Asian Waterbird Census: Bird species density dips sharply at Okhla sanctuary

What is the News?

The findings of the Asian Waterbird Census 2022 have been released.

What is Asian Waterbird Census?

Asian Waterbird Census(AWC) was started in 1987. It is an annual exercise to count the waterbirds and monitor the wetlands for conservation of migratory birds and their habitats along the Central Asian Flyway.

The census is conducted by wetlands International and forms part of a global waterbird monitoring programme called the International Waterbird Census(IWC).

In India, AWC is coordinated by the Wetlands International South Asia and the Bombay Natural History Society. 

Note: In this article, the census has revealed their findings for the wetlands in Delhi-NCR namely: Okhla Bird Sanctuary, Sanjay Lake and Hastinapur Wildlife Sanctuary.

What are the findings of the census?

Okhla Bird Sanctuary: It has seen a drastic drop in species density of birds this season. Only 47 species of migratory and resident birds were sighted, against 73 last year. Only one migratory species — northern shoveler — had arrived in large numbers recently.

Sanjay Lake: It found lower waterbird species diversity when compared to the count from the past three years. The two migratory species recorded were the Great Cormorant, which migrates from Southeast Asia and the Eurasian Coot, which migrates from Temperate Asia. 

Hastinapur Wildlife Sanctuary: It has reported better waterbird species diversity, from 38 last year to 45 this year. 

Source: This post is based on the article ‘Delhi: Bird species density dips sharply at Okhla sanctuary’ published in TOI on 8th Jan 2022.