A reflective argument from Vedanthangal, near Chennai:
Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary
Introduction: A Question That Refuses to Settle
Every winter, when thousands of migratory birds arrive at Vedanthangal near Chennai, a familiar phrase is repeated:
“Siberian birds have come.”
This phrase is spoken casually, confidently, and almost unquestioningly.
Yet, for some minds, the heart quietly resists accepting it.
Why?
Because something deeper than data begins to speak.
Can a living being travel thousands of kilometers, year after year, generation after generation, without an inner reason stronger than survival?
Can such relentless return be explained only by climate and food?
Or is there something we have overlooked?
The Birds of Vedanthangal: Not Just Visitors
Let us name a few of the birds that arrive at Vedanthangal:
Painted Storks
Spot-billed Pelicans
Grey Herons
Black-headed Ibises
Open-billed Storks
Little Egrets and Great Egrets
They arrive in flocks, build nests on the same trees, lay eggs, raise chicks, and leave — only to return again.
Not once.
Not twice.
But across centuries.
This behavior itself raises a quiet question:
Do creatures return like this to places that are not, in some deep sense, their own?
Before Civilization, Before Protection
Human civilization, organized protection, and wildlife laws are recent events — barely ten thousand years old.
But birds, as a lineage, are millions of years old.
Long before humans decided to protect birds,
long before villages decided not to cut nesting trees,
long before sanctuaries were named,
these birds were already flying.
So the question naturally arises:
Before humans learned to protect birds,
where did birds belong?
The Climate Argument Has a Gap
It is often said that these birds “belong” to Siberia or other cold regions because they breed there.
But breeding location alone does not define origin.
Cold regions pose a fundamental limitation:
Frozen water
Extreme winters
Limited survival of chicks beyond seasons
A place where life cannot sustain itself year-round cannot logically be the ancestral home of life.
Cold regions function like seasonal workplaces — productive for a time, hostile afterward.
If survival were the only rule, evolution would have eliminated such risky dependence long ago.
Yet birds return south.
Always south.
The South as an Ancestral Continuum
South India, particularly regions like Tamil Nadu, has remained free from glaciation for tens of thousands of years.
Stable climate
Persistent wetlands
Continuous vegetation
Predictable water systems
These are not temporary conditions.
They are ancestral conditions.
Places like Vedanthangal are not accidental refuges; they are continuities.
It is entirely plausible — even reasonable — to consider that:
These birds did not originate in the cold and flee south.
They originated in stable southern ecosystems
and expanded outward when conditions allowed.
Migration as Expansion, Not Escape.
We often imagine migration as escape from cold.
But another interpretation exists:
Migration may have begun as exploration, much like ancient human traders.
Just as merchants left their homeland, explored distant regions, stayed temporarily, and returned home — birds may have done the same.
They flew outward when seasons allowed.
They returned inward when life demanded.
Not because they were homeless —
but because they had a home.
The Mother’s Home Analogy: Biology Knows Before Logic
There is a human parallel that explains this instinct better than data ever could.
Even today, in a globalized world:
Women travel across countries, settle abroad, live comfortably, and have access to advanced healthcare.
Yet, when it comes to childbirth, many still return to their mother’s home.
Not because the foreign land lacks facilities.
Not because of poverty or limitation.
But because the body recognizes safety before the mind reasons.
Birth demands trust.
Trust demands familiarity.
Familiarity demands memory.
The body remembers what the mind forgets.
Birds and the Same Biological Law
Birds do not use passports.
They do not read maps.
They do not calculate distances.
Yet they return — unerringly.
This suggests that migration is not just a reaction to climate, but an expression of ancestral memory.
What humans call “Siberian birds” may simply be:
Birds that temporarily worked the northern world,
but never forgot their southern home.
Vedanthangal is not a destination.
It is a return point.
Naming Is a Human Habit, Not Nature’s Truth
When humans say “Siberian bird,” they are naming the last observed breeding zone,
Introduction: A Question That Refuses to Settle
Every winter, when thousands of migratory birds arrive at Vedanthangal near Chennai, a familiar phrase is repeated:
“Siberian birds have come.”
This phrase is spoken casually, confidently, and almost unquestioningly.
Yet, for some minds, the heart quietly resists accepting it.
Why?
Because something deeper than data begins to speak.
Can a living being travel thousands of kilometers, year after year, generation after generation, without an inner reason stronger than survival?
Can such relentless return be explained only by climate and food?
Or is there something we have overlooked?
