A Great Birding Trip!

I just returned from a two weeks birding trip to the East and Central parts of the country.

Bird photography becomes lot simpler during times when the birds are randy - during that time of the year when they experience their annual adrenaline rush. This is the time when they sing and dance - to attract mates so they can saw their wild oats. During this period of heightened libido, the birds tend to be careless and daring and expose themselves more frequently than they would otherwise. That is when they are easier to photograph.

In the Northern Hemisphere where we are located, the birds’ mating season start sometime during mid/end March.

By the time we hit the bird-rich areas in Central Bhutan, we were into mid April. To my dismay, I noticed that some birds were already into nest building and food gathering - signs that their mating season may be over. I was disheartened and yet, bird photography is all about dashed hopes and missed chances. But by the time we rounded up our trip in the East, I realized that this was my most rewarding birding trip. I got more “keepers” during this trip than I ever got in many of my earlier trips. Some of the birds I got this trip is posted below for your viewing pleasure - ENJOY!


Gold-naped Finch (Pyrrhoplectes epaulette). These birds are pretty common at altitudes from 1,600 - 3,965 Mtrs. I love these cute strong colored birds and have seen them many times before and yet, I have never been able to photograph them. This time my luck turned and I not only got the male and the female but also managed to get, what I suspect, is a male with an intermediate plumage.

I have never seen a similar image before - neither a photograph nor a sketch - so perhaps this is the first time a photo of this bird with this plumage has been captured.

Oriental White-eye (Zosterops palpebrosus) is a cute little bird and can be found everywhere. I have photographed it before but the one below is lot better - primarily because of its perch.

Hill Prinia (Prinia atrogularis). Bhutan has over 7 recorded Prinias but this is my first image of the bird. I photographed the same bird on a different perch - but I choose to post this image since I like this posture better although the other image is lot better - technically.

Rufous-bellied Niltava (Niltava sundara). This is a life bird for me - this is the first time I saw and photographed this bird. I also got the female - but choose not to post it since I don’t want to overwhelm my viewers with too many goodies :)

Satyr Tragopan (Tragopan satyra). I have seen both the male as well as the female of this bird species before but this is the first time I managed to photograph a female - and what a posture! I am told that Satyr Tragopan ranks as the tenth most beautiful bird of the world. As you can see, the colors on the male are simply awesome! But I particularly love the dainty posture of the female.

Crested Serpant Eagle (Spilornis cheela). I have photographed this bird many times before but I still choose to show this image - for the detail and the silky smooth bokeh of the image. It is not often that birds in the wild can be photographed with this kind of background.

Black-chinned Yuhina (Yuhina nigrimenta). This is yet another of my life birds. This is the first time I am seeing this bird and I am glad that I managed to photograph it so beautifully.

Ashy Bulbul (Hemixos flavala). I have seen this bird before but this is the first time I have been able to photograph it this well. As I said, this trip has been very rewarding!

Chestnut-winged Cuckoo (Clamator coromandus). And yet another first - a life tick as my friend and author/photographer from Bangladesh would say! I had never seen this bird before.

Grey Treepie (Dendrocitta formosae). I have seen this bird many times before but this is the first time I have been able to photograph it this well.

DEBT - Fuel of Growth

Seems like talking DEBT has suddenly come into vogue this season. Now it is Fareed Zakaria of the CNN who has this morning announced that China is in big, big trouble - debt trouble. He says that China’s total public and private debt is upwards of 200% of its total GDP. China in such huge debt???? Unbelievable!

Seems like being in debt has become fashionable. Even if that is not true, what is becoming apparent is that all modern economic activities are fueled by DEBT - both external as well as internal.

To be debt free is to put life on hold.

Gyalpoizhing Case Verdict: Court’s Contrarian View

Mongar Dzongkhag Court Justice Gembo Dorji seems to be in no doubt that the Kaja of 1987 was a “provisional law then”. By definition, “provisional law” means a law that is temporary in nature - something that is promulgated in the interim, something that is, at best, conditional and that which is subject to change when a more permanent and binding law is enacted. Such a law or Act was passed in 1999 titled “The Bhutan Municipality Act of 1999” which came into effect as of 28th July, 1999.

