Savita Kovind inaugurates Chandigarh Bird Park

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 16

Savita Kovind, First Lady of India, inaugurated the ‘Chandigarh Bird Park’ in the presence of Pushpa Devi Purohit, wife of UT Administrator Banwarilal Purohit.

The Department of Forest and Wildlife, UT, has developed the Bird Park at Nagar Van behind Sukhna Lake for creating awareness among general public towards bird conservation, especially the young minds on nature education and conservation. These aviaries have been created for the exotic birds which are commonly bred in India.

The park’s lush green spaces are covered by terrestrial plants, ferns, shrubs, bushes, aquatic plants, trees and creepers to provide every bird with an environment that is perfectly suited to its unique needs. Herbs, shrubs and trees have been planted to suit the birds’ natural habitat.

Savita Kovind visited the entire park and appreciated the efforts made by the Forest Department. She shared that the bird park would help to draw the attention of amateur bird watchers, environmentalists and ornithologists to this planned urban city where visitors can enjoy the nature amidst the winged friends. The facility so created with lot of commitment and professionalism will definitely go a long way in the history, she added.

Debendra Dalai, Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden, UT, informed that the Forest Department has established bird park over an area of 6.5 acres behind Sukhna Lake which has been developed by providing ample space for each and every bird with 58 feet flying height with total ground area nearly 200×150 feet each for terrestrial birds and aquatic birds. The facility has got two small aviaries and two walk through aviaries. The structure is designed in a way that it surrounds thousands of plants of varying canopies, which gives an ideal habitat, food and shelter for these birds so that they can freely fly and breed. It is believed that this structure would be the tallest structure of the country in aviary domain for the exotic birds. He further added the park has also a cafeteria and a souvenir shop. In order to avoid crowding inside the aviary the visitors can visit the park in different time slots from November 17 onwards.

The event was also attended by Dharam Pal, Adviser to the Administrator, Nitin Kumar Yadav, Secretary (Environment & Forests), Mandip Singh Brar, Deputy Commissioner, Nitika Pawar, Director (Tourism), Dr Abdul Qayum, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Jaswinder Kaur, MD CITCO, and other officers of Chandigarh Administration.