NGO announces plan to revive state bird ‘Baaj’

To mark the 350th martyrdom day of Guru Tegh Bahadur, NGO Eco Sikh, in collaboration with the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), on Wednesday announced plans to revive and rehabilitate Guru Gobind Singh’s “Baaj” (northern goshawk).

In 2015, the government had issued a notification declaring that northern goshawk was the state bird, correcting the anomaly in the notification dated March 15, 1989. The latter had named eastern goshawk as the official bird.

Dr Rajwant Singh, global president of EcoSikh, said, “As the bird is on the verge of extinction, we have a major plan aimed at its revival. The idea is to rehabilitate ‘Baaj’ and Shaheen Baaj, another falcon breed.”

“It is unfortunate that this important symbol of the great Guru and Punjab’s official state bird has now vanished from the state’s skies due to habitat loss, illegal trade and pollutants,” he said adding that the NGO was in talks to set up breeding centre of “Baaj” at Chattbir Zoo.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Dharminder Sharma said, “Whenever any such proposal comes, we forward it to the state government. We are inclined to revive the bird”.

Punjab has a falcon breeding centre at the Chhatbir Zoo but it has no ‘baaj’. In July 2011, the department drafted a proposal to exchange creatures with the Lahore Zoo. However, the plan failed to materialise due to diplomatic issues.