TNC Trust
Prof. T. C. Narendran Trust for Animal Taxonomy (Reg. No 202 of 2006- Calicut, Kerala, India) is a non profit organization aimed to revive, revamp and rejuvenate classical taxonomy, the science behind the identification and documentation of Earth’s vast biodiversity.
Board of Trustees
Dr. Sudheer K.
Secretary
Focus Area
Research in Classical Animal Taxonomy
Documentation and Conservation of faunal diversity
The Initiative
Mother Nature with her awesome variety and variability has always nurtured man and blessed him with all comforts. But truly as the saying, “Earth has enough to satisfy everyman’s need but not greed” (Mahatma Gandhi), it is man’s greed rather than his need that gave way to an over exploitation of natural resources. Topping the trophic cascade, man has manipulated his surroundings, adversely affecting the sustainability of natural resources. Species have started disappearing at an alarming rate, with many being pushed towards the verge of extinction. At this grave juncture, we are forced to search for some urgent measures to mitigate the current rapid decline of earth’s biodiversity and strive to retain sustainability. We are losing many species even before being aware of their existence. Knowledge of what we have in our ecosystem is a prerequisite for using them in novel ways and to work towards their conservation. Of the total estimated 10 – 13 million species on earth, only 1.7 million have been described and named, till date. It is here we look upon the services of taxonomy, because Taxonomy is the only science by which species can be recognized. We need taxonomy to know who is who and what is what!
International bodies now consider taxonomy as a research priority, fundamental to ecosystem management and biodiversity conservation. Today, many groups of organisms do not have specialists to identify them and there exists an acute shortage of taxonomic expertise in our country. It has thus become imperative to concentrate towards popularizing the science of taxonomy and revitalizing this long neglected field.
Our mission statement
To popularize the science of animal taxonomy, create a strong taxonomic knowledge base through capacity building by generating adequately trained taxonomists of international acceptance and caliber, and to develop taxonomic expertise for all animal groups found in India, crucial to understanding and conserving the faunal diversity of our country.
Objectives
We propose to achieve our mission through Providing faunal identification services Organizing training modules and workshops in animal taxonomy at school, college and university levels
Establishing and maintaining a reprint library and extending information services on animal taxonomy
Publishing of monographs, taxonomic guides and other research papers
Constituting an award at the national level, for the best Taxonomic Research Contribution every 3 years
Wide dissemination of taxonomic information through development of electronic/ Web based identification systems
Undertaking funded research projects in taxonomy and biodiversity studies
Improving the services that taxonomy can cater the society, by maintaining a list and also linking active taxonomists in our country
Offering taxonomic consultancy during designing major research projects, taxonomic analysis of project findings and translation of such results to a practical, implementable system as a key input to land-use management that can guide policy makers.