Media Release

Mangaluru, Oct 10: “Certain terms and definitions in our school textbooks should be redefined as it does not convey the entire meaning. We have misconceptions about some terms like amphibians which does not describe the characteristics of the species as a whole,” said Vineeth Kumar K, assistant professor of Zoology department of St Aloysius College (Autonomous).

He was interacting with the PG students of St Aloysius College (Autonomous) Mangalore in a guest lecture conducted in the campus on Tuesday. The session was organised by the PG department of Journalism and Mass Communication (MAJMC) as part of a campaign initiated by the students on the topic ‘Biodiversity and Conservation’.

“There are almost 1.5 million species in the world. But still there are researches going on in tracing different species across the world. The levels of diversity are mainly categorized into three. The first one is genetic level followed by species level and above these two is the ecological diversity. Biodiversity is a vast topic and it takes a lot of efforts to understand each of the concepts,” he added.

He introduced the concept of bird watching and certain techniques to spot the particular birds with its characteristics. He also mentioned how the birds are named according to their structure, location and nesting.

“The session was very interesting and informative. The videos and photos presented were very useful for understanding various rare species and its behavior pattern. He also spoke about certain online applications and websites which will help us to know more about birds,” said Sayu Raj, a first year MA English student.

Around 60 students attended the session. Dr (Fr) Melwyn Pinto, HOD of MAJMC, Vishal Nayak and Tia Boban, assistant professors of the department were also present.