Native Tree Plantation Activity by VNC-Junagadh

Team Vasundhara Nature Club - Junagadh

Trees are the most important part of our ecosystem. High increase in the human population and deforestation have damaged our ecosystem drastically.

The best thing that can help to recover our ecosystem is to plant more and more native trees. Thus  we, Vasundhara Nature Club – Junagadh promote the native tree plantation. As a part of our activities, on 22^nd of July, 2018 we planted 30 saplings of native trees of Girnar and areas nearby. We planted three species of trees including Pipalo (Ficus religiosa), Vadalo (Ficus benghalensis) and Umbaro (Ficus recemosa) in Laldhori area of Bhavnath, Junagadh.

As a special guest, we had Mr. Viral Joshi – a well-known ornithologist and sanctuary asia young naturalist award winner with us. During this activity, the team of Vasundhara Nature Club got surprise appearance of Shri Morari Bapu – a famous Gujarati kathakaar who joined us in our activity and planted a Vadalo.

The Girnar, particularly Laldhori and nearby area has very rich biodiversity. So with the aim of helping enrich the biodiversity, the activity was planned. We also request you all to undertake such kind of activities to help our mother nature.

Presence of Shree Morari Bapu

Team Vasundhara Nature Club with Viral Joshi

Members on Mission

Protecting the Saplings

Relaxing after the Activity

STOP ROAD KILLS

Road kill – one of the most rapidly increasing threat to the animals, particularly the wild ones. The number of vehicles has been increased significantly in past few years. Also we are used to drive our automobiles very speedy to consume our time or for enjoyment. But our speed can be dangerous for some living entities and sometimes for ourselves too. Our Vehicles are being a weapon of destruction and we have to be very careful. The incidents of road kill have been increased drastically and one more mane made threat has been emerged for our beautiful wildlife these days.

Here are some horrible scenes showing the terrible face of road kill.

Only we can stop this unfair means to the wildlife. We, Vasundhara Nature Club – Junagadh request you to be more careful in night driving, to control the speed in the areas where chances of presence of animals are there.

If you find any road kill, you can update the details on your phone using ROADKILLD app. The app is developed to contribute to gathering information on dead wild animals.

Click Here to download the Roadkills android app.

Rescue of Mottled Wood Owl

A few day prior, forest personnel rescued a Mottled Wood Owl fledgling, which was dehydrated. Forest dwellers kept watch on this individual to safeguard it from dogs and monkeys. The officials took it to the department premise and sheltered it after re-hydrating it with oral fluid. Our team was called to assist the task of re-homing the bird. After approximately four hours our team started investigating for parent bird in the area from where the fledgling was rescued. After some hours, we heard a hooting call which seemed to us as the parent's call so we put this bird safely on a tree nearby. After some minutes we witnessed a divine act of female nearing the fledgling, preening it and giving calls. Incidents like this are fuel to the burning desire in the hearts of nature enthusiasts.

Selling of Haththa Jodi in Bhavnath Fair of Junagadh...

During the traditional Fair of Bhavnath and circumambulation period at Girnar, many street vendors are monitored by the volunteers of Vasundhara Nature Club selling objects related to black magic such as rings, rosaries and even wildlife trophies (which are duplicate maximum of the times). This year, we saw them selling "Haththa Jodi", sexual organ of gecko or lizard which on investigation was found to be made from wood.

A Workshop on Fundamentals of Herpetology

We, the Vasundhara Nature Club – Junagadh had organised a workshop on Fundamentals of Herpetology from 12 to 16 July of 2017. The main resource persons were Prof. Sunil Dutta – an amphibian researcher from Orissa, Dr. Varad Giri – a reptile researcher from Bengaluru and Dr. Raju Vyas – a reptile researcher from Vadodara, who shared their knowledge to 20 participants from five states of the India. In the workshop participants got knowledge about the history of herpetology, various areas of research in the field, procedure to peruse research in herpetology and some interesting details on efforts for conservation.

This was the first such workshop of this type in the Gujarat where people recognized at national level were under a single roof sharing their knowledge and experience.

Here are some Glimpse from the workshop!!!

Light Lamp Ceremony

Inauguration Speech by Hon. R.F.O. Shree Tilala Sir (Girnar North Range) 

Dutta Sir Introducing about the Program 

Talk on People of Herpetology by Sushil Dutta Sir

Interesting Talk about Cool Frogs by Varad Giri Sir

Dr. Raju Vyas explained about Turtles & Tortoise 

Orientation about Girnar Wildlife Sanctuary by Dr. Manish Visavadiya

Deep Discussion is Going on

Caecilians by Dr. Varad Giri 

Frog Biodiversity by Shushil Dutta Sir

Talk on Crocodiles by Dr. Raju Vyas Sir

Herpgurus at Girnar

Caecilians Identification by Dr. Varad Giri Sir

Practical Session with Experts

Snakes Taxonomy by Harshil Patel

Practical Session with Experts

Participants Exploring Area with Experts

Frog Watch

Wonderful Guidance on Proposal Writing by Anirudh Vasava

Team 1 doing exercise of Proposal Writing

Team 2 doing exercise on Proposal Writing

Crocodiles of Charotar by Anirudh Vasava

Team 3 doing exercise on Proposal Writing

Team 4 doing exercise on Proposal Writing

Memories forever!!!

Rescue of THREE Pythons from Same Place...

Our volunteers got snake rescue call from Bhavnath area and rapid response rescuer reached there as well as informed forest officials. They also reached there on time. It was python which was rescued and rehabilitated at safe place. After two days, two more pythons has been rescued from same place.

Some Beautifully coloured Fan-Throated Lizards were remained unnoticed...!

One new genus and five new species of Fan-throated Lizards have been described from India.

The Fan-Throated Lizard (Sitana Ponticeriana) is a species of agamid lizard found in India, Sri Lanka, parts of Pakistan, and also from Bangladesh. The species is found mostly on the ground in open patches in thin forests.

After sampled 81 locations, covering 160,000 km² of in Peninsular India, the team of young zoologists V. Deepak, Varad Giri, Mohammad Asif, Shushil Kumar Dutta, Raju Vyas, Amod Zambre, Harshal Bhosale and Praveen Karanth noted down two known and five previously undescribed species. Among these five species, three belong to the genus Sitana, while two belong to a new genus named Sarada by V. Deepak.

During Displays, males of the genus Sitana bob their heads up-down, while those of Sarada shakes left-right. After the new discoveries of the team, there are 7 species of Fan-Throated Lizards from India.

For more information, you can go through the paper from the following link:

http://www.contributionstozoology.nl/cgi/t/text/get-pdf?c=ctz;idno=8501a04