Vanished for a Century: The Forest Owlet’s Fragile Return to Vidarbha

thenewsdirt
Jul 23
8 min read

In Vidarbha’s teak forests lives a bird once thought lost to time. The Forest Owlet (Athene blewitti) is found only in central India, and had not been seen in the wild for over a century until its dramatic reappearance in 1997.

Since then, each glimpse of this diminutive spotted owl has stirred excitement among scientists and local communities.

As an endemic species, the owlet has become a symbol of the region’s biodiversity, yet only a few hundred survive in isolated pockets. The task of understanding and protecting this rare bird has made Vidarbha a focal point in its survival story.

Rediscovery and Habitat

The Forest Owlet made its modern comeback in the Melghat Tiger Reserve (Amravati district of Vidarbha). American ornithologist Pamela Rasmussen found the first individuals in 1997, ending 113 years without a confirmed sighting.

This came as a surprise. Original museum specimens dated from the 1870s and 1880s, and no records had pointed to Melghat before Rasmussen’s fieldwork.

Older texts list only northern Maharashtra and adjoining Madhya Pradesh or Odisha as historic localities. Melghat’s rediscovery, therefore, rewrote the map of the owlet’s range, establishing it as the species’ most important refuge. Toda,y this reserve may hold roughly 150–200 Forest Owlets, far more than are found elsewhere.

In the years following 1997, researchers located the owl in a few other central-Indian forests. It has since been seen in western Maharashtra and eastern Gujarat, as well as scattered pockets of central India (Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh). A resident in Gujarat’s Dang district even inspired the article by its local name “dangichibri”.)

All these sites share a common habitat: dry tropical deciduous woodland. The forest owlet favours mature teak and mixed teak-salda stands with plenty of mid-level undergrowth.

It is not a high-elevation bird and has only been documented around 400–700 metres above sea level. Unlike most owls, it is largely active in daylight hours and hunts on low perches in the daytime under the canopy.

Melghat Tiger Reserve remains the stronghold of the species. Surveys there indicate that the remaining birds occupy a few dozen key ranges with suitable forest. Wildlife workers in Vidarbha continue to search for nests and roosts, using the known vocalisations and local guides.

Each reported sighting or call in these forests is treated as important data. The forest owlet’s strict habitat preferences mean that only areas with relatively intact dry forests in Vidarbha can sustain it. Where logging has cut many old trees, or where the forest is broken up by farms, owlets tend not to be found.

Conservation Status and Threats

The Forest Owlet’s rediscovery did not mean it was out of danger. Conservation assessments agree that only a few hundred mature owlets remain, keeping the species at very high risk.

In 2018 the IUCN Red List reclassified it as Endangered, estimating fewer than 250 mature individuals in the wild.

This followed earlier listings as Critically Endangered, based on its tiny known population. The Red List notes that the global population appears to be declining.

India’s laws place the Forest Owlet under the strictest protection. It is the only Indian owl on Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. All other native owls are listed under lesser schedules. This gives the species the strongest legal safeguards. Hunting, capturing or trading in this owl is expressly forbidden and punishable by heavy penalties. Internationally, it is also listed on CITES Appendix I, barring any commercial trade.

Despite these protections, the owlet faces serious dangers. Foremost is habitat loss.

Conservationists report that the clearing of forests for agriculture and expanding human settlements is steadily fragmenting the owl’s world. Illegal logging, often for timber or charcoal, removes the large trees the owlets use for nesting. Voluntary Nature Conservancy researcher Jaimin Makwana warns that in some areas, “the destruction of deciduous and teak forests” is underway, and that even common practices like spraying pesticides can poison the owlet’s prey. In short, the conversion of natural teak forest into farms or plantations shrinks the owl’s available habitat by the year.

Development projects have drawn particular scrutiny. In recent years, conservation groups in Vidarbha rallied against a proposed railway through the Melghat Tiger Reserve.

Experts note that the low-flying Forest Owlet would be highly vulnerable to passing trains and associated noise and electrification.

Wildlife officials voiced alarm that “future noise pollution, electrification and habitat destruction will spell doom for owlets,” in the words of Amravati’s honorary wildlife warden.

Building a high-speed rail or power lines through the reserve would cut across the owl’s flight corridors and fragment habitat. Similar objections have been raised against any plan that would intrude on Melghat’s core forest.

Other threats include forest fires, sometimes accidental, sometimes used for land clearing, and direct persecution.

While there is no widespread market for Forest Owlets, tribal folklore and superstition about owls can lead to killing or nest destruction in some areas. Overall, experts say, without careful management, the species’ few remaining groups could disappear.

Significance for Vidarbha’s Ecosystems

Significance of Forest Owlet or Vidarbha’s Ecosystems — Significance for Vidarbha’s Ecosystems

The Forest Owlet is more than just a curiosity. It has come to represent something larger in Vidarbha. As a tiny predator of small mammals, lizards and large insects, it plays a role in the forest food web.

