3,800 winged visitors spotted at Ropar wetland

Tribune News Service

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Ropar/Nangal, January 5

As many as 3,808 birds, including migratory birds of 57 species, were counted during a bird census at the Ropar wetland today. The census was conducted by the Wildlife Department in collaboration with Chandigarh Bird Club, Nangal-based NGO Jagriti Santha and other bird watchers.

It was for the first time that common shelducks were also seen at Ropar. During the census, a total of 795 ruddy shelduck were found in the wetland. The number of red-crested pochard and bar-headed geese was found to be 631 and 598, respectively.

The bird census was also conducted at national wetland and National Fertlizers Limited’s ash pond yesterday. There, a total of 5,893 birds of 50 species were found. These include common coots (1,967), gadwal (602), common pochard (311) northern shoveler (291), and bar-headed geese (278).

Reema Dhillon, Sarabjit Kaur and Amandeep Singh of Chandigarh Bird Club; Parbhat Bhatti Dr GS Chatha and Dr Sanjeev Gautam from the Jagriti Sanstha, Nangal; bird watcher Jaspreet Singh; Wildlife Department Divisional Forest Officer Monica Yadav; and Range Officer Surjit Singh participated in the census.