Birds

Bonn Convention

Bonn Convention or Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS), 1979: an intergovernmental treaty, concluded under the aegis of the UNEP

• • The only global and UN–based intergovernmental organization established exclusively for the conservation and management of terrestrial, aquatic and avian migratory species throughout their range.
    • The legal instruments under CMS may range from legally binding Agreements to less formal MoUs and can be adapted to fit the requirements of each region.
  • Membership: its membership has grown steadily to include over 139 Parties + EU.
  • Annexes:
    • Annex 1: Migratory species threatened with extinction: Strictest Protection.
      • Restoring the places where they live, 
      • Mitigating obstacles to migration and 
      • Controlling other factors that might endanger them.
    • Annex 2: Migratory species with an unfavourable conservation status and would benefit from enhanced international cooperation and conservation actions.
  • 173 species under protection

• CMS -14 COP – Uzbekistan 

• 2020: CMS COP 13 (Conference of Parties to CMS: decision making body), was held in Gandhinagar, India.
  • Theme– “Migratory species connect the planet and together we welcome them home”.
  • Logo– Kollam– a traditional art form from Southern India, which has been used to depict key migratory species in India.
  • Mascot– GIB i.e. The Great Indian Bustard.
  • India has officially taken over its Presidency for the next three years, till 2023.
  • CMS COP13 was the largest ever in the history of the Convention.

• It was the first of a series of international nature-related meetings in 2020, which will culminate with the UN Biodiversity Conference in Kunming, China, in October, which is expected to adopt a new global biodiversity framework – the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.
• Gandhinagar Declaration: calls for migratory species and the concept of ‘ecological connectivity’ to be integrated and prioritized in the Post–2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, which is expected to be adopted at the UN Biodiversity Conference in October this year.
• Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020, a ten-year framework for action by all countries and stakeholders to safeguard biodiversity and the benefits it provides to people.

• Decisions on new species– Ten new species were added to CMS Appendices at COP13.
  • 7 additions to Appendix I: Asian Elephant, Jaguar, Great Indian Bustard, Bengal Florican, Little Bustard, Antipodean Albatross and the Oceanic White-tip Shark.
  • 3 addition to Appendix II: The Urial, Smooth Hammerhead Shark and the Tope Shark. 
• Relaunch of the CMS Ambassadors Programme– where three CMS Ambassadors – for terrestrial, avian, and aquatic species were named to help raise awareness about the important work of CMS and the plight of migratory species.
• Recognition of Seven Migratory Species Champions– including Germany, India, Italy, Monaco, Norway, the European Commission, and the Environment Agency, who were acknowledged for their generous contributions to CMS initiatives.
• Used Plastic pollution & Light pollution – for 1st time.
• MOUs: Siberian Crane, Turtle, Dugong, Raptor

Central Asian Flyway (CAF): 

It is one among the nine flyways in the world, encompasses overlapping migration routes over 30 countries for different water birds linking their northern most breeding grounds in Russia (Siberia) to the southernmost non-breeding (wintering) grounds in West and South Asia, the Maldives and the British Indian Ocean Territory.

• About 370 species use CAF, East Asian-Australian Flyway, Asian East African Flyway to visit India.
• India has a strategic role in the flyway, as it provides critical stopover sites to over 90% of the bird species known to use this migratory route. Important stopovers:
  • Chilika Lake: Jan’19: The bird count this year crossed 1Mn; It had 181 species
  • Loktak Lake: Phumdi or floating mass of matted vegetation.
• MoEFCC has developed a National Action Plan for Conservation of Migratory Birds and their Habitats along CAF for the period 2018-23.

State of India’s Birds 2020 Report released at 13th COP of CMS

• It has been compiled by over ten institutions and numerous citizen scientists.
• It assesses long-term trend, current trend, distribution range size, and the overall conservation status of 867 Indian bird species.
  • 101 species are ‘High Conservation Concern’ for India e.g. raptors, migratory shorebirds, and habitat specialists like Indian Vulture etc.
  • 319 species are under ‘Moderate Conservation Concern’ category and 
  • 442 species are under low conservation concern category.
  • Number of birds in the Western Ghats declined by almost 75% since 2000.
• Reasons for decline: Habitat loss due to human activity, widespread presence of toxins, including pesticides; hunting and trapping for pet trade.
  • 126 species, including peafowl (peacock), house sparrow, Asian Koel are expected to increase in numbers, primarily due to their ability to survive in human habitats.

