The charismatic group of large birds - Hornbills - faces multiple threats, according to the State of India’s Birds (SoIB) report.
Hornbills are a charismatic group of large birds that eat fruits and disperse seeds, thereby playing a vital role in maintaining the integrity of forest ecosystems.
India is home to nine species of hornbills, most of which live in the evergreen forests of northeastern India and the Western Ghats. Hornbills are particularly sensitive to disturbance due to their large size and peculiar nesting behaviour, and have suffered rapid declines in many parts of their range. But their elusive nature means that hornbills are difficult to fund, and countrywide trends are known only for widespread species.
Hunting poses a substantial threat to Great Hornbill, Rufous- necked Hornbill, and Wreathed Hornbill in parts of the eastern Himalaya. These species are targeted for meat as well as their casque and feathers, which are used as adornments by indigenous communities. Hornbill fat is used for its perceived medicinal value and for polishing guns. Hornbills are also captured for the pet trade in southern India and in other South and Southeast Asian countries. This trade is both local and international.
The SoIB report states that forests are being lost to illegal logging and land conversion for settlements, agriculture, and cash crop monoculture plantations. In northeast India, only 5 per cent of the landscape offers suitable habitat. Past proposals to construct a radar station on Narcondam Island were eventually dropped in the interest of conserving the endemic Narcondam Hornbill and the island habitat—a welcome reversal of a potentially serious threat.
The threatened hornbills of India are some of the least represented in the available large-scale data. However, in the Valparai plateau of the Western Ghats alone, Malabar Grey Hornbill has declined by 56 per cent between 2004 and 2019, resulting in an uplisting of its Red List category to Vulnerable.