Migratory Birds Arrive in India
2009-11-19 11:35
These winged visitors from Siberia, China, central Asia and northern Europe add color to Indian Kashmir's wetlands and fresh water lakes. The birds began their flight to Kashmir in early September and will stay here till spring.
Here at the Hokersar wetlands some of the migratory bird species visiting include waterfowl, shoveller, white-eyed pochard and greylag.
[Ghulam Hassan Dar, Wildlife Guard]:
"You can see that so many birds are here at present, namely mallard, pintail, godwall, geese. About 450,000 birds are here already."
Wetland authorities are hopeful that the migratory birds will surpass last year's record of 900,000 birds.
Bird poachers are a big concern for authorities.
[Ghulam Ahmed Lone, Wildlife Warden]:
"We are taking anti-poaching measures here at this time. During the militancy period we couldn't conduct night patrolling. But now that difficulty is gone. Our staff members go there for night patrolling and during the evening as well. Our staff members have helped us in decreasing the number of poachers. And even if at any point of time we catch hold of a poacher, we would take strict action as per the wildlife act."
In the Kashmir valley there are four more wetland areas, besides the Hokersar, that are also visited every year by the thousands of migratory birds.
