A sandbar nest can disappear overnight
A bare sandbar may look empty from the riverbank. For an Indian Skimmer, it can be a nursery.
The birds lay their eggs in shallow scrapes on exposed sandbars and mid-channel islands. These nesting places can form as water drops, fill with birds during the breeding season, and vanish when the river rises.
On 9 May 2022, a sudden release of water from Kota Barrage submerged two nesting islands on the Chambal River. A BNHS Hornbill newsletter reported that the islands held about 60 Indian Skimmer nests with eggs or newly hatched chicks.
That event shows the fragile reality of breeding on a living river. Floods and sudden changes in water level can overwhelm a colony. On the ground, nests also face dogs, cattle, predators and disturbance from people.
This is where Parveen Shaikh of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) works with trained local nest guardians. Along the National Chambal Sanctuary, they watch nesting colonies through the breeding season and respond to threats that can be reduced nearby.
They can’t control a flood or stop a barrage release. But they can spot a new colony early, help keep livestock away, and report risks before eggs and chicks are lost.
Who is Parveen Shaikh?
Parveen Shaikh is an avian ecologist and Scientist D at BNHS, the Bombay Natural History Society. She joined BNHS in 2012 and began focused fieldwork on Indian Skimmers and other sandbar-nesting birds in the National Chambal Sanctuary in 2016, according to her BNHS profile.
BNHS has monitored Indian Skimmers in the sanctuary since 2017. That work has built a clearer picture of where the birds nest, what threatens them, and how protection can work alongside people who live near the river.
The community-based programme is called Guardians of the Skimmer. It isn’t a separate organisation called “Community Nest Guardians.” The name refers to a BNHS-led approach that trains and supports local people to help protect nesting sites.
BNHS says it initiated the programme in 2020. Shaikh later told The Times of India that the idea began before the COVID-19 pandemic, but sustained group-based fieldwork started in 2022.
Together, those accounts show an idea growing into a regular seasonal effort on the river.
How local nest guardians protect colonies
Indian Skimmers don’t nest in trees or reeds. Their eggs lie on open sand, where they’re easy to reach.
A guardian starts by reading the river. Sandbars shift with the seasons. Some grow wider as water falls. Others disappear after rain or changing flows. Guardians help identify places where skimmers and other river-nesting birds are beginning to breed.
They monitor the colonies without getting too close. Their observations add to BNHS’s ecological monitoring and conservation planning.
During the nesting season, guardians can report problems such as:
- cattle moving towards a colony
- free-ranging dogs near nests
- people crossing sensitive sandbars
- signs of predators, including jackals
- water conditions that could threaten a nesting island
In vulnerable stretches, the work can include fencing or other deterrents to reduce access by livestock and predators. BNHS also works with Forest Department staff and runs awareness activities in nearby villages.
This is more than volunteer birdwatching. Shaikh has described seasonal work and incentives as part of the model. Nest guardians provide a real service during the most demanding months of the breeding season.
In June 2024, BNHS reported that 22 local people attended a training workshop to work as nest guardians. Whitley Fund for Nature later reported that more than 30 guardians had been trained and mentored in Chambal.
That is the value of community-led environmental conservation. People who know the river’s changing sandbars can share information quickly and help science-based conservation stay close to the place it is meant to protect.
What BNHS has reported from Chambal
Close monitoring matters because a colony needs attention for weeks, not just a single visit.
BNHS reported monitoring nests from April to June 2024 as part of Shaikh’s Chambal project. Its 2024–25 annual report also described training for guardians and Forest Department staff, as well as awareness work in four nearby villages.
The same report said that about 500 chicks of focal sandbar-nesting birds were saved from predation and trampling during the 2024 nesting season.
That figure includes work involving Indian Skimmers and Black-bellied Terns. It shouldn’t be read as a total for Indian Skimmer chicks alone.
BNHS also counted more than 900 skimmers in a February 2025 Chambal survey. This was a survey count, not a complete estimate of the local breeding population. Still, it highlights the Chambal River’s continuing value for the species.
Whitley Fund for Nature has reported that nest survival in the programme area rose from 14% to 27%. That’s encouraging for a bird that lays its eggs on exposed ground.
But no single action explains everything that happens in a nesting season. Weather, river flow, habitat condition and pressures beyond the colony all affect breeding success. The figures show the value of repeated protection and monitoring, not a guarantee that every colony will thrive.
Why protecting one nest is not enough
The Indian Skimmer (Rynchops albicollis) is an endangered black-and-white river bird with a long orange lower bill. It nests directly on river sand.
It is a bird shaped by dynamic rivers. That also leaves it vulnerable when those rivers change too much, too fast.
BirdLife International’s 2021 estimate placed the global population at 3,700 to 4,400 individuals. A coordinated count in January that year recorded 1,609 birds at 45 locations in India and Bangladesh. It wasn’t a full global census, but it showed how limited the known population remains.
For Indian Skimmer conservation in Chambal, nest guardians can help with immediate dangers. A fence may keep cattle from trampling nests. Monitoring can alert a field team when dogs or people approach a colony.
Yet wider threats need wider action. Dams, irrigation-related changes in water flow, sand mining and pollution can all damage the river habitat that skimmers need.
A guardian can’t bring back a sandbar lost to extraction. Nor can a guardian prevent every sudden rise in water.
Lasting protection means working at both levels: guarding eggs and chicks during the breeding season, while also protecting the natural river processes that create nesting sandbars.
From Chambal to Prayagraj: a model that must adapt
On 29 April 2026, Shaikh received a Whitley Award for her project, Skimmer guardians: protecting riverine birds and their habitat.
Each 2026 Whitley Award provided £50,000 in project funding over one year. The funding is intended to strengthen the Chambal work and support planned expansion to sites around Prayagraj, where the Ganga and Yamuna meet.
The next stage will need more than copying the Chambal model from one river to another.
The Ganga–Yamuna confluence is a much more intensively used riverscape. Whitley Fund for Nature has identified boat traffic, fishing, disturbance and pollution as pressures around the target sites. It also notes that ashes and other organic offerings near colonies may attract scavengers, adding another risk for eggs and chicks on open sand.
The planned work includes locally recruited guardians, systematic nest monitoring and GPS mapping to support faster responses to threats. Predator-proof fencing is also part of the proposed approach in vulnerable areas.
Artificial nesting platforms are described as an experiment in Chambal, not a proven answer for every river or colony.
The promise of this work lies in adaptation. Conservation has to fit the river, its wildlife and the people who depend on it.
A living river needs local knowledge and wider protection
Parveen Shaikh’s work begins with something small: an egg resting in a shallow scrape on a sandbar.
But that nest depends on much more. It depends on a functioning river, suitable sandbars, nearby communities, field research, public awareness and decisions about how water and riverbanks are managed.
The Guardians of the Skimmer programme brings together BNHS-led research and planning with the day-to-day knowledge of trained local guardians. It can make nesting colonies safer where help is possible.
Its wider lesson is simple: protecting wildlife means protecting the places that allow it to live. For Indian Skimmers, that means caring for the river as well as the nest.
If this story inspires you, consider supporting habitat protection in your own area or volunteering for environmental conservation where opportunities are available.
