Asad R Rahmani

Bombay Natural History Society | BNHS

The paper provides an account of the growth and developmental stages of reared male Great Indian Bustard Ardeotis nigriceps chick, from the age of 20 days to 429 days at Rollapadu Widlife Sanctuary, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Kaziranga is one of the oldest, most famous, and important national parks of India. With recent additions, Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve now occupies a total area of 1,302 sq. km, with the National Park extending over 914 sq. km. According to satellite data, more than half of Kaziranga (i.e., of the entire 1,302 sq. km) is under grass c...

D’Ering Memorial Wildlife Sanctuary, Arunachal Pradesh, India is one of the finest grassland sanctuaries of India, with perhaps the largest population of Critically Endangered Bengal Florican Houbaropsis bengalensis. It also has many globally threatened wet grassland species such as Black-breasted Parrotbill Paradoxornis flavirostris, Swamp Francol...

Rahmani, A.R., Kumar, B., Ahmad, S., Mehta, P. & Rahman, F. (2019). Sarus Crane in North Uttar Pradesh: Status survey of Sarus and mapping of its wetland habitats. Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai, pp 1 - 109.

The main purpose of these books is bringing to the attention of decision makers and the general public the plight of IUCN Red Listed bird species, and to initiate conservation action to reverse their decline. We also want to highlight the importance of Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas of the state and make public interested in general bird co...

Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas in India Priority Sites for Conservation The updated second edition "Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas in India" (2016) published by Bombay Natural History Society alongwith BirdLife International and RSPB, UK is now available for free download. The book has 554 IBAs, including 88 new IBAs across India. Th...

Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas in India Priority Sites for Conservation The updated book "Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas in India" (2016) published by Bombay Natural History Society alongwith BirdLife International and RSPB, UK is now available for free download. The book has 554 IBAs, including 88 new IBAs across India. The PDF of...

The Forest Owlet Heteroglaux blewitti was discovered and described scientifically in the 1870s, but went unrecorded since 1880s until 1997; it was believed to be extinct for 113 years. Although the species was rediscovered and has now been intensively studied, the limits of its geographic distribution remain poorly known. This study related known o...

Critically Endangered bird Great Indian Bustard Ardeotis nigricpes, India, conservation status overview

The study area used by the two bustard species, is a private holding that is under tremendous pressure from the development lobby. Area management consists of habitat evaluation, assessment, and periodic monitoring. Participation of, and support from thelocal public is essential for a conservation plan to work, and its outcome become sustainable. W...

ABSTRACT: "Threatened Birds of Maharashtra" brings you information about the threatened bird species reported from Maharashtra state, with information that is important in the context of the state. The book depends heavily on Threatened Birds of India (TBI) published in 2012 by BNHS, particularly for historical information, but we have updated the...

The chousingha belongs to the Boselaphini tribe. This is one of the three tribes that constitute the subfamily Bovinae within the family Bovidae. Members of the Boselaphini tribe are the last survivors of a form which is very similar to that of the ancestors of the entire subfamily. Both species belonging to this tribe, that is, the nilgai and the...

"महाराष्ट्रातील महत्त्वाची पक्षीक्षेत्रे : संवर्धनासाठी प्राधान्य असणारी ठिकाणे" (“Important Bird Areas of Maharashtra: Priority Sites for Conservation” मराठी अनुवाद Marathi Translation) provides comprehensive information about the Important Bird Areas in the state of Maharashtra. It is a book in the series of books of the state-wise inventories of...

"Threatened Birds of Maharashtra" brings you information about the threatened bird species reported from Maharashtra state, with information that is important in the context of the state. The book depends heavily on Threatened Birds of India (TBI) published in 2012 by BNHS, particularly for historical information, but we have updated the contents b...

At the landscape level, the four-horned antelope is confined to tropical dry deciduous forests and within these, their distribution is patchy. Various factors have been proposed as determinants for their patchy distribution within landscapes, but none provided an adequate explanation. We hypothesized that availability of a constant supply of forage...