BIRDS COUNTING: In 2020 – Kaziranga & nearby wetlands.

• Bar-headed goose: topped the list with 16,552 birds followed by the northern pintail at 9,493 and the common teal at 5,631. 
• Ferruginous duck, an important species with a count of 2,236, may be regarded as a highlight of this estimation.

Longest migration route of Lesser florican from Rajasthan tracked

• News: In a major discovery, the longest in-country migration route of lesser floricans, the endangered birds of the bustard group, has been tracked for the first time from Rajasthan to Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district.
  • The latest instance of migration detection is that of a male lesser florican which took a zigzag flight from Shokaliya and has passed through Shevgaon tehsil, west of Ahmednagar in Maharashtra, covering a distance of 1,000 km from its breeding ground.  
  • Very little is known about their migration, as only a few birds have been tagged as yet.
• The telemetry exercise: A Telemetry exercise (transmitter attached to the bird) was undertaken in the Shokaliya landscape of Ajmer district to trace the journey of lesser floricans from their breeding grounds to their places of origin, presumably in down South.
  • The experiment for fitting the U.S.-made satellite transmitters with solar-powered batteries was taken up near Shokaliya village in Ajmer district’s Bhinai tehsil. 
  • After several failure attempt finally a 1000km long journey is tracked.
• Lesser florican: taxonomically classified as Sypheotides indicus, is a small and slender bird species belonging to the bustard group, found in tall grasslands, for which Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII) has launched a recovery programme.
  • Regions: The endangered bird is observed in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and some other regions during the monsoon season, when it breeds and later disappears with its chicks to unknown places.
  • Status: The bird is listed as “critically endangered” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species and its population has been identified as “decreasing”.
• About Bustards: They are among the heaviest bird with a horizontal body and long bare legs giving it an ostrich like appearance.
  • Habitat: Arid and semi-arid grasslands, open country with thorn scrub, tall grass interspersed with cultivation. It avoids irrigated areas.
  • 4 species of bustards are found in India– 
    • Great Indian Bustard (GIB) – It is the largest of all.
    • Macqueen’s Bustard, 
    • Lesser Florican & 
    • Bengal Florican 

 Great Indian Bustard (GIB) (Ardeotis Nigriceps)

Rajasthan State bird (known as Godawan). Omnivorous.

• It’s among the heaviest bird with a horizontal body and long bare legs giving it an ostrich like appearance.
• Habitat: Arid and semi-arid grasslands, open country with thorn scrub, tall grass interspersed with cultivation. It avoids irrigated areas.
• 4 species of bustards in India– Great Indian Bustard, Macqueen’s Bustard, Lesser Florican & Bengal Florican| GIB is the largest

• Conservation Status: 
  • IUCN: Critically Endangered;
    • Only 200 such birds are left in India in 2018. [From over 1260 in 1969] Now only around 150 left. Total population of wild GIB of 50 in Jaisalmer.
    • 2020: No GIB in Kutch Bustard Sanctuary in Gujarat
  •  Schedule I in Wildlife act; Appendix I CITES; 
  • Covered under Bonn Convention: Endangered Migratory species, Annex I.
• Threats:
  • Habitat destruction: Increased irrigation by Indra Gandhi canal, has led to increased agriculture and altered habitat has led to the disappearance of species from the region.
  • All four species of Bustard have declined because of historical hunting and widespread habitat loss, compounded with their slow growth and reproduction. – State of India’s Birds 2020 Report released at 13th COP of Bonn Convention.
• Initiatives: 
  • Project Great Indian Bustard (GIB), 2013.
  • Rajasthan government2016 launched a project to create captive breeding centres.
  • “Project Godawan” for its conservation at Desert National Park (DNP) in Jaisalmer.
  • MoEFCC has sanctioned ₹33Cr to facilitate the two centres.
  • Covered under Integrated development of Wildlife habitat Program of M/oEFCC for captive breeding.
  • Recently, Karnataka has decided to declare a large patch of area in Siraguppa taluk in Karnataka as GIB Protected Zone.
  • Supreme Court has constituted a high-powered committee to urgently frame and implement an emergency response plan for the protection of Great Indian bustard.
  • Bustard Recovery Program: 
    • It recommends linking local livelihoods with bustard conservation.
    • For effective conservation, the guidelines direct state governments to identify the core breeding areas for bustards and keep them inviolate from human disturbances.
    • The guidelines suggest restriction on infrastructure development and land use diversion for roads, high tension electric poles, intensive agriculture, wind power generators and construction.

