The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Centre to study migration of birds to be set up

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Monday, Sep 08, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Centre to study migration of birds to be set up

Staff Reporter

It will come up within two months at Kodikkarai

— Photo: R. Shivaji Rao

PROMOTING AWARENESS: School Education Minister Thangam Thennarasu receiving the first copy of ‘Birds of South India’ from Kanimozhi, MP, at a function organised by Bombay Natural History Society and Indian Bird Conservation Network, in Chennai on Sunday.

CHENNAI: A centre to study migration of birds will be opened within two months at Kodikkarai in Nagapattinam, said S. Balachandran, Assistant Director, Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), here on Sunday.

He was speaking at the launch of ‘Birds of South India,’ a book by Richard Grimmett, Tim Inskipp and Gopinathan Maheshwaran, organised by BNHS and Indian Bird Conservation Network.

This Centre, which will be run by BNHS, will be the first of its kind in India and promote awareness on migratory patterns of birds and monitor bird population, said Mr. Balachandran. Given that the population of birds in this location had fallen from 10 lakh in 1980 to one lakh now, a Centre of this kind would help restore the habitat and look into the factors that caused this decline.

Echoing the concern over dwindling population of various species, Kanimozhi MP, who launched the book, said, “Only when children in schools start joining in the movement for ecological conservation, a definite change will take place.”

As this could be achieved only by creating awareness, she said that more books on wildlife needed to be in Tamil. Commending the translation of ‘Birds of South India’ into various south Indian languages, including Tamil, she said that this would help in spreading awareness of wildlife conservation to all sections of society.

School Education Minister Thangam Thennarasu, who received the first copy of the book, said that it would be made available in government schools and libraries. Talking about other initiatives to improve the level of environmental awareness, he said that eco-clubs would be started in schools.

Despite a multitude of references to birds as early as Sangam literature, the step from literature to writing on conservation was never taken in Tamil, he said. Though a few authors, including M. Krishnan and Theodore Bhaskaran, did write in Tamil on wildlife, there was a huge need for more books. In this context, he said, “This book is an important step in Tamil literature on birds.”

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