The Kaja under reference is in the form of a letter of transmission dated 31st March, 1987 and signed by the Secretary to His Majesty the IVth Druk Gyalpo, Dasho Pema Wangchen conveying His Majesty’s Kaja.

The Hon’ble Mongar Drangpoen is explicit in his ruling that the two defendants have been pronounced guilty for the sole reason that they did not adhere to the Royal Kaja of 1987. He categorically states that had the defendants abided by the Kaja, he would have acquitted them of all charges. In other words, in the view of the learned Judge, rest of the charges is trivial and unworthy of consideration.

Given such a ruling by the Mongar Dzongkhag Court, the case now takes on a different hue.

The Judge’s statement to the Kuensel is clear that the court did not consider the ACC’s original charges which pertained to official misconduct, acts of favoritism, failing to exercise due diligence, of having broken laws and exceeded authority or that the defendants impinged on the Municipal Act of 1999 etc. According to the learned Judge, the case is all about NOT ABIDING by the Sovereign’s Kaja.

Such a verdict raises certain questions:

1.  Does the court find the ACC’s charges baseless and therefore unworthy of consideration for the reason for which the court pursued a different line of argument?

2.  Does a Kaja, which the Justice agrees is “provisional” in nature and conveyed during a time when an appropriate Act was not in place, still remain valid even after an Act dealing with the issue has been enacted?

3.  During the time of the Monarchy, a Dzongda was appointed under the direct command of His Majesty the King. Their appointments were a Royal prerogative. Traditionally the Dzongdas assumed the role of the Monarch’s Kutsap in the Dzongkhags. I cannot recall any precedence where the Executive or the Judiciary has acted against the King’s appointees - unless His Majesty willed it.

4.  Is a wrong precedence being set when the ACC and the Judiciary is attempting to bring charges against persons who are appointees of the Druk Gyalpo? Are these institutions overstepping their authority?

In my view, it should be the prerogative of the King to act as He sees fit in the matter. The ACC should frame their charges and compile their findings and the Judiciary should render their interpretation of the laws and make a joint submission to the King - but leave it to His Majesty to pronounce the verdict and command the appropriate action to be taken.

Setting The Right Precedence II

The Bhutanese democracy is like a newborn whose umbilical cord has not yet been severed from the placenta that still remains lodged in the uterus of the mother. In the cycle of life, we are in the third stage of labor where only the fetus has been successfully delivered from the womb - rest of the birth process is still pending - meaning that the birth of the newborn is only half complete.

And yet, look at how far we have come - rather, look at how far we have gone.

The same people who glibly remind us that democracy has been a gift from the Throne are the same ones who are quick to look the gift horse in the mouth. These people who are so quick to toot the horn of democracy miss out on one fundamental truth: in Bhutan, democracy as an alternate form of governance is yet to see the light of day. However, democracy is here and we have to learn to live with it. Whether democracy is right for Bhutan, whether its time has arrived, whether the Bhutanese people are ready for it - all these questions must now remain mute. Bhutanese as a society must come together to make democracy work and we must draw upon our invisible bond - our culture - to make democracy work for us.

Unfortunately, however, we seem to be shedding our culture too fast, too early.

Democracy does not give the Bhutanese people an excuse to lose sight of our culture. Our moral values, our lifestyle, our religion, the very way we think and behave have been guided and shaped by our culture spanning over many centuries. Thus, it seems impossible that we can forget our culture in a span of less than five years. And yet, some recent incidences indicate that we are indeed loosing site of our value system.

Some wrong precedences are being set, under the democratic system. The ongoing legal case involving Gyalpoizhing land allotment is a case in point.

This is a case that is close to two decades old. It happened during an era when things were done differently; when ground realities were not as simple or as straightforward. It happened during a time when unconventional means had to be employed to make things happen, to move things forward. The compulsions under which past administrations performed is something beyond the fathoming of the present lot of people.

