Hyderabad: Dragonfly festival held at Neknampur Lake

Hyderabad: With an aim to spread awareness about the importance of dragonflies and damselflies and the need to conserve them a Dragonfly Festival organised by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)-India State unit in association with the Society for Odonate Studies (SOS) and Dhruvansh NGO held at Neknampur Lake on Sunday. During the festival volunteers of WWF highlighted the uniqueness and importance of insects to the environment through fun learning activities that include quizzes, expert talks, competitions, and interactive sessions.

"Dragonflies act as important bio-indicators of the ecological health of an area. It aims to inspire people to adopt the cause of conservation as their own," said Madhulika Choudhary, Founder of Dhruvansh that protected Neknampur Lake. As part of the WWF's 4th edition a talk titled, 'Demystifying the Dragons,' was organised to create awareness and enhance knowledge of 'Helicopters of Nature.' It was led by Rajesh Varma Dasi, a nature enthusiast, and citizen scientist.

Rajesh Varma Dasi said, "One component of the Dragonfly Festival is 'Wetland Biomonitoring,' wherein WWF India, along with experts, has identified different wetlands across India to conduct a survey of Dragonflies and Damselflies found in the selected areas with the help of volunteers." Varma further said that In Telangana, Neknampur Lake has been selected for the survey, WWF Volunteers have identified 11 species of Dragonflies at the Lake in the five visits undertaken.