In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it. –Marianne Williamson

During your schooldays, when you were asked to write an article on environmental degradation, you would have always written in the solution part, “We must help to redress the harm done to nature”. Huh! Very easy to say but the real question is how many of us practice these virtues today? Many a times it is not that you have forgotten your ethics learnt at school. But you could not find a platform from where to launch your initiative.

This year, to do your tiny bit for the Sparrows and other common birds, all you need to do is take the support of your school/college authorities to put up the CBMI poster in their institution. A one-of-its-kind initiative, CBMI is a citizen science project that urges people to just take out 15 minutes of their time to monitor birds in and around their homes, offices and educational institutions.

Ms. Taneja with CBMI poster at her college (Lady Sriram College) in Delhi

However, such initiatives can never be successful without the wholehearted support of people, especially volunteers. The only reason why India lacks relevant scientific data on current common bird species distribution and numbers is due to the logistical, manpower and monetary challenges that bird monitoring faces. CBMI wants to bridge this gap by collaborating with people like you. CBMI aims to bring together the enthusiastic citizens of the country for monitoring common bird species. The citizens report bird sightings to CBMI, which the latter will scientifically synthesize and statistically analyze through its researchers.

Come and be a part of this project. This is ‘your’ time to rise and take a step forth to do something which has never been done before in the nation. Remember, ‘a responsible citizen is not the one who yells the river is dirty, but the one who cleans it up’.

Time is running out! Be a part of the one of its kind event. To join, use the following links:

To volunteer, shoot an email to arpita@natureforever.org with your area of interest, skills and contact number.