Going wild in my neighbourhood

Going wild in my neighbourhood
I am not cynical, if I say in another 50 years from now we would be watching wild life from a roof top garden. With the projected land cover less than 10% in less than half a century and with the rate of expansion of high (property development) rising super markets all over the countryside this scenario is not out of place. The super markets would be running a garden centre (only for the very rich) on the roof top with wild life section for display. The wild (what remain of the wild) life would be fully sustainable on the high-tech biodiversity project housed within the same perimeter of the roof top. The animals would be on a strict diet of large capsules simulating natural food articles developed from the space age know-how. Their natural diet dispensed only on special occasion for human display. I would not count on the number of projected species on any of these locations since my calculation of today would be laughing stock for the then (future) scientists.
This scenario not far away I have some suggestions for the future biologists and naturalists of this country. Do have some field work now itself. The descendents of the present day bio-scientists (not doctors) are the most sort-after job of future world. What can we do to train them?
A lot can be done. A section of the one’s garden could be allowed to go wild without any care except liberal watering to sustain vegetation in the dry season. My belief is that every wild plant would sustain a number of animal and insect species as long as it is left without any attention. We should train the children to watch this section of the garden gone wild and observe and make a careful record of their observations. The young scientists should do this observation in the night. There is lot of activity in the night and watching the discovery channel without knowing what is at hand as far as I am concerned is counter productive. Unless the children watch the bees, the spiders, the butterflies, mud-dauber wasp and the birds nesting learning biology has no meaning. Getting a distinction in biological science is only meaningful if that can be matched with the observation capacity and faculties thus developed in young children’s mind.
In fact, this is what I did for the last 10 years and I am fighting a losing battle with my in laws and neighbours. 
With the Ministry of Health and Education on a war footing against the dengue phenomenon every body is becoming neurotic and chopping every tree in the neighbourhood. 
I have become only a passive watcher in disbelief.
Little science is more destructive than no science at all!
Even though, I have many stories of the garden wild (private) variety that I have observed over the past ten years, I should start with a story from abroad.  We had a lovely back and front garden of our (rented) house with a beautiful hedgerow and a stream running at the edge. 
One summer day with my children in the garden, the topic of lady birds came up and we took turns and started looking for them.  
This is a game we played when we were children. 
Catch them and close the fist and with arms crossed asking the question which one of the fists had the lady birds? 
Then we palm over the lady birds to the winner and release them when we had enough of fun. 
I wonder how many of our children play this game?
Coming back to the story to our amazement we did not find a single lady bird in our garden. Few inquiries later we were out for a long journey nearly 200 kilo meters looking for a patch of safe jungle. Incidentally, I almost dropped to sleep in the driving seat and we had to detour and stopped at a house and beg for some coffee and biscuits from a very old gentleman with a hip problem. He was one of the most charming personalities we met and he was house bound because of his hip problem. No sooner I came back I made arrangements for his hip operation and that was one of the most satisfying days of my clinical career. He of course directed us to the most likely place of all further 50 kilo meters down. We collected bottle full of lady birds for our garden and some wild berries too.
Near at home all the paddy fields are converted into shanty houses there is no room for the small paddy birds to nest. 
We left a little patch of land to go wild because of the distance and the incline and this was the place where successive generations of birds had their nests. This time around a pair decided to built a nest on a slender hanging plant from our balcony (relatively safe from any predators) well hidden. I was more concerned of their stupidity. The plant did not have supporting roots and would not support the weight of the eggs let alone the young ones. True to my prediction the nest collapsed in two days and luckily eggs were not laid. They disappeared and I was happy of their departure. 
My gut feeling was that this may be the last pair in the neighbourhood. I would not see them again (like the humming birds) in the next season. 
Previous season our dog caught (catch them but would leave them when dead) one of the pair and I had to rescue the remaining one who came looking after the companion with great difficulty.
One night my daughter came rushing up to our bed room stating there are four young birds in the sitting room. Having the dog restrained, in about half an hour I managed to catch three of them but the fourth one was smart enough to avoid me and escape. I released them with a threatening gesture lest it would be a prey within my household.
The message is clear I am seeing the last of the Bohemians of nature.
It was with interest that I read an article on “looking for bioindicators”. 
The concept is fine in a scientific sense but be of no value unless comprehensive and without a recorded history. It is high time we look at this problem in an integrated manner. The highest in my list of indicators are the human population growth, activity, mobility, the rain fall and failure of rain. 
With the unusually prolonged rainy spell this time around I saw a single eagle hovering in the sky to my amazement. There were lot of animals and insect activity. The paddy birds also survived because of the abundance of food with the rainy season.
We are looking down the barrel of habitat destruction and changing whether patterns. 
Man is the culprit.
12th of January 2006