Cuttack, June 29: The Hirakud reservoir and the Debrigarh Wildlife Sanctuary have been accorded Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) status.

Covering parts of Bargarh, Jharsuguda and Sambalpur districts, the Hirakud-Debrigarh zone is the state's eighth IBA area to be identified under the IBA programme of BirdLife International, the world's largest conservation organisation for wild birds.

"The IBA programme of Birdlife International aims to identify, protect and manage a network of sites that are significant for the long term viability of naturally occurring bird population," said an official of the Odisha chapter of Indian Bird Conservation Network (IBCN).

IBCN monitors and safeguards the areas it tags as IBA. "The seven other IBAs that were identified in the state earlier are Chilika, Similipal, Satkosia, Bhitarkanika, Chandaka, Sunabeda and Mangalajodi," IBCN state coordinator Monalisha Bhujabal said.

IBCN operates jointly in the state with Wild Orissa, a conservation organisation for wildlife and nature that has been engaged in the monitoring of various bird species and IBAs.

BirdLife International runs the IBA programme on a global scale and more than 10,000 IBA sites have been identified across the world.

Bhujabal said studies carried out from 2010 to 2014 had revealed presence of a total of 319 bird species in the Hirakud landscape, which also included the Debrigarh Sanctuary adjoining the reservoir. Of these, 112 species were either waterfowl or birds closely associated with wetlands.

"Based on the studies conducted during a five-year period, a total of 112 species of waterfowl and water-dependent bird species were recorded, including 15 threatened species. During the 2016 winter waterfowl census, 96,000 birds of a total of 60 species were registered at Hirakud, which is a very high number," said Bhujabal, who is also secretary of Wild Orissa.

The Hirakud reservoir is fringed to the north and west by the forests of the Debrigarh Sanctuary in Bargarh district, on the eastern side by fishing villages, cultivation, and industrial areas of Jharsuguda district, and on the south-eastern side by forested ridges and inhabited areas of Sambalpur district. About 120sqkm of the reservoir is under the jurisdiction of Hirakud wildlife range for intensive management of avifauna.

According to Wild Orissa, findings had revealed presence of several colonies of ground-nesting birds in this new IBA. Breeding of six species of water birds, such as black-winged stilt himantopus himantopus, oriental pratincole glareola maldivarum, small pratincole glareola lacteal, little ringed plover charadrius dubius, little tern sterna albifrons and red-wattled lapwing vanellus indicus have been recorded, either in single species or multi-species congregations.

Black-bellied tern sterna acuticauda (endangered) and Indian skimmer rynchops albicollis (vulnerable) are occasional visitors from the Mahanadi river which flows downstream of the dam. While the black-bellied tern was seen foraging in both Chaurasimal Creek and Right Dyke shores, just a couple of records exist for Indian skimmer near the main dam site.

"Occasional presence of three raptor species, namely Pallas's fish-eagle haliaeetus leucoryphus along with greater spotted eagle clanga and Indian spotted eagles clanga hastata, possibly indicates a healthy prey base and an intact food chain in the area," the Wild Orissa secretary said.