ENVIS Resource Partner On Avian Ecology

Forest Owlet Conservation Day

24^th October 2020

On the occasion of Forest Owlet Conservation Day, 24th October 2020, The Owl Conservation Foundation, Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary, Forest Department of Shahapur and Environmental Information System on Avian Ecology at the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS-ENVIS) Mumbai organised the online essay writing and drawing competition for the school children of Maharashtra. Total 59 responses were received.

Forest Owlet, endemic to central India, was first collected as a specimen in 1872 by William Turnbull Blewitt near Phooljhar in eastern Madhya Pradesh (now in Chhattisgarh). By 1884, this species was considered extinct, until its rediscovery in 1997 at Nandurbar in Maharashtra by American ornithologists Ben King and Pamela Rasmussen. In 2014, BNHS recorded the very first presence of this species in the Western Ghats, at Tansa Wildlife Sanctuary in Thane district of Maharashtra. At present, this species is considered ‘Endangered’ as per the IUCN Red List category.

The following drawing have been selected as the winners.

Topic for drawing competition and education qualification