landline is 080- 65340127Email: info@strays.in There is no political will in Bangalore to permanently solve the issue of stray dogs; though every now and then, there are instances of feral dogs attacking, and sometimes killing, children, BBMP has not taken a single step to curb this menace. Hence, citizens have to look towards NGO's like this for help.    ⊕

Bird watchers know that all Flycatchers catch bees, wasps, dragonflies, butterflies and other insects as part of their diet. (Indeed, so do many other birds.)So...you'd expect the personnel manning the Butterfly Park in the Bannerghatta Zoo area to know that as well. And, when they see a bird catching a butterfly, they would just catch it with a net and release it elsewhere, wouldn't you?You'd be...'dead' wrong.That's the right word to use in the circumstances.Srikant VK writes:"The employers of the butterfly park saw the flycatcher catching some butterflies,the only crime this innocent little bird did was to fill its belly…

Dear birding friends,A quick note to ask whether you might be interested in joining us in a funbirding event on 14-18 Feb. On those dates, birders across the world willbe taking part in the Great Backyard Bird Count (www.birdcount.org), run byCornell University's Laboratory of Ornithology.The basic idea is to spend some time (minimum of 15 min) listing all thebirds species you see, together with a rough count of each. Despite thename of the event, one can participate from anywhere -- from a balcony orrooftop or garden, to a market or farm or wetland or forest. And it doesn'tmatter if you…