Thought to be extinct for over 100 years until its rediscovery in 1997, Forest owlet (Heteroglaux blewitti) is one of the rarest and least-known of India's endemic bird species. Today, the bird is Critically Endangered (IUCN 2014) and inferred as declining. It has a tiny (100 to 400 individuals) and severely fragmented population (Birdlife International 2014), known from fewer than 12 recent locations from central India (Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra). Recent record from Gujarat has raised some hope to securing this threatened species but for that it is necessary to acquire the baseline information such as present population status, distribution, habitat use, suitable forest owlet area and conservation needs of forest owlet across protected and non-protected areas in its possible distributional range in Gujarat. Motive of this study is to acquire that baseline information and

Specific objectives are as following:

1. Assessing status, distribution and threats of forest owlets in Gujarat.

For surveying population status and distribution two technique will be used; 1) Play back method, 2) Direct search. Threat assessment at each site will be determined by observation of lopping, tree cutting, cattle grazing, encroachments, poaching, non timber forest product collection, fuel wood collection and forest fires.

2. Site occupancy and habitat use by Forest owlets in Gujarat.

Potential suitable habitats will be identified from presence/absence information, collected from first objective, in habitat suitability model that would integrate land cover types, slope and elevation identified from satellite image.

3. Capacity building of forest staff and local communities through participatory initiative.

Forest Department staff will be trained systematically to monitor forest owlet population and its habitat. Awareness programs will also be initiated to make the villagers aware of the threatened status and conservation needs of this species.

This will facilitate in identifying priority areas for planning of future conservation measures and providing direction to sensibly allocate the limited conservation resources. Assessing threats would help to understand the factors which can negatively affect the forest owlet population and would also provide insights on which disruptive measures to be controlled to increase forest owlet persistence in this landscape. We will provide forest department staff with guide maps for suitable habitats, nesting and roosting sites so that they can mark these areas as important and do not allow any felling. Creating Awareness among the local community will improve the conservation efforts of forest owlet in Dang region.