Bird flu | The Bar Headed Goose and its strong link with Pong Dam Lake in Himachal
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In an unfolding avian-flu disaster, a considerable variety of this high-altitude hen which descends on this wetland each winter and provides to its attraction have perished alongside with different hen species
Gagan Bedi needs {that a} specific element of his first journey to Pong Dam Lake could possibly be undone.
For lengthy, this wetland in Himachal Pradesh was flapping excessive on Gagan’s must-visit record. An eBirder from Faridkot, Punjab, Gagan felt pulled in the direction of Pong Dam Lake primarily for a surefire winter present by the high-flying Bar Headed Goose.
Soaring over the Himalayan vary on its strategy to its winter haunts in components of India, together with sections of the South, this species would comfortably make it to the top-five avians for high-altitude flying. It has the right adaptation to thrive in low-oxygen situations at larger altitudes.
High-altitude birds
“Bar Headed Geese breed in high-altitude wetlands that are up at 4,000 to 5,000 metres,” says Pankaj Chandan, who leads WWF-India’s work in the Western Himalayas, together with its flagship high-altitude wetlands conservation programme.
Pankaj provides, “One of the highest flying birds of the world, the Bar Headed Goose has been sighted flying above Mount Everest. They are high-altitude birds breeding in the high places, but during winter, they come down.”
Pankaj attracts consideration to how a Bar Headed Goose that was fitted out with a collar by the Himachal Pradesh Forest Department and Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) at Nagrota Surian in Pong Dam Lake space, confirmed up at Jammu and later in Ladakh.
“We found the collared bird at Jammu, when we were conducting a bird survey with the forest department there; and then the same bird was tracked to Tsokar in Ladakh, during a bird survey conducted along with its forest department. Both sightings happened in the same year, January and May 2013, respectively. The Bar Headed Geese breed in the high-altitude wetlands of Tsokar in Ladakh, and winter in Jammu and also at Pong Dam Lake,” explains Pankaj.
Huge congregations
The hen appears to have established Pong Dam Lake because the ‘capital’ of its winter kingdom, 12 months after 12 months, as sights of crowded flocks of Bar Headed Geese, squatting beak-to-tail, will not be unusual. The wetland is claimed to carry the document for internet hosting the most important congregation of Bar-headed Geese.
A Bar Headed Goose floating useless in the waters at Pong Dam Lake on December 31, 2020. Photo: Gagan Bedi
Now, On New Year’s eve, Gagan was at Dalhousie with his household, and he efficiently cajoled them into letting him stretch the holiday by 130 kilometres. Having come so near Pong Dam Lake, it might be a disgrace to not put in these further 4 hours of drive, and cross paths with Bar-headed Geese and different migratory birds.
The first go to left him unhappy. On hindsight, the tragedy is way worse than it first appeared. It was December 31 when he visited the lake, and the bird-flu outbreak had not been confirmed but. In the times that adopted, just a few useless specimens of the Bar Headed Goose would attain the National Institute of High Security Animal Disease (NIHSAD) — which comes beneath the Indian Council of Agricultural Research — discovered optimistic for H5N1. Following this, Pong Dam Lake could be made out of bounds for all, apart from these authorised by the federal government for bird-flu containment work.
So, that afternoon, when 2020 was in its dying embers, Gagan managed to have a toe-hold in the wetland, and in the quick peek that adopted, snapped just a few fast pictures. There had been just a few useless birds in the waters and outdoors, recollects Gagan.
He posted a guidelines of the residing birds he counted, on eBird, the final to have emerged from Pong Dam Lake earlier than the bird-flu was confirmed.
The cache of different photographs that sit in the reminiscence card, embody certainly one of a Bar Headed Goose hopelessly grounded, its invoice seemingly pegged into the muddy earth, in all probability whereas in the throes of loss of life. Another picture reveals a Bar Headed Goose floating useless in the waters.
“These sights were extremely painful,” notes Gagan. Over the week, the loss of life toll of birds on the wetland has been rising, with the Bar Headed Goose accounting for a considerable variety of it. In the early a part of the catastrophe, movies of dying Bar Headed Geese from the wetland emerged, main the birding group throughout the nation to tut-tut pitiably over what they noticed.
A vibrant presence
Bar Headed Goose is a vibrant species, able to electrifying the waterbodies they’re discovered in. With the black bars on their head, and the sample on their neck, the hen is sort of a sight to behold, charming not solely birders but in addition the agricultural populace in their wintering grounds.
“Some of the Bar Headed Geese breeding in Tibet and in far-off places in Central Asia move right up to Karnataka and Odisha during winter,” says Pankaj.
M.S. Darshan is a birder from Mysuru who works at Chennai’s IT Corridor, and when he’s again house for a break throughout winter, he’s assured of a birding attraction round 18 kilometres away at a lake in the village Hadinaru, which interprets to “16” in Kannada.
A flock of Bar Headed Geese at Hadinaru Kere, close to Mysuru. Photo: M.S. Darshan
“Hadinaru Kere, as the lake is called, is well-preserved. Though villagers catch fish in the lake, they are aware that the Bar Headed Geese come from far away and these villagers cause them no harm,” says Darshan.
“From mid-December, the Bar Headed Geese come in, flock-by-flock. In February, their numbers could reach 350-400. Among these birds many collared birds, particularly those with green-coloured collars, are also documented. The Bar Headed Geese usually start their return journey by February-end or the beginning of March. A few birds start their journey bit late,” Darshan elaborates.
Rakesh Ahlawat, discipline assistant at Nature Conservation Foundation and a birdwatcher from Dighal, factors out that at this village in Jhajjar district of Haryana, each winter, many ponds would resonate with the grunts of Bar Headed Geese.
“In Dighal, Bar Headed Geese start flying in from late October, and stay on till late February, and most of them would be in by November-end,” says Rakesh. “Villagers may make use of any of these ponds to provide water to their cattle, but they make sure these birds are not disturbed.”
Dighal attracts birdwaters from close to and far, because the village is thought to throw up avian surprises. To illustrate, Rakesh recollects his sighting of a Horned Grebe there in 2017. The sighting has been documented.
Says Rakesh, “Birders visiting Dighal create awareness about migratory birds, particularly the Bar Headed Geese. Just before I got into birding, which was around 2010, there were a few cases of Bar Headed Geese being hunted. I had taken it up with the villagers, and birders would also talk about protecting these birds, and understanding dawned. These birds are now absolutely safe in Dighal, and they are quite bold around humans, staying within a distance of 50 feet from them.”
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