A new digital platform dedicated to documenting Assam’s rich birdlife has been launched, offering bird enthusiasts, researchers, students and the general public a single source of information on hundreds of bird species found across the state.Named Pokkhi, the freely accessible website has been developed to showcase Assam’s avian diversity while preserving and promoting Assamese bird names alongside English names. The platform is available online and currently features detailed information on 372 bird species recorded in the state.The repository includes carefully curated Assamese and English common names, high-quality field photographs, identification guides, species descriptions and their conservation status based on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. The initiative aims to become one of the most comprehensive digital references for Assamese bird nomenclature while making information on the state’s birdlife more accessible.
The platform has been created by wildlife photographer and birder Chirantanu Saikia of Jamugurihat in Sonitpur district and Abhilash Gayan, a PhD scholar in the Department of Physics at Tezpur University and an experienced birder and wildlife photographer from Gayan Gaon in Sivasagar district.According to the developers, the idea behind the project emerged from challenges they regularly encountered while documenting birds in the field. Reliable Assamese names for many species were often difficult to find, while local names frequently differed from one region of Assam to another.”Having frequently faced difficulties in finding reliable Assamese names for many bird species during our field expeditions, we conceived the idea for Pokkhi. Local names often vary across regions of Assam for various species and may at times be controversial. Pokkhi seeks contributions from members of the general public and the birding community to compile such nomenclature variations and present them through a single trusted one-stop platform,” Saikia said.
The developers said the platform has been built after years of field observation, birdwatching and wildlife documentation. Besides serving as a reference for bird names and identification, it is also intended to encourage greater awareness about bird conservation and Assam’s remarkable biodiversity.The website has been designed for a wide range of users, including educators, students, researchers, conservationists, birdwatchers and nature enthusiasts. By presenting scientific information alongside local language names, the creators hope to bridge the gap between academic knowledge and community understanding of Assam’s birdlife.