Conservationists note that owls in general help control rodent pests, a service beneficial to nearby farms. In this sense, the owlet’s persistence signals a healthy forest that still supports a full complement of creatures.

Local experts and media have made the Forest Owlet a flagship for Vidarbha’s unique dry-forest ecosystems. Its exclusive presence here has drawn birdwatchers and researchers to Melghat and surrounding sanctuaries.

In 2011, for example, the Bombay Natural History Society even proposed the forest owlet as Maharashtra’s state bird, underscoring its symbolic value. The state wildlife board ultimately kept the existing symbol (the yellow-footed green pigeon, or ‘hariyal’), citing the pigeon’s public familiarity. Even so, the very consideration of the owlet reflected its status as an emblem of Vidarbha’s wildlife.

The Sanctuary Asia journal says that the forest owlet is endemic to central India and found nowhere else in the world, placing it among “the most at risk” avian species on the planet.

In Vidarbha and adjacent areas, it has no close substitute in ecological function. Conservation biologists argue that protecting the owlet also protects many other plants and animals in its habitat. For many rural communities, the hoot of this rare owl has become a point of local pride. Even if not widely known outside scientific circles, its discovery has helped galvanise forest protection.

One indirect benefit has been attention to the health of the region’s teak forests. Reserve managers now treat identified nesting and roosting trees of the owlet as critical resources.

Forest patrols in Melghat are alert for disturbances in known owl territories. In these ways, the owlet has helped focus conservation efforts on Vidarbha’s dry forests. Its story also carries a message often repeated in environmental discussions: if this secretive owl can go undetected for over a century, other hidden gems may still inhabit Vidarbha’s wilds, but only if the forests survive.

Conservation Debates and Efforts

Despite broad agreement that the forest owlet must be protected, there has been debate over how best to do this. Some local conservationists caution that excessive intervention could backfire.

Satpuda Foundation president Kishor Rithe has argued that past research itself may have disturbed owlets. He warns that “in locations where similar research was carried out, the bird went extinct”.

Rithe criticised a 2012 proposal to capture juvenile owlets for study, saying it could be “disastrous” for the population. Such concerns have led some forest managers to restrict the handling of the birds.

On the other hand, scientists involved in studying the species insist that careful research is vital. Ornithologist Farah Ishtiaq and others working with the Bombay Natural History Society emphasise that key details, such as the owlet’s breeding season, call patterns, and precise nesting needs, were entirely unknown before studies began.

Researcher Prachi Mehta of the Wildlife Research & Conservation Society points out that understanding the bird’s habitat requirements “is imperative” for conserving it. She compares the owlet to species like the northern spotted owl in the US, where decades of study informed a recovery plan. These experts believe that without field data, they cannot design effective protection measures.

Amid these views, Vidarbha’s forest department has taken a cautious stance. Officials have largely limited studies to observation and camera trapping rather than capturing birds.

An Amravati wildlife warden, Vishal Bansod, has urged minimal disturbance. In 2018, he warned that even routine activities like tree marking or frequent field surveys “spell doom” if they degrade the birds’ habitat.

In the political arena, some local leaders have also taken note. A Vidarbha MLA publicly urged state ministers in 2018 to review the Melghat railway proposal and explore alternative alignments that would spare the core forest. This reflects how seriously the species’ conservation has become taken in the region.

At the grassroots level, a network of NGOs, volunteers and village councils in Vidarbha has begun to watch for the owlet. Forest watchers keep listening for its distinctive calls, and schools in Melghat occasionally involve children in “bird camp” activities centred on the owlet. These are early efforts, but they show that the local community is becoming engaged.

In recent field surveys, Satpuda Foundation and BNHS teams have jointly documented nesting trees and hunted active territories, data that underpins management decisions.

Debate continues over the right balance of study versus restraint, but everyone involved shares a common goal: to keep the Forest Owlet safe in Vidarbha’s forests. The intensity of attention on this one species, from researchers, officials, locals and even legislators, reflects its high profile. It is rare for a small owl to prompt such action, but the Forest Owlet’s fate has brought new energy to regional conservation efforts.

The Forest Owlet’s story in Vidarbha remains in progress. Its emergence from obscurity in the 1990s transformed a fringe bird into a focus of concern, and today it symbolises both hope and urgency for the forests of central India.

For people here, the owl is a reminder of nature’s fragility and the unexpected wonders still hidden in the wild. Each winter dawn, when this small owl begins its hooting, observers feel a mixture of awe and vigilance, knowing that this peculiar creature has beaten the odds before, but still needs the forest to survive.

The future of the Forest Owlet in Vidarbha will depend on continued care for its woodland home and the wisdom to balance study with protection. It has reappeared once; ensuring that it endures will be the challenge of our times.