The Birds of Vedanthangal: Not Just Visitors
Let us name a few of the birds that arrive at Vedanthangal:
Painted Storks
Spot-billed Pelicans
Grey Herons
Black-headed Ibises
Open-billed Storks
Little Egrets and Great Egrets
They arrive in flocks, build nests on the same trees, lay eggs, raise chicks, and leave — only to return again.
Not once.
Not twice.
But across centuries.
This behavior itself raises a quiet question:
Do creatures return like this to places that are not, in some deep sense, their own?
Before Civilization, Before Protection
Human civilization, organized protection, and wildlife laws are recent events — barely ten thousand years old.
But birds, as a lineage, are millions of years old.
Long before humans decided to protect birds,
long before villages decided not to cut nesting trees,
long before sanctuaries were named,
these birds were already flying.
So the question naturally arises:
Before humans learned to protect birds,
where did birds belong?
The Climate Argument Has a Gap
It is often said that these birds “belong” to Siberia or other cold regions because they breed there.
But breeding location alone does not define origin.
Cold regions pose a fundamental limitation:
Frozen water
Extreme winters
Limited survival of chicks beyond seasons
A place where life cannot sustain itself year-round cannot logically be the ancestral home of life.
Cold regions function like seasonal workplaces — productive for a time, hostile afterward.
If survival were the only rule, evolution would have eliminated such risky dependence long ago.
Yet birds return south.
Always south.
The South as an Ancestral Continuum
South India, particularly regions like Tamil Nadu, has remained free from glaciation for tens of thousands of years.
Stable climate
Persistent wetlands
Continuous vegetation
Predictable water systems
These are not temporary conditions.
They are ancestral conditions.
Places like Vedanthangal are not accidental refuges; they are continuities.
It is entirely plausible — even reasonable — to consider that:
These birds did not originate in the cold and flee south.
They originated in stable southern ecosystems
and expanded outward when conditions allowed.
Migration as Expansion, Not Escape.
We often imagine migration as escape from cold.
But another interpretation exists:
Migration may have begun as exploration, much like ancient human traders.
Just as merchants left their homeland, explored distant regions, stayed temporarily, and returned home — birds may have done the same.
They flew outward when seasons allowed.
They returned inward when life demanded.
Not because they were homeless —
but because they had a home.
The Mother’s Home Analogy: Biology Knows Before Logic
There is a human parallel that explains this instinct better than data ever could.
Even today, in a globalized world:
Women travel across countries, settle abroad, live comfortably, and have access to advanced healthcare.
Yet, when it comes to childbirth, many still return to their mother’s home.
Not because the foreign land lacks facilities.
Not because of poverty or limitation.
But because the body recognizes safety before the mind reasons.
Birth demands trust.
Trust demands familiarity.
Familiarity demands memory.
The body remembers what the mind forgets.
Birds and the Same Biological Law
Birds do not use passports.
They do not read maps.
They do not calculate distances.
Yet they return — unerringly.
This suggests that migration is not just a reaction to climate, but an expression of ancestral memory.
What humans call “Siberian birds” may simply be:
Birds that temporarily worked the northern world,
but never forgot their southern home.
Vedanthangal is not a destination.
It is a return point.
Naming Is a Human Habit, Not Nature’s Truth
When humans say “Siberian bird,” they are naming the last observed breeding zone,
not the origin of belonging.
Nature does not label.
Nature remembers.
And memory is stronger than naming.
Conclusion: A Quiet Reframing
This is not a rejection of science.
Nor a denial of migration studies.
It is an invitation to widen the frame.
Perhaps these birds are not foreigners visiting Tamil Nadu.
Perhaps Tamil Nadu is not a refuge they discovered.
Perhaps they are simply returning —
as life often does —
to where it once began safely.
Nature does not label.
Nature remembers.
And memory is stronger than naming.
Conclusion: A Quiet Reframing
This is not a rejection of science.
Nor a denial of migration studies.
It is an invitation to widen the frame.
Perhaps these birds are not foreigners visiting Tamil Nadu.
Perhaps Tamil Nadu is not a refuge they discovered.
Perhaps they are simply returning —
as life often does —
to where it once began safely.
Not all journeys are escapes.
Some are returns.
Vedanthangal, then, is not merely a sanctuary.
It is not a destination discovered by wandering birds.
It is a remembered home —
a place carried quietly in ancestral memory,
a soil the body recognizes before the mind explains.
These are not foreign birds seeking refuge.
They are our own homeland birds,
returning — again and again —
to where life once learned how to continue.
-Yozen Balki
Google Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/gaYVSXapWeSQzvv69
Vedanthangal Birds Sanctuary
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