Google the word Kavdi, and you're bound to get all the co-ordinates for getting to this 'spectacular birding spot' - and 'bird-watcher's paradise'. There are plenty of blogs from people, some as recent as late December of 09, telling you all about the birds that they saw. Amazingly, no one mentions, that the water, the bridge, and the shore of this water body, are one giant SEWER. While you may see birds, no doubt, you will see much more: tattered plastic bags stuck to the struts of the bridge, tonnes of styrofoam packing material gone yellow-brown, slimey green water, flowing sluggishly, sadly, an evil, putrid smell, straw, toys, and god knows what else. Is this a special Indian trait, that we really think that all the rivers and lakes and seas around us will swallow our garbage and like magic make it all disappear?
And is our bird-watching community so focused on just the birds, (a la Arjuna focusing on the eye of the fish) that no one thinks they need to mention in their blogs and glowing recommendations, that you will also see garbage of every species and every colour, bobbing around the place? Migratory garbage, like migratory birds, it has found its way to this once pristine spot, and unfortunately, it will not migrate back to where it came from.
It was one of the most depressing birding outings that I have done. I was once fortunate enough to be allowed inside the CME campus (College of Military Engineering), a month or so ago. And I found all the birds that Kavdi has to offer.
Let us observe 2 minutes silence for Kavdi, and for all the other water bodies and hill slopes and forests that we are choking, felling, burning to death. And then we can go to the nearest mutiplex, mall, or food bazaar, and get our fill of 'food, fun, frolic' and declare India shining again.
I dont know who built that solid and elegant stone causeway at Kavdi, decades ago. It was obviously someone who thought it a worthy place. May his soul too rest in peace - possibly some old Brit who it is unfashionable to praise anyway.
Friday, January 8, 2010
Shock and awe at Kavdi, Pune!
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5 comments:
That reminds me... we never had the clean-up drive in our colony again. Seemed like a mother's day celebration of something. Gift a Hallmark card for one day and ignore it for the rest of the year.
Anyway, the three fingers pointing back to me say that I should do something more than just rant about it.
Thank you for the post, Gouri. More people need to read it, so we realise that unlike migratory birds, our garbage will not go away.
I cannot believe what I am reading. I have been told and have read about Kavdi and kept contemplating an outing there. What a paradox…
i've seen that.
sad.
nadi
i have bot been to kavdi, but i go to CME lake often and feel it is a paradise on earth. varied birds, lovely sunrise/sunset, still water of the lake, beautiful moon on a poornima night, you name it and it is there...
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