More importantly, the present democratic setup does not have the moral authority to question an incident that happened at a time when the administration was under the country’s most competent and best loved monarch.

Digging the past is not a winning way for Bhutan. It only serves to further the cause of some evil people who do not wish well for the country. The Bhutanese people ought to remember that we have arrived where we are today because not every thing that went on in the past was wrong or undesirable.

The past is an integral and an inseparable part of our present, and future. Not even God has the competence to alter the past - which is exactly how it should be. In fact, it is dangerous to attempt to do so - because in trying to do so, we are likely to peril our present and endanger our future.

As I have mentioned in one of my earlier posts, we neither have the financial resource nor the manpower to waste on digging up the past. We would do well to focus on our present and our future problems, which are substantial.

Gyalpoizhing case is a dangerous precedence. Everyone must work hard to put this distasteful matter behind us. If not, we can be sure that there will be a thousand similar cases that will surface to haunt us to eternity.

Let us not play into the hands of the evil mongers.

Setting The Right Precedence

Whether spoken with all the best intentions or merely to make an impact, one cannot help but detect a tinge of pomposity when someone utters the words “setting the right precedence”. Even worst, if one were to go by the recent examples of “setting of right precedence”, it is quite obvious that some select Bhutanese people and institutions suffer from a severe case of - Cognitive Dissonance - distorted perception.

Some seven years back, as a member of the SENetwork of the UNDP, I was invited to write my thoughts on “How to be PREPARED for rural-urban migration” by the Consultant working on a report to suggest ways and means to battle rural-urban migration. I offered the view that “being prepared” was taking the defeatist attitude and that the better way to solve the problem was to propose ways and means that would aim at “How to PREVENT rural-urban migration”. My views did not fit in with their scheme of things, so my article was not published on grounds that it was too radical!

About 3-4 weeks back, someone in the BBS TV invited me to be a member of the panel in a discussion titled “Is Corruption Getting Institutionalized?” being anchored by Dawa in his very popular TalkShow - “Dawai Kudroen”. I thanked the person for the honor and the opportunity to come on board the TalkShow but made my excuses on some pretext and did not participate in the show. The reason was that I would have been a willing participant - if the question was “Why is Corruption Getting Institutionalized?”.

Corruption getting institutionalized is old hat - the more pertinent question to ask is - WHY is corruption getting institutionalized?.

By the same token, the question to ask is not whether we are setting the right precedence but what exactly is the right precedence to set?

Today a large number of Bhutanese believe that with the advent of democracy, there is a sea change in Bhutan. As far as I can see and understand, other than the parliamentary elections and the local government elections, the change has been constant. This is how it should be. For, it is my belief that good and useful change must be tempered by continuity.

In my view, the biggest danger facing Bhutan is that some persons and institutions may take their powers too far. We need to caution them that the police officer may be given a gun to carry around but he does not have the licence to kill. Certain powers are designed to act as deterrents rather than as weapons of murder. 

............... to be continued

Robotic Spams – HELP!

A reader - Peldhen Sonam Nima (PSN) - made a comment on my post titled “Economic Crisis or Spending Fatigue?” and made a request to disable the Word Verification process - on the grounds that it made commenting cumbersome. I promptly complied and disabled the need for the Word Verification process at the end of a comment, before the comment can be submitted. 

BAD MOVE!!! 

Since then, my Blog posts have been lambasted with dozens of SPAMs. Fortunately, I moderate the comments - in the sense that I require every comment to be authorized by me - good, bad and the ugly. Therefore, the readers do not get to see all the trash being posted on my Blog because I do not allow their publication.

I suspected that it must be ROBOTIC SPAMMING. The spamming started with the deactivation of the Word Verification process - meaning that something or someone cannot spam if he/she/it is required to type a set of words. In an effort to understand what this was all about, I Googled and stumbled upon the following:

“Robotic spam are spam comments created by automated scripts/bots. They contribute to over 99% of comment spam in blogs. Comment spam has gained prominence due to the ease with which spamming operations can be scripted for large-scale campaigns. Most robotic spams either try to spam by submitting comment form or by using trackbacks. Comment Guard Pro stops all kind of robotic spams from reaching your blog”. 

