Which of the following states has got first of its kind state-level bird atlas in India?

The correct answer is Kerala

Key Points 

• Kerala Bird Atlas (KBA) is a first-of-a-kind state-level bird atlas in India.
• The atlas, curated over years, covers a number of species found in the State.
• It is Asia’s largest bird atlas in terms of geographical extent, sampling efforts, and species coverage derived from the aggregation of 25,000 checklists.
• It has details of 94 very rare species, 103 rare species, 110 common species, etc.

Important Points 

• Data was collected via random sampling from the geographical terrain split into nearly 4000 grids.
• In addition to this, over 1,000 volunteers of the bird-watching community participated in the citizen science-driven exercise.
• The volunteers were divided into survey teams of two to five members and were deployed across all 14 districts.
• For preparing KBA, systematic surveys were held twice a year, once during the wet season (July to September) and the other in dry season (January to March) between 2015 and 2020.
• In terms of technology, tools like Locus Free, an Android GPS application, and eBird platform were also used for seamless conduct of the survey and documentation process.

Additional Information 

• Kerala:
  • Number of Districts - 14.
  • Lok Sabha seats - 20.
  • Rajya Sabha seats - 9.
  • State Animal - Indian elephant.
  • State Bird - Great hornbill.
  • National Park: Anamudi Shola National Park, Eravikulam National Park, Mathikettan Shola National Park, Pambadum Shola National Park, Periyar National Park 1982, Silent Valley National Park.
  • Dams: Idukki Dam (Periyar river), Mullaperiyar masonry gravity dam (Periyar rive), Pazhassi Dam or Kulur Barrage (Valapattanam river).
  • Registered GI: Aranmula Kannadi, Palakkadan Matta Rice, Balaramapuram Saris and Fine Cotton Fabrics.