From our past project we have learnt that forests within and around Guwahati are facing great urbanization stress and many are fast vanishing. Diversity and population of birds are also fast decreasing within Assam. Therefore we want to study their diversity in context of urban setup to help authorities design a city expansion with responsibility. We found 12 species of turtles living within different temple ponds of Assam including Nilssonia nigricans and thus supporting them within these ponds and initiating breading programme is much needed. We also want to formulate checklist of urban herpetofauna of Shillong, capital of Maghalaya.

Keeping all this in mind we took up this present project with following aim:

1. A checklist of herpetofauna residing in urban Shillong and compare the data with our past data on herpetofauna of Urban Guwahati.

2. Support turtles (provide basking spots, breeding facilities, cleaning up of ponds, providing fish spawns, awareness programme for temple authorities) in the already identified 12 temple ponds and carry on survey for identification of more such temple ponds from Northeast India

3. A Checklist of birds of Guwahati and Deeporbeel Bird Sanctuary

4. Publish book Pictorial guide "Urban Birds of Assam" (English)

5. Publish book "Fresh Water turtles and Tortoises of South Asia" (English)

6. Publish a booklet on Turtles and temple ponds which can be used as a preliminary guideline for turtle management in temple ponds (English and Assamese)

7. Outreach programmes for temple authorities and students.