GUWAHATI, Jan 29 � Early Birds, an environment protection group, completed a bird census at Jangdia-Satgaon wetland complex in North Guwahati recently.
The Jangdia-Satgaon complex is an important birding site near the city which was declared an Important Bird Area (IBA) due to its congregations of diverse avian species.
The census yielded a total number of 654 birds from 16 species. The species were grey-headed lapwing, open-billed stork, four types of egrets (cattle, little, intermediate and great), black kite, common stone chat, pied bushchat,�burn swallow, brown shrike, pond heron, marsh sand piper, lesser whistling duck, little ringed plover, and paddy field pipit. �The Jangdia beel is known for nesting sites of greater and lesser adjutant storks but no adjutant stork could be seen this time which is largely attributed to felling of nesting trees due to growth of population.
�The actual wetland area consists of many fragmented water bodies and the whole
area is under large-scale cultivation. The sound of tractors and other machineries has been a cause of disturbance to the birds,� Moloy Baruah, president of Early Birds, said.
Only three-fourth area of the wetland could be covered within a three-hour stretch during the census.
There are 465 such IBA sites in India of which 191 are wildlife sanctuaries, 52 are national parks, 23 are tiger reserves, and the rest 199 fall under unprotected areas. Jangdia which lies in the floodplains of the Brahmaputra comes under the last category.
