A bird census in the Hirakud dam reservoir spreading across a sprawling area of 935 square kilometres was completed on Tuesday with 21 teams engaged on the job.
The entire reservoir was divided into 21 sectors this year where was it was only 14 last year, informed the DFO (Wildlife) Sudeep Nayak.
When 20 teams were moving in water in boats, only one team was on the land. Renowned ornithologists,
forest staff and students of OUAT, Bhubaneswar, were included in the team with sophisticated cameras to take photographs and count the birds.
“However, this year some rare varieties of the birds have been spotted, as the preliminary information conforms,” Nayak added.
Compiling of the counting is going on now and the details could be known by tomorrow. At the same time, the species of the winged guests could also be known after the final compilation, he informed.
Notably, due to safe staying of the birds in the reservoir, the number of birds has been increasing every year.
Still poachers continue their unholy business very secretly in the inaccessible areas of the reservoir.
The staff of three revenue districts, Sambalpur, Bargarh and Jharsuguda, took part in the census work and every scientific method was used for bird counting, Nayak said further.