K. Manoj inhabits two worlds — that of ants and humans. A bus
repairman by profession, the 27-year-old Kerala State Road Transport
Corporation (KSRTC) employee is a self-taught amateur natural historian
whose passion is to observe and record the lives of ants.
It is not unusual for his neighbours at Vembayam to find the
recreational myrmecologist scrambling over ground on all fours to
document the lives of ants with his digital camera.At his father’s tea shop, Manoj would frown if somebody stopped his
favourite black ants from making a beeline for the sugar jar.
He has innumerable ‘ant stories’ to regale listeners. A favourite
narrative of his is the one on weaver ants, the aggressive red ones
which knit leaves to make large nests on mango trees.“The weavers grow small insects in their colonies to harvest the
nutrient-rich nectar they produce. It is like us humans keeping cows for
milk,” he tells his audience.
