This recreation of seaside bingo spreads consciousness of Chennai’s seaside species

One other lockdown has begun, and folks throughout Chennai are already lacking their favorite seashores — not just for the ocean and the sand, but additionally for a sight of the teeming little creatures which have made our shores their residence.

This love for Chennai’s coastal species, is what a crew of six from Madras Naturalists Society is relying on, in its lengthy quest to boost consciousness in regards to the coastal biodiversity round Chennai. To that finish, M Yuvan, Nanditha Ram Satagopan, Anooja Anil, Aswathi Asokan, Vikas Madhav and Rohith Srinivasan have come up not solely with a big physique of documentation, but additionally enjoyable methods to unfold consciousness.

Amongst their newest makes an attempt is a recreation of Seaside Bingo. Illustrated by Anooja and designed by Nanditha, it’s basically a bingo sheet with drawings of 16 frequent seaside sightings for individuals to tick off the subsequent time they get an opportunity to go to the seaside.

Says Anooja, “All six of us determined to create some instruments of consciousness. Individuals can take this Bingo [sheet] to the seaside and cross out what they see. Many of those are issues individuals have seen on seashores earlier than, with out realizing what they’re. This recreation will assist them determine what they’re seeing.”

Accessible free for obtain by way of a OneDrive hyperlink, the sport options a mixture of fauna, flora and man-made objects. A curious one amongst them is the ocean tongue. In accordance with Anooja, it’s the “float” of a cuttlefish. “It’s not your complete organism, however its inside shell, that may be generally seen washed ashore on Chennai’s seashores.” Although Anooja has not seen one herself, her crew mates have documented them. Primarily based on their images, Anooja etched one out for the Bingo sheet.

There are different creatures, nevertheless, that she has seen herself and drawn from reminiscence, like sundown siliqua shells and barnacles. Ghost nets — fishing nets which were misplaced or left behind within the sea — and single-use plastics are additionally issues she has seen, strewn throughout elements of most seashores. The mundane, nevertheless, goes hand in hand with the weird alongside this shoreline.

Anooja remembers the day she got here throughout life in an sudden place. “We as soon as discovered a barnacle on an deserted shoe. Barnacles are sessile or non-motile organisms, which signifies that they can not transfer by themselves. They are often discovered anyplace, often on rocks or different sturdy constructions,” she says. However discovering one on one thing as flimsy as a shoe was distinctive.

Eye spy (Clockwise from beneath) The seaside bingo sheet; a murex; a horn-eyed ghost crab Nanditha Ram Satagopan, M Yuvan and particular association

One other unassuming magnificence to maintain an eye fixed out for is the sundown siliqua, a purple-white shell that takes second place within the prime row of the sheet. “It’s a bivalve,” explains Anooja, “Bivalves are associated to snails, however whereas snails have one shell, bivalves have two. They’re molluscs, and this sundown siliqua is a standard one. It is rather fairly to see on the seaside.”

The seaside bingo sheet may be downloaded from the hyperlink within the Instagram pages of Anooja Anil (@anooja.anil) and M Yuvan (@a_naturalists_column).