600,000 MIGRATORY BIRDS IN KASHMIR

600,000 MIGRATORY BIRDS IN KASHMIR

This premier wetland in Srinagar is in the prime of its beauty these days -- it is host to more than 600,000 migratory birds, with the numbers swelling with each passing day.Each year, thousands of migratory birds leave their summer homes in Russian Siberia, the Phillipines, eastern Europe, China and Japan, flying thousands of miles by navigating their long arduous journeys through instinct, to reach their winter homes in the valley.'By the middle of this month, more than 600,000 migratory birds, including greylag geese, mallards, gadwalls, garganeys, pochards, grebes, wigeons, shovellers, teals, coots and pintails, have reached this bird reserve.

'We have around 4,000-5,000 greylag geese in the reserve this time and more are arriving each day,' Wildlife Warden (Wetlands) Rouf Zargar said, adding his department has formed special anti-poaching patrols to check illegal hunting of the birds outside the reserve. Bird hunting was banned in Jammu and Kashmir in 2001.'We have seized many weapons of poachers who have been produced before the courts for the offence. Bird protection has to be a communal effort and all of us have to understand that our survival is directly linked to the well-being of wild animals and birds around us,' the warden asserted.

Encouragingly, some migratory bird species like the purple moorhens have started living inside this bird reserve as residents.'We have around 50,000 purple moorhens in the reserve this time. They lay eggs inside and bring up their chicks,' said Muhammad Ramzan, a forester at the reserve.'Initially, they used to be migratory in nature, but for the last six years they have changed their habits and live as resident birds here.'

                                                            Prof. John Kurakar