Synchronized Mammal Survey 2011

We have just received information from the Tamil Nadu Forest Department that the Synchronized Mammal Survey in Hosur Forest Division will be conducted on the 19th and 20th (Saturday and Sunday) of March 2011. They have requested our help and participation.

This is an excellent opportunity to explore and experience this vast forested area which we hope will soon be made a wildlife sanctuary. We request your participation to make this a successful survey.

How to Register

To register for the survey, kindly fill in and submit the following form:
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dDJpXzBHMlVQYlFneElJcXNFQzdud1E6MQ
(This is to avoid sending unnecessary emails to people in our volunteer database who will not be participating in this Mammal Survey)


Arrangements

Volunteers will have to report at the DFO's Office, Near Cattle Farm, Mathigiri, Hosur on Friday, 18th March at 06:00 PM. The survey will conclude by 02:00 PM on Sunday, 20th March.
Volunteers will have to reach Mathigiri by themselves. Pick up and drops to transect points will be arranged by the Forest Department. However please do keep your own options in case you want to move around.
• Volunteers will be accommodated in various FD guest houses and camps available in various ranges.  Lady volunteers will be allotted ranges with the better guest house facilities.
Packed food will be arranged by the Forest Department.

We will send further information on arrangements, detailed programme and survey methods, documentation procedures etc to the people who register on the above link. If you have any queries, send it to melagirisurvey@gmail.com

Melagiri

A troop of five people descend down the narrow trail juggling their glances between the sky to look out for birds, the trail to look out for scat and pug marks and everywhere else to soak in the heavenly view of the towering hills all around. The call of the Common Hawk Cuckoo also called the Brain Fever Bird reverberates all around.

We are the members of a Kenneth Anderson Nature Society, named after the erstwhile legendary hunter turned conversationalist Kenneth Anderson who roamed these very forests of Melagiri. The Melagiris are a range of hills on the Eastern Ghats, bound by the river Cauvery on the west. The total reserve forest area is around 1295 sq. kms. Inspired by the stories of Anderson the first KANS members ventured into these forests to feel the wild in first person. Over the years however the forests have been infiltrated by the locals for cattle grazing and to obtain the forest produce. The reserved forests are shrinking at the rapidly encroaching agricultural lands , the fauna disappearing by the unrestrained poaching activities.

KANS decided to take on the task of securing this habitat for the Tiger, to restore the region back to its original state.This is being achieved through a mix of passive and active conservation activities like community interaction programmes (afforestation, educational programmes, alternative agricultural practices), equipping the ground forest staff (uniforms, torches), field work to control Man-Elephant conflict, removal of invasive species etc.

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