Sambalpur: The number of birds in the Hirakud Reservoir has reached a new hike this year: a record, over 3 lakh birds

Sambalpur: The number of birds in Hirakud Reservoir, which was recently declared a Ramsar site, has reached a new high this year. This time, a record 3 lakh 16 thousand 676 birds were found in this reservoir and the adjacent Power Channel reservoir from the count on the last 8 days. Compared to 2022, the number of birds has increased by more than 1 lakh. A total of 108 species of birds have been identified this year. Among them, 10 new species of birds have been found, which have become the first guests of Diamond Reservoir. The new species include Bar-tailed Godwit, Pied Harrier, Curlew Sandpiper, Cotton Pygmy Goose, Caspian Tern, Blue’ Tailed Bee-eater, Crested Serpent Eagle, Woolly Necked Stork, Yolo Billed Duck and Painted Stork. Among the species that visited the reservoir in the highest number this year were Lesser Whistling Duck 66,712, Tufted Duck 44,820 and Common Coot 34,680.

These three species of birds together are more than 1 lakh 46 thousand, according to the sources of the forest department. Other major species that frequent the reservoir are skimmers, crested grebes, darters, cormorants, jacanas, pochards, stilts, lapwings, sandpipers, various types of gulls, terns, plovers, shrike etc. For this year’s bird census, the Hirakuda reservoir spread over Sambalpur, Bargarh and Jharsuguda districts was divided into 14 sectors and Power Channel into 15 sectors. Among them, the maximum number of 85,216 birds of 66 species were counted in Sector-6 on Odisha-Chhattisgarh border, 72,275 birds of 65 species in Sector-5 of Bargarh district, 40,372 birds of 48 species were counted in Sector 7 of Jharpada area of Jharsuguda district. Only about 2 lakh birds were seen in these three sectors. The experts and forest staff who identified the new birds this year are Sanjeev Panda, Ashish Jena, Shubham Raut, Dr. Prakash Jena, Shubhendu Bhattacharya, Mamata Parmar, Bhubaneswar Muduli, Shubhendu Muduli, Shubhendu Bhattacharya and Bhubaneswar identified the jar, said Hirakuda Wildlife Bankhand Officer Satu Pragya Das. Bird lovers have been delighted by the increase in the number of birds in Diamond Reservoir. This number has increased significantly compared to previous years. In 2020, 97,899 birds of 93 species, 1,24,864 birds of 98 species in 2021, 2,08,634 birds of 104 species were identified in 2022.