Indian Vultures: 

IUCN’s red list: Critically Endangered species.

• Vultures eat dead and decaying animals, they are habitat specialist. 
• Vulture have been known to have died due to presence of diclofenac in the food chain.
  • Diclofenac is used as antibiotic for Cattles. In India, Cattles are not eaten, therefore Vultures feed on decaying Cattles. This is fatal if the dead cattle has been treated with diclofenac recently. Between 1993 to 2002, the vulture population shrunk by 97.4%.
  • It is now banned and cattles are now etreated with Meloxicam.
• Jatayu Conservation and breeding centre: A Gau Sadan(cow conservation centre) built by UP government may have led to the selection of the village site for the vulture conservation in eastern UP’s  Maharajganj.
• It would be set up at Bhari Baisi Village in Pharendra tehsil under the Gorakhpur Forest Division.
• More than 100 vultures were spotted in the Maghwalia range of the Maharajganj Forest division in August.

Cinerous Vulture: with blacked tipped pink beak migrates from Europe & Asia to warmer places like Northern India (in Rajasthan etc.). Bird watchers have traced it in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand.

• It is in IUCN’s red list – near threatened species.

Amur falcons 

These birds come to Doyang lake (Nagaland) every year in millions, to roost here during their flight from Mongolia to South Africa, making this beautiful area in India’s northeast a bird-watchers’ paradise. 

• They are the longest travelling raptors in the world and weigh just 150 grams.
  • Males are mostly grey in colour and the females have dark-streaked cream or orange underpants.
  • The species flies non-stop from Mongolia to northeast India covering 5,600 km in five days and nights, a small part of its 22,000 km circular migratory journey.
  • The birds halt briefly in Myanmar. After a month or so, they reach central and western India en route to South Africa.

• In 2003, Two falcons were tagged with satellite device to understand their migratory behaviour. They had returned to the lake twice after taking rounds from Mongolia to South Africa via Nagaland. 
  • These two falcons are named Naga and Pangti(World’s Amur Falcon Capital). 
• As per the Union MoEFCC minister, “The world has recognized Pangti village in Nagaland as the world’s Amur Falcon capital, as more than one million birds can be seen in just 30 minutes.
• “Until recently, Naga tribesmen used to hunt thousands of Amur falcons for meat. But last year, after a vigorous campaign by wildlife activists, they pledged to protect the bird and since then, not a single bird has been hunted in the area.

AVIAN BOTULISM: Recently, Avian botulism became reason for bird deaths at Sambhar lake in Rajasthan.

• Its caused by a bacterium called Clostridium botulinum commonly found in sail, river, and sea water.
  • It is found that BOD in sambhar lake is above permissible limits, this led to rise of Clostridium botulinum. They are heat-resistant and in the absence of oxygen they germinate, grow and then excrete toxins.
  • It affects the nervous system of birds, leading to flaccid paralysis in their legs and wings and neck touching the ground.
  • Factors that favoured the growth of clastridium botulinum include: 
    • low levels of salinity, 
    • suitable temperature and 
    • high demand for chemical oxygen.
• Recently, a variety of Archea was also found in Sambhar Lake. More than 20,000 migratory birds had died due to avian botulism in 2019 here.
  • The Rajasthan government will build temporary shelters for migratory birds near the famous Sambhar Lake before this year’s winter season, when a large number of avian guests from the cold northern regions of Central Asia are expected to arrive at the country’s largest inland saline water body. This would be at a cost of Rs. 1.8Cr
  • The Rajasthan High Court, which took suo motu cognisance of the mass death, has also constituted a seven-member expert committee to study the impact of salt forming and identify any illegal salt mining in the lake.

 The forest owlet (Athene blewitti) is an owl that is endemic to the forests of central India.

