Tamil New Year

Quarrying Update

The below is a photograph of part of the the now empty Samudram Lake (which will fill up when the rains come) previous to sand quarrying.

The rest of the photographs are after sand quarrying on Samudram and surrounding land. There are many serious consequences of sand quarrying, one being the fear that the continuous and unchecked quarrying of sand will result in the depletion of sand wealth thereby undermining the retention of groundwater at a higher level.

As well as the interference with the natural ecological balance of Samudram, there is the very serious safety hazard posed to people and livestock especially after monsoon rain when the deep pits fill with water and be invisible to sight.

Sand quarrying of this type is not legal and its curious vigorous official steps (as in Pondicherry) have not been taken to prosecute the local companies involved!

To read a previous posting about sand quarrying check out this link here. The sand is used for the process of brick making and you can see ph0tographs at this previous posting and another one here.

The Pumpkin People

Samudram Lake is empty and will remain so until the monsoon rains, channelled off the Hill, fill the 750 acre reservoir to a level in some places of up to five feet. The ladies in the below photograph are watching their cows graze on the mineral rich grass.


A goat herder, on his way home, is bringing his flock down the side of the lake embankment.

My doggies are playing peacefully, and hopefully will continue to give the goats a very wide berth.

These two ladies are part of the group that I have nicknamed the 'pumpkin people'; a bunch of local villagers who have been awarded short term rights by the local Government to grow vegetables on the Poramboke Land (Government Land) until the rains come.

The pumpkin people have put up several temporary shelters for shade during the daytime while they watch their pumpkin crop.

Below a small pumpkin. I remember a couple of years ago, even though a group of villagers put in a huge amount of work cultivating the Samudram, the crop was not good, so I hope it works out better for them this year - they've all worked so hard.

In the next photograph some of my doggies on a fishing expedition.

Oh goodie, they found some nice little fingerlings.

By this time of year, Samudram Lake is generally dry - as a result of being constantly drained to irrigate adjacent agricultural lands and losing water through evaporation. Sadly many little fishes get cooked in the increasingly shallow water. Quickly the beached fish, dry out in the sun, and become a very tasty snack for dogs and birds alike - and what other animals prowl around the lake once the sun has gone down!

My own doggies always look forward to their regular fishing expedition and help in daily decreasing the large quantity of fingerlings all around the dried out Samudram.

We walk to the back of the empty Samudram Lake, and climb the embankment. In the distance are some beautiful hills which look very inviting.




My doggies and I walk towards Arunachala and home.

Samudram Embankment

Now that Samudram Lake is bone dry, in my evening walk with my doggies decided to walk over to the opposite side and climb up the embankment for a different view of Arunachala.

And here it is. The time is about 6.50 and its getting quickly dark.

The rains won't start up for another 6 weeks, and in the meantime some local villagers are using the rich land to plant pumpkins, which they valiantly defend throughout the day against large numbers of wandering goats and cows.

Below looking from another direction.

The small shrine dedicated to the Divine Mother, is a recent addition.




And in the distance Arunachala.

Evening Walk

Well, its evening and most of the goats that graze around Samudram throughout the day, will have returned home -- so, the 'kids' (my doggies) and I can go for a nice evening walk. The doggies know each thorn of every acacia bush of the area - so absolutely no worry about them getting lost. So the six of them and I, head out. Its always a grand adventure. During the rainy season this whole area is several feet under water and at that time, you can find freshwater crabs, shrimps and fish. During the hot summer months the water reservoir is slowly drained of its water supply, and what was a submerged area, suddenly becomes the haunt of rabbits, foxes and mongoose. My doggies are very well fed and quite plumpy, and not keenly tuned hunters.

But they love the adventure of it and are aware of the scents of interesting game and occasionally we may even 'bump' into a fox or mongoose which gives the doggies a bit of a workout, but no danger of them catching anything.

Most evenings, its just a sedate and leisurely walkabout.

The next photograph is of Victor, our German Shepherd who we adopted from the Animal Shelter where he was living after being confiscated from abusive owners. He is filling out nicely. Happy Victor, has now learnt all about 'walkies' and swimming and has in fact turned out to be the biggest fan of the evening walk.




In countries near the equator sunrise and sunset throughout the year varies by only about half-an-hour, so there are none of those short winter, long summer days of the West. So, now that the goats have left, and my 'kids' can't get into too much mischief, we stroll and enjoy the gathering dusk and beautiful Arunachala.

Absolutely the BEST time of the day!

Dusk at Samudram

Well as is probably true throughout the world, the metrological office got it wrong again - and instead of lots of rain and thunderstorms, we haven't had a drop of precipitation for the last two days. Now that I am again able to walk, after my enforced cellulitis bedrest, my dogs finally get that which is even more important than a fine dinner - WALKIES. Poor things, they have been so patient and now finally the GOOD LIFE can be resumed.

It used to be possible to take them out to the Lake throughout the day, that is until they reverted to their wolf heritage, and one day unexpectedly went after a baby goat (but the story had a happy ending with baby goat making a full recovery). Since then walkies occur at no-goat timings i.e. not between 10.00 a.m. - 5 a.m. Which is fine for us, so we either go early in the mornings or at dusk - which is much to be preferred. Something rather special in sitting by the side of the Lake, watching dusk fall upon Arunachala.

