The mighty Himalayas have evoked the awe of people for years, but awareness and discussions about the threats to its fragile ecosystems and their inhabitants from climate change and infrastructure development have remained limited.
On May 14, the first-ever birding event focussed on the Himalayan region will be held. The Himalayan Bird Count (HBC) will see birdwatchers in the mountain states of India, Nepal and Bhutan coming together to document as many birds as possible. The organisers say the monitoring data HBC generates would be a baseline to compare the trends of birds year after year, apart from creating awareness to save the diverse, threatened habitats in the Himalaya.
Bird Count India, Bird Conservation Nepal, and the Royal Society for Protection of Nature, Bhutan are working together to bring the Himalayan birding fraternity together for a common good. Birders from the Indian states and Union territories of Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, northern West Bengal, and Arunachal Pradesh are participating in the event. Apart from India, both Nepal and Bhutan will also feature in the Himalayan Bird Count.
The organisations have collectively decided to schedule the event on Endemic Bird Day to spread awareness about Himalaya’s bird biodiversity.
Ghazala Shahabuddin, Senior Fellow, Centre for Ecology, Development and Research (CEDAR) working in Kumaon Hills, Uttarakhand, said HBC can provide consistent, snapshot information of bird diversity in a region that is increasingly threatened by climate change. “This kind of information, across years, can help us understand what is happening to our country’s birds,” she added.
The biological diversity of the Himalayas is under unprecedented threat due to large-scale infrastructure development too. “Himalayan Bird Count is a hugely exciting event that brings scientists and experts together with regular citizens to understand what is happening to birds in one of the planet’s most iconic mountains. It will give us a glimpse of the status of birds across the Himalayas - an important indicator of the health of this fragile ecosystem on which millions of people depend,” said Sahil Nijhawan, Scientist, Nature Conservation Foundation, who has worked extensively in Arunachal Pradesh.
Anyone present in the participating states and Union territories can participate in the event. The basic activity is to watch and count birds from anywhere in the listed Himalayan region on May 14 for at least 15 minutes and upload bird lists to the bird recording platform eBird (www.ebird.org/india).
