What makes the Banasura laughingthrush (chilappan) unique? This dull brown bird sings a melodious pee kooo pee kooo that reverberates across the sholas of the Western Ghats. There is also the Palani chilappan, an olive-brown bird with a characteristic white eyebrow over a dark eye-line, and the Nilgiris chilappan, a bronze-brown bird, often seen in noisy flocks, giving out loud calls, similar to human laughter.
All of them are endemic to the Western Ghats. “Banasura can be seen only in certain pockets in Karnataka and Kerala,” says artist Ragavan Suresh as he displays his voluminous collection of works of art comprising scientific watercolour drawings of as many as 30 endemic birds of the Western Ghats, and over 40 drawings of endangered animals. This, in addition to a collection of 130 orchids endemic to the Western Ghats as per the list declared by the Government of India.
