It forever rains books as far as I am concerned. There was a time when I was buying them much to the annoyance of everyone at home. Then people began sending books over – ones they have written, old books they did not want, etc, all with a Chennai theme, and over the years my collection of city-based books has grown. Last month I bought one – Fishes of Chennai, A Comprehensive Visual & Practical Field Guide. Compiled by Aravind Manoj and Beta Mahatvaraj, both naturalists, it has been brought out by Meenkaran Publications (what an apt name). I found it to be excellent.
The book in my view, goes a long way in fulfilling a gap in Chennai’s heritage – the documentation of its natural habitats and wildlife. When you read colonial accounts your heart aches at what we have lost – tigers on the Adyar bank, crocodiles in the Cooum, leopards and jackals at the edge of Alwarpet. In recent times the writings of Shobha Menon and team at Nizhal, Jayshree Vencat of Care Earth, Theodore Baskaran, Zai Whitaker and Janaki Lenin have all opened our eyes to what we continue to lose. If this be the casualty list among animals and birds, what of fish?
A casual reading of Isaac Tyrrell’s book From England to the Antipodes and India, 1846-1902 (ALV Press, 1904) reveals how many ponds stocked with fish once existed along Poonamallee High Road, which includes land now occupied by the Central Station! Tyrrell being the Superintendent of the Madras Central Jail had enough opportunity to try his luck with the rod and line. There are photographs of soldiers stationed in Fort St. George fishing in the moat! The industrialist AC Muthiah has often reminisced to me about angling expeditions to Pallikaranai in the 1960s. Today, such activities can only be imagined.
However, as we often take satisfaction in saying, all is not yet lost. At least that is what my reading of the book Fishes of Chennai revealed. In terms of format, this is very well laid out, taking the novice step by step into fishy matters. There is an introduction to fish, their classification, etc. Then comes a detailed documentation on the water wealth of the city – its rivers and canals, tanks and lakes, and the sea. What follows is an exhaustive compilation of the various kinds of fish found in and around Chennai, with a page dedicated to each species. The photographs are most useful, having been taken with great clarity and reproduced on excellent paper. The book itself, including research for it, took three years in the making.
Having read the book I contacted Beta Mahatvaraj and found out that many of the fish were photographed in special tanks to ensure clarity. There are of course pictures shot at location, never an easy task. I was reminded of Lady Elizabeth Gwillim, arguably the world’s first woman ornithologist, sitting in 19th century Madras at her San Thome home and painting furiously the birds brought to her – there was every need for hurry wrote that remarkably sensitive artist, for a captured bird had to be released within a day into its natural habitat, as it may otherwise starve!
To someone like me, greatly attached to ancient Tamil poetry, this book endeared itself at once, for it carries verses from Sangam anthology, each naming a freshwater fish variety that is included in the book. During COVID, I embarked on a similar exercise that I never finished – documenting flora and fauna mentioned in the Tevaram and Nalayira Divya Prabandham. Perhaps this book will enthuse me to complete that someday.
Some did-you-knows (in my case, no I did not know) that I came away with:
A fish new to science was discovered in a tank in West Anna Nagar (it was news to me that West Anna Nagar has tanks).
Some of the fishes here breathe air and cross land.
Chennai has a see-through fish.
The mosquitofish, released here to control malarial larvae, has contributed to the decline of several native varieties.
The book overall surveys around 100 varieties of fresh and brackish-water fish species in the Chennai Metropolitan Area. It is a perfect guide for those who are interested in matters piscine. More importantly, it is excellent to gift to children so that they can be encouraged to appreciate our natural wealth. From the book I learnt that research on fish in Madras began in 1916 with B. Sundara Raj of the Madras Fisheries Bureau. He documented around 57 species in the Adyar, Cooum and other waterbodies. The present book says that much has changed since then and that many of the fish communities he documented are not there any longer! If that does not set off alarm bells, what will?