A community-based conservation initiative, involving the Kadar tribal community, has brought the dwindling hornbill population to a viable level in the Vazhachal Forest division of the Western Ghats.
“The Hornbill nest tree monitoring programme, involving the Kadars, an indigenous community, was started in 2005 in the Vazhachal forest division with the technical support of the Western Ghats Hornbill Foundation to address the declining hornbill population and restore their vanishing nesting habitat,” says K.H. Amitha Bachan, founder of the Hornbill Foundation and assistant professor and research guide, Department of Botany, MES Asmabi College, Kodungallur.
The unique low-elevation riparian forest in the Athirappilly-Vazhachal areas is the only location where all the four south Indian species of hornbills – the Great Hornbill (the State bird of Kerala), Malabar Pied Hornbill, Malabar Grey Hornbill and the Indian Grey Hornbill – can be seen.
