Migratory Birds Losing Love For Kashmir: Poaching, Climate Change & Drying Wetlands Threaten Tradition

Navigating with the help of stars, moon and peaks, they arrive every year in the wetlands of Kashmir. Bird migration has fascinated mankind for ages and has become a systematic way to explore different kinds of avian creatures.

Acting as a transitory habitat each year, Kashmir welcomes tens of thousands of migratory birds fluttering from different parts of Asia.

Abuzz with the media reports in 2017, citing different surveys that at least three lakh migratory birds thronged Kashmir valley, but still this Asian flyway zone is staggering under fear of losing these annual sky spattering avian guests.

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Having an upper hand over other states of India, Jammu and Kashmir has four wetlands identified as Ramsar Sites (Wetlands of International importance) and the migratory destination for birds arriving from Siberia, Japan, and other places.

Wular Lake, Dal Lake, Hoker Sar, Mirgund Lake are among a few important wetlands of the valley.

These are transitory homes to different kinds of migratory birds like Greylag Goose, Brahminy Duck, Tufted Duck, Gadwall, Northern Pintail, Common Pochard, Red- Crested Pochard, Ruddy Shelduck and Garganey are some of the migratory birds sighted in the wetlands of Kashmir.

These winged visitors fall prey to ongoing human intervention like poaching, hunting and pollution of water bodies. First Post reported in 2017 that wetlands are falling prey to large-scale urbanisation.

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The valley has already witnessed and considerable recession in the number of arriving avian guests. That brimming of wetlands with migratory birds is gone.

The Asian Waterbird Census of 2016 conducted in 13 wetlands across valley reported Over Five Lakh birds of 33 species, which is contrary to what Bombay Natural History Society`s annual bird migration project which recorded 64 species in the Kashmir wetlands.

Ghulam Hassan Bhat, 36-year-old native of Zerre Manz village, located at the banks of Wular Lake grew swimming and playing alongside one of Asia¡¯s largest fresh water lakes. He is witness to drastic changes in the water body.

His home overlooking the lake he reminisced like this, ¡°Some 15-20 years earlier we used to watch birds flying like clouds splashing colours in the skies over the lake. We don¡¯t even have a blink of that now. Lakhs of avian guests use to flutter over here but that has diminished now drastically.

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Illegitimate poaching and hunting is still going on in wetlands. Large scale encroachment of water bodies also amounts to the interference to the aquatic habitat.

Worriedly, Bhat said that there is no food for the birds now in the wetlands as water level is decreasing. Birds use to settle on the banks, but pollution has left no place for them find enough food.

While elaborating on Poaching and Hunting of birds Bhat said people from adjacent areas forage birds and no one really cares about the biodiversity of water bodies. People even coming from other places like Srinagar hunt them down here during the winters.

"A large variety of birds used to fly over here but now we only find few of them. Earlier, only licensed hunters could hunt birds that is in contrary what we see now," Bhat added.

In a study by Wetland International, it was found that Wular Lake was actually 217.8 square kilometers. The study found that lake was reduced to 157.74 square kilometers.

In a verification to this Bhat said that human greed had not left lake untouched. People living adjacent to the lake turned the areas of lake into agricultural land and plantation of trees is on the rise which amounted to the reduction of the aquatic habitat of birds.

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Voicing concern over unabated hunting of visitor birds¡¯ locals said that the wildlife department don't take any step forward to stop this illegal hunting. They said it is now serious matter of concern on the inflow of birds in coming years and subsequently it will effect valley`s ecosystem.

According to Wildlife warden north Kashmir Maqbool Baba, "Poaching is going on in Wular lake and in other wetlands of valley but hunting is not only responsible for the decline in number of visitors, ecological succession have brought major changes that affect their migration."

While speaking to another wildlife official he said, "Unpredictable climatic changes in recent year are posing serious threat for these birds, earlier they used to arrive early in month of November, but in recent years they visit in beginning of January due to variation in climatic sessions and temperature. Aslo, they are losing their natural habitat because of human intervention for development purpose to beautify the lake.

"We are taking certain measures to ensnare hunters and prevent them from venturing out into sensitive zones. But, as climatic change is the problem, which renders us helpless to protect them to visit on time" he said.

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From underwater creatures to avian guests, Wular Lake is home to a unique biodiversity. For decades, the Lake has been a potential destination for various kinds of visitors. One among them are Ornithologists (People who study birds).

The lake has provided them an exploration to minutely study patterns, behaviour etc. of birds coming from far areas. Left out in oblivion wetlands in Kashmir are consistently under pressure of excessive human intervention which is nothing but a loss for people only.

¡°The impregnation of Wular Lake left locals disappointed because many people in north Kashmir depends on the lake for their livelihood,¡± said Mohd Ramzan.

He says, "Locals made claim that many years before people living on banks of Wular Lake used to rear cattle with fodder assistance from the Lake. Now, that potential has declined from lake and number of cattle also declined from areas."

The authors are freelance contributors based in Srinagar.