A few days ago, I spotted and photographed a stunning large dragonfly perched quietly at the edge of a forest. This was dragonfly I had seen before, but it was always rapidly patrolling over an area, not allowing me to get a photograph, so I was delighted to see one perched completely still.
After I uploaded the photographs to iNaturalist, the largest global citizen-science platform, a few identifiers who had a lot of experience in Dragonflies identified this one as a Fraser’s Torrent Hawk (Macromia irata).
The Fraser’s Torrent Hawk is a highly range-restricted dragonfly endemic to the Western Ghats of India. To give you an idea of how elusive it is, there are only around 55 observations of this species globally on iNaturalist currently.
But here’s the interesting part: nearly all earlier records are found in the southern parts of the Western Ghats, particularly in Kerala. My observation marks the very first time this has been recorded in Maharashtra on iNaturalist.
While being a rare dragonfly, it is also a big bio-indicator. Biologists often use the Hilsenhoff Biotic Index (HBI) to estimate water quality based on how sensitive aquatic insects are to pollution. Species with a low HBI score can survive only in clean, well-oxygenated water, while those with high scores are much more tolerant of pollution and habitat disturbance. The Fraser’s Torrent Hawk belongs to the former group, with an HBI score of around 3, making it far more sensitive than many of the common skimmer dragonflies, which typically have HBI scores close to 9 and can thrive in stagnant ponds, agricultural drains, and even mildly polluted water.
I found this individual not far away from the stream flowing through Forest Hut, a habitat that perfectly matches its requirements. Unlike generalist dragonflies that simply indicate the presence of water, the Fraser’s Torrent Hawk points to something much more specific—a fast-flowing, rocky stream shaded by intact forest, with clean, oxygen-rich water. Its presence was a reassuring sign that this small forest stream remains in excellent ecological condition.
It was an awesome find, and the eyes are a brilliant shade of green!
If you’d like to see the photographs and the full observation, you can find it on iNaturalist here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/381060704.
Photograph by Shree Dave
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