The Wildlife Division of Baleswar has undertaken a drive for documentation of resident birds in the Kuldiha sanctuary. Research scholars and experts are capturing photographs of avian species which are resident varieties but are yet not always sighted.
Retired Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Suresh Mishra, who has evinced interest in these birds, has captured photographs of some these rare brown wood owls, white eyed buzzards, yellow footed green pigeons and blue eared kingfishers etc during his stay at Kuldiha.
“These varieties, which are although considered resident birds, are yet not commonly seen around. The brown wood owl is one of the species of owl which always prefers to reside inside the dense forest where hardly sunlight falls even during daytime. They love darkness,” said Mishra, who spent about 28 years among wildlife during his service career. “Similarly white eyed buzzard, a rafter, which is rarely seen in the Kuldiha sanctuary, was found. The sanctuary has about 300 varieties of birds,” he said.
The sanctuary while houses a number of varieties of birds, even migratory birds are found during the winter season. About 5 years ago, research scholar Soumik Chattarjee from Calcutta University had found Himalayan pigtail birds in Kuldhia sanctuary which are generally seen in the mountain regions.
“Since a majority of birds are frugivorous, saplings of banyan, peepal and dimiri were planted inside the sanctuary. These trees bear huge quantities of fruits for years together. Once the birds find adequate fruits inside their habitat, their scope for migration would be lesser,” said Baleswar DFO Harshbardhan Udgata, adding that his department was giving more stress on planting fruit-bearing trees.