Biodiversity Meet, Nagaland 2018

Butterflies & moths, birds, odonates, spiders, amphibians & reptiles, cicadas and more…

Sukhai, Ghukhuyi & Kivikhu, Zunheboto District, Nagaland

Dates: 9th May to 16th May 2018

Costs: Rs.16,500/- per person (for Indian citizens), ex Dimapur, including food, stay vehicle hire on all days on first come, first served basis by transferring 50% of the contributory amount to the
bank account below:

Bank details:

Send your contributory amount to
Account name: TITLI
Bank name: State Bank of India
Address: Jakhan, Dehradun
Current account number: 31058150506
IFSC code: SBIN0006155

And email your deposit details to sanjay.sondhi1@gmail.com

Maximum capacity: 16 people

About the biodiversity meet

This Biodiversity Meet is being organised to learn and document the biodiversity of Sukhai, Ghukhuyi and Kivikhu villages in Zunheboto District, Nagaland. Pia Sethi and her team from the The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI) has been working in this landscape for the last three years. As an outcome of their efforts, the three villages above have voluntarily formed Community Conserved Areas (CCAs) in order to protect their forests and associated biodiversity. Since the beginning of 2017, Titli Trust has been supporting TERI to assess the area’s biodiversity, as well as to evaluate the opportunity to initiate nature-linked tourism as an incentive to conserve. More than 200 species of birds, 120 species of butterflies, 200 species of moths have already been documents with many endemics. At this point in time, there is no tourism infrastructure in this area, and the Biodiversity Meet participants will be staying in homes of villagers.

Meet organisers

The meeting is being organised on a voluntary basis by TERI, Titli Trust, DiversityIndia, NatureMates and Indian Foundation for Butterflies. All proceeds from the meet will go to the local communities.

Inclusions:

• Boarding at Sukhai, Ghukhuyi and Kivikhu villages.
• 3 meals per day (breakfast, lunch & dinner). Non vegetarian meals are included.
• Vehicle hire for the duration of the meet (4 people to a vehicle).
• Arranging for ILP’s.
• Local guides.

Exclusions:

• Personal expenses such as tips, phone bills, bottled water & bottled beverages.
• Rail and/or airfare to and from Dimapur.
• Insurance and medical claims.
• Lunch on the last day.

Participants need to arrive at Dimapur airport on 9th May 2018 by 1230 hrs.
Participants will be dropped off at Dimapur airport on 16th May 2018 by 1100 hrs.

Accommodation:

Village homes at Sukhai, Ghukhuyi and Kivikhu on a shared basis.

Visit day-to-day schedule:

• 9th May 2018: Departure from Dimapur airport at 1300 hrs. 10 our drive to Sukhai.
• 10, 11th May 2018: Sukhai village & surrounds. 11th May travel to Ghukhuyi (5 km, 20 minutes).
• 12th, 13th May 2018: Ghukhuyi & surrounds. 13th May travel to Kivikhu (25 km, 1.5 hours)
• 14, 15th May 2018: Kivikhu & surrounds. 15th May late afternoon travel to Wokha/Kohima.
• 16th May 2018: travel to Dimapur

Schedule of activities (based on participants):

• Brief about the area; interaction with the Sema tribe and their conservation plans.
• Trails for butterfly, bird and other faunal group daily.
• Moth/insect screens every night.
• “Herp” walks at night.
• Identification sessions for various species’ groups in the evening.
• Upload of information on various NCBS/IFB websites.

Contacts for this Biodiversity meet:

• Sanjay Sondhi, Titli Trust, sanjay.sondhi1@gmail.com, +91 9412052189
• Pia Sethi, TERI, pias@teri.res.in, +91 9811222321
• Vijay Barve, DiversityIndia, vijay.barve@gmail.com, +91 9845724832  (What'sApp and Telegram)
• Krushnamegh Kunte, IFoundButterflies, krushnamegh@ifoundbutterflies.org

SpiderIndia Meet 2017/2018

Update : 2017-10-31
[Information on this page might change frequently over next few weeks]

We are in early stages of finalizing a SpiderIndia meet for this year end. Registration details would be available soon.

