In a first, Ahmedabad to get bird atlas; field visits to start today

Devvratsinh Mori, an ornithologist and coordinator for the task from Ahmedabad University, who is besides a subordinate of Gujarat State Board for Wildlife, said that they person been moving connected the task for the past 1 year. After preparing the protocol for the project, Mori said, it volition present statesman connected crushed with tract surveys from Saturday.

“As per the protocol decided, we are going to screen the 400 quadrate km country of Ahmedabad metropolis wrong Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation limits. Based connected the fig of qualified volunteers that we person got, it has been decided to screen 33% of the metropolis portion dividing the metropolis into 61 grids measuring 3×3 quadrate km to facilitate the vertebrate surveys. Each grid is subdivided into 9 sub-cells, each covering an country of 1×1 sq km,” said Mori.

According to Mori, successful total, 22 teams of volunteers person been formed and each squad besides has a coordinator who is simply a elder adept vertebrate enthusiast. The task has been technically supported by Bird Count India — an informal concern of organisations and groups moving towards expanding cognition astir birds, and e-Bird — an online information depository of birds worldwide.

“The tract visits volition beryllium done successful winters and summers to way seasonal movements of the birds. Accordingly, the archetypal acceptable of visits volition instrumentality spot successful December and January portion the summertime visits volition beryllium made successful May and June. The volunteers volition provender their checklists connected e-Bird. And aft the visits, the information volition beryllium studied and past a probe insubstantial volition beryllium published with the Bird Atlas of Ahmedabad city,” Mori said.
Professor Shomen Mukherjee, who teaches astatine the Ahmedabad University, is besides associated with the project.

Mukherjee said, “Ahmedabad volition beryllium the archetypal metropolis successful Gujarat to person its vertebrate atlas. The cities of Mysuru and Coimbatore person their vertebrate atlases. Entire Kerala authorities has its vertebrate atlas. Pune metropolis has besides started a task to person its vertebrate atlas. ”

Talking astir the task and its significance, BCSG caput Bakul Trivedi said, “Through specified a (formal) study, we volition beryllium capable to recognize the diverseness and abundance of birds successful the city.”