• +91 8592959380
  • Kalpetta, Wayanad

      • About

    Hume Centre for Ecology and Wildlife Biology is a public charitable trust registered and established in the year 2005 at Kalpetta, Wayanad. The institute is an initiative by a group of ecologists, environmentalists and educationalists for the conservation of landscapes, ecosystems and wildlife across India. The Centre is named after the late A O Hume, who laid the foundations for Indian Ornithology. We strive to generate scientific knowledge and translate these into societal actions to facilitate conservation.

    Wayanad district in Kerala is part of the Western Ghats which is one the biodiversity hotspots of the world. Unfortunately, this region is highly threatened due to increasing anthropogenic pressures on natural resources such as unscientific and erroneous land use, destructive agricultural practices and extreme weather events in recent times. The strategic ecosystems such as shola grasslands, evergreen and moist deciduous systems, wetlands and riparian forests are degrading. The natural forest cover is dwindling fast and many species including the endemic ones are under severe threat. For these reasons Western Ghats is selected as one of the priority locations for our intervention.

    Hume Centre undertakes systematic research on the vulnerable ecosystems, threatened species, agroecosystems and impact of climate change. We care for transferring the research results and novel scientific knowledge to the participating communities and institutions. Further we advocate for suitable conservation action together with the local communities, organizations with similar focus and the local, state and central governments. Along with the research, the Centre emphasizes on science education among the general public to foster scientific temper in the society. We focus on educating children and nurturing young scientists towards quality research and practice of science.

    Objectives

    1. Undertake systematic research and consistent monitoring of biodiversity of Western Ghats

    2. Undertake systematic research on Changing human nature relationships in Western Ghats

    3. Monitor Climate change and its impact in Western Ghats

    4. Translate the novel research outputs to communities and institutions

    5. Facilitate conservation action of endangered taxa and vulnerable ecosystems

    6. Create scientific temper to the society through science education

    Our strategy

    We believe that scientific research is important to understand the environmental changes that affect humans and wildlife. Independent and quality scientific research can enlighten the decision makers and the general public about the state of our natural world. The centre is committed to generate large scale data to influence concerned authorities for informed decision making through systematic research and public participation.

    Partnership

    Hume Centre values institutional collaboration and building partnerships across different disciplines, institutions and individuals to enhance our capacity as well as finding opportunities for us to learn how approaches from complimentary disciplines could be applied to existing problems leading to development of innovative solutions. Partnerships also expand our reach and visibility to a largerspectrum of stakeholders. Hume Centre has already established a close linkage and collaboration with the State forest department, the District administration, Educational institutions of the district, and local Panchayaths. On the research front Hume Centre has established collaborations with the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bangalore, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Tirupati, Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Coimbatore, Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Wayanad and Cochin University of Science and Technology. Apart from this, Wipro Foundation , Bangalore identified Hume Centre as their partner for conducting the Earthian programme in Kerala. During the last two years, Srishti College Bangalore and Loyola college, Trivandrum also partnered with Hume Centre for field placement of their Masters students for learning about disaster risk management. In the coming years Hume Centre will expand its partnerships and collaboration with national and international institutions in the areas of climate change, ecosystem conservation and food systems research.

    Logo

    The logo “Hekat” is a frog goddess in ancient Egypt. For Egyptians and many other cultures across the world, frog is a symbol of life, fertility, resurrection and abundance of the cycles of life. The development of the frog from tadpole to adulthood reminds us of the many transformation stages in our life. It is usually associated with the element of water and thus bears the symbolic attributes related to purification and the transitory nature of life. Frogs are one of the unique members of our planets ecosystems, the most vulnerable group of organisms that are susceptible to climate change and facing population decline and mass extinctions. Frogs have been used in Science in various research models for long time in the study of neurotransmission, natural antibiotoic peptides, signal movements to muscles, neural plate, physiology, neuro physiology of vision and from cloning to stem cell research. Hume Centre for Ecology see Hekat as symbol of transition and transformation that connecting the natural world, different cultures and the Science. The story of frogs reminds us about our immediate responsibility to mitigate climate change, the time to act to protect and conserve all of the world’s ecosystems, to protect the frogs, indirectly ourselves!