February 15, 2008

Looking for birds: the MNS show

Were you part of the fifty teams which were chasing birds a couple of weeks ago?
If you had a swell time, it pays to share your experiences.
Because K. V. Sudhakar would like to hear more of them.
Sudhakar is part of the core team of the Madras Naturalists Society (MNS) and though the group has kept a low profile, it has contributed a lot to the environment of the city.
And if there are positive and warm experiences of the Bird Race that MNS hosted for the first time in our city, they are bound to enthuse people like Sudhakar and his team to do more.
The Bird Race got many people excited. Most of them weren't pro bird watchers. But they wanted to be part of the excitement. And the response surprised MNS.
Can you imagine a team waking up at 4 a. m. so it could be at Pulicat Lake at 6 a.m. and another team driving down as far down south as Madurantakam to tote up a huge number of birds they had actually seen that day.
The Bird Race turned out to be a fun event and sponsors like HSBC should now confidently dig deep into their CSR account and support many such events in the city.
Sudhakar seems convinced that young people are keen to get out and get some fresh air and do the extraordinary thing.
His office is down the corridor and at our last chat session, we convinced him to have a monthly event and tap into the Bird Race registrations.
MNS organises tours to a variety of places - sanctuaries, forests, hills. . . And because it is a professional body and has veterans in it, you get special facilities and treatment.
You go to places where the junta cannot go and you make the best of the lodges and bungalows in amazing locations!
I am also hoping MNS organise short trips. To Pulicat and Nellore, to Chembarapakkam and Nanmangalam.
If you are keen to join MNS, you can e-mail Sudhakar at kvsudha@gmail.com

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