Yashwant Sagar, declared as one of the 19
important bird areas of MP, has seen a steep downfall in population of Saras
Crane. This was disclosed by scientist Dr KS Gopi Sundar in his lecture on ‘SarusScape:
conserving water birds in agriculture areas’ organised by The Nature Volunteers
at Pritam Lal Dua auditorium on Thursday.
“The last time I came to Indore for a bird
survey in 1998, there were 170 cranes at Yashwant Sagar and now, it is has been
recorded as 50 only,” Sundar said. He estimated the reason to be excessive use
of pesticides in the area and use of lake bed for agriculture.
“The biggest threat for birds is not
hunting, it is urbanisation,” Sundar said. He shared that many storks were
estimated to be close to extinction with drop in population.
In the video documentary shared by him, it
showed that Woolly Necked Storks were estimated to be about 35,000 only. The
survey was done in wetlands all over the country.
“The problem was that nobody looks for the
storks in agricultural land, people though that such water birds only live in
wetlands,” Sundar explained. He quoted the importance of agricultural land for
water birds, especially for breeding.
“Further, when the Woolly Necked Storks
were surveyed in agricultural lands, the number went over 1.5 lakh,” Sundar
said. He explained that many
“According to our surveys, most water birds
including Saras Crane and Woolly Necked Storks are mostly found in agricultural
lands in Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra,” Sundar
said.
He added that until recently, large water birds
were thought to require large wetland areas with minimal human disturbance to
survive and breed successfully. Studies on these birds in Uttar Pradesh have
changed that perception radically.
“A few districts in the southwestern part
of UP host densities of many species of water birds matching or even exceeding
densities recorded for similar birds in protected and managed wetland areas
elsewhere,” Sundar said.
He added that breeding densities and
population of even the lofty Sarus Crane in these districts are among the highest
for any crane species anywhere, and the state is home to the largest known
population of this species.