Context: The first-ever State Dragonfly Festival, also known as Thumbimahotsavam 2020 will be organized in Kerala jointly by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)-India State unit and Society for Odonate Studies (SOS).
About Thumbimahotsavam 2020

• This is part of a National dragonfly festival being organised by the WWF India, Bombay Natural History Society & Indian Dragonfly Society.
• It is celebrated in association with the National Biodiversity Board, United Nations Environment Programme, United Nations Development Programme and IUCN – Centre for Environment Conservation.
• Official Mascot: Pantalu.

Activities involved

• A training will be organised to get more people trained on dragonflies to act as resource persons for upcoming events.
• This will be followed by a series of webinars from September targeting the public, especially children and youth.
• Webinars will also be organised for specific target groups such as zoology teachers, district coordinators and members of biodiversity management committees, Forest Department etc.
• A dragonfly backyard watch has been announced to enhance participation of people and improve their observation skills.

Dragonfly

• Dragonflies belong to the order Odonata and are ecologically important insects of freshwater habitats.
• The Western Ghats are home to about 196 species of odonates, more than 40% of which are endemic to the region.
• Dragonflies are some of the best predators to keep mosquito populations low as they scavenge the skies in adulthood, and also eat a large number of mosquito larvae.

About WWF

• It is an international non-governmental organization for conserving the world’s biological diversity
• It was founded in 1961 and is the world’s largest conservation organization.
• Headquarter — Gland (Switzerland).
• It publishes ‘Living Planet Report’ every two years by WWF which  is based on a Living Planet Index and ecological footprint calculation.

About BNHS

• The Bombay Natural History Society is a non-governmental organisation in India, founded in 1883.
• It is engaged in conservation and biodiversity research.
• BNHS is the partner of BirdLife International in India. 
• It has been selected as a ‘Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation’ by the Department of Science and Technology.