NCCAF seeks public help to map Nagaland’s hornbills

Kohima, August 25 (MExN): The Nagaland Community Conserved Areas Forum (NCCAF) has appealed to communities, village councils, conservation groups, birdwatchers, students, researchers and the public to report hornbill sightings, nesting sites and important habitats across Nagaland.

The initiative, being taken forward with the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF) as a knowledge partner, seeks to build a better understanding of hornbill distribution, nesting locations and habitats in the state. NCCAF said much of the existing information remains scattered across local knowledge, individual observations and isolated records.

NCCAF noted that Nagaland’s forests support several hornbill species, which play an important ecological role as major seed dispersers and contribute to forest regeneration. Their continued presence can also indicate the condition and continuity of forests on which wildlife and communities depend.

The forum said NCF’s experience with community-based hornbill conservation, including its Hornbill Nest Adoption Programme in Arunachal Pradesh, would inform the initiative. The programme has helped more than 200 hornbill chicks successfully fledge through community protection of nesting sites.

NCCAF is seeking information on active and old nesting trees, regular sightings, feeding and roosting areas, repeated sightings of pairs or family groups, photographs or videos showing breeding behaviour, and local knowledge of hornbill habitats.

"You do not have to be a bird expert," NCCAF said, adding that even a mobile phone photograph accompanied by a location pin could provide useful information for assessment. Old photographs and recollections of nests used many years ago could also be valuable.

forum said the records could help identify sites for field verification and, where appropriate, support community-based conservation measures, including protection of nesting trees, monitoring of breeding sites, documentation of local knowledge and identification of threats to nesting and feeding areas.

It is also exploring the potential use of artificial nest structures in suitable locations where natural nesting cavities are scarce. However, NCCAF stressed that such interventions would require assessment of habitat and species requirements, technical guidance and the full participation and consent of the concerned community.

The forum urged people not to disturb suspected nests, saying observers should not climb trees, approach cavities closely or touch nests. "A photograph or GPS location is far more valuable than disturbing a nest to obtain a closer look," it said.

NCCAF also assured communities that it would not publish the exact locations of nest trees. Precise information on sensitive sites will be kept confidential and shared only where necessary with the concerned landowning community and NCF for legitimate conservation, research and monitoring purposes.

"This is not an enquiry into hunting," NCCAF said, clarifying that information submitted would not be used to initiate action against any person, family or village over past hunting or other information disclosed through a hornbill record.

The forum further said no survey, monitoring exercise or field visit would be undertaken on community, clan or privately held land without prior consultation and approval from the appropriate village institution and concerned customary authority.

Hornbill sightings, photographs, videos or information on nesting sites can be shared with NCCAF through WhatsApp at +91 9862000975 or email at nagalandccaforum@gmail.com and nccaf@outlook.com. Contributors are requested, where possible, to provide the location, date and time, photographs or videos, description of the sighting, species if known, and their name, village or community and contact details.