Surajpur gears up to welcome winged guests

Noida: The district forest office has started taking steps to clean up the 60-acre Surajpur wetland , the nesting spot for thousands of water birds every year, as the migration season is just weeks away.

The forest department has completed cleaning the surface of the lake, which had been covered with hyacinth for years.

Surajpur had been declared dry in April-May this year, but the situation has now improved. A team from the forest department visited the wetland on Sunday and found a few species of birds that had left during peak summer.

“We have cleaned up the surface of the Surajpur wetland. The water level has also gone up after the rains. A cursory survey has shown that the birds have started returning to the area. We expect a good flock during this migratory season,” district forest officer PK Srivastava said.

The officer informed that a similar drive was underway at Okhla bird sanctuary. “We will start cleaning the Okhla sanctuary after September 15. Even then, we will have a few weeks before the birds start arriving,” he added.

Last year, the forest department had set up floating perch stations for migratory birds at Okhla. Officials said the stations had helped retain the birds much longer than they usually do and their population, too, had gone up. “Water birds love to perch and we had set up artificial floatable stations to attract and retain the bird population. This year, we plan to add some,” Srivastava said.

Apart from the cleaning drive, the forest department is also expected to start work on the overhaul of the Surajpur wetland, for which Rs 10 crore has been granted.

The Surajpur wetland receives a good population of species such as Asian open bill stork, white-necked stork, black-crowned night heron, and black-headed ibis. The wetland also supports the breeding of some rare birds like bristled grassbird, black-necked stork and sarus crane. The migration period starts from October and continues till March.

The wetland has recorded 186 species of birds from 44 families. Of them, 102 species are resident, 53 winter migrant, 28 come during the summer and 3 passage migrant. The Okhla bird sanctuary has the record of hosting 302 species each year during the peak migratory season.