112 waterbird species recorded from 6 Maharashtra wetlands on Central Asian Flyway

A total of 112 waterbird species from 18 families were found across six wetlands in Maharashtra, which are part of the Central Asian Flyway (CAF), between October 2021 and April 2022.

Maharashtra is home to migrating birds travelling via the CAF. With both natural and man-made wetlands, it serves as staging places and wintering grounds.

Flyways are utilised by birds to reach breeding, stopover, and wintering grounds during their annual cycle.

The Convention on Migratory Species has designated nine migratory flyways worldwide (CMS). One of them is the CAF, which covers migratory bird routes via 30 nations, with India constituting the majority of those routes.

The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) is carrying out the project, ‘Elucidating the Status of Migratory Waterbirds in Ornithologically Important Wetlands of Maharashtra: Central Asian Flyway’, and it recently submitted its first-year report (July 2021-June 2022) to the Mangrove Foundation.

The Mangrove Foundation has commissioned this five-year project to the BNHS at a cost of Rs 2.77 crore.

“Protecting these wetlands will help us achieve our sustainable development goals and commitments to the global community on Central Asian Flyway that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced during the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS COP 13) in Gandhinagar in February 2020,” said Virendra Tiwari, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Maharashtra Mangrove Cell and Executive Director, Mangrove Foundation.

Six significant inland wetlands in Maharashtra, including the Nandur Madhmeshwar Wildlife Sanctuary in Nashik (Ramsar Site), Jayakwadi Bird Sanctuary in Aurangabad, Gangapur Dam in Nashik, Ujjani Dam in Solapur, Hatnur Dam in Jalgaon, and Visapur Dam in Ahmednagar, were chosen for this study in order to better understand the seasonality and site usage pattern of migrating waterbirds. Maximum species diversity of 58 waterbird species and the highest count of 20,977 waterbirds were recorded from Ujjani Dam in April 2022.

The study determines the role of these wetlands in supporting migratory as well as resident birds, with special reference to rare and threatened species. During the said project, BNHS has carried out various surveys such as a Bird Monitoring survey, Bird trapping. Bird ringing and colour banding. “A concerted effort was undertaken to document threatened and near-threatened species, CAF priority species, and CAF conservation concern species. Six species that are prioritised in India's CAF National Action Plan were also noted during the study period, along with two species that are vulnerable and seven species that are near-threatened,” the study said.

Of the species listed under CAF, of conservation concern, 16 species were reported during the study period at the selected sites. Black-tailed godwit, Greater Flamingo, Ferruginous Duck, Common Pochard, Curlew Sandpiper, and Little Stint were a few of these birds.