World parrot day: Parakeets shrinking population because of forest dept negligence goes unnoticed and garbs under bird flu in Madhya Pradesh
World Parrot Day
The colourful birds spreading their wings and delighting every birder with its song, a blend of gurgles and trills to whistles and squawks. Parrots or parakeets play an essential role in ecological cycle, but this year, we cannot even determine how many have passed away.
Over 400 birds lost their lives to bird flu outbreak in the starting of 2021. While many parrots escaped this and flew away to forests, many passed away there as well mostly from dehydration. Since Indore forest division could not care less and ignored the need of providing water to birds and animals in forest, many such birds have died.
Not even exact number can be predicted as these little beautiful birds are eaten by large predators much before any human can detect them.
Every year of 31st May world Parrot day celebrated across the world to spread the awareness & conservation of these species.
All the species of Parrots found in southern hemisphere of the earth in the tropical regions where these species flourish well, specially Latin America , Africa, south east asia & Australian pacific region.
Currently 356 species of Parrot exist in the world and 123 species are threatened one (IUCN red list) i.e. 34.6% which is biggest in any avian species, that is mostly due to habitat loss, large scale trading as its one of the most caged species (pet animal) due to all this leads to decrease in the population of these species in the wild.
In India, we have 11 species of Parrots/parakeet & 3 species found in & around Indore region, namely – Rose ringed parakeet, Alexandrine parakeet & Plum-headed parakeet.
Forest dept negligence shrinks population with no water sources
For the last two years, forest department has ignored the need for providing water to birds or animals in forest. This is affecting not just forest animals and their population but also city dwelling birds.
Protected parakeets residing in Indore also visit the forest every day for water and other resources. However, even if many have passed away, it’s easy to blame the shrinking population to bird flu this year.
Even 2200 city dweller Rose ringed parakeets in Indore fly to forest range for water
Nature & wildlife conservation & awareness team (NWCAS) studied the city dweller Rose ringed parakeet which are well adapted the city crowded atmosphere and use the trees around Regal square, Gandhi hall & Railway station for the roosting, every evening they come to these places for the roosting and go to feeding sites in the morning & they have been adapted this pattern from quiet long time.
“In our study we found that their roosting sites are at East-north directions & they go in west-south direction for the feeding specially in the Mhow-Manpur forest area where they look for food in near about jungles, agricultural fields and water from the near about ponds at there,” Ravi Sharma, president of NWCAS, said.
He added that they had counted of 1951 numbers during their return flight to roosting sites so our estimation of around 2,000 to 2200 rose ringed parakeet which gather in above stated roosting sites.
Parakeets could sense Tauktae
One of interesting facts we also noted that on the day when cyclone Tauktae hit the coastal region of Gujarat, all the parakeet were back to roosting sites almost 20-25 minutes before their usual time, on that day in evening weather was cloudy & windy hence they had anticipated all these & worked accordingly.
Poaching of parakeets & selling continues…
Poaching and selling of parakeets for large sum of money also continues in Indore and other districts of Madhya Pradesh.
About 28 parakeet parrots of rare species were seized from the smugglers by the Indore team of the Special Task Force (Forest) in the last month of 2020. The parrots were trapped and set to be sold for five lakh rupees.
During interrogation, the smugglers confessed stealing the parrots from Khivni Sanctuary in Dewas.
The colourful birds spreading their wings and delighting every birder with its song, a blend of gurgles and trills to whistles and squawks. Parrots or parakeets play an essential role in ecological cycle, but this year, we cannot even determine how many have passed away.
Over 400 birds lost their lives to bird flu outbreak in the starting of 2021. While many parrots escaped this and flew away to forests, many passed away there as well mostly from dehydration. Since Indore forest division could not care less and ignored the need of providing water to birds and animals in forest, many such birds have died.
Not even exact number can be predicted as these little beautiful birds are eaten by large predators much before any human can detect them.
Every year of 31st May world Parrot day celebrated across the world to spread the awareness & conservation of these species.
All the species of Parrots found in southern hemisphere of the earth in the tropical regions where these species flourish well, specially Latin America , Africa, south east asia & Australian pacific region.
Currently 356 species of Parrot exist in the world and 123 species are threatened one (IUCN red list) i.e. 34.6% which is biggest in any avian species, that is mostly due to habitat loss, large scale trading as its one of the most caged species (pet animal) due to all this leads to decrease in the population of these species in the wild.
In India, we have 11 species of Parrots/parakeet & 3 species found in & around Indore region, namely – Rose ringed parakeet, Alexandrine parakeet & Plum-headed parakeet.
Forest dept negligence shrinks population with no water sources
For the last two years, forest department has ignored the need for providing water to birds or animals in forest. This is affecting not just forest animals and their population but also city dwelling birds.
Protected parakeets residing in Indore also visit the forest every day for water and other resources. However, even if many have passed away, it’s easy to blame the shrinking population to bird flu this year.
Even 2200 city dweller Rose ringed parakeets in Indore fly to forest range for water
Nature & wildlife conservation & awareness team (NWCAS) studied the city dweller Rose ringed parakeet which are well adapted the city crowded atmosphere and use the trees around Regal square, Gandhi hall & Railway station for the roosting, every evening they come to these places for the roosting and go to feeding sites in the morning & they have been adapted this pattern from quiet long time.
“In our study we found that their roosting sites are at East-north directions & they go in west-south direction for the feeding specially in the Mhow-Manpur forest area where they look for food in near about jungles, agricultural fields and water from the near about ponds at there,” Ravi Sharma, president of NWCAS, said.
He added that they had counted of 1951 numbers during their return flight to roosting sites so our estimation of around 2,000 to 2200 rose ringed parakeet which gather in above stated roosting sites.
Parakeets could sense Tauktae
One of interesting facts we also noted that on the day when cyclone Tauktae hit the coastal region of Gujarat, all the parakeet were back to roosting sites almost 20-25 minutes before their usual time, on that day in evening weather was cloudy & windy hence they had anticipated all these & worked accordingly.
Poaching of parakeets & selling continues…
Poaching and selling of parakeets for large sum of money also continues in Indore and other districts of Madhya Pradesh.
About 28 parakeet parrots of rare species were seized from the smugglers by the Indore team of the Special Task Force (Forest) in the last month of 2020. The parrots were trapped and set to be sold for five lakh rupees.
During interrogation, the smugglers confessed stealing the parrots from Khivni Sanctuary in Dewas.