Berhampur, Oct. 27: A musical audio documentary on the evolution, growth, migration and cause of extinction of birds by All-India Radio (AIR), Berhampur, has won the national-level Akashvani annual award for 2013.

The programme — Pakshi (The Bird) — was selected under the best science programme. This category has been introduced for the first time by AIR to popularise science broadcast in the country.

“Birds fill our lives with happiness and are vital for the ecological balance. Around 97 per cent of vultures have already vanished from India and Pakistan, so have the sparrows,” said Hrusikesh Panigrahi, programme head of AIR (Berhampur), who has also penned the musical programme.

“Pakshi also tells the success story of the first-ever sparrow conservation in Odisha at Puruna Bandha, a remote village near the Rushikulya river mouth. The project, which is led by Rabindranath Sahu, secretary of the Rushikulya Sea Turtle Protection Committee, is now being adopted by various organisations,” he said.

In this 20-minute documentary, a bird man or Chadheiya, as commonly known in the popular folk dance Danda Nacha of Ganjam district, narrates the life cycle of a bird.

Renowned folk singer of Berhampur Kedar Panigrahi has rendered his voice as the Chadheiya and his associate M. Madhab Patro and troupe have given the instrumental folk music.

It’s a musical extravaganza depicting our cultural tradition and the science.

The Chadheiya meets birds, the life science expert, ornithologist, veterinary surgeon, divisional forest officer Berhampur, environmental scientist, bird conservationist and bird lover, who help him by giving valuable information and evidences for the research, Hrusikesh said.

He gave an example of the version of a veterinary surgeon that Diclofenac X, a painkiller for animals, was banned throughout the country after it was found that the kidneys of the vultures were affected after consuming the carcasses and they died subsequently.