As per the voting, we have decided on Option A


Option A Gibbon WLS 
3 days 2 night (22,23,24 Dec.) 
INR 5100.00 Covering all food stay and Travel (to and fro from Guwahati to Mariani) Local convenience, t.shirt, forest entry fees, Guide fees. The stay will be inside the forest, in Forest IB of Hoollongapar Gibbon Sanctuary. Very basic multiple share accommodation. (Boys and Girls separate). 
It will be a DiversityIndia initiative SpiderIndia 
Event Local organizer WE Foundation India 


Later in 2018 we would be planning a meet here.
Option B Patandevi (ex Jalgaon MH) 
3 days 2 night (5-6-7 Jan 2018) 
INR 5500.00 Covering all food stay and Travel (to and fro from Jalgao) Local convenience, t.shirt, forest entry fees, Guide fees. The stay will be Basic multiple share accomodation. (Boys and Girls separate). 
It will be a DiversityIndia initiative SpiderIndia 
Event Local organiser Vanyajeev Sanrakshan Sanstha 

We are voting on Facebook currently for deciding on the venue.[Voting closed]

DragonflyIndia is 12 years

Dear Odonutters and Naturalists,

I am so happy to wish DragonflyIndia a very happy birthday. DragonflyIndia enters teens now.

It was in 2005 during ButterflyIndia meet at Aralam, David Raju, Kiran C G, Subbu and me discussed the idea of bringing Odonata enthusiasts and researchers of Indian Subcontinent together on a virtual platform YahooGroups. It has been growing by leaps and bounds after that.

We have presence on most of the social media platforms that people use to talk about Biodiversity. We are in process of developing a comprehensive resource Odonata of India,  a very vibrant facebook group, some serious data curation efforts on India Biodiversity Portal and iNaturalist and to top it all our Meets. 

To keep up with updates we have DiversityIndia updates page and twitter @dragonflyindia and #dragonflyIndia

Of course this would not have been possible without enthusiasm and support of the the members, group admins and coordinators of the meets.

Now that we are entering teens, it is time to get more serious and systematic in our contributions, and also have more fun together. Any ideas for activities that our group should take up, please share here in comments.

Happy Birthday DragonflyIndia once again.

SpiderIndia Meet 2017 :: Kolkata, West Bengal

By Dr. Atul Vartak

The much awaited first SpiderIndia Meet was held in Kolkata, West Bengal from the 17th – 19th February 2017.

Stay was arranged in the Oasis Guest House in Jadavpur. Enthusiastic participants from different parts of the country started coming on from the 16th night and some arrived on 17th morning. About 20 enthusiasts from 6 States attended the meet.

On the first day 17th Feb all participants assembled at the Nature Mates office at Bijoygarh. Breakfast was followed by an introduction session by the participants. From there everyone was taken to ZSI (Zoological Survey of India) where we visited the Arachnology section first, spent time interacting with the PhD students and the staff. Also got to see a lot of specimens preserved from the British Indian Empire era. This was followed by a visit to different departments in ZSI and Lunch at the canteen. 

In the afternoon we proceeded for some fieldwork in the Botanical Gardens and the day concluded at the Nature Mates office where everyone made the days checklist.

The following two days, 18th and 19th were busy with a lot of fieldwork at 3 different sites. 18th Morning was spent in Central Park also known as the Banabitan followed by lunch on field. There after we proceeded to the Eco Park where participants had the paper presentation session. An online chat with Vijay Barve and Siddharth Kulkarni currently perusing PhD at the Washington University was very rewarding. A demonstration on Spider dissection was also organized at the same site.

19th morning participants were taken to the Chintamoni Kar Bird Sanctuary for fieldwork .The session concluded in the evening at the Nature Mates office where the participants were presented with participation certificates.

Approximately 12 Families 20  Genera were photo documented and a format for future documentation of spiders was discussed. A number of interesting spiders were photographed. Anepsion sp. , Ariamnes sp. Tylorida Sp. and many more!

Three days with spider enthusiasts… researchers... was a very satisfying with a lot of knowledge exchanged and new friends made. Overall a very good experience. A big thank you to the organizing team … Vijay Barve, Arjan Basu Roy and Team Nature Mates for successfully conducting this meet .

Looking forward for the next one.

The 8th Indian Symposium of Odonatology and Tropical Biodiversity

The 8th Indian Symposium of Odonatology and Tropical Biodiversity
17-18 August 2014
Hislop College, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India

‘Bhutan Glory’ spotted in Ziro

Arif Siddiqui
ITANAGAR, July 10: Bhutan Glory–a rare and beautiful butterfly of the region– was discovered in Arunachal Pradesh.

