Silchar: Assam’s Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve has witnessed a 27% increase in the arrival of winter-migratory birds in 2022-23, officials said on Friday. The count was revealed during the fifth bird census conducted by the park authorities.

The director of Assam’s Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve, Sonali Ghosh, said the census began earlier this week and was conducted on 115 waterbodies spread across the Kaziranga Tiger Reserve and surrounding areas.

“The census revealed the presence of 84,839 birds which is a 27% increase since the last count (66,776 in 2021-22). This places Kaziranga among the top five in terms of presence of resident and winter-migratory birds in the country,” Ghosh said.

The reserve extends over 1,302 square kilometres with a significant area of over 50% of the landmass under grasslands interspersed with water bodies.

“With its unique terrestrial and aquatic habitats, Kaziranga is one of the finest protected areas in the world. This is home to the big-five mammals and it is a popular destination for birders owing to a very high diversity of over 500 bird species,” Ghosh said.

She said that in the first census conducted in 2018-19, the count was 10,412 and in the fifth census, the count has reached 84,939, which shows an 814% increase. This is second in India after Chilka, which counts around 10 lakh birds every year.

“The migrant birds come here from Russia in November and stay here till February. They are feeling safer in our area now. The protective measures taken by the government and drives against encroachments are some of the reasons behind this,” she said.

The bird census was conducted on 10th January 2024 as a single-day exercise adopted an improvised methodology by involving a large number of bird experts as enumerators and they were supported by forest frontline staff, volunteers from more than 30 educational institutions, NGOs and other organisations making this one of the largest citizen science movement of the country in recent years.

As per the census, the eastern Assam wildlife division, comprising mostly of the Kaziranga National Park area recorded the presence of several unique species of birds. Bar-headed geese are the highest among them. 13,084 bar-headed geese were seen in Sohola Beel. Laokhowa and Burhachapori witnessed 8,960 Northern pintails. In the Bishwanath wildlife division, 2,727 migrant birds were noticed followed by Dipora – 2,520.

The Kaziranga-Hukuma beel in Biswanath recorded 3,049 birds while the Joysagar Doloni in Kaliabor recorded 1,765 birds. Other notable wetlands adjoining the Tiger Reserve that recorded significant bird presence were Gonak beel (973), Sahala beel (424) and Sisubari beel (348), the report suggests.

Ghosh said that the critical avian inhabitants of Kaziranga include the Bengal florican, Swamp Francolin and various species of raptors, vultures, and waterfowl. “

Along with Manas and Orang national parks, Kaziranga has a large population of critically endangered species of birds. As per the recent E-Bird Database, 603 bird species have been recorded in and around Kaziranga and surrounding areas,” she said.

Ghosh said that the Bombay Natural History Society and BirdLife International have recognised Kaziranga as an “important bird area” for its unique ecological significance. “Along with the main channel of the River Brahmaputra, Dhansiri, Difloo and Laokhowa Suti rivers provide a unique habitat for both resident and migratory birds,” she said.