The Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary, which is country’s only sanctuary in the cold desert area, has a rich bird diversity, including many threatened species.
A three-day bird survey, which was conducted recently, recorded 30 bird species exceeding earlier recorded bird diversity of 19 species. Of these species, some bird species are included in International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red list Threatened species.
The ecologist TK Roy and researcher Sireesha Nimana, from IBCN (Indian Bird Conservation Network) of BNHS with support from the Spiti Wildlife Division conducted the three days bird survey at the wildlife sanctuary.
During the survey, bird diversity of 30 species exceeding earlier recorded diversity of 19 species as per Birdlife International’s report (“Restricted Bird Species in Spiti” by Islam and Rahmani 2005) were recorded, said Roy while talking to The Pioneer.
He said, “Among 30 bird species, the additional rare and migratory bird species in the high altitude cold desert area of Spiti were European Gold Finch, Golden-Naped Finch, Red-Fronted Serin, Twit, Pied Wheatear, Alpine Swift among others.
Himalayan Griffin Vulture and Bearded Vulture which are listed as near threatened species in the IUCN Red list were also spotted in the sanctuary during the survey. Tibetan Snow Finch and Blandt’s Mountain Finch or Black-Headed Mountain-Finch were also spotted, said Roy.
Also, more than 50 species of alpine flora includes rare and threatened medicinal plants have been recorded in the sanctuary.
Roy informed that among the alpine plants diversity, some IUCN Red-listed threatened species and rare medicinal species were recorded. These included threatened species namely Aconitum Heterophyllu, Picrorhiza Kurroa, Angelic Glauca, Ephedra Gerardiana and Saussaurea Bractea.
The Kibber Wildlife Sanctuary covers an extended area of 2220.12 sq km and is located in the higher cold desert area of Spiti in Himachal Pradesh.
The sanctuary is a high altitude natural sanctuary and inhabited by some rare and endangered mountain animals like Snow leopard, Himalayan Wolf, Blue Sheep among others.
The sanctuary is one of the special tourist attraction spots in Himachal Pradesh and also, is one of the IBA (International Bird Area) among 466 such sites in India.