Project Hornbill

Rapid urbanisation is decreasing the number and diversity of birds in Delhi, so much so that the Government of NCT of Delhi had to declare sparrow as the state bird of Delhi, so it could be protected. There is thus a need to conserve bird diversity in Delhi and raise awareness about the same. Although Delhi has a rich bird diversity, the citizens of Delhi are often unaware of this rich natural heritage that belongs to them. To address this issue, Project Hornbill was initiated by a team of 25 students under the mentorship of Dr. Govind Singh at Indraprastha College for Women (IP College), University of Delhi.

IP College is located in the vicinity of Delhi’s two lifelines, River Yamuna and the Delhi Ridge. Both the Delhi Ridge and River Yamuna support rich avian diversity, and are also the reason of the rich bird diversity found in IP College. However, construction around the College in the last few years has impacted this bird diversity to a great extent. It was thus decided to raise awareness in the students about birds and bird diversity and also attempt to augment the habitat of the birds in and around the College campus.

Following were the objectives of this project:

  • Educate students on the role and importance of birds in the environment
  • Raise awareness about loss of habitat for birds in Delhi and encourage students to learn about avian fauna on campus
  • Construct bird houses from sustainable materials, to be placed around campus as auxiliary nesting sites

Students Team:

  1. Aashna Sadana
  2. Anchal Garg
  3. Anoushka Kumar
  4. Aparna Bhatia
  5. Ashwariya Sah
  6. Chingkheinganbi L
  7. Garima Grover
  8. Gyanbati Konjengbam
  9. Amulya Hans
  10. Lakshmi Salam
  11. Madalsa Poddar
  12. Madhura Naniwadekar
  13. Madhuri Sawlani
  14. Marwah Shabeer Koul
  15. Mirnalika Vats
  16. Nidhi Yadav
  17. Nitansha Bansal
  18. Reeny Modi
  19. Ruchi Saini
  20. Shambhavi Chandra
  21. Ankita Agrawal
  22. Simran Kalra
  23. Tulshi Salam
  24. Varsha Rawat
  25. Vasundhara Singh

This research project was part of the Campus Impact Challenge initiative of TERI/Genpact. The Project Report was submitted to TERI/Genpact and was also presented during a Workshop at India Habitat Centre.

A part of the findings of this research project was published as a Research Communication in the Journal of Innovation for Inclusive Development (ISSN 2456-4478).

Exploring 100 Years of Bollywood’s Infatuation with Birds
Reeny Modi and Ruchi Saini


This research article was picked by the Indian Express, as a newspaper article:
http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/bollywood-should-depict-endangered-species-of-birds-in-some-form-or-the-other-4646935/


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