Ants are among the many creatures on our planet which can be taken without any consideration. Understandably so: they’re all over the place. But if we decelerate to focus on a path of ants, we are able to get a glimpse into their world that’s stuffed with goal and order. Chennai-based Palluyir Trust for Nature Education and Research has documented 34 species in and across the metropolis in its newest handbook Ants of Chennai. The bilingual handbook describes every of those species with pictures, speaking about their distinctive options, meals desire, habitat, and foraging behaviour.
Palluyir, based by naturalist Yuvan Aves, was began with the aim of creating Nature-based curricula for college kids. The belief has been working with Government and personal faculties in town, taking kids on Nature walks inside Corporation parks, educating them concerning the pure world via varied modules the crew has developed.
Ants play a vital position in soil aeration and in addition transport vitamins
| Photo Credit:
KARTHIKEYAN G
“We develop a new module once in six months,” says Aravind Selvam of Palluyir, including that they’ve modules on frog calls, chook calls, leaf adaptation, and pollinators, amongst others. Among these, the ant module was a success throughout a number of faculties,” he provides. The crew has additionally been working with 40 Government college academics from throughout Tamil Nadu in collaboration with the Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
The Ants of Chennai handbook
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Special association
“A common feedback we received from these teachers was that they do not have Nature in their campuses anymore,” he says. The ant module helped them work round this drawback. “Unlike birding that requires one to travel to a waterbody or buy a pair of binoculars, ants are accessible. We needn’t even step outside to watch ants,” says Jomi Jose from Palluyir.
The crew began documenting ants in Chennai a yr in the past, arising with instructional posters for kids. “We decided to develop a guidebook since we found a lot of species,” she provides. The ebook can be utilized by anybody in the pure world. “It will help adults observe ants in their neighbourhood; they can identify and differentiate between various species,” explains Aravind. Some species that may be discovered in town embrace the ring-bum ant, trap-jaw ant, procession ant, hunchback ant, fuzzy pavement ant, amongst others.
Ants don’t disturb us if we don’t intervene in their existence.
| Photo Credit:
Special association
Palluyir has held 4 ant walks for adults over the previous two months, and the crew has seen individuals’s outlook on ants change. “They start looking at ants differently,” says Gowtham Marimuthu who has held ant walks. “They understand how the absence of even the tiniest creatures can cause an imbalance in the ecosystem,” he provides. “People begin to look at ants as something more than insects that take away their food.”
Ants, says Gowtham, don’t disturb us if we don’t intervene in their existence. “They play a crucial role in soil aeration and also transport nutrients,” says Jomi, including that ants kind a organic pest management system by consuming grasshoppers and caterpillars. Another fascinating side about ants is that like people who rear cattle, they too rear smaller creatures. Aravind explains that ants elevate bugs that excrete honeydew, transferring them with them as they transfer alongside. “They sometimes snap the wings of these mini bugs so that they don’t fly away,” he says. “They’ve been doing this for millions of years, even before humans started agriculture.”
Some queen ants he says, can stay as much as 30 years. Aravind feels as soon as individuals study ants, they develop an natural bond with the bugs, and thereby empathy. “If they feel something is off when they see thousands of ants dead for no reason because of a chalk, our job is done,” he says.
The Ants of Chennai handbook is priced at ₹200 and is on the market on palluyirtrust.org. Visit them on Instagram @palluyir_trust for info on upcoming ant walks in Chennai.
Published – February 28, 2025 04:07 pm IST
