Himachal Forest Minister Rakesh Pathania on Tuesday said that no bird mortality due to avian influenza H5N1 has been reported from Pong Dam Lake Wildlife Sanctuary for the past eight days.
He said that subsequent to 51 days of continuous control and containment measures taken by Wildlife Wing of HP Forest Department, the avian influenza outbreak in the Pong Dam Lake Wildlife Sanctuary is under control now.
The Minister said that the situation on the ground has returned to normal. The control room set up by Wildlife Wing at Nagrota Surian to monitor the outbreak situation in the Sanctuary has been officially closed.
He said that ongoing control and containment operations have been called off. However, to prevent resurgence of the disease, the post operations surveillance plan as per Government of India's "Action Plan for Prevention, Control and Containment of Avian Influenza" would be implemented in the wildlife sanctuary for the remaining migratory bird season.
He said that no bird mortality was reported from the entire Pong Dam Lake Wildlife Sanctuary for the eighth consecutive day and the total cumulative number of migratory and resident birds reported dead in Pong Dam Wildlife Sanctuary area is 5006.
Notably, it was for the first time that bird flu was reported at Pong Lake, which hosts lakhs of migratory birds every winter.
The Pong Dam is one of the largest man-made wetlands in northern India and is known as birds’ paradise as lakhs of migratory birds reach there every winter after flying thousands of miles from their native habitat in high-altitude lakes in Central Asia.
According to the census conducted by the Wildlife wing of Himachal Forest Department, a total of 1,08,578 birds of 96 species were counted during February 2021, a decline of just six percent in total number as compared to 1,15,701 birds of 114 species recorded at the waterbody last year.
During the annual waterfowl count held on February 1 and 2 by the field staff of the Department, out of the total 1.08 lakh birds, water dependent migratory birds were 101,431 of 51 species and water dependent resident birds were 6,433 of 29 species. 714 birds of 16 other species were also recorded at Pong Dam Lake.
In January 2020 annual census exercise, 1,04,032 migratory waterfowls of 60 species, 10,377 resident water birds of 30 species and 1,292 birds of 24 other local species were recorded.
This year, the number of Bar-Headed Goose, an endangered migratory bird species, stood at 40,570. During census 2020, the Pong Lake had recorded an increase by 68 percent in the number of Bar-Headed Goose at 49,496 as compared to 29,443 in the 2018-19.
However, their number has declined this year as Bar-Headed Goose died in maximum numbers at Pong Lake due to bird flu.
Among 5006 migratory birds of 38 species that have died till now due to the virus, 90 percent fatalities have been reported among Bar-Headed Goose.