Kerala bird survey traces Salim Ali's trail

May 28, 2012

Bird

Thiruvananthapuram, May 28: When renowned ornithologist Salim Ali conducted the bird survey of southern Kerala 79 years ago he was moved not just by the region's diversity of avifauna but the panoramic beauty of the setting.

If Ali was alive now, he would certainly be a sad man as serious habitat destruction and degradation pose a grim threat to survival of the bird population in the state.

This is the picture that emerges from a recent bird survey commissioned by the state Forest Department tracing Ali's footprints.

In the 1933 survey, Ali covered the Travancore and Cochin regions of Kerala, both princely states then.

Ali showed interest in surveying this region as part of an initiative of the Bombay Natural History Society to study and record the avian diversity of different regions of India.

The first survey in this series was conducted in the Hyderabad State in 1931 and the exercise covered the central Indian states of Bhopal, Gwalior, Indore and Dhar (1938), Mysore (1939) and Gujarat (1944-48), apart from Travancore and Cochin.

Ali, in his autobiography 'The fall of a sparrow' (1985) noted that "of all my regional bird surveys between the years 1930 and 1950 which I regard as the most productive period of my career, perhaps the one that gave me both as to the field work and writing up its results was the ornithological survey of Travancore-Cochin..."

He also acknowledged that the 1933 survey provided the basis for his work 'The birds of Kerala'

Interestingly, Ali's wife Tehmina was part of the survey throughout and his cousin and leading naturalist Humayun Abdulali took part in it for a short period.

After putting up a proposal to the Travancore Government, all that Ali sought was Rs 2000 to cover travel and incidental expenses, free use of inspection bungalows and forest houses and assistance from local revenue, forest and police officials. "We are lucky that a comprehensive record of birds of South Kerala has been drawn up by an authority in the field like Salim Ali. Though the methodology of bird surveys have changed since 1930s, Ali's accounts have come as a great help when we traced his trail after seven decades", C Sashikumar, who was a member of the 2010 survey, told PTI.

A book titled 'Along the trails of Salim Ali' was brought out by the state Forest Department recently based on the findings of the 2010 survey.

"Apart from the matchless beauty of South Indian hills, the southern extremity of the Sahyadri or Western Ghats, and the lushness and grandeur of their primeval evergreen forests, there was something special in much of their animal and plant life that stood out distinctly from the rest of the peninsula", Ali then observed.

Ali, who made several subsequent trips to Kerala in his eventful career, later voiced concern over the threat posed to the winged beauties by the vanishing of forests and degradation of environment.

In the late 1960s, he noted "since the survey, particularly since our Independence, I have visited Kerala every few years and been more and more depressed and scandalised each time by the mindless vandalism being perpetrated by successive state governments and crooked politicians in the devastation of virgin evergreen forests to settle repatriates and for so-called development projects..."

According to Sashikumar, a leading ornithologist and author of several works and research papers on avifauna, Ali's premonitions have come true as the forests have been destroyed largely for converting them into plantations, felling trees or for big projects like hydro-electric power.

"The recent survey has clearly brought out this poor picture and stringent conservation initiatives are essential to protect the nature from further assault," he said.

The survey, which painstakingly followed Ali's footprints, found that all species of vultures have become extinct locally in Kerala but for a small breeding population of white-backed vultures in Wayanad in north Kerala.

The survey called for an immediate vulture survey to study the current status and measures for augmenting the existing population.

On the positive side, among the 16 endemic birds, the blue-winged Parakeet, Small Sunbird, Indian Rufous Babbler and White-bellied Treepie have a seemingly healthy population.

However, high altitude birds like Grey-breasted Laughing Thrush, Black-and-Orange Flycatchers, White-bellied Shortwing and Nilgiri Flycatcher are facing serious habitat destructions and fragmentation.

Similarly, large-scale decline of Nilgiri Wood pigeon, an IUCN Red List category (a list which assesses the risk of extinction to species within a political management unit) is a cause for concern.

