CHANDIGARH: The Chhatbir Zoo in Punjab is set to welcome a new inhabitant — the majestic northern goshawk, ‘baj’ or ‘baaz’ in Punjabi, the state bird, that has not been sighted in the region for a long time.
The development follows the wildlife department’s hunt for the bird spotted in the portraits of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru of Sikhs, across the Middle East and Eastern Europe countries. Speaking to The Sunday Standard, Chief Wildlife Warden, Punjab, Dr Kuldeep Kumar admits that the state does not currently have the bird in captivity anywhere.
“We have taken permission from the Ministry of Environment and Forest and Central Zoo Authority to rescue a baaz from the wild. The bird has earlier been sighted on the foot hills of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, but we haven’t heard of any recent sighting. We are also trying to locate baaz in other parts of the country, chances of which seem bleak,” he says.
“If we do not find the bird here (India) then we will have to get it from Middle East or Eastern European countries. We plan to get three to four pairs of the bird as the founder population to then facilitate breeding here. The infrastructure at the zoo has already been renovated for the new member,’’ says Kumar.