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My first sighting of an Indian Pitta was in the compound of forest rest house at Sitanadi Wildlife Sanctuary, Chhatisgarh in 2004. This was the time when my interest developed in photographing the birds as most of the wildlife sanctuaries and national parks are closed for more than 3 months during monsoons.

Although I got few good shots at Tadoba in my various visits to the park but my thirst was quenched to a certain extent on 30th of June 2015 at Sariska Tiger Reserve in Rajasthan, where I got good shots of this bird indulged in nest building on a tree at eye level.

The name “Pitta” is derived from Telegu language word ‘pitta” which means a small bird.. As far as Indian sub-continent is concerned there are 4 types of Pittas namely Indian pitta, fairy pitta, mangrove pitta and blue-winged pitta.

It has a distinctive loud two-note whistle. It has a habit of calling once or twice generally at dawn and dusk. It is also called “six – o – clock “ bird. They generally breed in the hills of Central India. They also breed during the South West monsoons in Northern India. They are shy birds of forest that roost on trees and feed on insects. Hence they are heard more and seen less.

This bird possessing nine different colors is also called ‘Navrang”. To me it is a nine colored JEWEL.

Number 9 has importance in Indian psyche from time immemorial. There are 9 manifestations of God Vishnu which have already come into existence, 9 manifestations of Goddess Durga, 9 planets in the universe. We also know that there is 9-month gestation period for the birth of human beings and the holy cow (that is the reason why it is called Cow Mother). There are 9 Puranas and 108 Maha Puran. The epic Mahabharat and The Holy book Gita has 18 chapters each. Bhagwat Gita also has total of 10800 shlokas. We human beings have 9 openings in our body.

Readers may recall that every important number when summed up ends to a number 9.

It may be recalled that yesterday morning at 9.00 AM, Prim Minister has urged all of us to stand in thee doorway or the balcony of the house at 9.00 P.M for 9 minutes on 5th April 2010 (tomorrow) and light a candle a diya, a torch on mobile with an aim to fight the darkness spread by Cornavirus with light.

The main digits boils down to a digit 995 or 999 (9AM, 9PM, 9 minutes on 5th April). The number 995/999 signifies the purity of gold. Many people may not be aware of this number as a common man just know purity of gold as of 24 carats ..995 and 999 are both purities categorised under 24 carat Gold.

I member during our DRI (Directorate of Revenue Intelligence at New Delhi) days whenever any seizure of gold biscuits weighing 10 tolas/1kg each was made, they were imbossed/printed with gold purity as 999/995 and marking of the manufacturer Johnson Matthew or Credit Swiss.

It appears that lot of thinking must have gone into by the Prime Minister regarding the time when such an event is to be called for , so as to have focus of all the positive forces present to have best of the result to protect the humanity.

Let us rise to the occasion and pray for the welfare of all of us.
To defeat CORONAVIRUS let us STAY HOME and STAY INDOORS.

Image from Sariska Tiger Reserve on 30th June 2015.

About Vinod Goel

He joined Customs & Central Excise service in 1982. As a civil servant, his job takes him to various parts of India, which gave him an opportunity to capture our wild heritage, through his camera. His passion for wildlife photography started in 2004 when he was posted at Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and this passion continues till today.