Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs
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Data on the birdto be used to learn about its habitat A citizen science initiative of documenting Indian hornbills is providing valuable inputs for the conservation of the unique bird. The data on hornbill presence outside protected areas would be be crucial in identifying and protecting their habitats from possible threats and development projects, scientists said. The Hornbill Watch initiative (www.hornbills.in) is an interactive web interface that allows a person to report on hornbills anywhere in India. People can record the observation of a live hornbill, note its call or report a dead, hunted or captive bird. Lack of information There are nine hornbill species in India, but experts say that information on its distribution in the country is not very clear. Launched by scientists Aparajita Datta and Rohit Naniwadekar from Nature Conservation Foundation and Ramki Sreenivasan and Vikram Hiresavi from Conservation India, Hornbill Watch was aimed at bridging this gap. A recent paper in the journal Indian BIRDS elaborates on the work done by volunteers documenting hornbills in different parts of the country in three years. Between June 2014 and February 2017, the website, Hornbill Watch, had received 938 records from 430 contributors across 26 States including the national capital and two Union Territories.
