Bird festival on February 2 at Okhla sanctuary
NOIDA: The divisional forest department is all set to celebrate a bird festival at Okhla bird sanctuary to commemorate International Wetland Day on February 2, officials said.
According to officials, several birders have been invited for a quick assessment of the species density in the sanctuary.
“We have planned the event to spread awareness about wetlands and also assess the species density in the sanctuary. For this, invitations are being sent to different birders of the city, as Gautam Budh Nagar happens to have a good birding community. We have also sent an invitation to the minister of state for forest, environment and zoological garden, Anil Sharma,” said PK Srivastava, divisional forest officer, Gautam Budh Nagar.
He added that the birding would help the department with constructive analysis, which may help it to take measures to
improve the habitat of the sanctuary.
Earlier in January, the Asian Waterbird Census (AWC)-2021, which was conducted by Wetlands International South Asia and the divisional forest department fund, showed that while the number of species in the sanctuary has increased since
last year, their population has decreased. The census returned a total 8,068 birds across 73 species, of which 27 were residential and 46 were migratory species. The AWC-2020 in comparison recorded only 62 species – 28 of which were resident species and 34 were migratory. However, their population stood at 8,776.