The Wildlife (Baselining) Study At Poomaale Estate

Something exciting is underway at The Poomaale Collective in Coorg!

Dr. Shekhar Kolipaka, a biosocial scientist, is working with Beforest to help the estate contribute positively to local biodiversity conservation and innovatively integrate biodiversity conservation and economics for human well-being and nature preservation.

The Poomaale Biodiversity Assessment Project

As part of this, we called out for volunteers to help the team with field data collection for the Poomaale Biodiversity Assessment Project. In the first phase of the project, the goal is to systematically produce species lists. Mammals, Birds, Fish, butterflies, and Insects will be documented.

Over 90 enthusiastic folks responded to this! We’d have loved to have involved them all, but given practical considerations, Shekhar and team shortlisted about 10 and have started work on this project.

This started a couple of days ago at Poomaale. The teams have been oriented and trained in the basics, including use of equipment. They’re divided into sub-teams for data collection.

We’ve already found elephants, bison, river otters, the Giant Malabar Squirrel and a few species of birds that aren’t commonly seen in estates. This is looking promising, and we’re committed to documenting more and improving the habitat for wildlife over time.

Here’s some pics from the team.