BIGRAPHY OF KASARAGOD-4

They do not occur in the Deccan. All these verbal exercises land us in a place where the Sarus dances to attract / win over a mate as well as to engage in courtship. These are possible only when the environment is harmonious and needed to make the word kasaram meaningful. Kasaragod is a wetland where its water can be fresh, brackish, or saline. Critically important wildlife habitat as they are, marshes serve as breeding grounds for a mosaic of animal life.
But the bird species reported from wetlands of Kerala are purple moorhen, Bronze-winged jacana and Pheasant- tailed jacana. Jacana fills the gap. During the peak of the breeding season, unattached males make a mating call of clear, resonant tones that may carry for more than 1.6 kilometers. A whistling snort as an alarm call of the Gaurs is noteworthy.
The buffalo is also losing its association with the word. With the take over of mechanized farming the gulf returnees as well as rich migrants from the south are engaging in development. Ponds are levelled with the earth from the hillocks. In the place of cooing of birds and billowing of buffaloes, we now hear the sound of bulldozers and the blowing of the death knell of the environment.
But the fact that kasargod began to be associated with kasaram, as a place reverberating with the cooing of a bird like Sarus needs explanation. The emergence of conservation movement, invested cranes with added symbolic value as emblems of humanity’s changing relationship with nature (Leopold 1949, McNulty 1966).
Despite the long history of crane veneration, the advent of industrial revolution unfortunately found mankind drawn away from nature and religion. This increased their ability to kill wildlife and destroy natural habitats. It is apt to recall the words of Jennifer Ackerman, “Symbols of luck and majesty, cranes have been called “wildness incarnate.” But with wildness disappearing and their luck running out, the great birds are getting some help from scientists and self-described “craniacs.”
To ornithologists, each bird has a particular ecological niche that defines the role that it plays.
As there exists no welfare state to support them, once their niche is lost they die. Like the Sarus pairs, the Sarus and wetland are paired for life. Modern man in the name of development is aiming at the wetlands.Tampering the symbiotic relations is tantamount to the destruction of the wetlands.The jacanas, group of wetland birds, found worldwide within the tropical zone, are identifiable by their huge feet and claws, with which they walk on floating vegetation in the shallow lakes that are their preferred habitat. The females are larger than the males. In the wetlands of Kerala the two species of jacana, the bronze-winged jacana (Metopidius indicus) and the pheasant-tailed jacana Hydrophasianus chirurgus, are popularly known as “lily-trotters”.
Their Polyandrous Breeding System and the sex-role reversal are fascinating and extraordinary. The females mated polyandrously with several males and the males carried out all the incubation of the eggs, guarding of the chicks.
Kasaragod: an epithet of wetland
The laterite cave called Thiyyathimalika (Aechilamvayal Kunnu) is a remnant of Megalithic culture. Other rock caves found in several other places and umbrella stones (aduppoottikallu) show that they were cradles of human settlement begun in the midland of North Kerala. They are relics as funeral centres. The tradition of keeping Menhirs and alignments is still followed by the Koragas of Kasaragod district. Burial places of the Sangham period like Kunhimangalam, umbrella stones, symbols of hero worship like Veerakallu and the like are testimony of the worship offered by the ancestors to their ancestors. Hillocks are considered as sacred places. Engravings on rocks, various kinds of figures such as Thrisoolam, footprints, symbolic wells and tanks are found in Kunhimangalam, Madayi, and Kuttoor.
The midland region of Kavvayi river basin has 68 sacred groves (Jayarajan et.al, 2003). Of these, kammadam kavu is an extensive grove of 50 acres. There are serpent groves of a few cents also. The Nakravanam, Soolapkavu, Theyyottukavu, Konginichalkavu are sacred groves found in these hillocks. Kammadam kavu, mappaticheri kavu (kodakkad), karakkakkau (Kalikkadavu), mannampurathu kavu (Neeleswaram), Ayyankavu (Kodo Belur), Kammadathu kavu (Bheemanadi), Dharmasastham kavu (Cheemeni), all these groves in Kasargod together cover an area of 500 acres. These hillocks provided flowers and leaves for cultural activities such as Theyyam and Pooram.
Apart from increasing the water holding capacity of the hills, the sacred groves added to the biodiversity of the hills with various species of macro flora, of butterflies, spiders, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Hillocks are storehouses of many species of grasses, medicinal plants, butterflies and birds (Jaffrey, 1998). They offered fodder for cattle, green manure for paddy field. The system, enriched by this ecological diversity of the midland, hillocks, valleys, paddy fields and streams, sets the backdrop of the ancient settlements (Padmanabhan et.al, 2002). These factors protected the hillock from human interference. Sangham Literature too supports these contentions.
– Continued