Migratory birds start flocking Harike

GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 25

With the advent of winter, rare migratory birds have started flocking at different zones of Harike, popularly known as Hari-ke-Pattan falling in Tarn Taran district.

A number of birds from Siberia, Kazakhstan, Europe and other low temperature regions have arrived in the last week of October at the wetland where Sutlej and Beas rivers merge.

WWF’s Field Researcher on Bio-monitoring Indian rivers project Geetanjali Kanwar said though the census for migratory birds was yet to be conducted, many species of birds have started coming to Harike with the change of whether.

She said species like Ruddy shelduck have arrived from Ladakh and Sikkim. So have Gulls, Terns Ruff and Reeve from the Arctic Tundra region.

Similarly, Egrets, Spoon Bill, Coots from other water bodies within India, could also be spotted enjoying in different zones of the 41-sq km area of the lake. It touches Ferozepur, Tarn Taran and Kapurthala.

Such a large number of migratory birds preferring the Harike lake as their winter destination testified that it still hold flora and fauna.

“They start arriving in October-end and will stay here till March. Hundreds of other bird species are expected to reach in coming days. The highest congregation would be witnessed in January. We have also spotted Black-headed Ibis, Woolly-necked stork, from within India, were also there in number of groups”, she said.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Kuldeep Kumar Lomis said teams had been on alert 24X7 to have hawk eye on poaching incidents, as many bird species were rare and endangered ones. Hence, their survival holds was of utmost importance.