Number comes down to one-third this year
The number of migratory birds visiting Hakaluki Haor has dropped almost to one-third this winter compared to that of the same season three years back.
Only 23,041 birds were counted in the water body during a two-day survey that ended yesterday. The number was 64,282 during the last survey in 2011.
A team led by bird specialist and national coordinator of waterfowl census in Bangladesh Inam Al Haque conducted the survey under the Coastal and Wetland Biodiversity Management Project of the Department of Environment (DoE).
The census, funded by the USAID’s Climate-Resilient Ecosystems and Livelihoods project, surveyed the 18,115-hectare area of the haor, spreading over Moulvibazar and Sylhet districts.
Birds of 61 species, including Bright King-duck, Rose King-duck, Chity, Sorali, Boikal, China, Common-chill, Cotton-chill, Cottontail and Pintail, from Siberia and other colder regions flocked the haor in 2011, Bashir Ahmed, Natural Resources Management Officer of the DoE told this correspondent.
However, only 20 species of birds were found this year, according to Inam Al Haque.
They also found birds of four new species — Falcated Duck, Grey Leg Goose, Northern Lapwing and Common Shell Duck — during the survey.
When asked what could be the reason behind decrease in the number of guest birds, Inam Al Haque said, “I can’t tell exactly because we didn’t conduct the survey in the last two years”.
-With The Daily Star input
