Birds settle at a distance from the water pump at Giddhi Lake in Nalanda. Picture by Naveen Kumar

Patna, Aug. 23: Giddhi Lake in Nalanda district, the home turf of chief minister Nitish Kumar, is lately losing its charm for winged visitors, both migratory and indigenous, which used to flock here in thousands even two years ago.

Their numbers have come down to a few hundreds now. While the local communities around the lake have stopped poaching the birds, authorities seem least concerned over the depleting water level in the lake owing to pumping out of the water by the landlords.

Giddhi Lake is situated around 100km southwest of the capital and 3km southwest of ruins of Nalanda varsity. The lake is 1.8km in length and 200-300m in width.

Naveen Kumar, the deputy general manager of Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation and a wildlife lover, first spotted flocks of rare birds at the lake in December 2009. “It was during an official tour to Rajgir in December 2009 that I spotted 2,000 Northern Pintail among other birds. I also saw around 500 Lesser Whistling Ducks in and around the lake. It is rare to see such huge flock of migratory as well as indigenous birds,” said Naveen.

Naveen could spot nearly 3,000 birds of 18 species in 2009. But during his visit he also witnessed poaching of birds. He was later informed that large-scale shootings are held during New Year celebrations every year.

“I was astonished that a place where rare birds can be seen from 15-20m, is getting destroyed by poachers. I decided to spread awareness among the local communities about the importance of these birds and the lake. Starting with four local residents in 2010, today there are around 35 families around the lake which do not allow killing of birds,” said Naveen.

Moreover, the lake water is being increasingly drained out using pumps for irrigation. “Landlords around the lake have put five to 10 pumping sets at the lake catchments. Water is being pumped for irrigating their fields. This has led to a decline in the water level and even the number of birds is dwindling as compared to 2009,” said Naveen.

The local forest officer, on the other hand, expressed helplessness owing to the lake not coming under the jurisdiction of the forest department. “As the lake is not under the forest department, we hardly have any power to stop anyone from draining out water from the lake. During the course of routine patrolling in December and January, we would ask people not to use generators for pumping out the water from the lake. Earlier, we had also planned plantation in 2km area around the lake but the work has not started,” said Rakesh Kumar, Nalanda divisional forest officer.

Wildlife experts on the other hand, believe a public-private partnership can save the lake. “As the lake is a private body, people would continue to exploit it. But there is a provision under Indian Wildlife Act, 1972, for creating a committee comprising local residents and forest officers, which can declare the lake as a community reserve. After its declaration as community reserve, the committee would have legal rights to prohibit such agricultural practices, including pumping out of water. The initiation for forming such a committee is to be taken by the forest department and district administration,” said Arvind Mishra, state co-ordinator, Indian Bird Conservation Network (IBCN), adding that he has recommended for including Giddhi Lake in the list of important bird area of IBCN.