The Punjab Wildlife Department in association
with the Avian Habitat and Wetland Society today started a census of
migratory birds at the Harike wetland sanctuary.
The sanctuary is
located on the confluence of the
Sutlej and
Beas and falls in three districts- Ferozepur, Tarn Taran and
Kapurthala. It attracts thousands of birds from various parts of the
country during extreme winter conditions.
Narbir Kahlon, one of the organisers of the
census, said the first-of-its-kind exercise ever since the Harike was
declared one of the Ramsar sites and declared wildlife sanctuary was
being carried out to take stock of migratory and resident birds
present at this time at Harike. He added that apart from it, the main
purpose of the exercise also included to establish a procedure for
conduct of such an exercise in the future to study trends/changes in
migration pattern if any, to access threats being faced by this
extremely fragile ecosystem and to put Harike on the birding and
eco-tourism map.
He pointed out that before this exercise, about
366 species had been spotted in the bird sanctuary.
Ferozepur district wildlife officer Harbans
Singh Dhillon said motor boats and 14 pedal boats had been pressed
into service to carry out the census, which would come to an end
tomorrow evening.
He said six teams would carry out the exercise.
Besides, some bird watchers would go to nook and corner of the wetland
on foot so that every bird, which had descended on the sanctuary,
could be counted. The other objective of the census would be to
identify avian, both local and migratory ones, their species, feeding,
nesting roosting and migratory patterns.
