Chhattisgarh's Hill Mynah dies in captivity, birders against captive breeding

RAIPUR: The last of the four Chhattisgarh 's state bird 'Common Hill Mynah' (Gracula Religiosa) kept for captive breeding process at Jagdalpur forest department, died three days ago and officials explained it as natural death. Fondly called the mimic bird, four hill mynah were kept for breeding in order to conserve them, which is claimed of being on the verge of extinction, but one by one all of them died.

However, two other Hill Mynahs were shifted from a small cage to a bigger cage after death of the elder one.

Since lakhs of investment has been done on captive breeding of Hill Mynah, forest department’s project failed big time and questions were raised against the initiative as birders allege lack of study on the bird before putting it into a cage.

Being the state bird, forest department initiated its conservation with an unsuccessful experiment of captive breeding process of the bird.

Forest official confirmed that the bird died a natural death and due to old age, yet the birders called the project as not necessitated.

Talking to TOI, ML Naik, senior botanist and researcher said, “Firstly, no advice was sought from the experts before caging the birds for captive breeding. The crux lies unknown about a peculiar habit of Hill Mynah that whether it forms pair only once in life or not and it is important to be known that two birds caged together belong to a compatible pair. The sub-specie of Gracula Religiosa found in Bastar is the smallest of the breed and it would have reproduced at least two-three times in a year if they were paired.”

The veteran doubts that the four birds kept in cage might have never paired at all as they would have earlier paired up with another birds. They can simply pass their life without pairing up with any another partner.

“Another riddle is that it is extremely difficult to determine the gender of these birds, they could have been all females or all males too which is why they didn’t reproduce in past 14 years. Simply catching them and putting them in enclosure with a hope that they would breed is an irresponsible step. Moreover, only sex determination isn’t the final result unless they are identified as pairs,” Dr Naik pointed.

The birder said that the bird is considered close to extinction because forest department hasn’t spotted it often while the bird is found and photographed on many occasions in flocks in forests of Kanger Valley in Bastar.

Another veteran wildlifer Dr AMK Bharos said that there’s no requirement for caging the birds for captivity, instead curbing its trading and smuggling to different states and overseas would raise protect their species.

“The birds’ nests can be identified with the help of local villagers and protected from poachers. Poachers sell these birds in local market at the rate of Rs 200-500 which is further smuggled to overseas and are worth lakhs. Bastar Hill Mynah is in demand more in foreign markets and Middle East because of its unique quality of being the best mimic of human voice of all species. If collection of chicks is controlled by trading mafia, the population can be easily controlled,” Bharos explained.

Fondly called the mimic bird, which talks, screeches, wails and whistles like a human, was declared endangered specie soon after it was labelled state bird in 2002. With biological name Gracula Religiosa, it is exclusively found in Bastar’s Kanger Valley National Park while few were also sighted at Mukulwada, Kotamsar, Netanar and other parts of the division.