[Taxacom] Indian biodiversity video

[John Grehan]

For those interested, the following link is a short YouTube video titled
"Makunda Nature Club - Opening our eyes to the biodiversity around us" It
is a local effort by the Makunda Christian Leprosy and General Hospital. It
is within an area of high biodiversity and yet many of the forests are
rapidly disappearing. They note that the area has not been studies since
the British naturalists of the late 19th century and so they are working to
find out what species are present.

With relatively few resources they have  achieved some results with a new
bird record for India (purple throated sunbird), a spider not recorded in
over 120 years, and some new coreid bugs. They are also emphasizing the
importance of local communities living within the jungle to understand the
need for avoiding destructive practices and losing the very resource on
which they rely. This led to the establishment of the Makunda Nature Club
to help young people be aware of their environment through field trips that
help them understand the interdependence of species. But some major
challenges remain as they have not been able to get a collecting permit
from the local government to establish a biodiversity collection.
Altogether a very professional presentation (better than some TV
documentaries) and some nice wildlife (including gibbons).

John Grehan



trying to offset lack of local knowledge and understanding with an
educational program for