Need to learn from insects, says Geetha Iyer

Thiruvananthapuram: Naturalists interested in lesser known insects are as uncommon as their subjects of study. It is to get people interested in insects that Geetha Iyer wrote The Weavers: The Curious World of Insects. “In India, hardly any books are written on natural history, leave alone anything on insects. Everyone talks about butterflies or dragonflies. But there are such fascinating insects,” she says. The biologist will be in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday evening for a session with children at Schoolkutti.com library.

Point to be noted: her book may not be found in the children’s section. Parts of it read like a biology textbook; a lucid one. “At the risk of the book becoming a heavy read, I put the scientific details with the firm belief that it will lead someone to take up the study of insects,” she says. Her dream is to devise a robust, interesting biology syllabus, as she finds the biology syllabus across all boards, “most boring.” She says that engineers would start looking at engineering differently if they get to know about insects.

“Anything the humans are doing now, insects have done years ago. There are insects which rely on reverse osmosis, something which we have engineered recently. Some thrive only in water that is not polluted. These can be used to assess the quality of water,” she says. The book has bizarre tidbits drawn from history and popular culture. Sample, the one about a Han Chinese princess who smuggled silkworm and mulberry seeds in her head dress, when she got married to the king of Khotan. Or the fact that in several Asian cultures, crickets were regarded as singing pets.

“Imagine, what sounds annoying to us, is music to the Japanese and Chinese people,” Ms Iyer says. The 62-year-old biology teacher quit her job as the head of Sahyadri School (KFI), Pune, to follow her creative pursuits. At the age of 55, she ventured into Kanyakumari Wildlife Reserve and Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve to research on moths.