This book is an extension of Important Bird Areas of India describing 466 IBAs and published in 2004 by BNHS, Indian Bird Conservation Network. The book is a fine example of worldwide collaboration among organisations, state government and individuals. Paperback: 151 pages Publisher: Oxford University Press (August 12, 2013) Language: English ISBN...

We forecasted potential impacts of climate change on the ability of a network of key sites for bird conservation (Important Bird Areas; IBAs) to provide suitable climate for 370 bird species of current conservation concern in two Asian biodiversity hotspots: the Eastern Himalaya and Lower Mekong. Comparable studies have largely not accounted for un...

We conducted the studies on the Forest Owlet Heteroglaux blewitti to evaluate its ecological requirements from October 2001 to June 2004. A status survey was conducted in ten protected areas of Maharashtra from February to June 2004. During this survey 98 individuals of the Forest Owlet were observed in Maharashtra. Of these 79 were found in Melgha...

The Point Centered Quarter method suggests that the Forest Owlet utilizes Teak dominated habitat. It roosts in open forest with moderate canopy cover, taller trees, and away from disturbance factor. Utilization of this habitat structure for roosting could be an adaptation for microclimate and to avoid detection by predators. It was observed that th...

The connectivity and frequency of exchange between sub-populations of migratory birds is integral to understanding population dynamics over the entire species' range. True geese are highly philopatric and acquire lifetime mates during the winter, suggesting that the number of distinct sub-populations may be related to the number of distinct winteri...

Three South Asian Gyps vulture species are Critically Endangered with extinction, despite having been abundant in the 1990s. The main cause of the declines is now established, being ingestion of a veterinary painkiller, diclofenac, from cattle carcasses, which is toxic to the vultures. Two key actions have been identified by the range state governm...

Some of the finest extant grasslands in India are found in Jaisalmer, Jodhpur and Bikaner districts of the Thar Desert in Rajasthan. These grasslands harbour major populations of globally threatened species such as the great Indian bustard, Houbara bustard, blackbuck and others. The constant pressure from an increasing human population and developm...

In 2010, 4 Bar-headed Geese were captured and fitted with satellite transmitters at Sur Sarovar Bird Sanctuary in Uttar Pradesh, India, to examine their migration and distribution. The individuals fitted with Platform Transmitter Terminal (PTT) 99072, 99073, 99075 and 99076 spent a total of 30 days, 16 days, 36 days and 23 days respectively, in the...

The endemic great Indian bustard (GIB) is evolutionarily trapped between open nesting and k-selection that endangers its persistence under prevailing levels of habitat loss and hunting. A global population of about 300 birds is further fragmented into eight populations in the states of Rajasthan (shared with Pakistan), Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh,...

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, consisting of over 572 islands and rocks, covering about 8,249 km2, are the peaks of a submerged mountain range, arching from Myanmar to Sumatra. The vegetation is mainly tropical evergreen, with some grassland in the inland areas (Islam and Rahmani, 2004). The coastline of 1,962 km2 is mainly covered by mangrove. A...

Four Bar-headed Goose (Anser indicus) were fitted with Argos satellite transmitters (PTTs) in March 2010 at Sur Sarovar Bird Sanctuary. The PTTs were supported with batteries having a maximum life span of six months; however they remained functional for more than their expected life spans. We received a total of 4,663 locations from CLS Argos Franc...

Ducks, Geese and Swans of India describes 42 species of ducks, geese, and swans found in India. Written by experts in the field, this book discusses the distribution, population size, migratory movement, habitat and ecology, and conservation status of these birds. The descriptions are illustrated with colour images of specimens and maps showing th...

The nesting ecology of the Greater Adjutant Stork (Leptoptilos dubius), the rarest stork in the world, was studied in the Brahmaputra Valley, Assam, India during 1994-97. We made a study of nine colonies in the valley during the 1994-95 nesting season, followed by a more intensive study in two subsequent nesting seasons (1995-96 and 1996-97) of two...

The Four-horned Antelope is endemic to the Indian subcontinent and is defined as data deficient by IUCN. It is found mainly in forest habitats and is usually solitary. A four-year long study was conducted on the species in Panna National Park, Madhya Pradesh, during which behavioural observations were made using opportunistic focal sampling, mappin...

