GUWAHATI: The fifth census of migratory birds and a festival on the conservation of winged species at Kaziranga National Park in Assam with the participation of hundreds of enumerators, students, and volunteers, ended on January 10.
The two-day festival, which started on Tuesday, celebrated the avian diversity, conservation efforts and the collective excitement of bird enthusiasts, enumerators and volunteers from diverse backgrounds.
The bird count will take place at more than 100 identified wetlands in the Eastern Assam, Nagaon and Biswanath wildlife divisions of Kaziranga National Park & Tiger Reserve (KNPTR).
Assam Environment and Forest Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary inaugurated the Bird Conservation Festival at the UNESCO World Heritage Site on Tuesday.
The methodology used was a combination of Science and conservation outreach as it aims to sensitise especially college students and forest frontline to bird identification.
Support of bird experts, scientists, researchers, and forest officers were taken for the overall enumeration.
As a sampling strategy, all wetlands above 10 ha and within 1 km of the buffer of KNPTR boundary were also selected for the enumeration.
Certain wetlands of importance but smaller in area were selected. The enumeration in the core area was exclusively carried out by Forest frontline staff. In the buffer and tourism zone, the student volunteers were actively encouraged to participate.
For each wetland, one enumerator & three volunteers were assigned the responsibility for the count. Kit bags were also provided by the Park authorities comprising of binoculars, spotting scope, datasheets, etc.
In the Eastern Assam Wildlife Division, 53 enumerators are engaged for 71 wetlands. At the Nagaon Wildlife Division, 23 are surveying 22 wetlands, while 31 have been conducting the exercise for 25 wetlands of the Biswanath Wildlife Division.
During the 4th enumeration in 2021-22, 66,776 wetbirds were spotted in KNPTR, as per official reports.
The two-day festival highlighted the rich avifauna of the region with the participation of enumerators hailing from various corners of the state.