Naturalist Training in Pillur
By S.P. Silambarasan, Technical Coordinator, Biodiversity Conservation Cover photo by Shawn J. Stephen On Saturday, 23rd November, we held a naturalist training in Pillur. The training began at 10 am, and 24 people attended, the group consisting of 14 men and 10 women. Special guest Dr. P.Jeganathan from the Nature Conservation Foundation taught us about […]
School Programs at Panapara Tea Estate
By Sophie Bernstein, Shansi Fellow, Biodiversity Conservation On November 19th, students from The Lawrence School, followed by students from the Chamraj School on November 26th, 2024, visited one of Keystone’s restoration sites, the Panapara Tea Estate in the Nilgiris. The events started off with a thorough explanation of the estate and its environment. This included […]
NDEAVOUR RNP Climate & Environment Portfolio Gathering in Mangalore.
By Monthish Kuttan, Technical Coordinator and Community Researcher, People and Nature Collectives This month, staff from our Climate Change and Biodiversity teams attended the NDEAVOUR RNP Climate & Environment Portfolio Gathering in Mangalore. The gathering consisted of talks on how climate change impacts livelihoods, daily life, and food patterns. Monthish Kuttan shares his takeaways from […]
Community Participatory Restoration Program in Hasanur & Punanjanur
By Vishnu N.M., Restoration Ecologist, Biodiversity Conservation Header photo credit: Vishnu We conducted this restoration program in the Hasanur area, at a local pond. We initially started to conserve the pond ecosystem in August, when we planted 40 native plants around the pond. Before we began restoration, the pond was surrounded by invasive species like […]
Biodiversity Team Attends SCCS Bangalore
By Shawn J. Stephen, Apiculture, Acoustics and Science Communication, Biodiversity Conservation From the 21st to the 24th of October, a few members of the Biodiversity unit had attended the 15th edition of the Student Conference on Conservation Sciences held at IISC, Bangalore. We had 4 days packed with inspiring talks, engaging workshops, informative poster presentations, […]
Participating in the Regional Conservation Forum – IUCN – Asia
By Anita Varghese, Director, Biodiversity Conservation Our organization has been a member of the IUCN since 2012. The World Conservation Congress ofthe IUCN takes place every four years; we were present at Jeju, Hawaii and Marseille for theseevents. As a line up to the Congress, regional meetings occur a year ahead. The Asia RegionalConservation Forum […]
From Valparai to Nairobi: Meetings with ERA and REDAA
By Anita Varghese, Director Header photo: REDAA Community An alliance for ecological restoration – ERA and Keystone September 14-15, 2024 Since 2021, Keystone has supported by giving time and effort to build a national alliance forecological restoration. This effort was lead by Nature Conservation Foundation – Valparai, who invited us to the meeting. The alliance […]
Human-Wildlife Work Updates, September 2024
By Chandrasekar Das, Additional Programme Coordinator, Biodiversity Conservation Header Photo: R. Ramajeyam Coexistence Work: This year, we are working with eleven new coexistence villages in Kotagiri Taluk to mitigate wildlife conflicts. We chose these villages based on a notable increase in wildlife interactions over the past five years, with some reasons being poor visibility at […]
Naturalist Bird Monitoring Training in Sigur
By Anokha Venugopal, Communications, with inputs from Chandrasekar Das and Justin Raj, Additional Programme Coordinators, Biodiversity Conservation Team This month, our Sigur field centre hosted a two day naturalist training for bird watching and monitoring. Participants, consisting of 22 Indigenous youth from local villages, learned about local wildlife, odonata (insects), butterflies, and birds in the […]
Animal-Proof Waste Storage Structure Built in Indra Nagar
By Chandrasekar Das, Wildlife Biologist, Biodiversity Conservation Team Indra Nagar is a village within the Nadugula Panchayat in Kotagiri Taluk, with 192 houses in the village. For the past two years, the Biodiversity team has worked to promote coexistence between humans and wildlife in the village through initiatives such as solar-powered streetlights, closing unused/unsafe wells, […]