The connectivity and frequency of exchange between sub-populations of migratory birds is integral to understanding population dynamics over the entire species’ range. True geese are highly philopatric and acquire lifetime mates during the winter, suggesting that the number of distinct sub-populations may be related to the number of distinct winteri...

The foraging technique and prey-handling time of the black-necked stork (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus) was studied in Dudhwa National Park, India, from January 1996 to June 1997. The habitat in which the storks foraged played an important role in selecting a particular technique to procure food. Black-necked storks mostly foraged using a tactile tech...

Gyps vulture populations across the Indian subcontinent collapsed in the 1990s and continue to decline. Repeated population surveys showed that the rate of decline was so rapid that elevated mortality of adult birds must be a key demographic mechanism. Post mortem examination showed that the majority of dead vultures had visceral gout, due to kidne...

Application of remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) tools has assumed an increasingly important role in conservation biology and wildlife management by providing means for modelling potential distributions of species and their habitats, unlike the conventional ground surveys. We present here a predictive model of habitat suitabili...

Some aspects of predation on blackbuck (Antilope cervicapra) by wolf (Canis lupus pallipes) were studied in the Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary from 1991 to 1994. For each kill, data were collected on (a) sex and age, (b) habitat around kill sites, (c) biomass left unconsumed by wolves, (d) distance of kills from the den(s), Sanctuary boundary and t...

Wetlands are considered ‘liquid treasures’ of a country. India is blessed with a multitude of rivers and natural wetlands, scattered all over the country, except perhaps in very dry parts of Rajasthan. By definition, wetlands are transitional areas between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems where the water table is usually at or near the surface, o...

Jerdon’s Courser Rhinoptilus bitorquatus is a nocturnally active cursorial bird that is only known to occur in a small area of scrub jungle in and around Sri Lankamaleswara Wildlife Sanctuary, Cuddapah district, Andhra Pradesh, India, and is listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN. Jerdon’s Courser prefers a specific type of scrub jungle with o...

Three species of Gyps vulture, once common across the Indian subcontinent, have declined by more than 97% in India since 1992, and are now on the verge of global extinction. The decline is due to contamination of their food with diclofenac, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) commonly used as a painkiller for livestock in India. On May 1...

Time-activity budget of the Black-necked Storks was studied from January 1995 till June 1997 in Dudwa National Park, Uttar Pradesh, India. Black-necked Storks spent nearly 46% of their time resting. Except chasing, resting and drinking, no other activity differed significantly among storks in three years. Black-necked Storks spent more time for res...

A highly sensitive and specific competitive ELISA on 96-microwell plates was developed for the analysis of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac. Within the water cycle in Europe, this is one of the most frequently detected pharmaceutically active compounds. The LOD at a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) of 3, and the IC50, were found to be...

Tissue samples from 699 birds from three regions of Asia (Myanmar, India, and South Korea) were screened for evidence of infection by avian parasites in the genera Plasmodium and Haemoproteus. Samples were collected from November 1994 to October 2004. We identified 241 infected birds (34.0%). Base-on-sequence data for the cytochrome b gene from 221...

Gyps vulture populations across the Indian subcontinent are declining rapidly and evidence indicates that veterinary use of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) diclofenac is the major cause. Exposure of vultures to diclofenac is likely to arise from the consumption of livestock carcasses that have been treated shortly before death, how...

Nine species of vultures are recorded from Indian subcontinent. The populations of three resident Gyps species, namely Oriental White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis, Long-billed Vulture Gyps indicus and Slender-billed Vulture Gyps tenuirostris crashed during the mid nineties of the last century. Vulture declines were first documented at Keoladeo N...

Jerdon's Courser Rhinoptilus bitorquatus is one of the most endangered and least understood birds in the world. It is endemic to scrub habitats in southeast India which have been lost and degraded because of human land use. We used satellite images from 1991 and 2000 and two methods for classifying land cover to quantify loss of Jerdon's Courser ha...

