Direct link to scholarships offered by  Govt. of India

List of Private NGOs offering scholarships

Abu Marwan Abdal Malik Ibn Zuhr: ‘Avenzoar’

Abu Marwan Abdal Malik Ibn Zuhr, known in the west as Avenzoar, was

Ummid Assistant

Gandhi Fellowship for Nation Building

Welcome Guest! You are here: Home » Special Reports

Free lunches for birds as Kashmir's wetlands freeze

Monday December 20, 2010 02:18:49 PM, F. Ahmed, IANS

Srinagar: With water bodies frozen due to sub-zero temperatures, thousands of migratory birds in Kashmir Valley are fighting for food and space in reserves here. So they are being treated to free lunches and dinners - of paddy!

Each year, thousands of greylag geese, mallards, common teals, pintails, pochards, wigeons, coots and shovellers travel thousands of miles to their winter homes in the valley. They fly down to the valley to ward off the extreme winters in Siberia, north Europe, the Philippines, China and central Asia.

"This time we have over 600,000 migratory birds in the Hokarsar Bird Reserve and over 300,000 in the Shallabugh Bird Reserve," Ghulam Ahmad Lone, Kashmir's wildlife warden (wetlands), told IANS.

"The extreme cold, especially during the night, has been freezing the wetlands pushing the birds to extreme conditions," he said.

"They cannot do natural feeding as the water surface is frozen. We have been using paddy to arrange artificial feeding of the birds twice daily and if the temperatures continue to fall here, we will resort to artificial feeding on a larger scale," he said.

"We have already made enough stocks of paddy at the bird reserves to ensure that these wonderful creatures do not suffer because of the lack of natural feeding," said Lone.

Boats moving out into the wetlands with paddy for the birds have to literally cut through the frozen surface to reach the pockets where they remain glued to each other on the frozen surface.

"By sticking close to each other, the birds manage to keep a small pool of water warm enough not to freeze because of their body temperatures," Lone said, describing one of the many survival tricks of these hardy souls.

"The tryst has continued for thousands of years and the arrival of these birds in late September is no less than an event for a bird lover like me," said Master Habibullah, 65, who lives in Chanduna village of north Kashmir's Ganderbal district close to the Shallabugh bird reserve.

"I make it a point each year to spend long hours in the evenings in my lawn with my sons and grandchildren watching the majestic flight of the migratory birds," he said.

These days this ardent bird watcher spends most of his time to ensure that no poaching takes place in and around the Shallabugh bird reserve.

Ironically, Habibullah was a keen bird shooter himself when there was no ban on it in the valley.

"Perhaps, I was too young to understand the complexities of ecology. I am also perhaps paying a penance by looking after the birds now," said the retired school teacher.

Officials claim to have curbed poaching effectively in the bird reserve of the valley.

"Thanks to the tireless efforts of my staff, we have ensured that no poaching takes place inside the bird reserves," said Lone.

He also said poaching had mainly been occurring during the evenings when the birds leave the reserves for feeding in lakes and unprotected water bodies of the valley.

Asked whether the birds could move down to the plains in other states of the country if the present cold spell continued here, the wildlife warden said: "It is possible, but not probable. As the winter progresses we are going to have snow here and that would come as a bliss for the migratory birds."

"Not only do their natural habitats expand because of the snowfall, but their mobility and agility also picks up after the snowfall," Lone said.

As the wildlife warden spoke about the agility of migratory birds, a flock of teals whizzed past the lawns of the Hokarsar bird reserve, perhaps as proof that these hardy souls had learnt to survive despite all odds.



(F. Ahmed can be contacted at f.ahmed@ians.in)


 

 

 


 

 

  Bookmark and Share                                          Home | Top of the Page

Comments

Note: By posting your comments here you agree to the terms and conditions of www.ummid.com

Comments powered by DISQUS

More Headlines

Abu Dhabi hotel 'regrets' Christmas tree spending

Kalam releases book on President Patil

Russian president arrives today, to sign space, energy deals

Fight corruption, 93-year-old freedom fighter tells Sonia, PM

Sachin Tendulkar first to score 50 Test centuries

Sonia slams 'disease' of corruption, outlines 4-point agenda

Top Bangladesh opposition leader held for 'war crimes'

Athletics champion dies as son breaks record

Railways to switch to five digit numbers for trains

Woman's body parts found in Haryana, honour killing suspected

India's rocket launch postponed

Students get teacher's body at first dissection

'RSS like Nazis, targeting Muslims in garb of nationalist ideology'

India is favourite destination of Canadian varsities

No distinction between majority, minority terror: Sonia

 

 

 

Top Stories

Sonia slams 'disease' of corruption, outlines 4-point agenda

With corruption scandals dogging her party-led government and holding up parliament, Congress    »

'RSS like Nazis, targeting Muslims in garb of nationalist ideology'

Congress plenary to ask for probe into Hindu groups' terror links

No distinction between majority, minority terror: Sonia

 

Picture of the Day

President Mrs. Pratibha Devisingh Patil joined invitees in the Christmas Carols Programme, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on December 18, 2010.

 

  Most Read

'Separatism and religious extremism have little appeal to Indian Muslims'

India’s over 150 million Muslim population is largely unattracted »

Indian police torture, says US cable

US cable praises India's secular society

Top Bangladesh opposition leader held for 'war crimes'

Bangladesh's senior opposition leader Salauddin Quader Choudhury, who has been accused of killing over a 100 people, mostly minority Hindus, during the 1971 Liberation War was arrested Sunday after the country's International Crimes Tribunal issued a warrant against him. Choudhury  a  »

 

  News Pick

35 dead, 10 missing in Bangladesh boat capsize

At least 35 people were killed and about 10 others were missing when their boat capsized in northeastern Bangladesh Saturday, Xinhua reports. The accident  »

All 35 dead in Bangladesh boat tragedy women, kids

MP Govt. to set up National Dinosaur Fossil Park in Dhar district

On the recommendation of Madhya Pradesh Wildlife Board, the Madhya Pradesh Government is establishing a National Dinosaur Fossil Park in Dhar district of the state. A notification to this   »

Israeli war jets kill five militants in Gaza strike

Five Palestinian militants were killed Saturday night after Israeli planes targeted them in an open area in the central Gaza Strip, Israeli and Palestinian sources said. An Israeli army spokesman told Israeli Radio that "the air force  »

Students get teacher's body at first dissection

It was their first dissection, but students at one of Sweden's top medical schools were faced with a familiar sight in the classroom - the body on the table belonged to their late teacher. "The first autopsy is really, really  »

Woman's body parts found in Haryana, honour killing suspected

A young woman's body parts stuffed into a sack have been found in Sirsa district of Haryana in a suspected case of honour killing, police said here Sunday. The sack was recovered in Kangnapur village. "We have found the   »

 

 
 
 
 
 

RSS  |  Contact us

| Quick links

News

 

Subscribe to

Ummid Assistant

 

National

Religion

RSS

Scholarships

About us

International

Culture

Twitter

Government Schemes

Feedback

Regional

History

Facebook

Education

Register

Politics

Opinion

Newsletter

 

Contact us

Business

Career

     

Education

       

 

 

Ummid.com: Disclaimer | Terms of Use | Advertise with us | Link Exchange

Ummid.com is part of the Awaz Multimedia & Publications providing World News, News Analysis and Feature Articles on Education, Health. Politics, Technology, Sports, Entertainment, Industry etc. The articles or the views displayed on this website are for public information and in no way describe the editorial views. The users are entitled to use this site subject to the terms and conditions mentioned.

© 2010 Awaz Multimedia & Publications. All rights reserved.