It is reported that the world loses about 170,000 sq.km. of tropical forests every year and the extinction rate of species is 25,000 times the natural rate. Of the 9,723 bird species of the world, around 1,100 are globally threatened. In India, of the 1,295 species, around 76 are threatened. In this background SACON launched an Endangered Species Programme focusing on the status, distribution and ecology of the species concerned in order to formulate long-term conservation programmes.

This will be continued, while a national coordinated progamme covering all the threatened birds of India will be formulated and launched. SACON would be involving ornithologists from all over the country in the programme.

Other focal areas are: (1) population and basic ecology of birds, (2) community ecology, (3) fundamental ornithological issues and unresolved bird phenomena, (4) behavioural ecology, (5) avian physiology and (6) anthropogenic activities and physiological changes in birds. Apart from these, building up a cadre of professionals in ornithology will be one of the major programmes of SACON.

Man has been living in harmony with nature since time immemorial. This harmony has been disrupted since human population started increasing and the demand on biological resources became manifold. Gradually the relationship between Man and nature became a destructive proposition leading to habitat loss (estimated at 0.6% per year in the tropics) and fragmentation, over-harvesting of wild populations, chemical pollution, introduced species and, lately, climatic changes; all posing threats to the biodiversity and thus, to the very survival of Man. It is in this context that the Convention of Biological Diversity made it mandatory for all countries to make a systematic assessment of the impacts of these threats on ecosystems and species in order to prioritize them for conservation action. It has thus become a major area of research interest in SACON.

Most of the wildlife habitats in India have been reduced to numerous isolated fragments with small population of many endangered species, because of the mounting anthropogenic activities. Therefore, survival of most species and even ecosystems depends on our ability to manage them in such highly fragmented state. The thrust areas have been identified in this backdrop.

It is increasingly evident that a proper understanding of the patterns and process that govern the ecosystem is vital for formulating long-term conservation programmes. Realizing the difficulties to have large manpower and huge financial commitment for total ecosystem studies, it has been decided to concentrate on key issues in minute details, which would provide a reasonable understanding of the system.

 

Gaining an understanding of various facets of plant-animal interactions, namely food selection, dispersal, seed predation, defence mechanisms, along with the peculiar characteristic features of plants, is of paramount importance in designing conservation strategies. Having conducted more common place studies such as the fruit preference by birds, more specific questions have to be asked. i. how does a particular species of bird select a particular fruit? Is it because of simple abundance and consequently less competition? ii. how are the fruits adapted for the birds? size, structure, taste, smell, chemistry or seasonality?

It is increasingly being felt that a better resolution of the plant-animal interaction is achieved from a chemical - ecological perspective and hence, it is desirable to move towards this direction as the other aspects are commonly covered. The academic and applied implications of such a study will have several important consequences. To name a few, such a study will give an idea about the factors governing the rarity/abundance of a given taxa. This is expected to have major 'down stream' effects in conservation biology. This will also open up new vistas of exciting area of chemical ecology and chemical diversity of nature, the applied aspect of which is just being discovered in pharmaceutics, biotechnology and molecular biology.

The need of the hour in the 21st century is our ability to repair the damaged and degraded landscapes and ecosystems, and to restore species populations as close to the natural state as possible. Our team in Terrestrial Ecology has just completed a project on the 'bird dispersed plants' for restoration in Coimbatore forest areas. These efforts will continue in varied ecosystems and try to continue to unravel birds as 'harbingers' of restoration.