For an ornithologist, following the movements of migratory birds flying from freezing polar regions to tropical destinations in search of warmer climes has always been of immence interest and excitement.

But of late such a sight has become rare for people of the capital. An even more panoramic sight was that of gaggles of these birds, swinging on the tides of water, in the water bodies on the outskirts of the city. But even this sight is going to be a rare phenomenon, particularly for the people of Ranchi, whose anthropogenic activities are taking a toll on these birds’ annual habit of converging in the lakes around the capital.

Much to the disappointment of bird lovers, the number of migratory birds in the lakes around Ranchi has fast dwindled in the past few years.

Ranchi was host to thousands of migratory birds during the eighties, but owing to “unfriendly” conditions prevailing around their favourite haunts, the birds have started avoiding Ranchi, taking a detour away from the city.

This phenomenon has been reducing their number to a great extent and if a rough estimate is taken into account, their number has reduced by about 60 per cent of what it used to be in the eighties. Once, water bodies (dams) at Kanke, Rooka and Hatia used to be these birds’ favourite tropical locations. Here, they used to come in thousands.

Butfactors such as increase in human activities, hunting, paucity of food material and shrinking of waterbodies, contributed to their taking a detour from Ranchi and thus residents missed out on these annual guests.

There are about 52 genres of migratory birds, which visit different tropical locations in the region with the onset of winter, undertaking a month-long flight from their summer habitats. The phenomenon of these birds’ flights from polar regions begin around October-November and it takes them about a month to reach a suitable location for breeding and nesting their offsprings.

These migratory birds spend about three to four months in the tropical regions, laying eggs and tending to their offsprings in different waterbodies. And as the mercury starts witnessing a rise, they are on their way back making a flight which again takes a month or so.

Zoology reader with Ranchi University and bird lover N.S. Sen marvels at the idea of bird-watching and says, in fact these birds spend six months of a year in their original habitat in the polar regions, when scorching summer and rainy seasons prevail in the rest of the world.

About two months of the year are spent in flights enroute to the tropics from the polar regions and vice versa. They live in the tropical regions only for about the four winter months during which their original habitat remains frozen, making it difficult for them to lay eggs and hatch them properly there.

Sen said a dwindling number of these migratory birds will further add to the problems of the ever increasing number of “nuisance species” (invertebrates), which are carriers of diseases. The polar birds feed upon these animals, and thereby help in reducing their number.

Another Ranchi University zoology professor, M.P. Sinha, said apart from these birds being an important link in the ecosystem chain, they add to the catalogue of beautiful natural scenaries — all time favourite for birds lovers.

Lamenting the non-availability of infrastructural facilities to further orinthological studies, Sen said birds are a difficult subject, whose studies require an infrastructure matching that of the Discovery Channel crew.

So how can we check their taking a detour from Ranchi? And the teachers emphasised the need to establish independent bird sanctuaries down the lines of Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary. Besides, illegal hunting of these birds should also be checked in order to rectify their fast dwindling numbers.

Shiv Charan Singh