Birds of the Plateau

Disregard for the protection of Bidar’s eco-system has weakened the natural resources for its birds and other wildlife

In the mild sun of late-November, the grasslands on the plateau of Bidar in North Karnataka, about 700 km from Bengaluru, are bathed in a golden hue. The long stalks of grass sway dreamily in the breeze. Soaking up the sun and the peaceful silence is one of the greatest pleasures imaginable for a nature lover.

The only sound in the morning is the faint, but interminable chirping of the birds all around. The wind isn’t strong on the plateau, but it is unobtrusive, rustling through the grass.

Summer is now a distant memory and so is its haze of brown and dust.

And yet, these grasslands are surprisingly teeming with life. Butterflies flutter, dainty and somewhat ethereal. Dragonflies hover, fiercely red, floating intently in the blue air. It is these insects that form the base of the pyramid that sustains the chain of life on these grasslands, and in places like Bidar, it is in and around these grasslands where a lot of migratory birds congregate.

But the grasslands are not the only surprisingly rich avian habitat found in Bidar.

Mostly known as the City of Whispering Monuments, Bidar has sometimes also been called as the land of seven springs by many historians.

This is because it is dotted with water bodies and the several rivulets that stem from these. And, as is often the case in many places in the Deccan where the habitat tends to be dry and arid, it is these water bodies and reservoirs that encircle the city that also emerge as magnets for birdlife.

Principal among them in the area around Bidar are the Karanja dam, the Anadur tank, and the Naubad tank.

Additionally, there are lakes like Kamathana and Sultanpur, which are also rich in terms of the variety of avifauna.

The Karanja reservoir is especially rich, with birdwatchers having sometimes sighted over 10,000 birds and with almost 80 species having been counted. Among the species that have been spotted are gadwall, garganey, black-tailed godwit, wood sandpiper, Kentish plover, forest wagtails, greenish warblers and common greenshank. Bar-headed geese, northern pintail, northern shoveler, ultramarine flycatcher and red-crested pochard are regularly seen each year.

It is a long and fascinating journey that many of these migratory birds have made, some flying across entire continents and oceans, as they leave their frozen winter homelands in Siberia, Mongolia, Europe and Alaska, in search of warmer climes.

And in Bidar, being predominantly rural, one should not forget the agricultural fields where there is also a lot of interesting birdlife to be found.

Common kestrel, long-tailed shrike, pipits, bee-eaters, woodpeckers, glossy ibis, black ibis, egrets, kites, petronias, hawks, barbets, great cormorant and little cormorant — among umpteen others — can be spotted in and around the villages surrounding this rural landscape.

It is true, however, that grave existential threats confront such pristine birding and wildlife habitats of Bidar.

The grassland ecosystem is often disregarded in importance and neglected by conservation laws and policies that typically consider such grassland systems as wastelands, ignoring the unique diversity of life it nurtures and the critical role it plays in the conservation of species like blackbuck, jungle cat, wolf, fox, jackal, hyena and others.

Misguided forest management practices and priorities have often tried to convert grasslands such as in
Bidar into forest systems through implementation of ill-thought plantation exercises.

The many problems

In many places, grasslands have not been given their due and kept outside the purview of serious protection efforts and conservation plans, with the result that grasslands have been fragmented and degraded either by the thoughtless allocation of such land parcels to development projects (though some are solar and wind farms!) or allowed to be run over by grazers and pastoralists.

And, as far as being the other primary threat specific to the birdlife of Bidar is concerned, the deterioration of the waterbodies, wetlands and marshy habitats over much of its landscape — a problem compounded by the increasing pollution of the feeding water sources, the over-exploitation of groundwater, and the general mismanagement of water as a priceless resource — is no less worrying.

In the years that are specially dry and cruel due to the truant behaviour of an increasingly erratic monsoon, the problem of the lack of water is thrown up more starkly and there have often been sharp decline in the arrival of migratory birds in such years, both in terms of the absolute number of birds observed and the species seen.

Dusk falls in Bidar, and, from high up on the plateau, the sun is now a coppery orb, setting the land aflame with the last of its golden light. One watches, transfixed, the knotted antlers of the majestic blackbuck males bobbing above the sea of yellow grass.

Up above in the spotless heavens a marsh harrier soars, probably laughing at our folly, saying there’s little time left in order to preserve the bit that remains, and no time and effort should be spared to do so.