I have a mind to reactive the Word Verification requirement - once again. But I wonder if I should - because that would inconvenience my readers and commentators. Well I think for now, I will keep it disabled since if any one were to suffer inconvenience - it might as well be me - so my readers can have an enjoyable experience. I will keep on removing the SPAMs as they appear. If it gets too difficult, I will have to think of installing the software mentioned above - Comment Guard Pro. But I do not have a Credit Card to make the purchase!!!! GRRRRR.

I GIVE UP!!!!. The spamming has gotten too heavy .... so I am reinstating the Word Verification.

The Human Creative Mind Is Still King

I pursue a purist form of photography. This means that I like to photograph and present my subjects in its most natural form - as God made them. That is probably why, I loathe doing human portraiture because the modern face is most often subjected to melodramatic transformations through the use of massive doses of complex chemical compounds.

In 99.999% of my photographs, you will also not see any objects of modern manufacture such as cars, lamp posts, hoardings and billboards. I like to photograph objects of beauty and harmony - one that gives a viewer a sense of calm and tranquility, of beauty and space, a feeling of unbridled freedom and liberty.

But in these digital times when technology is threatening to crush human artistry, as in everything else, purists like me need to come to terms with the fact that keeping step with the changing trends is critical. It is that or, I have to be prepared to be left behind.

Photography used to be about patience, technical skill, hard work and a person’s inherent artistic qualities. No longer. It is now all about one’s skill at manipulation in the digital darkroom. One no longer needs to be a skilled photographer but a competent digital darkroom specialist. One has to be good at photographic manipulation software - you need no other skill to churn out breathtaking photographs.

A skillful Adobe PhotoShoper can, most realistically, park the DrukAir’s jet in the parking lot of Tashichho Dzong. The Tashi Taj, swarmed from all around by a cluster of concrete buildings, can be shown to be surrounded with lush green pine trees! Recently, a digital camera manufacturer announced a camera that can actually alter all the points of focus and a photograph's perspectives - on the computer, post shooting!

The following photograph shows a girl’s photo framed inside a silk/brocade mount. That is the best I can do - by way of manipulation. Am I going to learn any further digital tricks?

Nope - because I believe that it is the human mind that has created these masterful digital manipulation tools. That means that the human mind is still the MASTER CREATOR. No amount of digital mastery can beat the creativity of the human mind.

Is it possible to create - digitally - the hauntingly sombre look of the girl in the photo? IMPOSSIBLE!

This pretty little girl was photographed in her classroom at Jigme Losel School, Chubachu

Taking Long to Write Short

Ms. Madeline Drexler, an award winning author and editor at the Harvard Public Health Review and a Fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism writes to me to explain the art of effective writing. The following is how she explains it to me:
 ......................................

--- “Shorter is better aesthetically, as well. The text will be more dynamic, it will move more swiftly. It actually takes more time to write sharp and pithy prose - rewriting and rewriting - but the final product is stronger and more artful.

The literary quote that has been ascribed to Samuel Johnson, Mark Twain, Winston Churchill, and others goes like this:

Forgive me for writing such a long letter. I didn't have time to be brief."

......................................

How true! The best way to hold the attention of your readers and to ensure that they have the patience to read through your writing to its end, is to keep your writing precise and as short as you can make it. Long-winding writings tend to lose readers mid way.

Economic Crisis or Spending Fatigue?

The permeation of the Bhutanese lingua franca, sometime towards the middle of 2012, by a two-letters term - economic crisis - has me baffled completely. Talk to any Bhutanese - educated, uneducated and anyone in between and he/she will tell you that the country is going through a severe “economic crisis”.

Ask them why we have a severe Indian Rupee shortage and they will tell you it is because of our economic crisis. Ask them why the banks have stopped giving out loans and they will grimly tell you that the country’s economy is in a bad way. Ask them why the DPT government will not win the upcoming elections with the same kind of resounding victory as they did in 2008, they will give the reason that it will be because the economy did poorly under their term. Ask any Bhutanese why the government has suspended the import of vehicles and they will tell you - it is because we are going through an economic crisis.

