NEW DELHI: The Okhla Bird Sanctuary which saw an improvement in counts of resident water birds and migratory birds last year, once again is seeing less number of species this year. According to the experts, a major reason for this is unsuccessful annual breeding and dried up wetlands
“Last year, the pandemic lockdown led to a positive impact and observed partially improved and undisturbed sanctuary habitat due to least human intervention. However, in 2021, there was a negative impact on the habitat due to many human threats. Another reason was large unsuccessful annual breeding of the resident birds, resulting in decreased population. Breeding of animals takes place once a year and if it is hampered, the population cannot increase,” said Ecologist and Conversationalist with Asian Waterbird Census TK Roy.
During the autumn season, many long distant winter migratory birds arrive in the sanctuary. But at the same time, often the water level of the wetlands fluctuates or dries up.
“Okhla Bird Sanctuary is a manmade bird sanctuary. The Okhla Dam on Yamuna was built for the purpose of water supply for irrigation, which was later declared as Okhla Bird Sanctuary under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Main water source for the sanctuary is under the control of UP Irrigation Dept, so as per their requirement, the water level is maintained to up or down. Due to this unfavourable habitat, the resident water birds are forced to leave the sanctuary,” Roy added.
The regular winter migratory water birds are Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintail, Eurasian Coot, Pallas’s Gull, among others and terrestrial winter migratory birds are Black Redstart, Eurasian Hobby, among others.
