February 2017

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Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) 2017 at WII

Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) is a popular citizen science event which collects valuable information pertaining to distribution and abundance of birds across the globe.  Events like these demonstrate the power of engaging citizens in learning about the natural world and monitoring how it is changing. WII along with 289 other campuses (including research stations, government institutions, schools, colleges, universities and corporate offices etc.) across India participated in the count carried over 4 days from 17-20 February, 2017. As part of the count, birders in WII were grouped into 4 teams and they surveyed in and around the WII campus. In order to increase the efficiency of the coverage area the campus was divided into subareas like Hostel & Nature trail, Admin Block and Faculty Residential colony, Sal patch near WII and IIIrd block residential colony covering the following habitats: Moist-deciduous Siwalik Sal forest, Open wooded compounds/ gardens/parks, Shrub jungle with thickets of Lantana and young Sal, Open scrubland with fallow/barren crop-fields and Wetlands. Altogether 4862 individuals of 146 species were recorded during the campus bird count period. Among them 30 individuals of 8 species i.e. warbler sp., Swallow sp., Swift sp. etc. were unidentified. Birds like Rose-ringed parakeet, Indian Spot-billed duck, Jungle babbler and Red-vented bulbul were the most seen birds, and total 25 bird species were recorded only once during the count including Eurasian wryneck, Himalayan buzzard, White-tailed rubythroat, Himalayan flameback etc.

The GBBC at WII was coordinated by Dr. Gopi G V, Scientist E. A total of 37 people participated in the campus bird count team which were divided in to four groups and these four groups were coordinated by the following team co-ordinators: Sudip Banerjee, Sumit Arya, Anant Pandey, Suresh Rana, Ankita Sinha, Shuvendu Das, Upma Manral, Dinesh Singh Pundir and Deepak Brid.

Apart from the Campus Bird Count, a field day was organized on 19 Feb 2017 to introduce birds and bird watching to the kids in WII campus. Several kids participated enthusiastically and they were taken for guided birding around the campus. A checklist of 15 birds was prepared at the end of the count by the kids.

More information about the GBBC, Campus Bird Count, and other associated events can be found at http://gbbc.birdcount.org/, http://www.birdcount.in/ and http://ebird.org/  . The global GBBC event is organized by Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society and this is the first online citizen-science project to collect data on wild birds and to display results in near real-time.

Last Updated: February 28, 2017

Flag-off of Science Express Climate Action Special at Safdarjung Railway Station, New Delhi on 17th February, 2017

Science Express is an innovative mobile science exhibition mounted on a 16 coach AC train, traveling across India. This unique initiative was launched in October 2007 by Department of Science & Technology, Govt. of India. It has since then made eight tours of the country, traveling about 1,42,000 km and exhibiting at 455 locations. Over its 1,602 exhibition days, Science Express received an overwhelming response and 1.56 crore visitors. Science Express has become the largest, the longest running and the most visited mobile science exhibition and has six entries in the Limca Book of Records.

The Science Express Climate Action Special (SECAS) is a unique collaborative initiative of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Department of Science & Technology (DST), Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and Ministry of Railways, Govt. of India, Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and Vikram A. Sarabhai Community Science Centre (VASCSC). The ninth phase of the Science Express as SECAS is scheduled to run from February to September 2017, over 19,000 km during which it will be exhibited at 68 stations across India. The state-of-the-art exhibition on board the SECAS aims to create awareness among various sections of society as to how climate change can be combated through mitigation and adaptation. The exhibition is open to all but primarily targets students and teachers.

Of the 16 coaches of SECAS, exhibition in 8 coaches developed by MoEFCC are exclusively devoted to information, case studies and material related to various aspect of climate change, the underlying science, impacts, adaptation activities, mitigation solutions and policy approaches in a manner that is easy to understand and interesting for not just school students but also the masses. In rest 8 coaches, there are exhibits and activities put up by DST and DBT. Three coaches of the train are fitted with solar panel on the rooftop. This year, the train is going for the first time to Tripura, to North Lakhimpur and north bank of Brahmaputra.

The ninth phase of Science Express as 'Science Express Climate Action Special II' was flagged-off by Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Hon’ble Minister of Science & Technology and Earth Sciences and Shri Anil Madhav Dave, Hon’ble Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Govt. of India, from Delhi Safdarjung station. Shri Suresh P. Prabhu, Hon’ble Minister of Railways, Govt. of India joined the programme through video conferencing from Goa. Shri A.N. Jha, Secretary, Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Govt. of India also graced the event. The flag-off event was graced by a large number of guests and officials, school children, media and general public. During the flag-off event, a theme song was sung by a choir comprising visually handicapped students and musicians from National Institute for Visually Handicapped, Dehradun and researcher students of WII. This was greatly appreciated by the dignitaries present.

The Hon’ble Ministers also released the SECAS Brochure prepared by WII visited the exhibition on the train and interacted with the Science Communicators.

Last Updated: February 20, 2017