Shyamhari Chakra
Dragonfly Festival – the unique annual celebration in honour of the beautiful and useful insect – has kicked off across 10 Indian states being hosted by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF India) in collaboration with the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).
The festival, launched in 2018, aims at promoting awareness about conservation of the insect that is billed as India’s best answer to mosquito menace.
Of the 3012 listed varieties across the globe so far, India alone houses 503 species of dragonflies as per information shared by the Indian Dragonflies Society that is engaged in documentation, research and conservation of the insects.
“The festival was launched in New Delhi in 2018 with the objective to educate and inform the public about the integral role that dragonflies and their lesser known siblings – the damselflies – play in our environment. It was an attempt to create a connection between the common man and these beautiful creatures”, explained the hosts.
The rave response that the festival aroused among the younger generation encouraged the hosts to make the festival an annual affair apart from expanding it to the rest of India.
The festival this year is slated to be held in Assam, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telengana, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal in addition to the national capital.
“Dragonflies are some of the best predators to keep mosquito populations low. Not only do they scavenge the skies in adulthood, but they eat a large number of mosquito larvae in their larval form. Dragonflies can be the answer to the mosquito problem in India,” BNHS experts have stated.
The year-long festival would feature a number of activities that includes extensive field visits, interactions with dragonfly experts, interactive webinars and photography contests. The thrust would be on involvement of the largest number of children and the youth in the mission, WWF-India experts added.
The festival further plans to provide opportunity to concerned people to undertake citizen science projects on backyards counts exploring the dragonflies across India and documenting their unique behaviour, the festival hosts have announced.
