EMN
Dimapur, June 6
After all the song and dance around the ‘Hornbill Festival’ in the State for the last 13 year s… here comes one which really puts to test the right to host this festival after the hornbill whose habitat we have but almost destroyed in our state. The insatiable desire in the average Naga youth (men) to hunt anything that creeps, crawls or flies may have some use after all.
If you fall in this ‘category’ here is your opportunity to network your ‘talent’ to a new pool of hunters … ’online hunters’.
An online project ’Hornbill Watch’ launched befittingly on World Environment Day allows anyone to contribute towards conservation efforts by sharing sightings and images which can help prioritise important sites for conservation.
Chances of sightings will be rare in Nagaland but that should alert us to lift our eyes towards our forests , private and community holdings and arrest destructive, unsustainable practices. The hornbill is arguably amongst the most majestic of all birds and it is fast disappearing from India and other Asian countries due to loss of habitat and other environmental hazards.
But here’s a chance to record the sighting of a hornbill in case you spot one. The online project, ‘Hornbill Watch’, allows one to contribute towards conservation efforts by sharing sightings and images which will help prioritise important sites for conservation. This is because hornbills are spotted not only in their usual habitats.
If you spot a hornbill, you can log on to http://hornbills.in/ and share your sightings on it.
The site according to Ramki Sreenivasan of Conservation India, a co- founder of the project has been developed with the co operation of many scientists, wildlife enthusiasts and NGOs that have given shape to the Hornbill Watch project. It contains basic information about hornbills and also contains arresting photographs taken by several wildlife enthusiasts.
A form is attached to the site on which the details of sightings can be registered.
India is home to nine species of hornbills, of which two are endemic.
Aparajita Datta, senior scientist at the Nature Conservation Foundation, Mysore, is on record for stating that “the north-eastern region of India has the highest diversity of hornbill species, though the number of sympatric species are not as high as in the south east Asian forests. The Great Hornbill occurs in north, north-east and south India, apart from Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. We are looking for records and images of the nine species found in India -Great Hornbill, Rufous-necked Hornbill, Wreathed Hornbill, Narcondam Hornbill, Malabar Pied Hornbill, Oriental Pied Hornbill, White-throated Brown Hornbill, Malabar Grey Hornbill and the Indian Grey Hornbill,”. Aparajita Datta, is a member in the project.
“We have received more than 100 sightings so far. This is for everyone, not only for wildlife enthusiasts and photographers. Anyone who spots a hornbill can record his sighting. You can even record the sighting without the photograph of the bird,” said Sreenivasan.
The people behind this novel idea expect the numbers and members to go up now that the site is officially launched.
Three entries of hornbills sighted in the Intanki National Park in 2013 have also been posted on the website since it launched.
(With inputs form TOI)
