Wildlife Great and Small of India’s Coromandel

Here’s a paradox. Although Auroville remains a predominantly rural community, many Aurovilians have little knowledge of the wildlife that lives around them. Tim Wrey, in his recent book Wildlife Great and Small of India’s Coromandel, sets out to remedy this lacuna.

Over the years, Tim has been one of our foremost wildlife educators. In this, he has complemented the educational efforts of other early Aurovilians, like amateur ornithologist, ‘Big Piet’, with his bird surveys and Dietra from Gratitude, as well as, more recently, Rajeev Bhatt, who published an invaluable guide to the snakes of this area.

I first came across Tim’s work 30 years ago in the Aurelec in-house magazine, of which he was the editor. Almost every month, for two and a half years, he published ‘Environmental Notes’ featuring fascinating information about the animals, big and small which, largely unnoticed, creep, stalk, fly and slither around us.

Later, he expanded and augmented these notes into a handy reference book, Footsteps through the Salad: wildlife profiles and natural phenomena of Auroville. His latest book expands this one to include the wildlife of the Coromandel, a strip of coast running along the south-east edge of India which is a unique bioregion.

Written essentially for the layperson, the book contains detailed profiles of a selection of the mammals, birds, reptiles, flying insects and other creatures that inhabit this region. Here you can learn about the distress call of the mugger crocodile; how many times a second a mosquito beats its wings (600!); why the Rain Frog is somewhat misnamed (it can’t swim); why we shouldn’t kill snakes; why cockroaches are much likely to survive a nuclear holocaust than us; as well as more practical information, like how to deal with bed bugs.

While it is not comprehensive, Wildlife Great and Small is the only book on the market that offers an overview of the different forms of wildlife of this region.

Richly illustrated with photographs, drawings and cartoons (why should the acquisition of knowledge be solemn?), this is an invaluable and entertaining reference work. Tim’s hope is that by awakening the public to the wonders of the wild world, such books will act as a powerful antidote to the worldwide extinction of wildlife that is underway at present .

Wildlife Great and Small of India’s Coromandel by Tim Wrey, 401 pps. Published by PRISMA, 2018. Available from PRISMA and auroville.com Rs 950 plus p.p.