• It has sightings from the Talda Forest Range, the Toranmal Forest Range, the Melghat Tiger Reserve, and the Khaknaar Forest Range, all in central India had dense to open  deciduous forest.
• Forest in its range is being lost and degraded by illegal tree cutting for firewood and timber, and encroachment for cultivation, grazing and settlements as well as forest fires and minor irrigation dams.

 Blyth’s tragopan – Nagaland’s State Bird – and other species of birds and animals

• Dzukou valley National Park is famous for its Dzukou lily flowers and they only found in this valley.
• It is on the border of Manipur & Nagaland.

Wildlife Conservation Plans

 3rd National Wildlife Action Plan (2017- 2031).

• Previous two: 1st(1983), 2nd(2002-2016)
• It is formed by M/oEFCC in collaboration with conservationists, environmentalists & civil society.
• It aims at: 
  • Proper monitoring and evaluation of conservation efforts.
  • Preservation of Genetic diversity and sustainable utilization of species & ecosystems.
• It adopts a landscape approach in conservation of wildlife.

 ‘India’s National Action Plan for Conservation of Migratory Birds and their Habitats along the Central Asian Flyway (2018-2023)’.

• Presented by M/oEFCC. [See Ramsar convention]
• India has a strategic role in the Central Asian flyway, as it provides critical stopover sites to over 90% of the bird species known to use this migratory route. 
• This National Action Plan (NAP) for conservation of migratory birds and their habitats states the national priority and specific actions required to ensure healthy populations of these migratory species in India, within their range across the flyway. 
  • It provides a common strategic framework for regional collaboration and affirmative action for protecting, conserving, restoring, and sustainably managing populations of migratory bird species and their habitats in the Indian subcontinent falling under the Central Asian Flyway region. 
  • This action plan has been drawn to enable national and state level policy and decision makers, those responsible for species conservation and management of habitats, stakeholders and society at large to take coordinated actions for securing and enhancing populations of migratory birds.

Draft “Visionary Perspective Plan (2020-2030) for the conservation of avian diversity, their ecosystems, habitats and landscapes in the country” is put in Public domain.

• The Visionary plan has proposed to carry out 15 major programmes and various activities which should be implemented over: 
  • short–term (2020-2024), 
  • medium–term (2024-2027) and 
  • long–term (2027-2030).
• Approaches: 
  • Bird surveys in select landscapes to identify new IBAs (Important Bird Areas) for conservation of birds and other biodiversity.
    • Important BIRD and Biodiversity Area (IBA): is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of BIRD populations.
      • IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife International.
      • Currently there are over 12,000 IBAs worldwide.
  • Species recovery programmes of critically endangered birds- 
    • The plan has envisaged landscape approach to control their declining population and protect birds in urban areas, and protection of their habitats from turning into wastelands.
  • Conservation of migratory birds– 
    • through species-specific action plans, setting up of a national database on migratory birds and their habitats, assessment of threats to migratory birds and their habitats etc.
• Implementing Agencies– It will be implemented by different stakeholders including ministries, with the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) being the nodal institution for this purpose. M/o EFCC is the focal Ministry

Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON)

• It is one of the centres of excellence of the MoEFCC.
• It is registered as a society and Union Environment Minister is the President of SACON Society.
• SACON’s mission is “To help conserve India’s biodiversity and its sustainable use through research, education and peoples’ participation with birds at the centre stage”.
• SACON is located near Coimbatore city in Tamil Nadu.

Who releases the State of India’s birds report?

The SoIB report aims to evaluate the conservation status of a wide range of species regularly present in India. It is published by a partnership involving 13 governmental and non-governmental organizations, including SACON, WII, and ZSI.

What is the CMS for migratory birds?

CMS, part of the United Nations Environment Programme, is the main global treaty designed to conserve migratory species. It sets out ways for Governments and other stakeholders to help all wild animals that regularly and predictably migrate across one or more national boundaries.

Which bird migrates to India during winter?

Many birds migrate to India during winter, seeking warmer climates and food sources, including the Siberian Crane, Greater Flamingo, and Bluethroat

How many species of birds are there in India?

India is home to 1358 bird species, with 79 of them being endemic to the country. 

Who declared peacock as national bird of India?

Indian Government declared that Peacock will be the National Bird in 1963, on February 1. It is one of the National Symbols of India.