Goa Meet 2009 : Photo

[This is just the beginning, we are going to have all the photos of the meet linked from here.]

Photo sets of the Goa Meet

• Minhaj on Flickr
• Rahul Natu on Picasa
• Vedavati on Orkut
• Yuwaraj Gurjar on his site
• Yuwaraj Gurjar on Orkut
• Varun on Orkut Set1 | Set2
  

Rarest Catch of the Day Award, which was won by

• Rahul Natu (Black Prince)Photo By : Buddiga Srinivasa Rao

• Amol Patwardhan (Malabar Banded Swallowtail)
  
• Pinakin Karve (Malabar Banded Peacock & Gaudy Baron)

[Amol and Pinakin, please send photos to be uploaded here.]

Goa Meet 2009 : Successful

The butterfly meet was a great experience especially for me since I was associating for the first time. Saw the Malabar Banded Swallowtail, which was a lifer for me. Some salient features :

1. 33 participants confirmed and 32 attended.
2. 108 Species butterflies were sighted.
3. Weather played spoilsport on all days.
4. Moth diversity was not too encouraging (actually people interested in moths were not many).
5. Witnessed and documented the emergence of the Moon Moth (Actias selene).
6. For the first time (I was told) managed to save money (Rs. 4,100/-). This will be deposited in the fund being created for the Fellowship.
7. Though we saved, this was also the cheapest meet (Again, I was told)
8. DCF (Wildlife), ACF and the local RFO were present for the inaugural session.
9. We constituted the Rarest Catch of the Day Award, which was won by Rahul Natu (Black Prince), Amol Patwardhan (Malabar Banded Swallowtail) and Pinakin Karve (Malabar Banded Peacock & Gaudy Baron). They were gifted the Photographic Guide to Butterflies of Goa authored by yours truly.
10. Excellent presentations were made by Amol Patwardhan, Shyam Ghate, Hemant Ogale, Mihir Chhatre, Anil Cherukupalli, Yuwraj Gurjar, Manchit Deshpande, Onkar Dharwadkar, Debra Glomb and Parag Rangnekar.
11. Saw many frog species, 3 snakes and other insect forms. The sighting of the Hump-nosed Pit Viper was the highlight.

In all we had a great time. Thanks for Amol and Vijay for guiding during the planning phase.

Parag Rangnekar

Dragonflies of India : A Field Guide

INDIA-A LIFESCAPE
Dragonflies of India : A Field Guide
By : K.A.Subramanian
Editor : Madhav Gadgil
Published by : Vigyan Prasar, Department of Science and Technology
Website: http://www.vigyanprasar.gov.in
ISBN : 978-81-7480-192-0
Price: Rs. 125/-

The First photographic field guide to 111 Indian dragonflies and damselflies. English common names introduced to Indian dragonflies and damselflies for the first time. Field keys for identification of larvae and adults.Over 200 clear photographs for accurate and quick identification. Concise text provides information on key characteristics and ecology of each species. Reviewed by eminent entomologists and field biologists.

The book can be downloaded from Vigyan Prasar Website.

WildFlowerIndia & IndianTreePix Meet 2010 : Suggested Locations

Location : Kas & Purendar Fort
District : Satara
State : Maharashtra
Specialty of the Locality : crest of Sahyadri (famous for wildflowers and valley of flowers in Maharashtra)
Possible Dates : 2nd to 4th week in September (2010)
Possible Organizers : Kedar Champhekar

By : Rajesh Sachdev

Location : Bhimashankar WLS
District : Pune (?)
State : Maharashtra
Specialty of the Locality : Core of Sahyadri ( famous for wildflowers)
Possible Dates : End of monsoon
Possible Organizers : options open

By : Rajesh Sachdev

Location : Amboli
District : Sindhudurg
State : Maharashtra
Specialty of the Locality : Western ghats with good malabar elements.. ( Moist deciduous forest , lateritic plateaus with ephemeral herb, added bonus butterflies, amphibians and reptiles, natural dyes plant )
Possible Dates : August to October 15th
Possible Organizers : Pune botanists, Malabar Nature Club, .. Goa-Belgaon- Kolhapur people can also help.... accommodation facilities available
By : Saili Palande

