Stories
India's Declining Birdlife Erases Cultural Heritage and Ecological Memory
- •The State of India's Birds 2025 assessment highlights significant long-term declines in bird populations across the country, affecting species visibility and abundance.
- •Vernacular bird names across Indian languages encapsulate deep ecological knowledge, diets, behaviours, and cultural connections, acting as fragments of regional ecological memory.
- •Shifting baseline syndrome causes younger generations to accept degraded nature as normal, leading to the gradual fading of traditional names and local knowledge as species become scarce.
- •Widespread species like the Indian Roller face severe abundance declines despite retaining a large geographic distribution, turning them into ghosts within their own territories.
- •Recording local bird names alongside associated habitats and experiences helps preserve the everyday human experience of ecological change before traditional knowledge is lost.
Key Questions Answered
The 2025 State of India's Birds assessment is based largely on observations contributed by birdwatchers on the eBird platform, drawing on 48 million different observations compared to 30 million in the 2023 assessment.
Vernacular names emerge from observations of sound, appearance, and behaviour, placing species within food chains and ecosystems. For example, the Asian Openbill is called shamuk-khol due to its association with snails, and the Short-toed Snake-Eagle is called Saanpmar as a snake-killer.
Shifting baseline syndrome occurs when each new generation accepts the degraded state of nature they grow up with as the default normal, failing to feel the absence of formerly abundant species. This psychological phenomenon leads to indigenous names and cultural knowledge losing their context and fading from regional memory as species decline.