Every Bhutanese is quite merrily blaming the “economic crisis” for all our ongoing woes. However, ask them to explain "how" our “economic crisis” is at the core of our problems and they are perplexed - they do a vigorous head scratching! They have simply no idea why they have been parroting the belief that our troubles are due to our “economic crisis”.

Do we really have an economic crisis? Nope, we MOST DEFINITELY DO NOT! On the contrary, published figures show that we are among the top performers in the region, in terms of GDP growth. Our growth rate was: 6.7% in 2009; 10.6% in 2010; 5.9% in 2011 and it is estimated that we will achieve a growth rate in access of 7% for the year 2012.

So then who is putting out this ludicrous idea that we have an economic crisis? The answer: by people who are clueless about what constitutes economic crisis and by those who wish to paint a grim picture of the country and the performance of the government! They simply have no idea what the term means or, even if they do, they are deliberately spreading the misconception.

Two of our most important economic activities are related to those of tourism and hydro-power projects. Thank you very much but both of these sectors are hail and hearty - in fact, they have been growing by leaps and bounds. Our industrial output has not fallen; no factories have failed; there has been no labor unrest that hampered production. The government of India has not reneged on their committed financial support. So then, what is our problem?

In my understanding, we have been subjected to a disorder that can best be described as: SPENDING FATIGUE!!

People seem to be totally oblivious to the fact that the country has had to undertake colossal expenditures in the short span of the last four years - expenditures that were a severe drain on our reserves and yet, those that had to be made.

We had two very expensive (uncontrolled and lavish spending) elections to the Upper and the Lower Houses of the Parliament. We had a series of local government elections. We had a Centenary Celebrations. We had to Crown a King. We had a Royal Wedding. We had to host a SAARC Submit. If all that were not enough, we suffered unprecedented natural calamities, one after the other, all year round. All these were unavoidable expenses but they certainly caused a severe and destabilizing strain on our finances.

Please do not bell the wrong cat.

Changlemithang Football Ground

With the resurfacing of the football ground at the Changlemithang Stadium with artificial grass, playing football should be great. I did not see any policemen standing at the gates so I did not think that I would be denied entry into the grounds. The field looked simply great! I took some photos which is being posted here for your pleasure! Let me warn you though that I had the wrong camera. Regardless, I think the photos are not too bad, as a first attempt.

As long as some strange people do not take it upon themselves to impose a blanket ban on photography of the footballing events of the future, I think I want to go more often to catch some action.

 

Are Constitutional Bodies Democratic Institutions?

The public perception, and that of my own, is that the Constitutional bodies were created to safeguard the democratic process and for the provision of effective check and balance under a brand new and an unfamiliar system of governance. But recent cases of checks provided by some of the Constitutional bodies seem to be designed entirely to upset the balance.

In their eagerness to flex their unbridled muscles, irrespective of whether their individual Acts empower them or not, what has clearly been demonstrated by their actions is that they have no respect for the democratic process. Or, rather, these Constitutional bodies seem to have been empowered to function outside the democratic norm.

Yesterday afternoon a friend tells me that as of the beginning of January 2013, the Election Commission of Bhutan (ECB) has imposed a complete ban on the performance of annual Chokus – until the end of the upcoming elections and the declaration of its results. As a result, I am told that a large number of households around the country are in a frenzy to perform their annual Choku this month - a Dha-nag (inauspicious month)! Traditionally, it would be anathema to conduct Choku during a Dha-nag.

On the one hand the ECB has infringed on the fundamental right of the individual and the society to a free and fair practice of their religious and cultural traditions. On the other, they have, knowingly or unknowingly, forced the people to digress from centuries old religious belief - that conducting Choku during a Dha-nag is inauspicious and earns bad Karma. It is nothing short of blasphemy, for those who are believers.

