In a bid to get back the rare migratory Siberian cranes to India, Environment Ministry has signed an MoU with Siberia to coordinate its conservation and protection. Following large number of reported killing of these species enroute their migratory paths especially across Pakistan and Afganisthan, the Ministry has signed MoUs with a number of countries that the birds fly over before reaching India to ensure their safe passage.

With the presence of 1,168 bird species recorded in the country, India has been ranked 9th in the global list of bird wealth.

While a majority of Indian species belonged to the Least Concerned category indicating that they were relatively safe from threats, the country was ranked 6th in terms of globally threatened species.

The current hunting season of Siberian ducks proved to be a wild-goose chase for the hunters, as negligible number of migratory birds came to Chitral this season compared to past.

Talking to this correspondent here, several hunters said that they had not seen such a dull hunting season before, as in most of the outings they did not even shoot a single shot.

WASHINGTON: Rising temperatures, triggered by climate change, are forcing birds to alter their migration patterns. The finding is based on data from eBird, a database containing 10 years' worth of observations from amateur birdwatchers. Since 2002, eBird has collected more than 48 million bird observations from roughly 35,000 contributors.

IMPHAL: The Loktak Development Authority(LDA) has warned the people against consumption of fish which is being caught using insecticides in general and Hildan in particular. A spokesperson of the PDA, T Ibobi in a statement said that an official team has established that the fishermen have been using these poisons at a massive scale to catch fish from the lake.

Bhagalpur, Feb. 19: The administration has stepped up vigil against poachers to save migratory birds at the eco-friendly Gangetic diara in the district.
The diara (sandbar) is considered a green belt and was in the news recently when the residents of Dharhara, a village in the riverine area, decided to celebrate the birth of a girl by planting saplings. But there are places in the Naugachia sub-division where many people earn their livelihood by catching and selling migratory birds.

These areas fall in the 63km-stretch between Sultanganj and Kahalgaon.

Himachal Pradesh’s wildlife department has successfully tracked its radio-collared birds to Mongolia, the Caspian Sea, Bangladesh and Siberia, marking a major breakthrough in its pilot project to study the behavior and migration pattern of birds that visit the Pong Dam Lake. Four out of 12 birds that had been fitted with the radio collar at Pong Dam have returned to the lake, while one bird, which had been tracked to Tamil Nadu a few days back is now visiting Chilka Lake in Orissa.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday issued notices to Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh on a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking directions to the three states for the immediate conservation of their wetlands. The notices were issued by a division bench of the High Court on a PIL filed by Pooja Dhull, a resident of Sector 20, Panchkula.

As the city’s wetlands struggle for survival due to persistent construction activity and water pollution, a bunch of nature enthusiasts are hoping to transform some of these lesser known sanctuaries of tranquility into tourist spots. Recently, environmentalists organised walks along several coastal and mangrove areas in Sewri, Bandra, Andheri, Bhandup and Dahisar to sensitise nature lovers and the government to start an initiative to protect and promote the wetlands as tourist spots, instead of letting them fall into the hands of encroachers.