Browsing by Author "Pramod, P"

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Acoustic communication of passerine birds of Anaikatty hills with special emphasis on Common Iora Aegithina tiphia
(SACON, 2019) Divyapriya, C; Pramod, P
Bird acoustic communication is intended for species identification between groups (interspecific communication) and for individual identity within a group (intraspecific communication (Simmons, 2002). Bird vocal signals comprise a mixture of tones (harmonic sounds) such as chirps, clicks, less harmonic mumbles, wheezy chats, rattles and buzzy noises. Male birds use complex songs for territorial establishment and maintenance (Catchpole & Slater, 2008; Bhatt et al., 2000; Marler, 2004); and mate attraction (Marler, 2004). Songs have various other functions, for; (i) distracting potential predators (Ritchison, 1991); (ii) informing the mates about the threat (Kermott, & Johnson, 1991); and (iii) coordinating nest exchanges between mates
ASSESSMENT OF MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES OF THE BIRD HAZARDS TO AIRCRAFT IN SELECT INDIAN AIR FORCE AIRFIELDS
(SACON, 2021) Srinidhi, S; Pramod, P
Bird Strike to aircraft is a serious aviation safety concern. Many aircraft and lives of pilots have been lost the past due to this hazard. In addition, airlines incur huge amounts of money to repair the damages caused by the birds. They also lose financially due to delayed departures in addition to the inconvenience to the passengers. Considering these aspects, efforts are mad to mitigate the problem through various means. These mitigation measures include simple measures like scaring away of birds using crackers to high end measures such as deploying bird detection radars. Each of these means has its strengths and limitations and its exact efficacy is not well documented. The birds are the natural occupants of air. They have been in the air for nearly 150 million years. The human created aircraft are just about 120 years old. Hence, the birds have a right to live in the air. However, there is a need to look for ways and means to co-exist without conflict. To create such a situation, there is a need to understand the bird community and its activity over each of the airfield and its surroundings. Hence, while designing methods to mitigate bird strike hazard is an inescapable requirement. Considering these requirements, five different studies were carried out by selecting twenty one Indian Air Force airfields/ its surroundings.
Diversity and Ecology of Odonates in Coimbatore District
(SACON, 2017) Muhil, M Suhirtha; Pramod, P
The global biological diversity is to be treated as a wealth considering its potential role in ecosystem sustenance and management. The declining status and vulnerability of biological diversity to various human-induced problems, compels us to index and preserve species and their habitats as a continuous and crucial process. Exploding human population, degrading environment and loss of habitats are three major reasons for the irreversible loss of biological diversity especially in the tropics (Wilson, 1988). To understand the causes behind the ecological and evolutionary processes responsible for the rich biodiversity and also the ecosystem service biodiversity provides, it is very essential to know how many species inhabit this earth (May, 2011). There are presently 1.9 million catalogued species in the world of which nearly one million are insects (Chapman, 2009), while the estimated number of global species by taxonomists is between three and 100 million species (May, 2010). This estimation of biodiversity based on taxonomic patterns varies from the estimates based on macroecolgical patterns and diversity ratios. Erwin (1982) estimated 30 million species of Arthropods, based on the host specificity of guilds in beetle samples and subsequent hierarchical ratio extrapolations.
Factors influencing the habitat use of owls in a mosaic landscape in Garo Hills, Meghalaya
(SACON, 2020) SAILAS, S. SANGEETH; Pramod, P; Babu, S
Habitat use of owls is under-studied in the tropics, and more so in North-eastern India, a part of the Indo-Burma region, one of the biodiversity hotspots of the world. Twenty species of owls have been recorded in North-eastern India, and yet there have not been much studies on any of them from the region. Hence, a study on the habitat use of owls was conceived, selecting the Garo Hills in Meghalaya as the study site, where the landscape is a mosaic made up of plantations, agricultural fields, settlements, disturbed and undisturbed forests. The presence of Community Reserves, a type of Community Conserved Area, adds to the heterogeneity in the landscape.
INSULAR BIOGEOGRAPHY OF THE NICOBAR ISLANDS FROM A BIRD COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVE
(SACON, 2016) Zaibin, A P; Pramod, P
Particulate air pollution is a major health burden and environmental concern in urban areas. As a serious health problem in urban areas, current intervention measures has to be sufficiently refined for urgent and sustainable management. Data intensive approach can gives tools to integrate diverse data sources for deriving decision-making information and improved applications for adaptive management of pollution. However lack of spatio-temporally relevant and reliable data on particulate pollution and the data existing in non-interoperable formats to a great extent hampers knowledge generation for effective control of pollution and management of air quality. The current study focused on developing basic tools for data intensive approach in a second tier urban centre of India. The study intends to explore an affordable real time air quality information systems focusing on Coimbatore, a fast growing and second tier urban center in the state of Tamil Nadu, India and its surroundings as the study area. The major objectives of the study were (1) to develop a real time particulate pollution monitoring system using low cost commodity sensors and assess its effectiveness in the study area, (2) attempt a real time particulate pollution modeling system for the study area using WRF-CHEM, addressing its computational requirements, and (3) demonstrate application of interoperability measures on real time particulate pollution data. To address the first objective, a real time particulate monitor was developed by integrating off-the-shelf indoor dust sensors with an appropriately customized data communication system. To address the objective two, as an essential data requirement for WRF-CHEM modeling, particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) emission inventory was prepared for the study area.