Is there a study on the Hesaraghatta grasslands - types of grasses, functions, importance etc? Any help/pointers/connects welcome.
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Some info from this article
Catchment of Hesaraghatta reservoir/Arkavathy at Hesaraghatta is about 5000 + acres. Most of this land is owned by the government of Karnataka. A parcel of this land –measuring 345 acres is a grassland. In fact it is the last remaining piece of grassland around Bangalore. If you went back in time to about 200 years ago, most of the area that now is Bangalore city was grassland/scrub jungle.
Apart from being the last remaining grassland and catchment of Arkavathy, the area is also the wintering ground for the birds of prey from Northern India and Central Asia. A biodiversity survey commissioned by the Karnatak biodiversity board revealed found over 130 species of birds, many mammals, and butterflies. And millions of insects of course. Some of the birds, mammals and insects found in the area are on the verge of extinction or critically endangered.
So in collaboration with conservationist Ramki Srinivasan, biologist K S Sheshadri and Ornithologist M B Krishna a detailed proposal to declare 5000 acres including the lake bed as ‘Conservation Reserve’ under section 36A of the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 was drafted. We submitted it to Karnataka Forest Department sometime in 2013/4. The department carried out a survey and fixed the boundaries of the proposed reserve. It needs to go to the State Wildlife Board for approval. Well, this step hasn’t happened. The proposal has remained as a proposal till today.
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A core tool feature in Swarmact is to bring visibility to such biodiversity reports plus add them onto an open public repository (like OSM, Open city…)
an important feature is enable citizen source data actively and repository would reflect the connect/participation of the public. We can then target to grow certain groups, like neighbours or highlight work by enthusiast to attract more such to come.