Kaziranga waterfowl species count increases to 112
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Park authorities stated higher conservation of wetlands within the rhino area has attracted extra birds, together with the painted stork and Tundra swan for the primary time
The variety of waterfowl species within the 1,302 sq km Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve has elevated to 112, the third annual estimation of aquatic birds within the one-horned rhino habitat has revealed.
The survey was carried out over two days from February 6 by 35 groups comprising observers, enumerators, volunteers and media personnel. The report was launched on Tuesday.
Officials stated a complete of 93,491 birds belonging to 112 species and 22 households had been recorded. The highest variety of species was from the household anatidae comprising geese and geese.
The whole wetland birds counted was nearly thrice the quantity — 34,284 belonging to 96 species — through the second census in 2020 and 9 occasions that of the ten,412 recorded through the baseline survey in 2018.
The waterfowls counted in 2018 belonged to 80 species underneath 21 households.
“The increase in the bird count can be attributed to better conservation of water bodies and lesser human interference within the 482 sq km core area of the park and sensitive areas beyond,” Kaziranga’s Field Director P. Sivakumar instructed The Puucho.
The 116-year-old Kaziranga has 92 everlasting and greater than 250 seasonal water our bodies in addition to streams and rivers such because the Diffolu meandering via it. Attention from the park’s “big five” – rhino, elephant, Bengal tiger, Asiatic water buffalo and swamp deer – was additionally given to waterfowls in view of their ecological significance.
“Data on avian wealth is important because the wetlands nourish Kaziranga’s ecosystem. Increase or decrease in the number of birds is indicative of the park’s health,” Rabindra Sarma, the park’s analysis officer, stated.
Notably, the realm underneath wetlands in Kaziranga decreased from 8.5% of the overall space to 6.7% over a interval of 30 years until 1977. Efforts to examine siltation, erosion and fragmentation of the ‘beels’ (wetlands) and take away invasive species of crops have breathed recent life into the park’s ecosystem, officers stated.
Most of the birds had been recorded in Kaziranga’s Agoratoli Range due to Sohola, the biggest of the park’s 92 perennial wetlands, located there. The Laokhowa-Burachapori stretch on the western edge had a sizeable quantity too.
Mr. Sivakumar stated the Eurasian coot accounted for greater than 50% of the birds enumerated. A complete of fifty,432 Eurasian coots had been counted adopted by the bar-headed geese at 7,860 and customary teal at 4,667 adopted by the northern pintail.
Among the six new species recorded in Kaziranga this time had been the painted stork and Tundra duck.
The different species with sizeable numbers embrace gadwall, frequent coot, lesser whistling duck, Indian spot-billed duck, little cormorant, ferruginous duck, tufted duck, Eurasian wigeon, Asian openbill, northern lapwing, ruddy shelduck and spot-billed pelican.
Kaziranga, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1985, is taken into account probably the greatest conserved wildlife preserves on earth.