55 bird species thriving in urban sprawl of Hosur Road

As many as 55 bird and 66 butterfly species visit and breed on the Christ University campus amid the hustle and bustle of Hosur Road.

‘Guhanagari - A Book on Urban Wildlife at Christ University’, brought out by two BSc (Wildlife) students of the university, documents the flora and fauna on the campus in the last three years.

The university published the book compiled by Pradeep Hegde and Sathya Chandra Sagar H S in August 2016. “We studied the biodiversity of the campus, spread across 25 acres for three years. In the first two years, we prepared a checklist of birds, butterflies, insects and mammals. During our final year, we started working on the book. I photographed most of the fauna on the campus while Sagar focused on the writing part,” recollected Hegde.

Students and members of the campus’ Green Army will use it as a database to continue adding more species. “I am from Sirsi taluk in Uttara Kannada district and Sagar is from Chikkamagaluru. We were amazed to see such a healthy biodiversity amid such an urban sprawl. Initially, we spent hours photographing and documenting Dark Blue Tiger butterfly on the campus and on bird-watching. The passion grew and we compiled everything on campus,” Hegde said.

The two completed their BSc in Wildlife Biology in 2015. They say that this book has provided them a sound experience to make a foray into documenting biodiversity.

Already, they are busy documenting wildlife in the Western Ghats, wildlife in Northeastern states besides going for higher studies.  Sagar left for France in August on a European scholarship to study MSc in Applied Ecology.

Hegde has got a scholarship to study MSc in Science Communication and Natural History in filming in New Zealand starting January 2017.
DH News Service