According to ornithologists, the Western Ghats, a major segment of Indian bio-diversity, has 16 endemic species of birds, which are found nowhere else in the world, the survey findings noted.

But this ecological hot spot is facing grim threat and its low land forests have almost completely been decimated and remaining parts severely fragmented, harming bio-diversity of the Ghats.

The recommendations include total ban on traffic through the pristine Anamudi Shola National Park, protection of the relict Shola patches as conservation reserves, regeneration of Silent Valley-Karinkulam Grass land, conservation of bird prey, regular monitoring of threatened bird species and regulation of tourism in sensitive areas like Eravikulam National Park, Sashikumar said.

Conservation of wetland areas like those around the lakes and backwaters is an area that called for urgent measures. Since the land in these areas are mostly in private possession, a community initiative is required for their protection.

Sashikumar said a bird survey of the northern district of Kerala, known as the Malabar region, was conducted a couple of years ago but it was yet to be published in the book form by the Forest Department.

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News Network
October 21,2024

khalistan.jpg

Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on Monday warned passengers not to fly on Air India flights from November 1 to 19. He asserted that an attack could take place on an Air India flight during the specified dates, which coincide with the "40th anniversary of the Sikh genocide".

The founder of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), who holds dual citizenship in Canada and the US, had issued a similar threat around the same time last year.

Pannun's fresh threat comes amid several airlines in India receiving multiple threat calls about potential bombings, all of which turned out to be hoaxes. It also occurred at a time when India and Canada are engaged in a murky diplomatic row following Canada's allegations of India targeting Khalistani elements in the country, including the murder of another terrorist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

In November 2023, Pannun released a video claiming that Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport would be renamed and would remain closed on November 19, warning people against flying on Air India that day. The National Investigation Agency charged him with criminal conspiracy, promoting enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion, and various offences under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

In December last year, Pannun threatened to attack the Parliament on or before December 13, following reports of an alleged foiled plot to kill him. December 13 marks the anniversary of the terrorist attack on the Parliament in 2001.

He also threatened to kill Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and Director General of State Police Gaurav Yadav on Republic Day this year. He also urged gangsters to unite and launch an attack on Mann on January 26.

Pannun has been designated a terrorist by the Ministry of Home Affairs since July 2020 on charges of sedition and secessionism, as he leads SFJ, a group advocating for a separate sovereign Sikh state. A year prior to this, India banned SFJ as an "unlawful association" for engaging in "anti-national and subversive" activities.

In another development, on October 17, the United States charged a former officer of India's spy agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) for allegedly directing a foiled plot to murder Pannun, a charge New Delhi has rejected as baseless allegations.

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News Network
October 22,2024

Several Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) schools across India were hit with hoax bomb threats on Tuesday, just days after an explosion occurred near a CRPF school in Delhi. The threats, sent via email late Monday night, targeted schools in Delhi and Hyderabad, according to sources.

Earlier this week, a bomb exploded outside a CRPF school in Delhi’s Rohini area, causing significant damage to nearby vehicles and property. Fortunately, no casualties or injuries were reported.

In response to the blast, Delhi Police confiscated CCTV footage from nearby markets as part of their investigation. Sources indicate that surveillance footage captured a suspect at the scene, wearing a white T-shirt, displaying suspicious behavior the night before the explosion.

Preliminary investigations revealed that the explosive device had been hidden in a polythene bag, buried in a shallow pit, and covered with garbage. The blast caused a hole in the school's boundary wall and shattered the window panes and signboards of nearby shops.

Following the incident, the Delhi Police registered a First Information Report (FIR) under Section 4 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, Section 3 of the Indian Explosives Act, and other relevant sections.

The FIR states, "A case of an explosion caused by an unknown explosive substance has been registered, and the investigation continues." It also details the damage, noting that the blast left a hole in the boundary wall and affected nearby structures.

The targeted schools serve children from CRPF and other paramilitary families, and the recent threats have heightened concerns. In response, Delhi authorities have placed the city on high alert, ramping up security measures, especially in markets, ahead of the Diwali festival. 

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