A total of 131 types of bird species were recorded in Wardha district during the celebration of Bird Week. All bird species are recorded on the World e-Bird website. Bird watchers of Wardha district recorded winter and local migratory, vulnerable and endangered bird species. It may be noted that Maharashtra is the only State to celebrate Bird Week. Staring from the birthday of renowned nature writer Maruti Chitampalli on November 5 to world renowned ornithologist, Padma Vibhushan awardee Dr Salim Ali’s birth anniversary on November 12, the Bird Week was celebrated in Wardha district under guidance of Maharashtra Pakshimitra Association for a week with the aim of creating awareness, protection and conservation of birds.

 

Nisargasathi organisation and forest lovers group from Hinganghat tehsil participated in this. Birds were observed in 17 different habitats of Wardha district during Bird Week. It mainly includes Sirud Lake, Bor Tiger Reserve, Madan Lake, Dam at Yelakeli, Wardha River area near Pulgaon village and city area, Oxygen Park for Medical Awareness, Self It includes Uttamrao Patil Biodiversity Park, Sevagram Hospital premises as well as village, open space near Salod village and Vaifd Lake. Among the bird species are birds included in IUCN’s vulnerable species - ‘nadi surya’, near-endangered species like Painted Stork, Oriental Darter, Asian Woolly-Neck Stork were spotted. Winter migratory birds like Ruddy Shelduck, Eurasian Wig-eon, Red-throated Flycatcher, Red-breasted Flycatcher, Blue rock Thrush, White-browed Wagtail, Western-yellow Wagtail and White Wagtail, Little Ringed Plover, Kentish Plover were seen. However, as the arrival of winter has been delayed in this parts of the world, migratory birds are yet to arrive. Wardha’s city bird Indian Roller and Maharashtra’s state bird Yellow-footed Green Pigeon and India's national bird Peacock were also spotted. Nocturnal birds such as Indian Nightjar, Indian Scopes Owl, Spotted Owlet, Mottled Wood Owl were also recorded.

 

Purple and black grouse were found on the lake. Besides, Grey Francoline and Barred Buttonquail were seen. Local migratory birds like Asian Green Bee-eater, Eastern Red-rumped Swallow, Streak-throated Swallow, Small Pratincole were found in large numbers. Veda Raghu, ‘Lal Budya Bulbul’, ‘Titvi’, Parrot, red-breasted flycatcher, Small Brown pigeon were found in almost all habitats. In various programmes of the bird week, wildlife photographer and bird expert from Wardha, Rahul Vakare, Dr Chetna Ugle, Pratik Pal, Chitra and Pramod Ingole, Srikant Wagh, Amol Muneshwar, Vinod Salve, Gyan Chand Gadwani, Ashok Bhanse, Prashant Kakade, Pravin Kadu, President of Nisargasathi Sansthan, Dr Balaji Rajurkar, Prabhakar Kolse, Nijayuddin Siddiqui, Prof Sulabha Kadu, Rajshree Virulkar, Sangita Maskar, Panchsheel Thul, Dr Rupal Kothari, Dr Prashant Kothari, Dr Belekar, Prashant Hivanj, Vasudev Padve, Former Mayor of Hinganghat Ed Bird watchers like Rajendra Daga, Mangesh Chavade, Abhijit Dakhore, Vendati Kadu etc. participated and observed the birds.

 

Bird species are threatened by many factors such as large-scale deforestation, felling of trees, excessive use of pesticides, increase in global temperature, large-scale fishing in lakes, and excessive use of concretisation in the city. Every citizen should maintain biodiversity as his duty. Also, the government needs to take concrete steps for environment conservation. Rahul Vakare, Vidarbha Coordinator of Nagpur Division of Maharashtra ‘Pakshimitra’ in Wardha has appealed to the citizens to contribute to maintaining the balance of the environment.