Winged visitors’ count may dip at Pong

Rajiv Mahajan

Nurpur, December 24

Due to mild weather conditions in their native habitat, migratory birds’ count in the Pong wetland is likely to come down this year.

The field staff of the Wildlife Wing of the state Forest Department has, so far, estimated the arrival of migratory birds of around 70-75 species at 65,000 in the wetland until December 15. Earlier, the Wildlife Department used to undertake the exercise for birds’ count in the last week of January every year, but the existing trend of birds’ inflow indicates dip in the count this year.

Presently, the field staff of the Wildlife Wing is estimating the birds’ count on a weekly basis, which was earlier done on the fortnightly basis.

Migratory birds coming from Siberia, Mongolia, Tibet, China, Pakistan and Iraq throng the Pong Lake on the foothills of Kangra valley with the onset of winter making this wetland eco-friendly. These birds used to return to their native countries in March with the onset of spring.

Sprawling over an area of 24,529 hectares in the Jawali, Dehra, Nurpur and Fatehpur sub-divisions, the lake has become a major attraction for tourists visiting the hill state. The final estimation count of migratory birds undertaken in January last year was 1.27 lakh birds of 93 species.

The wildlife authorities have undertaken a number of steps to check the poaching of migratory birds. According to Krishan Kumar, Divisional Forest Officer, Wildlife, Hamirpur, the department had started random day and night patrolling and outsourced anti-poaching workers to keep a close vigil on poaching activity at the Pong lake.