Project Dhvani's currently has sites across central India and the Western Ghats.
Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Jungle Book’ comes to mind as one imagines the heart of India, the central Indian landscape, a region home to 30% of India’s endangered and elusive tiger population. In addition to tigers, forests in the heart of India provide other threatened mega fauna, such as leopards (Panthera pardus) and sloth bears (Melursus ursinus) vital habitat and landscape connectivity in a rapidly urbanising landscape. While the tropical deciduous forests of central India are an important landscape for threatened taxa, the landscape also supports one of the largest populations of indigenous peoples in the country.
Vocalizing species, which often remain in the shadow of megafauna in this landscape, hold the limelight in the soundscape. The sweet songs of the Malabar whistling thrush, the familiar wake up calls of the Common hawk cuckoos and the the most entertaining mimicry by the Greater racket tailed drongo light up the soundscapes in central India. |
Running parallel to the Western coast of India, the Western Ghats are a picturesque and extremely biodiverse region. The word ‘Ghat’ boasts a range of Dravidian etymons and refers to a range of stepped hills. They receive the highest rainfall in southern India, and host tropical evergreen forests. Designated a global biodiversity hotspot by UNESCO, it is home to endemism which is sheltered by a chain of mountains.
From the sounds of bright colourful hornbills, the Nilgiri wood pigeon and woodpeckers to croaks of the purple frog, it’s hard to not be mesmerized by the cacophony of the forest. These hills also host wildlife corridors for large mammals such as tigers and elephants. Though new species are often discovered here, our knowledge of their ecology and life history is limited. |