Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s Hirakud Dam witnessed a record increase in avian guests this winter as their number reached three lahks during a recently-concluded bird census at the reservoir.
The counting exercise was undertaken across the water body covering Sambalpur, Bargarh, and Jharsuguda. Altogether the bird census was carried out in 15 sectors.
According to officials, altogether 3,16,676 birds belonging to 108 species were sighted in the Hirakund dam. Delightfully, over 0ne lakh more birds visited the reservoir since the last census in 2022.
Ten new species – painted stork, yellow-billed duck, woolly-necked stork, bar-tailed godwit, pied harrier, curlew sandpiper, cotton pygmy goose, Caspian tern, blue-tailed bee-eater, crested serpent eagle – were sighted for the first-time visitors at the Hirakund dam this year. Birds belonging to whistling duck (66,712), tufted duck (44,820), and common coot (34,680) species were seen in large numbers. These three species alone accounted for over 1.46 lakh bird populations sighted during the census. Other popular species that were seen in large numbers were skimmer, crested grebe, darter, cormorant, pochard, etc.
Most birds were sighted in Sector 6 on the Odisha-Chattisgarh border – as many as 85,216 birds of 66 species were seen here.
According to Hirakud Wildlife Division DFO Anshu Pragyan Das, a team of experts and forest department personnel undertook the exercise. The bird census at Hirakud stood at 97,899 (93 species) in 2020, followed by 1,24,864 (98 species) in 2021 and 2,08,634 (104 species) in 2022.
