Migratory birds won’t visit Kashmir for their winter sojourn

The dry spell in Kashmir in the last few months has turned many of its wetlands into waste lands, as a consequence of which migratory birds may not come here for their winter sojourn. The wetlands dried up because the state Wildlife Department was not able to make embankments in them due to the ongoing unrest in the valley.

According to State Wildlife Officials, due to the lack of rains in the past few months in Kashmir, the migratory birds have stayed away from the wetlands and they could only be seen in the water laden reservoir of Hokersar and Hygam wetlands.

Hokersar wetland is witnessing a huge rush of migratory birds, but the numbers are still not healthy according to local bird watchers. “It is pathetic to see all major wetlands without birds during the month of December. It is high time that the government fixed the responsibility for such callous behaviour of their officials who have failed to keep the wetlands ready for these birds,” Hafizullah Bhat, a local bird watcher, told this newspaper.

The district authorities of Ganderbal have decided to fix the responsibility for the almost dry Shalbugh wetland. Every year, the Shalbugh wetland used to host lakhs of migratory birds that came from Eastern Europe, China and Siberia to spend five months here. The birds included mallards, duck, teals, tufted, grey legged geese and gadwall.

The district authorities have decided to probe why the wetland was not filled with water on time and why there is no supervision and maintenance of this main wetland which is spread over hundreds of kanals of land in Ganderbal district. According to reports from North Kashmir, there have been no embankments built around the wetland of Mirgund, Hygam and other dozens of water-bodies.

According to officials of the state Wildlife Department, they could not build the embankments because the locals of these areas objected and there has been lot of local interference in and around these wetlands. These days the migratory birds can be seen on the waters of the Dal Lake, the Nageen Lake and the Manasbal Lake instead of the wetlands that have dried up, barring the Hokersar wetland. The birds like pintails and coots could be seen on the waters of the Dal Lake where they have little chances of getting food compared to what they would get in the wetlands.