Schedule

Conveners: Madhumita Panigrahi, Ramesh Kumar
Wetland birds/Waterbirds are one of the best bio-indicators due to their visible and easily measurable response to changes in wetland ecosystems. Their high visibility and abundance make them ideal for long-term monitoring to assess ecosystem health. India harbours a diverse range of wetlands that support a rich biodiversity, including a substantial population of migratory and resident birds. In India, while the Asian Waterbird Census (AWC) remains a stronghold in maintaining systematic census data on waterbirds, the inclusion of targeted studies and citizen science data has given a much-needed boost to data-driven and robust conservation actions. This mini-symposium aims to provide an overall view of such waterbird monitoring efforts, which provides crucial information for planning sustainable and effective management actions for future conservation.

Short talks

Talk title: A decade of monitoring birds of Perur Lake, Coimbatore – An approach to Citizen Science
Speaker: G. Parameswaran, Perur Lake Forum
Abstract:
In March 2014, a group of dedicated bird watchers from Coimbatore volunteered to start a monthly bird monitoring programme in Perur Lake. This bird count usually done on the 2nd Saturday’s of the month continues till the present day under the aegis of Perur Lake Forum. The number of volunteers varied between 3 to 8 on any given count day and over 900 hours were spent collecting data from May 2014 to April 2024. A two year report was published in the Journal of Threatened Taxa in 2018 and a six year summary, which focussed on 12 common water birds was published in Indian Birds in October 2024. The results from our data analysis strongly indicate that human actions such as sand mining, commercial fishing and road building drastically reduce water bird populations.

Talk title: Insights from a decade of Heronry monitoring in Kerala
Speaker: Roshnath Ramesh, Heronry State Coordinator, Kerala Common Bird Monitoring Project
Abstract:
Heronries are spatial and temporal clumping of nests of colonial waterbirds such as herons, egrets, storks, pelicans, ibises, cormorants and darters during the breeding season. Kerala has 15 species of resident waterbirds nesting in various heronries. The state´s vast and diverse wetland spread supports substantial resident and migratory waterbird populations. Monitoring their population can help us predict our aquatic ecosystems’ health, including freshwater and brackish wetlands. Thus, documenting heronries and nesting populations is important to environmental conservation. Several heronries in Kerala have been regularly watched over the last decade by individuals and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with the help of the government. The data gathered has helped us understand the distribution of heronries around the state, the species composition, trends in the nesting populations of different species over time and among districts, and the threats they face. Aside from that, we had a greater opportunity to grasp our strengths and weaknesses, which are our insights to plan the next decade of monitoring.

Talk title: Engaging Citizen Science in Waterbird Conservation and Monitoring – Asian Waterbird Census
Speaker: Dhruv Verma, Wetland International South-Asia

Talk title: W3 (Winter Waterbird Week) – experiences and lessons from standardised mid-winter monitoring of migratory waterbirds in the EAAF (East Asian Australian Flyway)
Speaker: Yong Ding Li, BirdLife International

Talk title:Long-term monitoring of avifaunal populations of Thane Creek, Mumbai
Speaker: Pranay Khadanga, Bombay Natural History Society
Abstract:
Thane Creek is a Ramsar site that hosts about 200,000 birds every year. These birds visit this site from their respective breeding grounds (different parts of Russia and China) in early August via the Central Asian Flyway. Intertidal mudflats in Thane Creek provide essential feeding grounds for thousands of migratory birds. One of the primary objectives of this ongoing study is to estimate the abundance and understand the population demographics of avifauna wintering in Thane Creek. This study was carried out in six inland wetlands (high tide roosting sites) — Training Ship Chanakya (TSC), Bhandup Pumping Station (BPS), Non-Residential Indian (NRI) complex,Mankhurd saltpans, Kharghar wetland, and Belpada mangrove and three mudflats (low tide feeding sites) — the east and west banks of Thane Creek, mudflats of Sewri and Nhava-Sheva.We counted waders during high tide at high-tide roosting areas or wetlands using the wetland count protocol, and during low tide at foraging sites (Thane Creek, Sewri, and Nhava-Sheva) using the protocol designed for the Transact Count Survey. Furthermore, flamingos were counted individually during low tide at feeding sites. This presentation will discuss the methods used in the ongoing monitoring studies in detail,and its preliminary findings, highlighting the ecological significance of Mumbai’s coastal habitats.