Location : Mulshi Tamhini
District : Pune
State : Maharashtra
Specialty of the Locality : Western ghats flora, Many Sacred Groves with good lianas, orchids (fruiting and flowering season for many tree sp.)
Possible Dates : Jan to March
Possible Organizers : Pune botanists
By : Saili Palande

Location : Coastal Side streches around Diveagar- Kelshi or Jaygad- Ratnagiri
District: Raigad Ratnagiri
State : Maharashtra
Specialty of the Locality : Mangrove Forests, Sacred Groves, coastal beach flora, Phansad (if around murud), wild vegetables (Good food ;) !)
Possible Dates : August to October
Possible Organizers : Pune-Mumbai botanists
By : Saili Palande

Location: Chakrata & Deheradun
District :
State : Uttarakhand
Specialty of the Locality : Typical Himalayan flora,Conifers, Oaks, herbs, FRI, WII etc
Possible Dates : September October
Possible Organizers : no idea...
By : Saili Palande

Location: Namdapha
District : Changlang
State : Arunachal Pradesh
Specialty of the Locality : East Himalayan flora
Possible Dates :
Possible Organizers : Arif Siddique
By :

Goa Meet 2009 : Reporting and Dispersal

Participants should meet at Panjim on the Kadamba Bus-stand on 26th September 2009 at 9.00AM.

One can get buses (private as well as Govt.) from Madgaon and Vasco, both towns are around 30 kms from Panjim. People traveling by buses will be dropped very close to the bus-stop in Panjim. Regular taxis are also available from the railway station and the airport and charge around 400/- for a non a/c vehicle.

For people travelling by train, the closest station to Panjim is Carambolim (= Karmali) which is 15 km. away. Regular transport to Panjim is available.

Participants would reach back at 4.00 PM on 30th September 2009 on the Kadamba Bus Stand. So keeping a gap for couple of hours, you can plan your further plans.

Remembering Hari and Roshni

I am sure all the members who joined the group more than year back remember the shocking news we received in first week of august last year. Yes, I am referring to the news that struck us about the Gautami train mishap. In which we lost our enthusiastic team members Hari Iyer and Roshni Mukherji. I still remember the day I received the shocking news.

I did not have the fortune of personally meeting them anytime, but they touched my life through their work of biodiversity documentation in the form of NerdyBirders.com website and active participation on the groups. I was in touch with them through emails and social networking sites like Orkut.

We (DiversityIndia) have decided to begin a Fellowship in the memory of our friends Hari and Roshni. So friends of Hari and Roshni and Members of DiversityIndia would contribute to this fellowship fund every year and the fellowships would be awarded to deserving candidates in the field of Biodiversity Documentation. The Fellowship will be coordinated by DiversityIndia.

Your contribution towards fellowship fund for 2009 may be sent to "NatureMates Nature Club". [Naturemates is NGO partner of DiversityIndia and has kidly agreed to handle the fellowship funds for this year.] Please contact naturemates@gmail.com if you need more information on how to contribute to this Fellowship fund.

More details on these fellowships would be posted here.

Suggestions on this are welcome and may be sent to me [vijay.barve@gmail.com].

IndianMoths and ButterflyIndia Meet : Goa 2009 : Registration

Total meet expenses will be Rs. 3000 from Panjim to Panjim. (Depending on number of participants, we expect it to be less).
Registration Amount: Rs. 2000. (50% refundable in case of cancellation done by 15 Sept. 09. Later on it will be decided depending upon the number of participants).
Please deposit the cheque in any ICICI ATM account in the country.
After deposition of the cheque please mail to me the details of the cheque.

Bank: ICICI Bank
Branch: Panaji
NEFT: ICIC0000015
Acc. No: 001501008063
Acc. Holder: Parag Rangnekar

In case of any clarification contact Amol 9820962452 or Parag 9822129811