Guests at Gadag

Somappa (49), a forest guard at the Magadi Bird Sanctuary in Shirahatti taluk of Gadag district, is a busy man these days. His mobile refuses to go silent all through December till March. His callers have only two questions, “Have they arrived? And how many of them?”

And the gleeful Somappa says, “Yes, around 5,000 of them are here.”

The 134-acre Magadi Lake, one of the most biodiverse spots in the country, is a place of many activities from the last week of November to the first week of March every year as it shelters the bar-headed geese that have come here to avoid the harsh winters of Mongolia, Tibet, Kazakhstan, and other upper-Himalayan countries. More than 60,000 of them start their winter migration from these countries in the month of August or September.

Bar-headed geese are considered the world’s highest-flying birds as they have been recorded flying non-stop over the mighty Mount Everest and Mount Makalu (the fifth-highest mountain in the world).

After a short halt at the lower-Himalayan regions, these birds head towards South India.

They take off for the migration in the night and rest on waterbodies come morning. They can clock a speed of over 80 km an hour and travel more than 700-800 km in one go.

These birds can be spotted in the wetlands of Assam, and in Tamil Nadu and Pune during these four months. However, it is at Magadi Lake that one can watch them in great numbers.

Researcher G Manohar, who has studies them extensively at the lake, says more than 10 per cent of the migratory bar-headed geese congregate at the lake, one of the largest congregations in South India.

Ideal temperature, availability of food and the lake being a haven are the reasons why the birds choose Magadi Lake. Experts also say that the lake resembles and is in the same longitudinal line as that of Bayan Lake in Mongolia, from where a good number of these birds begin their migration.

Reception

Locals have been recording the birds’ presence for the last 25 years, while the forest department has made attempts to secure this lake only since 2012.

The lake becomes home to other local and migratory birds such as the northern shoveller, northern pintail, garganey, greylag goose, sandpipers, ruddy shelduck and demoiselle crane.

It’s a photographer’s delight to witness these birds either take off from or land on the lake during dawn or dusk. Birders’s curiosity increased in 2012 when they saw the birds collared with coloured tags.

Indian researchers communicate with the researchers in the birds’ places of origin.
Geese with green, yellow and red tags have been recorded at Magadi Lake.

Food & fight

These herbivores get ample food in the form of green gram, groundnut, paddy and wheat in and around 50 km range of the lake. They raid the neighbouring fields after dusk and return to the lake at dawn, and loll on the lake all through the day.

But the fields pose a threat as the use of pesticides results in the birds’ death. In 2018, 18 birds were confirmed dead due to food poisoning; in 2019, three birds died.

The villagers and farmers have been cooperative with the forest department.

In spite of sustaining heavy crop damage due to these birds, the farmers have not ‘gotten rid’ of the ‘menace’.

The gram panchayat has been creating awareness among the people regarding the importance of these birds and the conservation of the lake.