This three tailed insect which is generally found in Bhutan, Southeast Asia and other Northeastern states was unknowingly discovered by Punyo Chada of Siiro village, a teacher by profession and an avid nature lover, in Ziro recently.

Listed under CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention), but not in the Red Book of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources), the status of the butterfly has been recorded as rare by some authorities and "Insufficiently known" in the IUCN Red Data Book on Swallowtails.

Both sexes of the Bhutan Glory are identical in looks, having long rounded forewings with convex termen and many-tailed hind wings. This fine insect was first discovered in May 1868, near Buxa, in the Bhutan Himalayas, at an elevation of 5000 feet, by Dr R. Lidderdale, of the Bengal Army. Dr Lidderdale obtained two specimens from the same locality in 1872.

Bhutan Glory flies at tree-top with a slow, drifting, unpredictable flight. It’s transparent greyish underside makes it difficult to distinguish in the shadows. During rain, it sits on leaves with the fore-wings dropped over the hind wings, concealing its bright upper coloration. The butterfly has a habit of hill-topping and visits flowers of diverse species.  Apart from teaching, Chada, runs a Home Stay accommodation for visitors. He is also an avid nature lover and often visits Talley Valley with his friends in his leisure time.

Apart from Bhutan Glory he has shot another rare butterfly “Brown Gorgon.” There so many unknown moths & wild flowers in his collection which were witnessed by this author during his stay at his home.

He has opened the Gateway of “Butterfly Tourism” in Ziro.

Isaac Kehimkar, the famous author from BNHS (Bombay Nature History Society) already started asking for his pictures for upcoming Book on Indian Butterflies being published by BNHS.

Chada’s Butterflies pictures made a stir among the butterfly enthusiasts across the country and many are now willing to visit Ziro valley soon.

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Winged beauties aflutter

A novel project mooted by the forest department in the nineties to set up a butterfly park at Bhironda in Valpoi and another one in South Goa may not have seen the light of day, but lovers of these multi-hued insects continue to be dazzled by these vibrant creatures and a group of them strongly advocate a better conservation effort to save them.

Recently a group of 33 professionals and members of "Butterfly India" traipsed around the wilds of Goa chasing and documenting butterflies for five days as part of their annual meeting. The group included nature photographers, zoologists, an entomologist, wildlife enthusiasts and butterfly lovers, who trekked areas of Bondla, Bhagwan Mahavir National Park, Bhagwan Mahavir Wildlife Sanctuary and Neturlim Wildlife Sanctuary and returned impressed by the rich biodiversity.

Says entomologist Amol Patwardhan of Thane, "Goa is an ideal place for butterfly conservation and the hinterland has a pretty good green cover." Patwardhan also backed the forest department's plan to set up a butterfly park, stating it would add to Goa's tourism profile. "Being a tourist destination, it can be an additional attraction and even a money spinner, as climatic and other conditions are suitable for this type of conservation effort," he said.

Agrees Parag Rangnekar, who has published a book on butterflies, "It can add to the state's tourism attractions because very few states have promoted butterflies. Actually any place is okay, but it should be an undisturbed area with space to plant the right kind of host and food plants."

Patwardhan whose job includes classifying insects also advised caution about the location and methodology to be adopted in pursuing the proposal. "Care should be taken to avoid ecological problems and the site should be away from mining areas. Also, conservation has to be scientific. There should be plants suitable for caterpillars to feed on and others of the flowering variety (nectar-bearing) for adult butterflies," said Patwardhan. Butterflies have their own choice of host plants. Agreed Rangnekar, "Butterflies have to be cared for like babies," he said.

However, deputy conservator of forest (wildlife and eco tourism) Debendra Dalai said that he was not aware of any proposal for setting up a butterfly park. "A suggestion for setting up a butterfly park at Bondla was made during discussions recently on a master plan for Bondla zoo. It has already been finalized and cannot be modified now," he said. "However, it cannot be thought of as a separate project. It doesn't require huge infrastructure, but mainly the specific requirement of host plants for butterflies and there are hardly any hassles in implementing it."

Concurring with Patwardhan about the need for a conservation programme for butterflies, Rangnekar said NGOs should also extend their support, as the main danger lies in the possible destruction of habitats. Habitat-specific species of butterflies face the worst peril. "Take the case of the Malabar Tree Nymph. It can be found only in certain areas of Goa's western ghats. If the area in which they can be found is destroyed or their habitat is in danger, they may be wiped off," says Rangnekar.