Talk title: Denizens of the whitewaters : monitoring birds in riverine areas in the Indian Himalaya
Speaker: Ankita Sinha, The University of Sheffield, UK
Abstract:
Although birds are conspicuous elements of wildlife along riverine systems, they have seldom been key target organisms in river ecological studies in comparison to popular aquatic groups like fishes and benthic macroinvertebrates. Upland rivers in the Indian Himalaya are home to the highest diversity of specialist riverine birds on earth. I studied this unique group
of birds through field surveys spanning over seven years across different rainages in the western Himalaya, in the states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Parallel to bird surveys key features of the riverine habitat, river channel character, bank geomorphology and the adjoining riparian vegetation were also simultaneously recorded. Monitoring population trends helped understand how different species of birds varied in their dependence on river production, extent of distribution, abundance and detectability. River bird distribution reflected clear signals of elevational preferences in different species; besides channel character, bank morphology and land-use and aspects of river flow. Specialist species show
clear affinity for fast flowing river sections with exposed bedrock, intact riparian vegetation and avoided sections modified by hydropower development and anthropogenic land-use. The regional co-existence of river birds in the Himalaya is facilitated by an array of factors that together reflect the highly heterogeneous template of river habitats provided by these mountain headwaters. Our study highlights the significance of understanding catchment-scale effects on rivers are especially acute in the Himalayan mountains, where the world’s greatest diversity of river birds occupies one of the most rapidly changing riverine environments on Earth.

Abstracts will be updated shortly.

Conveners: Varun Kher, Tarun Menon

In the recent years, the decline in bird populations has become a matter of global concern, with implications for ecosystems, biodiversity, and even human well-being. Many surveys in the recent past have reported declines of birds in response to environmental changes, and few of them have done a thorough investigation of the factors causing these declines. This mini-symposium aims to showcase some of these efforts and brainstorm ideas for students and researchers to target. The session will consist of talks from a wide variety of landscapes, covering important threats such as climate change, infrastructure, land-use change etc and a range of species ranging from bustards to vultures.

Keynote talk

Temperature, prey availability and the survival of Eastern Himalayan birds in primary and degraded forest: 14 years of long-term monitoring
Speaker: Umesh Srinivasan, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science
Abstract:
Climate change and habitat degradation are two of the greatest threats to tropical biodiversity today. In addition to their independent effects, habitat degradation compounds the impacts of climate change by creating habitats with novel abiotic characteristics (typically hotter, drier and more variable). Tropical species are often microhabitat and microclimate specialists occupying distinct temperature and humidity niches. How species’ abiotic niches affect their responses to the joint impacts of climate change and habitat degradation remains poorly understood, especially in terms of changes in phenotype and demographic vital rates. Using an 11-year mark-recapture dataset and temperature-humidity measurements from primary and selectively logged forest from the Eastern Himalaya, we investigate how the abiotic niches of populations of species in primary forest and abiotic niche overlaps between populations in primary and logged forest predicted body mass and survival trends over time for populations in each habitat. Logged forest is markedly hotter and drier than primary forest, and the arthropod community shows dramatic shifts in composition upon selective logging. In understorey insectivores, body masses appear to be declining over time in logged, but not in primary forest. Further, across species, we report a positive relationship between the size of the primary forest niche and body mass trends over time in primary forest but not in logged forest. The degree of dissimilarity between species-specific primary and logged forest niches was strongly and negatively correlated with survival trends in logged forest. Here, we show that temperature-humidity niche shifts in response to anthropogenic habitat modification can impact demographic vital rates crucial for population persistence.

Short talks

Talk title: The race to save vultures in India
Speaker: Sachin Ranade, Bombay Natural History Society
Abstract:
In last two decades, the population of Gyps vultures in India crashed creating an ecological disaster. It was caused by the veterinary drug ‘diclofenac’. When this drug is used in treatment of a cattle and if the cattle dies after the treatment, the drug residue remains in the liver of the cattle. As vultures feed on carcasses, the diclofenac enters their body and damages their kidney permanently, leading to death. To save the vultures from the possible extinction, the Bombay Natural History Society along with the local State Governments established 4 Vulture Conservation Breeding Centres in India for 3 species of vultures. These are White-rumped Vulture, Indian Vulture and Slender-billed Vulture. Proper husbandry and veterinary care are taken to maintain the breeding stock. All the three species are bred in captivity successfully and currently we are working on Vulture Safe Zone Program. In this program, a large area made free from dangerous and banned NSAIDs. The advocacy, awareness, surveys of pharmacies, surveys for vulture’s population and food availability are carried out in these areas. The vultures are reintroduced in suitable areas by a scientific process called ‘soft release’. These vultures have a satellite tag and numbered ring for their identification. The success of the release program is dependent on all of us- farmers, cattle owners, pharmacist, veterinarians, scientists, foresters and common people. Let us save this master of the sky -the Vulture!