I do understand the logic behind the ECB’s concerns. However, what is the rationale behind attacking only the religious and cultural practice of the Buddhists in Bhutan? What of the holding of the Christian Mass and the performance of Hindu Pujas, where a large number of people congregate too? What of other social events such as: archery tournaments, marriages, celebration of births and deaths, promotions, sporting events, National Day celebrations, Tsechus and Dromchoes, etc.? Is the ECB going to ban those too?

To me it seems like the more intelligent and reasonable way would be to issue a rule saying that politicking during such events would not be allowed. Completely banning such events is akin to desecrating the female womb on the grounds that it can foment a potential miscreant.

At best, the ECB would have to manage and oversee less than 400,000 voters on the day of the polling. For such a minuscule number, it seems like they are going completely overboard. I am told that some universities abroad have that kind of student enrollment.

No doubt, some institutions may be empowered with extremely formidable powers. Regardless, it is important for these institutions and the persons heading those institutions to realize that certain powers should be exercised only in the rarest of rare situations.

You are not a rich man because you have millions hoarded away in a secret vault - but because you have enough to give to those who stand in need. You are not a powerful man because you wield so much power - but because you have the sensibility and wisdom to contain those powers - for the good and benefit of those whom you have been elected to serve.

105th National Day Celebrations: Photography Not Allowed!

The following photograph of multicolored ribbons flying off from atop the floodlight post inside the Changlemithang is the sum total of the photograph I have of the 105th National Day celebrations that is currently under way at the Changlemithang Stadium today. It was shot from outside the grounds.

The security people manning the stadium gates had strict instructions not to allow any cameras inside the stadium. I had no prior knowledge of such a prohibition being imposed although, I had a premonition of sorts when a photographer friend asked me if I had a license to carry a camera into the grounds. He said that he was denied entry into the grounds so was walking back to his car to deposit his camera. I had no intensions of walking back to my car, which was parked about 2 kms away.

I had parked my car at the Tarayana Centre since there was no parking space anywhere else. I walked down the road passing the Centenary Market and then on to the lower gates of the stadium. I was not allowed access and was told to enter through the upper gates. So I walked all the way to the Lungtenzampa bridge and then turned right to try and gain access through the upper gates a little further away from the Kisa Hotel.

Upon reaching the gates, I was told that I cannot enter with my camera.  I wasn’t alone - there was another elderly Bhutanese with a point-and-shoot camera slung over his neck and 4 tourists with cameras. They too were denied entry. The tourists were trying to call their guide to come and collect their cameras - only to find that the cellphone network had been shut down. One of them walked away to look for the driver and the guide.

The Bhutanese guy was trying to give his assurance to the security personnel that he would not take photos but that his family had already gone in and would be looking for him and would be worried if he didn’t show up. He reasoned that some of the expensive mobile phones had lot higher resolution than is camera. He argued that if photography was not allowed, they should disallow mobile phones as well. All that fell on deaf ears.

I asked the security personnel if he would allow me in since I hold a Media Card issued by the BICMA. He hadn’t heard of any such Card and, in any event, he said he had no instructions to allow Card holders in.

Bhutan must take great pride in being the only country in the world where a very public event, in a very public space is out of bounds for photographers and photography.

After I got thrown out of the National Assembly Hall some three years ago by the agents of the ROM, I completely stopped going to public functions and events because I am certainly not looking forward to another run in with them. Today too I didn’t want to go but the day was beautifully clear and I wanted one picture - just one - of the huge crowd on the stands with the blue skies in the background. No such luck! So I walked back all the way to my car and, enroute, I shot the photograph of the multicolored ribbons flapping in the winds. 

I wish some one with brains would realize that imposing blanket bans on people is the easy way out to a problem. It is a way out where the people responsible are too lazy to put in hard work and imagination and would rather inconvenience the general public by resorting to imposing bans. Banning is not the answer. Regulating is - if at all it were required. Will someone please realize this soon, before some incident takes place? What the hell is the logic behind banning photography of a very public event, in a very public and open space?

Seriously, public functions in Bhutan are becoming a public nuisance!

Druk Wangyel Tsechu

The Druk Wangyel Tsechu held at Dochula is a recent introduction. From what I hear, the Tsechu will be held every year on the 13th of December. This is a Tsechu like no other. The dances are completely different from those performed during other Tsechus held around the country.

