Colour-banding may help save forest owlets

As many as 25 pairs of the critically endangered forest owlet, which is endemic to India, will be colour-banded to study their distribution, population, demography, and ecology. City-based Wildlife Research and Conservation Society (WRCS) plans to carry out the project in Melghat and Tadoba tiger reserves, and in Tornmal in Nandurbar district of the state.

The society would make recommendations to help save the species listed in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act of India, 2002. Asad Rahmani, Director of the Bombay Natural History Society said the nesting sites and habitats of the forest owlets must be protected. “This species, of which very few birds are left, is only found in India. With this research, we will be able to understand their ecology better which will help in their conservation”. Rahmani, who has provided the society with guidance in trapping the bird, said individual identification of any species in the wild is always used for collecting information.