RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS CURRENT SCIENCE, VOL. 96, NO. 10, 25 MAY 2009 1390 *For correspondence. (e-mail: paintedstork@gmail.com) 18. Lin, S., Jiang, D. and William, P. F., Importance of differentiating ductile slickenside striation from stretching lineation and variation of shear direction across a high strain zone. J. Struct. Geol., 2007, 29, 850–862. 19. Passchier, C. W. and Sara, C., An outline of shear-sense analysis in high-grade rocks. In Memoirs of Gondwana Research: Crustal Structure and Tectonic Evolution of the Southern Granulite Ter- rain, India (eds Chetty, T. R. K. et al.), 2006, pp. 66–76. 20. Santosh, M., Shigenori, M. and Sato, K., Anatomy of a Cambrian suture in Gondwana: Pacific-type orogeny in southern India? Gondwana Res., 2009 (in press). 21. Geological Survey of India, District Resource Map, Karnataka Office, Bangalore, 2005. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. We thank Prof. S. Anbazhagan, Periyar University, Salem for help during the field work. Received 13 August 2007; revised accepted 15 April 2009 Monitoring bird diversity in Western Ghats of Kerala J. Praveen 1, * and P. O. Nameer 2 1 No. 14/779(2), Ambadi, Kunnathurmedu P.O., Palakkad 678 013, India 2 Centre for Wildlife Sciences, College of Forestry, Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur 680 656, India This communication elaborates a case study in Kerala, where 61 surveys have been conducted from 1990 to 2008 in 21 protected areas and reserve forests in the southern Western Ghats for monitoring bird fauna using the amateur bird-watcher network. Four different methodologies have been used in these surveys, with encounter-based transects being the most common. A significant result of these surveys is in identifying the relative conservation value of these forest areas in protecting endemic and threatened avifauna. THE Western Ghats, identified as one of the biodiversity hotspots of the world, is a 1600 km long chain of moun- tain ranges running parallel to the western coast of the Indian peninsula. Among the three distinct sections of the Western Ghats, the southern Western Ghats is one of the richest abodes of tropical moist forests in the coun- try. A large portion of the southern Western Ghats falls within Kerala, with a few significant spur hills extending into the neighbouring Tamil Nadu, viz. Nilgiris, Palani, High-Wavies and the Kalakkad. The restricted range and habitats of many of these endemics are under threat. Among the 16 Western Ghats endemics, one is Endan- gered, three Vulnerable and four Near-Threatened. Three of the endemics have different races in the Western Ghats – Grey-breasted Laughing-thrush (Garrulax jerdoni) has three races, White-bellied Shortwing (Brachypteryx major) and Rufous Babbler (Turdoides subrufus) have two races each. Some of these races are considered as full species by recent authors 1 . Avian studies in the southern Western Ghats have been sporadic. Figure 1 summarizes the periods of important ornithological workers in the region. However, ornitho- logical expeditions into these bio-rich areas have been much restricted until the advent of the large-scale, coor- dinated bird surveys, which began in the 1990s; an acti- vity which is significantly contributing to the ornitho- knowledge in the Western Ghats of Kerala. Bird monitoring using volunteer-based networks is a tested strategy to cover large areas in several countries, mostly resulting in bird atlases. Dunn and Weston 2 reviewed 272 bird atlas projects from 50 countries in six continents and found that most of them (82.4%) are from Europe and North America. These projects were mostly run by ornithological societies, and had resulted in at least 27.9 million records of birds over an area roughly 31.4% the land area of the earth, involving at least 108,000 contributors. Two such efforts worth mentioning in India are Asian Wetland Count conducted since 1987 and MigrantWatch 3 launched by the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) in 2007. In Kerala, the Malabar Nature History Society (MNHS) runs a Common Bird Monitoring Programme (CBMP) using volunteers in several districts and has had moderate success (Sashiku- mar, pers. commun.). The concept of a bird survey using the amateur bird- watcher network for monitoring the protected areas in Kerala was envisaged in the Silent Valley National Park in December 1990. Since then 61 surveys have been con- ducted till date and the Kerala Forest Department (KFD) has played a pivotal role in the activity – logistically and financially (Figure 2). Most of these surveys were anchored by various NGOs (Figure 3), and they now form the backbone of the Indian Bird Conservation Network (IBCN) in Kerala. Results of these surveys are prepared as a report by the NGOs and circulated among the parti- cipants and the KFD. When found relevant, a concise report in the form of an article is published by the coordi- nator(s) in a peer-reviewed journal 4–9 . Details of the bird surveys conducted between 1990 and 2008 in the Western Ghats of Kerala are given in Table 1 and Figure 4. About three bird surveys per year have been conducted during this time. However, there have been years (2003) during which up to eight surveys were done, while there have been some of the early years which had only one bird survey. Regular bird monitoring has been done in Shendurney Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS; 13 years) in South Kerala and at Aralam WLS (9 years) in North Kerala. Round-the-year monitoring with surveys in three different seasons has been conducted in Chinnar WLS (1998–99) and Silent Valley National Park