After two decades, giant ducks are found again in Kositappu Wildlife Sanctuary. This duck species was seen in a group for the last time in 2000. After 22 years, there are many.
Image Credit RSS
The winter tourists who come to Nepal from October onwards continue to go until March and return to their destination after March. Located at the confluence of Sunsari, Saptari, and Udaipur districts, Kositappu Wildlife Sanctuary has become the bird capital of Nepal. Of 888 birds found in the country, 531 can be seen here.
This year too, about 70 species of birds have come to Kositappu. Still, more than a hundred species of birds could have come so far in the previous years, says Ornithologist Anish Timsina. “Even though there is still time for birds to arrive, there has been a decrease compared to previous years,” says Timsina.
Like the Great Silesian Duck, many other birds have stopped coming to the Kositappu Wildlife Sanctuary. Although there is a representative presence in terms of species, Timsina says that the decrease in the number of foreign tourist birds is worrying.
Timsina says that the municipality must realize that biological diversity is an important part and work.
“Human settlement and harassment by human behavior may be the main reason for the decrease in the number of tourist birds,” said Rajkumar Singh, Chairman of the Intermediate Area Management Committee of the Kositappu Wildlife Reserve. According to him, plants such as water hyacinth, ‘Mycania,’ covered in the wetlands, have affected the birds of the duck species. There is a risk from the use of pesticides in the areas around the wetlands.
Birds of the duck species prefer to live in frozen water rather than flowing water and run away in fear of people coming to fish. Licensed fishing is allowed in the reserve area, which poses a risk to the birds. Lack of proper habitat and adequate food for birds is another problem.
With the onset of snowfall at the North Pole, thousands of tourist birds migrate to Nepal’s lower Himalayan regions, mountains, and plains, as well as around lakes, ponds, and rivers, to escape the growing cold of winter. There are statistics that every year, about 150 species of birds come to Nepal from Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Turkestan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, China, and Mongolia, as well as Europe, Korea, and the Tibetan region. About fifty species of Batuwa birds go to India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka through Nepal. Winter visitor birds that come to spend the winter stay in the significant wetlands of Nepal, Kositappu Wildlife Reserve, Chitwan National Park, Bisahjari, Jagdishpur, Ghodaghodi Lake, Shuklaphanta Wildlife Reserve and Kosi, Gandaki, Narayani River, and its tributaries. Thus, most birds that migrate to Nepal in winter are duck species. In contrast, other species include predatory and carnivorous birds, Chanchar, small fiesta, Arjunak, gypsies, Bhadrai, etc.
Thousands of summer visitors from southern countries and Africa come to Nepal to collect baby birds. These birds raise their young and return to their old habitat by October. Most of the 60 birds that come in this way are Koili species. Among the 19 species of cuckoos found in Nepal, 15 do not build their own nests but lay their eggs in the nests of other birds.
This bird raises the cuckoo’s baby as its child. Among others who come to Nepal are Muralichari, Gajale Sunachari, Swargachari, Chitrak Pitta, Katus Tauke, etc. The primary habitat of the summer visitor bird is the forest and surrounding grasslands and agricultural land.
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