World Heritage Day (WHD) is celebrated globally on 18th April every year in order to commemorate the beauty, splendour and biological richness of World Heritage Sites, and reiterate the collective commitment of mankind towards conserving these areas for posterity.

The UNESCO Category 2 Centre at Wildlife Institute of India (WII) celebrated World Heritage Day on 18th April, 2016 by organising a series of events. Participants included school students residing near two UNESCO World Heritage Sites (WHS) of India namely, Nanda Devi National Park, Uttarakhand and Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP), Himachal Pradesh as well as from Model School, National Institute of Visually Handicapped (NIVH), Dehradun. The celebration of the day was focused on raising awareness and exposure of school students through lectures, field visit, fun activities and cultural performances. A total of 36 students from the three schools participated in the WHD celebration at WII

The day started with a Nature Walk for the students at WII campus which harbours a great variety of flora and fauna. Representatives from UNESCO C2C led the nature walk and interacted with the students on different aspects of forest and wildlife. This was followed by a short presentation on activities of WII and UNESCO C2C by staff members of the Centre. Subsequently, an exposure trip was undertaken to Forest Research Institute (FRI), Dehradun which is a National Heritage of India. Staff members from FRI gave an overview of the institute’s work on forests and allied sectors to the students. Students had occasion to visit the museum of FRI main building where they learned about entomology, NWFP products and forest pathology in brief.

After the friendly interaction with fellow students and UNESCO C2C staff, a film based on Indian wildlife named ‘Delhi Safari’ was screened for the students. The main aim of screening the movie was to make the young participants aware about the importance of forest and wildlife and how they can co-exist with humans on earth.
This was followed by a Drawing and Painting Competition for the students. Participants were categorised in four groups ranging from pre-school to High School with appropriate themes related to nature, wildlife, cultural and natural World Heritage Sites. Prizes were subsequently distributed to the winners of each group later in the evening.

The highlight of the celebrations was a Cultural Programme in the evening which had a combination of song, dance and drama performed by students, researchers, faculty, staff and family of WII. The finale was a Heritage Ramp Walk where WII faculty graced the stage representing their respective associations with Indian World Heritage Sites. The curtains were drawn with a rendition of India’s national anthem.

Students at WII Nature Trail

C2C staff members giving presentation on WII and UNESCO World Heritage Sites

School Students participating in Drawing Competition

M.Sc Students performing at WHD celebration

WII Researchers performing dance on Sunderbans Landscape

WII researchers participating in WHD celebration

Dean, FWS participating in World Heritage Day Celebration

Director WII performing on World Heritage Day 2016 celebration

Performance by National Institute of Visually Handicapped (NIVH) students

Students from Nanda Devi National Park performing cultural dance of Uttarakhand

Kids performing in animal costumes

Drawing Competition Prize Distribution Ceremony

WII faculty representing WHS of India

Results of Drawing Competition   (65 kb)

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.

The Campus Bird Count (CBC) was organized as a sub event of the GBBC-2016 and WII along with other 210 campuses (including research stations, government institutions, schools, colleges, universities and corporate offices etc.) across India participated in the count that was carried out for 4 days from 12 -15 February, 2016. 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. The results of the count has been very encouraging, with the Wildlife Institute of India topping the list of number of species recorded in any hotspot in the country during the count days. A total of 159 species were recorded and a total of 189 checklists were uploaded to the global listing website (http://ebird.org/). Overall, 2,670 individual birds were counted in the WII campus. 67 avifauna species were recorded only once and 12 recorded in the subsequently large numbers. The GBBC at WII was coordinated by Dr. Gopi G V, Sh. Manoj V Nair and Sh. Ashutosh Singh.

Apart from the Campus Bird Count, a field day was organized on 14 Feb 2016 to introduce birds and bird watching to the kids in WII campus. Around 25 kids participated enthusiastically and they were taken for guided birding around the campus. A checklist of 8 birds was prepared at the end of the count by the kids.

Contributors to the count: Pratap Singh, Manoj V Nair, Gopi G V, J. A. Johnson, S.K. Gupta, Ashutosh Singh, Vandana Rajput, Ankita Sinha, Keshav Gogai, Harsh Rathore, Priyamvada Bagaria, Deepti Gupta, Vivek Sarkar, Rupa, Persis Farooqy, Dhruv Verma, Deb Ranjan Laha, Anurag Vishwakarma, M. Naveen, Amit Haryanvi, Upma, N.GokulakkKanan, Shuvendu Das, A. Mohan D. S. Pundir, Madhanraj, Ashok Kumar, Akanksha Saxena, Pritha Dey.

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.or. 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.

Checklist of birds documented during the GBBC & CBC - 2016 at WII  (188 kb)

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In continuation of release of the summary ‘TIGER~MEETR – 2015’ on 20 January 2015 http://www.wii.gov.in/release_tiger_meetr the full report on Management Effectiveness Evaluation’ (MEE) of Tiger Reserves in India, 2014 is now available for access.

The Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) process is a global framework to evaluate the performance of protected areas. India is among the select countries in the world that has institutionalized the MEE process for its network of protected areas. India has not only independently assessed the effectiveness of 28 tiger reserves in 2006, but has taken this process forward, by extending this evaluation in 2010 to 39 tiger reserves and in 2014 to 43 tiger reserves. The outcomes of this assessment are encouraging. Field Directors and front-line staff are putting up a valiant effort to conserve our natural heritage. Despite all odds, there has been an improvement in the overall MEE score from 65 percent in 2010 (39 Tiger Reserves) to 69 percent in 2014 (43 Tiger Reserves), which is higher than the global mean of 56 percent.

The WII-MEE-TR team comprised of: Dr. V.B. Mathur, Shri V.K. Uniyal, Shri P.C. Tyagi, Shri Aseem Shrivastav, Shri Shubharanjan Sen, Shri Mukul Trivedi, and Dr. Nasim Ahmad Ansari.

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