Avian atlas to provide ‘bird’s eye’ view of biodiversity

THRISSUR: The ornithological quest begun by Salim Ali is coming full circle in Kerala. The state will be the first in India to create a bird atlas, a comprehensive avian guide that only developed countries like the US, UK and Australia currently have.
The atlas will document the domestic and migratory bird population of the state in exhaustive detail across the state's entire 39,000 square kilometres.It will not just serve as an invaluable field resource to the growing tribe of birdwatchers who come to Kerala's fauna-rich habitats but, more crucially, serve as an extremely reliable barometer for monitoring biodiversity.
Launched by Indian Bird Conservation Network's (IBCN) Kerala unit, the five-year project will be partnered by the renowned Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and by Royal Society for Protection of Birds (RSPB) of UK. "Such a comparison of bird data will provide great insight into changes in nature as birds are very reliable indicators of the ecosystem,'' Neha Sinha from BNHS told TOI.
Sinha, who attended the just-concluded workshop on bird watching and conservation at Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) here, said the state has the most advanced bird watching programme in the country. Kerala has about 475 bird species and out of them 15 are endemic, found only in the Western Ghats. The state also has 35 Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas (IBAs), including 11 recently identified IBAs.
While black drongo, common myna , crow pheasant, red-whiskered bulbul, pond heron and cattle egret are common in Kerala, some of the rare species found in the state include Nilgiri wood pigeon, Malabar grey hornbill, Malabar parakeet, black and orange flycatcher, Nilgiri pipit and Nilgiri flycatcher.
Kerala has the distinction of having six bird monitoring schemes, which includes recording common birds, heronries, water birds, pelagic birds, and forest birds. "The most important aspect of bird watching programmes in Kerala is the meticulous documentation going on here,'' Sinha said.
P O Nameer of the College of Forestry, who will be the coordinator of the project, revealed that the first phase of the project would cover Thrissur and Alappuza districts. "The entire area of the state will be divided into �cells' of one square kilometre each and at the of the five-year project we will have an exhaustive documentation of the bird population in each cell of the state,'' Nameer said.