If you were to ask environmentalist and farmer Muthu Murugan (62), if he has a special affection towards birds, he’d dismiss it with a wave saying, “I’m sure everyone does. People point to crows while feeding children, make them follow pecking hens if they want to distract the child briefly…It’s not unusual for people to like birds and I’m no different.” As an afterthought, he adds, “Although, I’m reminded of the saying - ‘Animals are such agreeable friends. They ask no questions they pass no criticism.’”

But Muthu must have a special something for the birds that visit his agriculture field in Kulathupalayam (Coimbatore). Surely that must be the reason why he decided to cultivate half an acre this year with pearl millet and sorghum exclusively to feed the birds. The remaining 3/4th of an acre he’s got feed growing for his cows.

“This (his farm) is like their house. I never chase them away. Every year I leave a portion of the harvest for them to feed on and only harvest what’s remaining. This year, when lockdown began, I knew farming would turn out to be difficult and so did not sow any crops; just the millets for the birds and the feed for my cows,” says Muthu. The Coimbatore-based organic farmer stays at Ramalingam colony, 15 kilometres away from his farm in Kulathupalayam. With lockdown restricting travelling Muthu made a decision to not cultivate his usual crop of millets and vegetables this year.

“I also do not remove dried-up trees so that the birds can make it their homes. They come here to rest even if they’ve been able to have their prey elsewhere,” he asserts. “There are about 20-25 peacocks that come and different varieties of birds. When they see me, they don’t rush away. Everyone else is a foreigner to them. Recently a few reporters had come, I had invited a wildlife photographer too. It took a while before they could capture the birds. They had all flown away,” he chuckles. 

Wildlife photographer Varun Alagar Surendran, who was invited by Muthu to photograph some of the birds, wrote on Instagram just how much of a challenge it was for him to capture the pictures of scaly breasted munias and white rumped munias.

But the practice of chasing away birds is as old as farming itself, Muthu shares. “There are a variety of ways in which it’s done. People use bells, drums…There are songs from Sangam literature that explain such practises. Even during the 60s and the 70s people were employed specifically for this purpose, to chase birds. They would be paid Rs 1.5 per day. That is how it has been,” he explains.

Muthu hails from a farming family and has been a farmer from a very young age and shares with TNM that he has been cautious of his practises. “When we farm, we interfere with the lives of other species. They don’t know that we’re calling the space ‘ours’. In fact, it is we who have taken up their space,” he says.

Parrots, waterfowls, peacocks, woodpeckers, kingfishers, spotted owls, sparrows, Mynah, lapwings, pigeons, partridges, munias, rabbits, worms, snails, bugs, grasshoppers, honey bees, butterflies… “If my four acres can accommodate so many species, just imagine how the world would be like if everyone were to grow more conscious of their surroundings. This is something that I want to encourage in all,” he tells TNM.

“People talk about protecting bigger species like tigers and elephants but they miss out on birds and other smaller species. We should never forget that we are taking up their space in this world. When man farms, he prays for good rain, for bugs to not affect his crops. He sprays pesticides, kills and hangs crows to prevent more birds from damaging crops...Even if one species from the food chain starts to decline, it would affect the whole balance,” he adds.

With the intent of practising what he preaches, in 2009, Muthu walked from Noyyal River originating in the Western Ghats to the port town of Poompuhar on the Cauvery basin, along the river shores. “I covered the distance in about 20 days, from September 21 to October 10. It was a no-emission awareness campaign,” he says.

As someone who spends a considerable amount of his time just sitting and observing species in his fields, Muthu talks with affection about some of their activities. “There is a Manila tamarind tree (Kodukapuli) on the field that grew from a seed a parrot had dropped there. This is a tree that draws a lot of water, mind you. There are a few guava trees that have grown like that here. During the dry season I’ve seen birds chew on dry stalks...once a bat was chewing up on betel nuts. It pains my heart to see them starve,” he shares as if to explain once again why he’s left his fields for the birds this year.

All photographs courtesy: Varun Alagar

“It is common for farmers to leave out the crops along the borders of their fields for these birds. It is what I usually do. But that has been reducing. If only everyone does it, there would be no reason to try and chase them (birds) away. They only consume two to five percent of the cultivated crops after all,” he reasons.

“I am reminded of the Tamil cinema song ‘Ulagam porandhu enakaga, odum nadhigalum namakaga…’ (The world originated for me, the running rivers are for me…). We think all this has been created for us. But with it comes a responsibility.  To protect and to conserve,” Muthu asserts.

Here's Muthu speanind time in his field