The Mumbai-headquartered Bombay History Natural History-India (BNHS) has prepared a field guide on wildlife in the Thar Desert (in Hindi), which is expected to be useful for the local villagers, researchers, and general public.
The BNHS has been working with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) on the Environmental Information Awareness, Capacity Building, and Livelihood Programme (EIACP) and is a Resource Partner (RP) on avian ecology.
The BNHS-EIACP maintains a database of references pertinent to avian ecology and has published a knowledge product as part of this program, according to Kishor Rithe, BNHS Honorary Secretary and Interim Director.
“The Thar Desert is the last natural habitat of the state bird Great Indian bustard and the wildlife living in this desert. This book includes basic information about some common and rare wildlife of the desert of Rajasthan and a brief (idea) about ongoing activities of the BNHS in the Thar landscape”, he added.
The Thar desert is mainly confined to eight districts, including Rajasthan's Jaisalmer. The Thar Desert is the last refuge of Rajasthan’s state bird Great Indian bustard (locally called Godavan) as well as unique desert flora and fauna.
“The book gives comprehensive information on 56 species of birds, 11 species of mammals, 13 species of reptiles, and 19 species of plants has been provided which can be easily understandable to school students and local people”, informed Dr Neelkanth Bora, Programme Officer, Thar Desert landscape, BNHS.
Dr Sujit Narwade, Assistant Director of BNHS who is heading this initiative said: “Many people are unaware about the importance of flora and fauna of Thar Desert, this booklet will be useful not only for identification of wildlife but also to get detailed information such as common name, scientific name, IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) status, food, breeding, and threats.”
“This will be immensely helpful to the local villagers, forest department, and students who are residing in the Thar Desert area” to understand the wildlife”, said Nandkishore Dudhe, Programme Officer, BNHS-EIACP.