With the onset of the winter season, the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam’s Morigaon district is witnessing a surge in migratory bird footfall. The wildlife sanctuary authorities expect that, this year, more migratory bird species will arrive in the wildlife sanctuary compared to the previous year.
Earlier, the migratory birds arrived at the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary in November, but this year, the sanctuary has been witnessing the migratory birds’ footfall since December. After flying thousands of miles from Europe, America, and Africa, thousands of migratory birds have now arrived at the wildlife sanctuary.
The authority of the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary has taken all anti-poaching measures in the sanctuary. Nayan Jyoti Das, Range Officer of Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, said that the arrival of migratory birds in Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary has started this year from different parts of the world.
“We are expecting a little more arrival of migratory birds here compared to last year. We estimated around 69 species and 13,000 numbers of birds last year, but we are expecting more this year. This year, birds’ arrival has been delayed, but we are expecting more in mid-December and January. The birds come from North America, Africa, northern parts of India, and some types of birds come from Gujarat and the western part of India,” Nayan Jyoti Das said while speaking to media.
He also mentioned that this is the peak time of arrival for both foreign and domestic tourists and visitors to the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary.”We get the highest tourist footfall during December and January. We expect that the number of tourist footfalls will increase. Till now, it is less compared to last year, but we expect it will increase day by day,” Nayan Jyoti Das said.
He further added that they are monitoring the entire wildlife sanctuary 24×7. “We have 25 anti-poaching camps. All our staff are doing hard work, and they are quite busy with their conservation duty,” Nayan Jyoti Das said.
On the other hand, Khirod Nath, a local youth of the Mayang area near the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, said that every year the Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary has witnessed a large number of migratory birds. “This year also, the migratory birds’ arrival has started. We are so happy to see the migratory birds coming from different parts of the world,” Khirod Nath said.
(with inputs from ANI)
