INDImag – Contemporary fiction | Motivational short stories | Social stories | Short story criticism

Development is imminent, it cannot be stopped. Urban development in the second most populous country ? Happens before you can bat an eyelid. This development is often faulted with the destruction of something else ; something pure, something nature bestowed. It need not be the case. Planned properly, and working harmoniously with our fragile environment rather than against, we can create a symbiosis in urban pockets too.

There is one such success story at “The Indian School of Business (ISB)”…

Nestled deep in a scrub-jungle range about 20 kms from Hyderabad in Gachibowli, this state-of-the art premiere business institution reflects its perfect harmony with nature. Spread over a sprawling area of 200 acres with high rise buildings and strategically located student villages, the campus has managed to retain much of the pristine scrub-jungle. Rocky terrain with huge boulders of granite, some monolithic — rising almost twenty feet from the ground dot the school are a commonplace.

The range is peppered with thorny shrubs, huge trees and natural ravines interspersed with cascading small brooks and ponds. Aesthetically planned man-made structures compliment nature. In a marvelous example of respecting nature, one of the buildings had a large monolithic granite boulder for a wall…

Tailor Bird

For the observant, resident Peafowls, Quails, Partridges, Sunbirds, Shikras, Bee-eaters, Baya weaver-birds, Egrets, Herons, Mynas, Warblers, Tailor birds, Cuckoos, Coucals teach a thing or two here as well. The piece de resistance are the magnificent Peacocks which adorn the campus.

As dawn ascends on the huge boulders and scrub-jungle, a spectacular golden glow flows onto the rocks. A shrill cry of a Peacock cuts in and is answered by a distant cry of another. As if to continue the chain, another elsewhere chimes in and soon the whole place is filled with a chorus of shrill Peacock calls. Then all of a sudden, silence. Silence lasts a fleeting moment and the chorus returns. This Peacock orchestra is free and all you need to do is stand in front of the your window at day-break if you are a student here. Once done, the artists get back to their socializing & preening…

As the sun moves higher other birds like the Sunbirds get out to catch the first blooms of the wild flowers for their morning nectar. Down on the ground, Partridges cackle and scratch the tall grass for seeds while Warblers are out hopping from shrub to shrub in search of insects. The Herons and Egrets scan the lawns for crickets and small frogs.

Shikara

Each one of these creatures is going about their life the way nature designed it, unmindful of a security guard doing his morning rounds in the jungle.Suddenly, the Squirrels, who until then were busy chasing each other from branch to branch, go into a fit of shrill alarm calls. A darting Mongoose heeds the call and abandons it’s quest for prey ; the abundant Chameleons camouflaging on the omnipresent Neem ignore the alarm while Shikras, majestically scan the scene from a nearby branch …

As we approach the brighter & warmer mid-day, the orchestra and drama of these animals and birds fade away. Soothing gurgling of a nearby brook with an occasional Egret take-off from one of the ponds is all you see.

The evening sets a different scene : the peacocks are quietly foraging, almost like domestic hens, all around the campus, blissfully ignorant of a passing car or the residents or the playing children. Male Baya weaver birds are all gathered near the pond in the high reeds trying to show off their nest building capabilities and the choosy female birds are inspecting one nest after the other. The Green bee-eaters, in flocks of hundreds, are all perched on the electric wires of the campus trying to catch an insect in the late evening.

Peacocks

Dusk is heralded by a grand finale-orchestra of the peacocks once again — all perched up on their favorite trees, only to be seen as silhouettes against the velvety dark sky. Once the evening concert is done, everything turns quiet in the campus. Eerie silhouettes of the mammoth boulders against the star filled sky is what fills the scene until the crack of dawn.

Once day-breaks, the drama unfolds, yet again…, each player playing his part, precisely as nature intended to and directs with such deftness.

The ISB ecosystem is abundant with flora-fauna making a day at ISB campus is a memorable one for any nature lover. This gated campus insists on written permission before you can get anywhere close to photographing the ecosystem. Peacock-crossing signs mandating drivers to drive slow touches your heart. It seems like this is mainly a Nature Sanctuary also housing the ISB.

LIVE AND LET LIVE they say. Indeed. ISB shows the way. “Nature truly has the right of way here.”

Be sure to see the images in full-screen

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Peacock Photo : http://blog.tarunchandel.com

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