Seven final year students from the Department of Advanced Zoology and Biotechnology were part of a unique six-month free internship titled “Urban Wilderness Walks,” organised by Madras Naturalists’ Society (MNS), that commenced from July 2021.
At this programme, they learned to document biodiversity, along with students from various city colleges. The programme offered them in-person training and resources like “Urban Fauna of India” by Preston Ahimaz and “Birds of Tamil Nadu”. The students documented urban fauna for 2 to 3 hours during weekends. Each of the students was able to document and upload more than 100 fauna and flora in iNaturalist, an online biodiversity portal. They participated in diverse activities, ranging from collecting details on the environment and natural history of the area from elders in the community, to doing a tree survey of the area around their residence. Talks and interactive sessions with subject experts widened their understanding of the natural world in the vicinity of their urban locales.
The highlight of the programme was conducting Urban Wilderness Walks covering a number of areas in Chennai. Invites were shared on social media through Instagram posts and MNS official groups. This was a huge success, with nature enthusiasts aged 5 to 50 participating in the walk. In the words of one of the students, “we learned to see not just the colours of nature but to explore the nature of these colours... the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of nature. Nature is the best teacher who opens our eyes, ears and all our senses to communicate with her amid the cacophony of urban living”.
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