Fourth edition of dragonfly census across Delhi-NCR

What is the News?

The Fourth Edition of the Dragonfly Census 2021 will start from Delhi-NCR.

DragonFly Census 2021:

1. Conducted by: World Wide Fund for Nature(WWF-India) in partnership with Bombay Natural History Society(BNHS), United Nations Environment Programme, Zoological Survey of India and others.
2. Aim: To spread awareness about the importance of the Dragonfly species to the overall ecosystem.
3. First Census: The first Dragonfly census was carried out in 2018 which revealed a total of 51 different species of these insects in New Delhi and NCR.

Dragonfly

1. Dragonfly is an insect belonging to the order Odonata. They are most commonly found near freshwater habitats throughout most of the world.
2. Significance: Dragonflies act as important bio-indicators of the ecological health of an area. As they feed on mosquitoes and other insects that are vectors to life-threatening diseases like Malaria and Dengue.

Bioindicators:

1. Bioindicators are living organisms such as plants, plankton, animals and microbes which are used to assess the health of the natural ecosystem in the environment. For instance,
   • Lichens are powerful Bioindicators of air quality.
   • Algae blooms are often used to indicate large increases of nitrates and phosphates in lakes and rivers among others.