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, […]
Updated Biodiversity Register Release in Wayanad
By Bijishna T.K., Land and Healthcare, Project Implementation Coordinator, Community Wellbeing The updated edition of the Biodiversity Register of Edavaka Grama Panchayath of Wayanad district was released this month. This is the second edition of the book, with the first edition released in 2009. Edavaka Grama Panchayath was the first Grama Panchayath to release the […]
Meeting of the Western Ghats Plant Specialist Group of the IUCN SSC
By Anita Varghese & Anokha Venugopal This month, the Western Ghats Plant Specialist Group of the IUCN SSC convened for two days of energising discussions on the present and future state of plant conservation and assessments. The Mandarae meeting hall was adorned with native plant species from our nursery and arboretum, including neelakurinji (Strobilanthes kunthiana). […]
The Global Biodiversity Assessment (TGBS) in Meghalaya
April 17, 2024 By Harshavardhini Angappan Team: Paul Blanchflower (Auroville Botanical Gardens [AVBG]), Manjula Arumugam (AVBG), Monal Singh (Kishan Bagh), Harshavardhini Angappan (Keystone Foundation) The Indian TGBS assessment team, Auroville Botanical Gardens, visited the ‘Ka Synjuk Ki Hima Arliang Wah Umiam Mawphlang Welfare Society (SYNJUK)’s restoration site. The society, formed by the Khasi people, is […]
Agroecological Approaches to Pesticide-Free Farming in Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve
By Mahadesh Basavegowda Recently, the Biodiversity Team has been working to create agroecological approaches to pesticide-free farming to support biodiversity and beekeeping in the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve, with the support of DCB Bank. The Project Objective aims to promote integrated pest management, based on agroecology, as an alternative to increasing pesticide application in rural farms […]
Keystone Attends National Workshop on IUCN Red List Assessment of Plant Diversity
March 6th, 2024 By Harshavardhini Angappan On February 7th and 8th, members of the Keystone Biodiversity team attended The Gandhigram Rural Institute in Dindigul for a National Workshop on IUCN Red List Assessment of Plant Diversity. The event was organized by The Gandhigram Rural Institute’s Department of Biology in association with the IUCN-SSC Western Ghats […]
Art for Nature, Student Scholarships, and Naturalist Trainings: An Update from Our Human-Wildlife Team
March 6, 2024 By Chandrasekar Das Student Scholarships For 5 years now, with the help of the Segre Project, Keystone Foundation has been working to improve the livelihood conditions of marginalized people in four coexistence villages in Kotagiri by supporting them in water, sanitation, and preventing wildlife conflicts. We are currently working with four coexistence […]
