---
title: "National Moth Week 2020 Kerala"
date: 2020-07-28T11:33:27+05:30
draft: true
---
Authors; Manoj K, Firoz AK, Unnikrishnan, Haneesh Km

[National Moth Week](nationalmothweek.org/) (NMW) is a worldwide citizen science project to study and record populations of moths. the week organized to celebrate the diversity, beauty, and importance of moths. its encouraged to learn about, observe, and document moths in their backyards & neighborhoods.
NMW is an opportunity for the public to become a Citizen Scientist by contributing scientific data about moths. these data can help map moth distribution and diversity. This year's NMW was conducted between 18-26th of July 2020.
## Introduction
Moth studies in India are in its initial stages now and a lot of work to be done to map the diversity of moths in India. During this edition of NMW India, there were a lot of events organized to create awareness of moths. It included webinars, backyard moth watching, workshops, and sharing records on citizen science platforms.

In Kerala 9+ Public events 37+ Private events

Kerala + [Previous Year](https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/national-moth-week-2019-kerala)

## Kerala Checklist
Balakrishnan Valappil sir at Malabar Trogon - Newsletter of Malabar Natural History Society - Vol. 18-1


## National Moth Week 2020 Kerala
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/national-moth-week-2020-kerala

### Payyanur College Zoological Club
There were 119 observations contributed by the students of the zoological club of payyanur college. Moths like Atlas moth, Monkey moth of Eupterotidae family, Crambid moths, Erebid moths etc were the most observed ones. It was a wonderful experience for the students in participating the National moth week.
https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/nmw2020-payyanur-college-zoological-club
## NMW 2020 India
[DiversityIndia](http://diversityindia.org/) and [IndianMoths](https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/indianmoths) organized a photo-sharing contest on www.inaturalist.org this year to map the moth diversity in India. During the restrictions due to the pandemic situations, people were encouraged to post their old records also during 18-26 July 2020.


Response to the photo-sharing contest was overwhelming and we could record more than 10,000 records from India during this period from 322 observers. We had records from almost every state and union territories in India. These records will be a great resource for future moth studies in India.

The list of winners who uploaded more than 200 observations during this period is given below. Congratulations all the winners

Many of these records are still require identification at a higher level, and hopefully, it will be happening soon with the help of all the experts.

## Media/News
* [Citizen scientists document moths in Kerala](https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kochi/citizen-scientists-document-moths-in-kerala/articleshow/77197232.cms) - Times of India - [Jul 27, 2020](https://web.archive.org/web/20200728193141/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kochi/citizen-scientists-document-moths-in-kerala/articleshow/77197232.cms)
* [Mathrubhumi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathrubhumi), a National Daily newspaper (Malayalam) from India Featured National Moth Week as in Page Panel as Theme.

* സിവിൽ എൻജിനിയറിൽ നിന്ന് ശലഭനിരീക്ഷകനിലേക്ക് - Mathrubhoomi Featuring [Balakrishnan Valappil](https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8243-5320) apart of Nation Moth Week 2020 - 26 July

## Reference

Cat: NMW - National-Moth-Week, Campaign-Reports, iNaturalists, 2020, Lepidoptera