First butterfly to be discovered and described by an all Indian research team from the Western Ghats.

A new taxon of Lycaenid butterfly belonging to the Nacaduba genus has been discovered by researchers from the Western Ghats. This adds a new species to the butterfly fauna of India as well as that of the Western Ghats and Kerala state as well. The common name of the butterfly is suggested as Ramaswami’s Six Lineblue and ‘Ceylon Varayanneeli’. The discovery was done by a team of four researchers, namely, Dr. Kalesh Sadasivan and Baiju. K from Travancore Nature History Society (TNHS) Trivandrum, Rahul Khot from Bombay Natural History Society, Bombay and Ramasamy Naicker from Vanam, Theni. 

         Line blues are small butterflies belonging to the subfamily Lycaenidae with Indo-Australian. Their distribution ranges from India and Sri Lanka to the whole of south-eastern Asia, Australia, and Samoa. They are characterised by hairy eyes, anastomosis of veins 11 and 12 on forewings, male wings

‘Punarjani’, conservation project for Olive Ridley Turtles making great strides.

Shri K.B.Sanjayan, Co-ordinator of T.N.H.S
highlighting the importance of protecting turtles

         ‘Punarjani’, a novel project conceived by the Social Forestry wing of the Department of Forests and Wildlife, Kollam, in association with Travancore Nature History Society (TNHS), a Trivandrum-based N.G.O working in the field of nature conservation, was originally launched on January 23, 2020, at Chillakkal beach, Paravur near Kollam. The project envisages protecting Olive Ridley turtles, a reptile that has been placed in the Red Data Book of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Olive Ridley turtles have been laying eggs on the shores of Chillakkal and Pozhikkara beaches on the Kollam coast, notably because these are the only two gaps without a seawall erected as a measure against sea erosion. These turtles freely crawl to the shore in the safety of the nightfall in these places, dig pits in the sand some of which as large as to hold up to 100 of its eggs. In course of three weeks when the eggs hatch, hatchlings are led back to the sea by themselves as if by a rare force of intuition. Parental care is sparsely observed in these varieties of turtles.

House Sparrow Population in the City Shows a Mixed Pattern

Travancore Nature History Society (TNHS), the city-based NGO, striving to protect the environment and create awareness for up-keeping the rich bio-diversity of the southern Western Ghats and its penumbral regions, has been engaged in monitoring the House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) population in and around Thiruvananthapuram city, ever since March 20 has come to be observed as World Sparrow Day (WSD) in 2010. This year also, during the run up to the Day, members of the Society scouted the nook and corner of the city, noting down the numbers of the birds. It was heartening to note that there was a marginal increase in the number of sparrows in certain pockets of the city, while the number remained steady in the remaining habitats or has gone down nominally. Sparrow count was taken at all known sparrow hubs like Connemara market, Bheemapalli,  Vettucaud, Vizhinjam etc.