Kaziranga Bird Conservation festival in 2024
The Kaziranga bird conservation festival will be held at the Kaziranga national park from January 9 to 10, 2024. According to reports, this festival will witness the 5th water bird census, which is an initiative of citizen science. The festival is the result of a collaboration between the Kaziranga National park and the Bombay natural history society (BNHS).
The festival, which aims to commemorate and protect the many species of birds found in Kaziranga national park, invites bird aficionados, nature lovers, students, and civil society members to take part.
According to the reports, the festival will be attended by well-known figures, conservationists and wildlife specialists and promises a wide variety of live performances, informative webinars and a photography contest that will showcase the abundance of birds in Kaziranga.
The theme of the festival will be “Conservation of Birds using Citizen Science”. The aim of the festival is to bring people from all walks of life together and encourage them to actively participate in the monitoring and conservation of bird species. This approach promotes a shared responsibility for conservation, which is in line with the cooperative spirit of citizen science.
Kaziranga national park and tiger reserve conducted four consecutive water bird surveys in 2018-2019, 2021-2022 and 2022-2022, showing a significant population of both resident and migrating water birds.
The 2021-2022 survey counted 93,491 water bird species across 122 species in 52 wetlands in Kaziranga national park and tiger reserve.
The 2020 census counted 34,284 water birds, while the 2018 count was 10,412.
Kaziranga national park and tiger reserve Director Sonali Ghosh said, “We have 521 species of birds in the area, 62 of which are globally endangered and near-endangered.”
The park is home to a significant number of water birds, including the Bar-headed goose.
In addition, Ghosh stressed that water birds play a vital role in biodiversity as they act as biological indicators, pest control, and sendinels of disease-causing organisms.
Water birds play a crucial role in wetland health as they are one of the key indicators of the health of a wetland ecosystem. In the wetlands of Kaziranga, water birds feed, rest, roost, and forage. A large part of Kaziranga’s landscape is made up of wetlands and grasslands. This makes it one of India’s most important birding areas.
