Krishnan Photography

Requiem for an Important Birding Area (IBA): Uran

January 17th,2010

Requiem : – The Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as the Missa pro defunctis (Latin, “Mass for the deceased”) or Missa defunctorum (“Mass of the deceased”), is a liturgical service of the Roman Catholic Church celebrated by the priest presider for the repose of the soul of a particular deceased person or persons. It is frequently, but by no means always, celebrated in the context of a funeral.

I  was first exposed to Uran in 2005  by Adesh Shivkar . Since then, this is one area,  I fondly called “Uran: The Mumbai Bird Park”.  Rakesh and I checked out Uran this morning.  Today, Uran  a stellar birding wetland is now dead. All ponds and wetlands have been filled in and, sure enough there will be buildings and “development” in that area soon. The only pond where there were a few shovellers, some  Pied Avocets and a lone flamingo were,  at the end of the Prinia lane opposite the police station. The light was straight into us and I got this moody shot of the lone flamingo.

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Hardly any Avadavats and the numerous Prinias were also missing. We did see the Marsh Harrier and a lone purple heron on a tree.

Dejected we then tried our luck at the garbage lane besides the container yard. A Blue throat gave us good views as did a Common Kestral. The Pond between the highway and the container yard was filling in with Spoonbills. How I miss my favourite “Temple Pond” and the Jacana pond   are  now totally and truly filled in ,  leveled and are history.

The Blue Throat

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Spoonbills

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Common Kestrel

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On the way back, we stopped at our usual hotel at Belapur to grab some late breakfast. Then I noticed a Bar right next to it called “Nightingale”.  So much for birds…. yes, it feels lousy….

As Bob Dylan sings……The answer my friend, is blowin in the wind….

For all the pics from this shoot>>>  Click Here

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One response to “Requiem for an Important Birding Area (IBA): Uran”

  1. This is the harsh reality of urbanization, greed and over-population. I feel, educating children is our only hope.

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