Bird protection awareness workshop held at Munsiyari
Bird protection awareness workshop held at Munsiyari
B.D.Kasniyal
Pithoragarh, March 20
In order to protect and conserve rare Himalayan birds, from rampant forest fires every year, a three days awareness workshop was organised by Uttarakhand Forestry Training Academy,Haldwani at Munsiyari.
The leading NGO’s working towards preservation of rare Himalayan birds found in Munsiyari Himalayas, like ‘Himalayan Shephards’, ‘Wings Foundation; and ‘Monal’, also cooperated in the training session.
“The workshop, aimed to promote bird watching tourism in Munsiyari and was aimed to give basic training to local tourists guides on basics of bird watching, ornithology, bird photography and identification of rare birds to tourists,” said Ashutosh Singh, District Forest Official (DFFO), Pithoragarh.
According to the DFO, during their breeding time, that is from March to June, some rare Himalayan birds, Chir pheasant, kalij pheasant and Monal made their nests in land and face heavy danger of extinction due to forest fires in the region.The trainees were specially made conscious of the forest fires during season.”The trainees were informed that if forests were extinguised in time, the rare species of local birds could be saved. This provide bigger possibility of bird watching tourism in future,” said the DFO.
Surendra Panwar, a renowned bird watcher and organiser to bird watching tourism in Munsiyari said that out of a total of 300 species of birds found in Goti Ganga valley of Munsiyari, 160 birds species are found only in High Himalayan region of Munsiyari. “There is needs to protect rich bio diversity of Munsiyari region. The initiative of forestry training institute will help in this direction,” claimed Panwar.
The trainees themselves could watch over 68 species of rare Himalayan birds, including a pair of Siberian crane, Monal, Satire Tragophan, Koklas Pheasant and Snow Pigeon, during their 3 days session.” The birds were visible during field visit, that was organised at Eco- park, Munsiyari, Kalamuni top Balati farm, Harkot, Sarmoli areas where the trainees could watch a varieties of birds,” said the DFO.
