Army of young birders watch over Mangar Bani in Haryana
MANGAR (HARYANA): The first glimmering rays of the sun had just lit up the forest of Mangar Bani. A group of local school children, hailing from an adjoining nondescript village, gathered in a corner.
They spoke in whispers, moved around with measured steps as they followed the forest trails and stopped with every sight or call of a bird they saw.
“Did you hear that? Tell me which bird is that? Do you remember the scientific name of the bird I told you?” asked Peeyush Sekhsaria, a Delhi-based birder.
“It is the Indian paitta sir,” said Sunny Kumar, a Class 6 student as his eyes lit up with excitement. The kid was, however, unable to recall the scientific name. Peeyush reminded him: “It is the Pitta brachyuran.”
This time the kid and his friends wrote it down.
A beautiful valley amid the old Aravalli ranges, Mangar Bani is perhaps one of the last green patches between Delhi, the world’s most polluted city, and the growing concrete jungle of Gurugram.
Over the years it has been preserved by the local Gujjar community and attracts a lot of birds — indigenous and migratory.
Over the past year, experienced birders from Delhi and its satellite towns have been visiting this pristine patch and training children from the local Mangar Bani government school all about birding and nature conservation.
“Every weekend, we get around 20 to 25 participants, all aged below 15 years. They are all students of a local government school. Not all come regularly and every week we see some new faces. Around 10 to 12 of them form the core team and come regularly,” said Sohail Madan, one of the trainers from Bombay Natural History Society, who had played a key role in making this project a success.
Unlike their urban counterparts who usually fail to identify birds beyond the common ones such as parrot, hornbill, peacock and pigeons, these kids, who live near forest, seem to know each and every bird that inhabits the Mangar not just by their sight but even their calls — Rufous treepie, Green bee-eater, Whitethroated kingfisher and Coppersmith barbet among others.
“I can also see a Chestnust shouldered petronia. It has the yellow patch on its throat. Oh there I can also see a Purple sunbird on that branch,” whispered Jatin Harsana, a student of Class 8, as he looked through a binocular.
Others looked in the direction Jatin pointed out, waiting for their turn at the binocular. The regular kids have been given binoculars and guidebooks so that they can do some homework.
“Over last one year, we have been regularly taking them out on birding trips. The regular ones can identify the birds from their calls and can tell the scientific names. The trips are organised every weekend. Local experts such as Vinod Ahlawat, a school teacher and Sunil Harsana, a local conservationist, take the lead,” said Pankaj Gupta, a birder from the Delhi Bird Foundation.
This year they participated in the summer bird count. Led by three birders, the kids, around 25 of them, fanned out in various directions and counted the number of species that inhabits the forest.
Pristine forest patches such as the Mangar Bani act as critical aquifers to recharge groundwater for the Capital and Gurugram. A 2016 notification by the Haryana government declared the area a “no-construction zone”, demarcating a 500-metre buffer zone around the core area which measures more than 650 acres.
“The future of these forest patches would depend a lot on how these kids, who are our future generation, see it. Such activities are crucial. Such activities would help us ensure we are leaving our forests in safe hands,” said Chetan Agarwal, an environment analyst.