Celebrating the extraordinary avian diversity of one of India’s most ecologically significant island archipelagos while highlighting the urgent need for biodiversity documentation and conservation is the e-book Birds at the Edge: Endemism and Survival in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Co-authored by Fateh Jahaan Singh Dhaliwal, a Class XII student of The Shri Ram School, Moulsari in Gurugram and Amrit Raha, this work of writing is an ode to Cornell University’s contribution to Dhaliwal’s birding journey and was released on October 10, coinciding with October Big Day, a global birdwatching event organised by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Drawing upon extensive field explorations across the inhabited and uninhabited islands of the Andaman & Nicobar archipelago, Dhaliwal documented endemic and vagrant birds through field observations, photography, and citizen-science records. He has recorded 247 lifers across India to date, reflecting his dedication to birdwatching and ornithological exploration. Reflecting on his experiences, Fateh recalls, “When I first came to the islands for diving, far away from home, these birds were my only constant. This (book) is my ode to a lifetime of companionship.”
Dhaliwal’s journey into citizen science gained momentum through the platforms developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. While Merlin helped him identify bird species in the field, eBird became the foundation for documenting his sightings, maintaining birding checklists, and recording lifers since 2021. “I would recommend the Cornell’s Merlin App to any bird photographer who is trying to get into the field. Here you can immediately upload the picture you take or sound you hear, identify birds and get to know endless information about each species,” he says.
His wildlife experiences, extending from the forests of Arunachal Pradesh, wildlife habitat of Kaziranga (Assam), to the avian landscapes of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, strengthened his commitment to documenting and understanding birds. He sums it up in the true spirit of a birder: “We cannot protect what we do not understand, and we cannot understand what we do not observe.”
(Inputs by Henna Rakheja)
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