Projects

Survey of Mugger crocodile in Goan water bodies such as lakes, rivulets, streams will be carried with the following objectives: To identify and note the mugger crocodile habitats, (lakes, rivulets, streams) in Ponda taluka, and document mugger nests and breeding activities. Secondly photo documenting various activities of mugger to study their life cycle will be

Otters serve as bio-indicators of the riverine ecosystems. Of the 3 species found in India, Small-clawed Otters and Smooth-coated Otters are found in Goa. While Smooth-coated Otters occupy a lot of human modified habitats the Small-clawed Otters mainly restrict themselves to forest streams. While both species were once common, recent observations as well as informal

The Mhadei Research center is now also a platform that trains young naturalists, brings communities and wildlife enthusiasts together, and helps strengthen community outreach programs for researchers as well as grassroots activists.

Our own teams work with schools, village councils and youth clubs across the states of Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra through an array of projects and outreach programs.

Bats are a vital component of India’s biodiversity and play key ecosystem roles as seed dispersers, pollinators and pest control agents. Bhigmad Wildlife Sanctuary, in the Western Ghats Biodiversity Hot spot, is unstudied but likely hosts very high diversity of bats in India. We intend to characterize the distribution and diversity of bats in the sanctuary by surveying all habitats and at caves.

The Mhadei Research Center conducts workshops that include opportunistic surveys, lectures on field data collection and in situ photography of Western Ghats biodiversity.

Field identification techniques of micro fauna, demonstrations of basic bird surveys, training in use of field equipment and discussion of natural history are also be a part of such workshops and training programs.

Locally known as sadas, these rocky plateaus are found in several pockets of Chorla, much of which are unexplored and some not even discovered! Though they may visually seem as life-less, they in fact bustle with floral and faunal diversity, many of which are specialized to live in crevices and depressions of the rocks and along the slopes. An attempt to protect these floral and faunal-rich habitats led to MRC exploring and documenting these plateaus.

The project was started with an objective to create a Flipbook on the Lesser Mammals of Goa. The Flipbook will contain photographs and basic information like Latin names, Local names, size and weight, conservation status and threats, population trend, etc. about the different species of lesser mammals. The Flipbook can be used as a pocket size field guide for identification of various species of small mammal found in Goa.

In the glamour of big mammals, birds and snakes many a times one can see that micro fauna is always being neglected. Apart from few medically important groups of micro fauna, no substantial efforts are taken to understand these creatures. The diplopods or millipedes are one of such groups which is very poorly known.