Talk title: Chasing behind the mass mortality of the Spot-billed Pelican (Pelecanus philippensis) by assessing the Endoparasites
Speaker: Shantala Kumar
Abstract:
We witnessed mortalities of Spot-billed Pelicans Pelecanus philippensis between December 2017 and May 2018 in Mandya and Mysuru districts of Karnataka, especially at Kokrebellur Community Reserve in Mandya district. The region has experienced severe drought in recent years with negligible water in all the water tanks. A total of 67 Spot-billed Pelicans died in five locations, of which 55 adult birds died at Kokrebellur, seven in Kukkarahalli tank in Mysuru, three in Sulekere and one each in Madarahalli near Maddur and Malavalli road. We collected four dead pelicans along with 97 fecal samples of live birds at Kokrebellur, water samples from nine water tanks around Kokrebellur, and six fish samples in which five were from tanks and one was fallen from the pelican nest. We isolated the endoparasite eggs by following sedimentation and flotation technique, and counted the eggs from the water and fecal samples, and identified at the genus level using light microscope. We approximately counted the endoparasites by dissecting the fish and conducting a necropsy on dead pelicans. Endoparasite eggs were detected in seven of the nine water tanks. Each fish sample had at least 50–100 L3 stage worms of Contracaecum sp., and 880.0 ± 459.3SD of Contracaecum sp., worms in the digestive tracts and 60.0 ± 36.5SD worms of Echinostoma sp. in the intestine of the four dead pelicans. The endoparasite prevalence was 84.5% (N = 83) with a mean abundance of 368.2 ± 561.5SD eggs/g in the fecal samples of live pelicans. Contracaecum sp., Echinostoma sp. and Opisthorchis viverrini were recorded in 51, 67 and nine fecal samples respectively. The high load of endoparasite eggs in the water tanks, an infestation of Contracaecum sp. in fishes and a heavy load of fully-grown worms of Contracaecum sp. and Echinostoma sp. in the adult pelicans are indicative of their high mortality in Kokrebellur Community Reserve. The coordinated program was initiated with the support of all stakeholders (Forest Department, Veterinary (animal husbandry), irrigation and fishery departments, Local people and members of community conservation reserve, Research institutes and local organisations) to control the endoparasites in water, fish, and pelicans.

Talk title: Effect of powerlines on bustards and birds in the Thar desert
Speaker: Tushar Kankaria / Mohib Uddin, Wildlife Institute of India

Talk title: ‘Helping Skimmer Skim’: Monitoring Indian Skimmer nest survival, causes of nest failure and
experimenting conservation intervention to improve nest survival.
Speaker: Parveen Shaikh, Bombay Natural History Society
Abstract:
The Indian Skimmer Rynchops albicollis, is listed as ‘Endangered’ on the IUCN Red List due to its near extinction across much of its range and an overall rapid decline caused by multiple threats affecting riverine species in southern Asia. The current population is estimated to be less than 3,000- 3,500 mature individuals, with significant populations found only in India and Bangladesh, and a few records in Pakistan and Nepal. India hosts over 90% of the breeding population, making it crucial for  preventing extinction.
Unlike Southeast Asia, Indian rivers face tremendous pressure from dams, lift irrigation, and illegal sand mining. The National Chambal Sanctuary, our study area, holds a significant population of skimmers but faces similar issues, leading to unregulated water flow and habitat degradation. Indian Skimmer nest on temporary sandbars that emerge between March and June. Our nest monitoring study between 2018-2020 identified low nesting success and recruitment rates due to high nest predation and trampling as major threats. Compromised flow rates in the Chambal River, caused by upstream dams and lift irrigation, result in low water levels during the dry season, causing nesting sandbars to connect to the bank. This gives easy access to free-ranging dogs, cattle, jackals, and other anthropogenic disturbances.
Our conservation interventions such as fencing and 24/7 nest protection by trained local community members have improved the nest survival resulting in improved nest survival.Talk title: Effect of powerlines on bustards and birds in the Thar desert
Speaker: Tushar Kankaria / Mohib Uddin, Wildlife Institute of India

Talk title: Sparrows and EMR
Speaker: Anukul Nath

 

Abstracts will be updated shortly