Assam: Kaziranga National Park saw 27% increase in winter migratory birds
The migrant birds come here from Russia in November and stay here till February. They are feeling safer in this area now.
KAZIRANGA : Assam’s Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve has witnessed a 27% increase in the arrival of winter-migratory birds in 2022-23, officials said on Friday. The count was revealed during the fifth bird census conducted by the park authorities.
The director of Assam’s Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve, Sonali Ghosh, said the census began earlier this week and was conducted on 115 waterbodies spread across the Kaziranga Tiger Reserve and surrounding areas.
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“The census revealed the presence of 84,839 birds which is a 27% increase since the last count (66,776 in 2021-22). This places Kaziranga among the top five in terms of presence of resident and winter-migratory birds in the country,” Ghosh said.
The reserve extends over 1,302 square kilometres with a significant area of over 50% of the landmass under grasslands interspersed with water bodies.
“With its unique terrestrial and aquatic habitats, Kaziranga is one of the finest protected areas in the world. This is home to the big-five mammals and it is a popular destination for birders owing to a very high diversity of over 500 bird species,” Ghosh said.
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She said that in the first census conducted in 2018-19, the count was 10,412 and in the fifth census, the count has reached 84,939, which shows an 814% increase. This is second in India after Chilka, which counts around 10 lakh birds every year.
“The migrant birds come here from Russia in November and stay here till February. They are feeling safer in our area now. The protective measures taken by the government and drives against encroachments are some of the reasons behind this,” she said.
