Kaziranga National Park, known for its significant one-horned rhinoceros population, brings positive updates to boost wildlife tourism with the “Kaziranga Bird Conservation Festival”. The festival, scheduled for January 9th and 10th, 2024, includes the fifth waterbird census as a citizen science project. The event is a collaborative effort between the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and Kaziranga National Park.
Calling all bird lovers, nature enthusiasts, college students, and civil society! Kaziranga invites you to join the grandest bird conservation festival through citizen science. Let’s come together, celebrate our winged friends, and contribute to a thriving ecosystem. #Kaziranga pic.twitter.com/qgSr7ZsZHU
— Kaziranga National Park & Tiger Reserve (@kaziranga_) December 19, 2023
The festival invites nature lovers, bird enthusiasts, college students, and members of civil society to actively engage in this event, which aims to honour and protect the variety of bird species that reside within Kaziranga National Park.
According to reports, this festival promises a wide range of live seminars, webinars, and a photography competition showcasing the diversity of birds within Kaziranga. It will also be attended by notable figures, conservationists, and wildlife experts.
With the subject “Conserving Birds using Citizen Science,” the event seeks to unite common people and inspire them to actively participate in the tracking and protection of bird populations. This method encourages group participation for conservation campaigns, which is consistent with citizen science’s cooperative spirit.
Four consecutive water bird studies, carried out by Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve between 2018–2019 and 2021–2022, have revealed a sizable collection of both resident and migratory water birds.
In the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve, an impressive 93,491 water birds from 122 species have been identified in 52 wetlands during the most recent census conducted in 2021–2022. Compared to the 2020 census, which counted 34,284 birds, and the 2018 figure of 10,412, this is a significant increase.
Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve Director Sonali Ghosh emphasised the region’s abundant bird life, highlighting 521 species, including 62 globally threatened and near-threatened species. The park is also well-known for having large numbers of aquatic birds, especially the bar-headed goose.
Ghosh also emphasised the vital role that water birds play in promoting ecological diversity by serving as sentinels of imminent disease outbreaks, bioindicators, and pest controllers. Water birds are important habitats in the wetlands of the Kaziranga environment, where they feed, rest, roost, and engage in foraging activities. They are also key indicators of the health of wetland ecosystems.
Water bodies and grasslands make up a large section of the Kaziranga environment, which reinforces its standing as one of India’s most important bird destinations.
