While we were getting ready cross the canal and get on top of the bund to oversee spraying of weedicides, the farm labor asked us to stand back as a snake hurriedly made its way ahead of us. Though the labor was concerned about our safety and lifted the stick, we asked him to not to harm the snake. In the back of my mind I was curious to know if it was a cobra or a rat snake having recently read a report confirming India's numero uno position wrt death from snakes bites and lack of anti-venom in rural hospitals.
Bunds are a good place to rest, reflect, and marvel. Sitting on it, I recollected my high school biology lesson on food chain and how species are both dependent and connected in a large ecosystem. While at the same time I was on the lookout for snakes and every time a blade of grass touched my feet, I was hyper reacting.
Though knowledge and information are powerful, but it resides in the head and sometimes creates unnecessary anxiety.
Home is where the food is
Bunds are also the nesting place for termites, ants, crabs, insects, rats and snakes. Termites are very sensitive to light and heat, they use sand from the wet canal to built their eco friendly homes. And sometimes they coexist with ants. Once water starts to flow in canals, both ants and termites migrate to a higher ground (bunds), while crabs and frogs continue to stay on the side of the canal to feed on small fishes, insects and tadpoles. What an ingenious planning, but we still classify these species under the five senses category.
Conspiration against nature
While crabs, ants and termites do all the hard work in building their homes, snakes and rats feed on them and finally take over their nest. Isn't this behavior similar to those emulated by our people and politicians who encroach lakes, canals and river beds and finally making it all theirs?
Another conspiracy formula was being mixed in front of my eyes: 300 ml of Ricestar and 125 ml of Nominee Gold per acre of land to control the growth of weeds. Will these chemicals affect the food chain of birds, insects, rodents and reptiles was the next thought in my mind.
Birds of prey
While I watched herbicides being sprayed, I also spotted three birds of prey. One was a forked tail drongo eagerly sitting on the power lines and patiently waiting to catch bees and dragonflies. I spotted them in pairs and from time-to-time one darted in and out of fields, while the other made calls to alert the other of predators higher in the food chain and also divert their prey. That was a dual income family!
Second one was a kingfisher with bright blue wings and orange belly waiting to feed on the fishes and frogs in the canal. And the last one was hovering like a drone in the sky was the Eagle aka Garuda, vehicle for Vishnu looking for rats and rat snakes. It is an irony that we worship Gods and their adopted vehicles, yet we conspire against them and poison their food chain.
It is interesting to see sibling rivalry in the Eagle family. Eagles in general lays two eggs, and the older, larger chick kills its younger sibling once hatched. The dominant chick tends to be a female, as they are bigger than the male. Doesn't it sound similar those stories in newspapers?
Today's trip to the farm was an excellent opportunity to reflect back on my learnings from high school biology and at the same time compare and contrast human and animal behavior. Isn't it true that nature and its creations inspire humans to only conspire against them?
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