The introduction of avian malaria (Plasmodium relictum) to Hawaii has provided a model system for studying the influence of exotic disease on naive host populations. Little is known, however, about the origin or the genetic variation of Hawaii's malaria and traditional classification methods have confounded attempts to place the parasite within a g...

Foraging behaviour of the black-necked stork (BNS) Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus was studied in 1996 and 1997 in Dudwa National Park (DNP), Uttar Pradesh, India. The storks were observed using tactile and visual techniques to catch fish. Of the 929 fish seen caught in 2 years, 894 (96%) were caught by a tactile mode of feeding and the remaining 35 (4%...

The success of introduced species is frequently explained by their escape from natural enemies in the introduced region. We tested the enemy release hypothesis with respect to two well studied blood parasite genera (Plasmodium and Haemoproteus) in native and six introduced populations of the common myna Acridotheres tristis. Not all comparisons of...

From October 2001 to June 2004, studies were conducted on the Forest Owlet (Heteroglaux blewitti) to evaluate its ecological requirements. A status survey was conducted in ten protected areas of Maharashtra from February to June 2004. A call count method was found useful for detection of the Forest Owlet. During this survey 98 individuals of the Fo...

The little-known, endemic Forest Owlet Heteroglaux blewitti was studied from June 1998 to June 1999 in Maharashtra, India. Vocalizations associated with contact, courtship feeding and food solicitation were recorded and sonagrams are presented for the first time. The nesting period started in October 1998 and continued until May 1999. Four nests we...

Edited by Dr. M. Zafar-ul Islam & Dr, Asad Rahmani of the Bombay Natural History Society, this book is the result of five years' exhaustive work by the BNHS. The data, which form the core of the book, have been collected by more than 1,000 people: many hundreds of professiona and amateur ornithologists, birdwatchers, conservationists, forest offici...

Jerdon's courser Rhinoptilus bitorquatus is a nocturnally active cursorial bird that is only known to occur in a small area of scrub jungle in Andhra Pradesh, India, and is listed as critically endangered by the IUCN. Information on its habitat requirements is needed urgently to underpin conservation measures. We quantified the habitat features tha...

Studies conducted in the Keoladeo National Park during 1994-1997 on nest-site selection in the Blacknecked Stork (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus) and White-necked Stork (Ciconia episcopus) showed that girth at breast height (GBH), height and canopy spread were the major factors governing the placement of nests. There were significant differences betwee...

During the 1990s, populations of two species of griffon vulture, the Indian white-backed Gyps bengalensis and the long-billed Gyps indicus, declined by more than 90% throughout India. These declines are continuing and are due to abnormally high rates of both nesting failure and adult, juvenile and nestling mortality. Affected birds exhibit signs of...

In 2000, we conducted a survey to quantify the declines in the populations of Gyps bengalensis and G. indicus across India since 1990–1993. Directly comparable data for the two periods were obtained from over 6000 km of road transect surveys carried out in protected areas, the regions around protected areas and linking highways across the country....

Jerdon's courser Rhinoptilus bitorquatus is a nocturnal cursorial bird that is now only known from a small area of scrub jungle in Andhra Pradesh, India. Its population size, distribution and habitat requirements are poorly known because of its elusive habits. We conducted a trial of a survey method that involved deploying an array of 5 m long trac...

The effect of water level changes and wading birds' abundance on the foraging behaviour of the blacknecked stork (BNS) Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus was studied from January 1995 to June 1997 in Dudwa National Park, Uttar Pradesh. Our observations indicate that BNS territoriality increased as food levels became depleted, resulting in increased rates o...

The habitat use and flock composition of the Red Junglefowl Gallus gallus in Dudwa National Park, India was studied between 1991 and 1994. Six habitats were monitored during winter and summer throughout the study period. Data on habitat use, flock size and flock composition were collected from monitoring of six line transects and regular sightings...

The population of the Indian Fox Vulpes bengalensis,its spatial and temporal abundance, den distribution, den characteristics and use, predation of eggs and chicks of the Great Indian Bustard Ardeotis, and general ecology was studied in Rollapadu Wildlife Sanctuary, Andhra Pradesh, India. Around 40-50 adult animals were recorded in 1993 and 1994, w...