JALANDHAR: Sharp decline in the number and diversity of migratory birds, as well as, native species at Kanjhli Wetland in Kapurthala has been reported this year during Asian Waterbird Census (AWC). The AWC is part of the International Waterbird Census (IWC) of Wetlands International and largest water bird census in Asia. Kanjhli Wetland is one among 26 Ramsar sites in India and smallest wetland out of three Ramsar Sites in Punjab.
This year only three birds of a long distance migratory bird species have been spotted while last year five species were spotted here. Even the number of birds of the resident species has gone down drastically. While previous year 14 Eurasian Coot, which migrate from temperate Asia, were spotted, this year their number was only five. Even dominating resident species Common Moorhen's population also sharply decreased to 90 this time from 161 last year.
The decline in total population of the birds at the site has been around 50% this year in comparison to last year as this year only 110 birds were spotted against 232 last year. In fact, the decline is even bigger if seen against 2016 census when total 263 birds were spotted.
Other long distance migratory species, Northern Shoveler, Northern Pintail, Gadwal, and Common Teal were not seen this year. In fact last year one bird of Common Pochard, a threatened species, was also seen.
"90% surface area of this wetland is thickly covered by water hyacinth which has highly degraded the wetland habitat for water birds and biodiversity," said ecologist T K Roy, who is AWC Delhi state coordinator and led the census with a team of volunteers. "One can understand that numbers and diversity might be coming down to global climate change impact shrinking wetland habitats, lacking food habitats and changing migration trends of long distant winter migratory birds. However, the habitat at Kanjhli has badly deteriorated as birds might not be spotting it as a water body," he added.
AWC 2018 at Kanjli Wetland was carried out jointly with Punjab wildlife department and with support from Phillaur wildlife division in participation of a dedicated census team of volunteers from DAV University, Jalandhar, and wildlife department's staff volunteers on January 16.
AWC is part of the IWC of Wetlands International and largest water bird census in Asia which is carried out simultaneously in 27 countries once in a year in the month of January across Asia and Australasia by national network of volunteers and conservation organizations in coordination of national coordinator and state coordinators. Overall, AWC coordinator network is facilitated by Wetlands International South Asia office, to record overall water birds diversity with population and wetland site information, to maintain an overview of the population size, status and trends of water birds.
