Birds in Bihar: 2019

Finally, I visited Nagi-Nakati Wildlife Sanctuary on 8 December 2019 in the elegant company of three shining Indian Forest Officers of Bihar Cadre, Mr. Nand Kishor, Mr. Satyajeet and Mr. Sanjeev.

Nagi-Nakti, the twin Sanctuaries are located 3 km away from each other at Jhajha in Jamuai District of Bihar covered an area of 1.92 square km and 3.33 square km respectively. The dams were made on Nagi and Nakti rivers in sixties and eighties respectively in last century. However, it was finally notified as Wildlife Sanctuary in 2009 as it provides shelter to waders and having vast potential to further develop as a vital ecosystem in the region. These sanctuaries are encircled by barren land and rocky hillocks, formed by the damming of streams. Across the dam, we observed agricultural fields including patches of wild and planted trees.

The twin Sanctuaries boast mostly migratory birds estimated more than 20000 every year. Notably, around 3% of the population of Bar-headed Goose is found at this Important Bird Area site as reported by Wetlands International in 2002. On the other hand, numerous terrestrial birds take shelters around the water-bodies.

Historical context of the region may be understood through description of Australian Gilbert E. Freitas who visited region in the late forties of twentieth century. “Sometimes we kids used to group up and go to the lake where all the beautiful birds assembled. We sat by the Nakti river, played games, cooked our lunch and sang songs. At that time there was no dam. In the mid 50's the Bihar government constructed a dam and the volume of water increased. During the winter, the ducks came and so did the geese. Occasionally we saw deer and neel gai. Sometimes we heard the roar of the tiger in the evenings or the cry of a panther. The Santals told us that the tigers came from a place called Dumka which was seven hills away. But the good times had to end as some of us finished schooling and had to go to the big cities to further our education. But most of our fathers retired and left India to go to England, USA, Canada and Australia. JhaJha and Nagi Dam and Simultala are the most beautiful places on earth. I will never forget the beautiful birds, animals and most of all the beautiful hills, especially when sitting in front of a steam locomotive and coming down from Simultala into JhaJha, with the three talaos on your left and the magnificent hills to the right and the railway colony in front. Just breathtaking.” (http://wikimapia.org/1219158/Nagi-and-Nakti-Bird-Scentury)

Firstly, we visited Nagi water-bodies after crossing rocky terrain, which was made under forest cover through planting. Current DFO of Jamui, Mr. Satyajeet informed that the plantation of ficus species was started when Nand Kishor was DFO in Jamui and he further intensified the efforts in this direction in order to develop the areas as shelters for terrestrial birds find. However, we did not notice vast species of birds around the plantation area. Tourism infrastructure is still in primitive stage in the region.

As soon, we enter into the water bodies, we found ourselves surrounded by more than the thousands of Birds. The seasons for Migratory Birds was just started; therefore, we noticed a few species of migratory birds. Later, we visited Nakti and we found the same pattern as noticed in Nagi.

A birdwatcher sighted 17 speces in February 2019 (https://ebird.org/hotspot/L4050195). However, the pamphlet developed by Mr. Nand Kishor suggests a different story if analyses the pattern in long time rather in a couple of hours.

Fishing and agriculture activities seems to be a great concern for the conservation of this ecosystem. We must device a model to harness the fishery resources without disturbing shelter of birds. In this context, the creation of alternative sources of livelihoods for native of the region is extremely important apart from environment awareness.

It was noticed during CAG audit that there was no system of patrolling in any of the five bird sanctuaries in Bihar and only untrained casual labourers were deployed as watchers, during the winter season due to inadequacy of funds and lack of field staff in the respective divisions.( https://cag.gov.in/sites/default/files/audit_report_files/Report_No_4_of_2018_General_Social_and_Economic_Sectors_Government_of_Bihar.pdf)
During this visit, apart from birds watching, we exchanged and shared our views on various matter, notably beatification aspect tree plantation. I fielded the idea of plantation of Amatltas, Gulmohar and similar plant on roads and parks in order to attract tourist as Keukenhof ‘s Tulip.

A few photographs of this birding tour are placed in this article for review of readers and bird & nature lovers.