I like the Tsechu. It is lively, it is colorful and it is outdoors. What I like most are the dresses - the Chamgo. They are beautiful and it is obvious that lot of attention and detailing has gone into their designing. And it is done at a lavish scale - even the dresses worn by the lady dancers are very nice.

What I didn't like is the huge speakers. They looked so ugly. I wish the organizers would hide them behind some blinds made of leaves. And, there is one electric tower jutting out from behind the grounds. I wonder if it is possible to move it further down so that it is not visible close to the Cham grounds. In the middle of so much beauty and color and charm, seeing them intruding on the scene is so ..... heartbreaking.

One among forty odd tourists at the Tsechu

Dasho Karma Ura who I am told choreographed most of the Chams performed during the Tsechu

Dasho Kinley Dorji, Communications Secretary posing with the highland lasses at the Tsechu grounds

I love the Chamgo and the Kira and the Gho. They are simply exquisite! Whoever was behind the Druk Wangyel Tsechu project has certainly done a fantastic job. I am posting the following closeup photos to give you an idea of how beautiful the attire are.

The Plundering Buzzards

On a tip-off from one of Bhutan’s foremost birders, Hishey Tshering, I recently undertook a birding trip to Sarpang in the South to sight and photograph one of my many life birds - a handsome looking raptor called Oriental Honey Buzzard (Pernis ptilorhynchus). The bird is so named because its primary food source is honey that it plunders from live beehives hanging down from the branches of a particular type of tree that grows in sub-tropical areas such as Sarpang. I do not know the name of the tree nor the reason why the bees choose this particular tree. But for sure there is a reason why these bees choose this particular tree to build their hives on. Nothing in nature happens by accident  – everything has a reason and every occurrence or demise is perfectly within the scheme and natural order of things. It is as simple as death – without death it would be impossible to perpetuate life. For, death necessitates life.

I merely intended to photograph the raptors, if I could. However, I was not quite prepared for the scene that began to be played out right in front of my eyes. It was an orchestration of one of life’s most brutal ways in which to gather food.

As I scanned the treetops for any signs of the raptors, I suddenly noticed one Buzzard fly in from the right and land at a distance on the branch of the tree that bore the largest hive among over hundred hives of varying sizes and shapes that populated four full grown trees growing in the same area. After about five minutes, all of a sudden, the raptor made a lightening dive and clawed out a chunk of the hive thereby making an opening and exposing a section of the hive full of honey. While it flew away with a swarm of bees at its nether region, other Buzzards arrived to systematically dismantle the hive and rob it of its honey. There were a total of 6 Buzzards that attacked the same hive, again and again, until the hive was completely desiccated without a trace. My camera record shows that from the time the first attack was launched at 7.42AM to until the last of the hive was torn away at 9.12AM, it took exactly one hour and thirty six minutes to completely destroy the hive.

For a moment I was overcome by a sense of pity at the mindless act of plunder committed by the six raptors. This is no way to make a living. And yet, if this was an act of annihilation, how come some few trillion bees are still surviving to build new hives and feed and provided sustenance to succeeding generations of Buzzards and Drongos and Bee Eaters?

I get the feeling the there is greater harmony and balance in the natural world despite their seemingly brutal methods of survival. It is the human world that is at greater peril with our cultured and humane ways.

A Buzzard sneaks a guarded look at a hive from behind a tree branch - to determine the hive's potential for honey

A Buzzard lunges forward to launch the first attack on the hive

The severely torn and tattered hive after the third attack

A Buzzard attacks the hive and dislodges a talon full of honey bearing hive

The Buzzards do not have it easy - bees swarm them from head to tail

The bee hive is subjected to yet another attack - may be the tenth in a series

A severely depleted hive - 3/4th of the hive is gone

A Buzzard keeps guard over an abandoned hive

With the bees finally abandoning the doomed hive, a Buzzard is at last free to feed on the remains of the hive without the fear of being stung by the bees

All that remains of the hive at the end of the determined assault by the raptors