Bucks, Flamingos and certain Tigers
The outline map of Tamil Nadu state looks like a face in profile, with its prominent " nose" poking inquisitively close to the tippiest tip of our little neighbour ,Srilanka. This nose tip is called Point Calimere . Its tamil name Kodikarai is apt and descriptive as it means " the last shore", a definitive endpoint in ancient times. On our first visit, sometime during the late 60s, we found the place eerily frozen in Chola time. Remote, jungly, sparsely dotted with tiny clusters of primitive habitations , where ebony skinned, palm-climbing men wore little more than a thong ( or, a "nappy", as the youngest co-traveller observed in all earnestness) and the twig gathering women went topless. But the great expanse of dry evergreens, mangroves and marshlands bore the name " Point Calimere Reserved Forest ", a newly created protected wildlife sanctuary. There was a small checkpost with the usual , rustic barricade of a log weighted at