The first photograph is of Victor, the newest addition to our family of 6 doggies. He was an abused dog, and we were asked to adopt him and give him a new chance of life. And what a life its turned out for him - swimming and playing with all his new doggie family, and lots of good yummie food. He is filling out nicely.

The next photo is of the only girl in the family, Holly, she is about 3 years old and came to us as a waif at our doorstep when she was just 4 weeks old. Most people call her Princess, because she is such a dainty little thing.

The next is mad little Muffin, who is nearly a year old. He too turned up at our doorstep when he was about 6 weeks old. He stayed and stayed, and after about 2 days, thought we would let him in and give him a saucer of milk - and he's never left. A mad, playful little dog that everybody falls in love with. And Muffin knows how to push people's buttons - he turns folk into jello!

The last photo of the series is Caspa (named after Casper the Ghost) because he was completely white for the first 2 months of his life. Caspa is a part of triplet boys who were born at our house 3 years ago last January. Two of the other lads, playing somewhere in the bush, and are named Oscar and Wally.

So they play and swim, and lark around and just enjoy absolutely the very BEST part of their days. Oh! Walkies.

Sand Quarrying

Last week there was an interesting article entitled ‘Sand quarrying a cause for concern,’ in the Tiruvannamalai District section of The Hindu newspaper. I had no idea, until I read the article, that sand quarrying had such negative consequences. The newspaper article which was discussing sand quarrying at Kulthigal Village raised points that apply to similar quarrying occurring at Tiruvannamalai. The articles reads:

Photo of sand quarrying before the rains at Samudram

“A visit to the quarry revealed . . . several deep and large stagnant pools of water, nearly 15 feet to 20 feet deep, formed by the act of quarrying sand using excavators. While on the one hand, the deep pools of water pose hazards to those, especially youngsters who venture into the water, additionally, the huge pits that would remain after the drying or evaporation of the water during the summer would prevent water from reaching the irrigation tanks and other water bodies during rain by sucking the water. Besides, locals fear that the continuous and unchecked quarrying of sand, using excavators, would result in the depletion of sand wealth thereby undermining the retention of groundwater at a higher level.

Excavators at Samudram

. . . Government rules state that sand should be quarried only up to a depth of three feet. Besides which the use of excavators is also illegal . . . indiscriminate quarrying of sand, would not only deplete sand wealth but also result in the fast dwindling of the groundwater table.”

Samudram, Arunachala

The above photograph is of four of my dogs (there are two more). It certainly is an unpleasant thought that after the rains, somebody could be wading in ankle deep water and all of a sudden, 'Whoops,' falls into a ten foot hole!

Wheres the Water?

By now the nearly 700 acre Samudram Lake is full of water, but as the year has thus far been comparatively dry, decided to walk on the embankment of Samudram and see just how much water is in the Lake. The view in the below photograph is of protected land and farms on the east side of Samudram.

Walking along the embankment met a local lady picking herbs and leaves to make a preparation for a stomach condition.

From the pathway skirting the side of Samudram Lake, one can see the top of Arunachala peeping out behind the bushes and trees.

A view of protected land nearby.

The beginning of a small shrine being built by local villagers at the side of Samudram Lake embankment.

By this time of year all the green you can see in the below photograph would usually be 2-3 feet under water - but now all that exists is a large puddle. However today its raining, and the forecoast is thunderstorms and heavy rain for the next five days. The Lake is the major water catchment area for Tiruvannamalai and during the wet season, water pours down the Hill into canals and flows into the Lake - which will then fill up very quickly.

Will keep checking up on the Lake and see just how much it fills up over the next few months.

Dig Away Please!

Apart from this evening and a rainy downpour, the weather this last week has been gorgeous - almost like early morning on a Summer's day. Taking advantage of the great weather my 5 dogs and I have been going on early morning walks at Samudram Lake. But actually Samudram currently is no lake at all because of the little rainfall this season. Generally the natural water reservoir fills up during the rainy season and slowly dries up through Summer. This time last year there was already heavy flooding in the land shown in the photographs.

Below is muffin playing in the soft, marshy grass which lies at the edge of a large pond, which is the remains of last year's Lake Samudram. This time last year my puppy would have been a couple of feet underwater - hold your breath little doggy!

Well this is a sight that gladdens my heart. I suppose these men have official permission, otherwise they would be taking the dirt (which is used for construction) in the middle of the night. The Lake is around 700 acres of unspoilt, undeveloped land that is a natural catchment area in rainy season for water pouring off the mountain and surrounding land. Digging out the land and making the lakebed even deeper, just means it will get more flooded and even more impossible for greedy land speculators to persuade politicians to change its status from Poramboke Land (Government) to Patta Land (privately held).

Dig away - please!

The below photo is of four of my dogs, 3 boys standing on the highground, and the little one lower down is the girl Holly.

And no.5 is Wally.

The below photograph is of one of the 'heroes' posing for my camera. Well done Mister!