Several species of butterflies may not be endemic, but there are a few habitat-specific species. "The danger is that people may not realize that if their habitat is destroyed, butterflies may be affected, but climatic conditions and host plants are interconnected requirements for their subsistence," Ragnekar explained.

As far as the location is concerned, the state is strategically poised in one of the global biodiversity hotspots of the western ghats. "Goa is at the confluence of northern and southern part of the western ghats' range which spans from Tamil Nadu to Gujarat. Some species of butterflies found here are also reported in southern states, but not in Maharashtra, and hence conservation to preserve these is important." says Rangnekar. For instance, the Malabar Tree Nymph can be found aplenty in the Brahma Karmali area of Satari. "If the area is destroyed, then nature and butterflies will lose out," he added.

A Ponda-based NGO has set up a small butterfly conservatory at Pisgal. "This is an appreciable initiative, but with better support, both technical and financial, a larger facility with an interpretation centre could be set up," Ragnekar added. According to Omkar Dharwadkar, studies on Goa's fauna may be few, but butterflies are "fairly well documented". The Zoological Survey of India, western regional station, Pune in its fauna series has listed 251 species, while scientist Harish Gaonkar's compilation on the entire western ghats has a few more. Manoj Borkar and Neelam Komarpant have documented 90-odd species at Bondla, while Rangnekar has photo-documented around 140 species in the entire state.

The latest exercise in chasing butterflies yielded more success as three more species not earlier reported were found. "We found the Black-vein sergeant (Athyma ranga moore), White-banded awl (Hasora taminatus Hübner) and Coon (Psolos fuligo Mabille)," says Rangnekar. Thus, the total number of species reported in Goa has gone up to 258.

Nature lovers feel that more species can be identified and documented, but it needs a little extra effort. "By merely photographing them, one cannot identify them. They have to be collected and put under the microscope for scientific purposes and determining their seasonality and flight pattern. It is the need of the hour," says Rangnekar.
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Butterfly India Meet to be Held in Goa

Written by BHIVA P PARAB

Thursday, 24 September 2009 01:54

t is time for butterfly lovers to rejoice, for the Butterfly India Meet will be held in Goa this year.

The meet, which will be held at Bondla from September 26 to September 30 will have field trips to the forests of Bondla. The programme also includes visits to the forests of Tambdi Surla and Netravali and the forests around the Dudhsagar Waterfall. During the meet various field workers will present their work at the evening session that will be held at the base-camp.
Butterflies are amongst the most beautiful creatures on earth. Goa possesses a great diversity in butterfly species. The butterflies in Goa belong to the Phylum Arthropoda (arthro meaning jointed or segmented and poda meaning feet or appendages) and Order Lepidotera (lepis meaning scale and pteron meaning wing). These insects are pollinating agents, besides they form a part of the food chain components of birds, spiders and other predatory insects.
The Moth Meet will be combined with the Butterfly India Meet and this will prove to be a good opportunity for butterfly and moths lovers of Goa as they will get a common platform to interact with butterfly lovers from all over the country.
“This 9th Annual Meet is set to be unique since it has been planned to combine the Moth Meet with the Butterfly meet. Light-trapping will be done at night to study moths and this event is important since the moth diversity in Goa is virtually unexplored and it is expected to arrive at a fairly comprehensive list for moths of Bondla,” said Mr Parag Rangnekar who is coordinating the meet informed. He further added, “This meet is a good opportunity for the butterfly and moth enthusiasts in Goa to learn from experts in the field.”
“The Ghats in Goa are the confluence of the Northern and the Southern Western Ghats, thus species representative of southern Ghats make their presence felt in Goa. Omkar Dharwadkar and I recently reported three butterflies for Goa hitherto known only to be found in Southern India. More detailed surveys are expected to throw light on more species that have not been reported till now,” Mr Rangnekar said.
“It all begun on October 4, 2001 when Mr Vijay Barve initiated the Butterfly India yahoo group for networking and sharing knowledge between butterfly researchers and enthusiasts. The group has grown and presently has 1064 members. It was during discussions over the e-group that a decision was made to organise the Butterfly India Meet in order to make a transition from the virtual world to the real one and actually meet on the field to share knowledge and experiences. The first meet was held in 2001,” he said
“The e-group has members from various fields, from serious researchers like Krushnamegh Kunte, field workers like Dr Kalesh, Kalluri Subramanian, Amol Patwardhan, Milind Bhakare to nature enthusiasts and wildlife photographers,” he added.

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