Arun Kumar, Director, Dolphin (PG) Institute of Biomedical & Natural Sciences, Dehradun and Yawar Munsoor Bhat, FRI University, have stressed the need for protecting Doon valley’s Asan Conservation Reserve, the first wetland conservation reserve in India.
The Asan Conservation Reserve (ACR) comprises a fresh water reservoir, a Reserve Forest Area, a stretch of river bed of Asan Reserve and Yamuna Hydel canal located 38 km from Dehradun. It was declared as the first Conservation Reserve of the country on August 5, 2005. The Conservation Reserve is easily accessible through the Dehradun-Paonta Road. The reservoir was under the control of irrigation Department Uttarakhand, though recently it was transferred to the Uttarakhand Jal Vidhut Nigam ltd., Dehradun while the Reserve Forest area is controlled by Forest Department Uttarakhand.
The Conservation Reserve is the abode of a very large variety and number of wetland birds, including many globally threatened species, which makes it an important wetland for the conservation of biodiversity. Arun Kumar and Yawar Bhat have been monitoring the wetland bird diversity of Asan regularly and have added three more species recently, namely Stork-billed Kingfisher, Greater Painted Snipe and Bronze-winged Jacana, which were photographed at the Reserve . This updates the number of wetland species to 83. Though there has been an erroneous record of Ferruginous Pochard from the Reserve, no sightings were made by Forest Department in their Annual Bird counts since 2003. However, a flock of seven birds of this species was very recently photographed by these two experts at the reserve. This takes the number of Globally threatened species at the reserve to 16.
These experts told The Pioneer that though the area is a Conservation Reserve under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, it has a reserved forest covering a major part of it while a large part is under the control of Irrigation Department. It comes under different scales of anthropogenic pressure from many corners of the catchment area. These include weed infestation, siltation, live stock grazing and human encroachment as well as poaching. Another very crucial factor is the sand mining and quarrying.
The reserve is one of the best known sites for the Ruddy Shelduck, and accordingly is listed as an Important Bird Area (IBA).
The wetland birds are most dominant amongst the fauna of the wetland. Till date a total of 250 species of birds have been observed at the reserve, comprising around 80 species of wetland birds.
Among the wetland birds 19 species are of the winter migrants from Eurasia, like Pintail (Anas acuta), Red Crested Pochard (Netta rufina), Ruddy Shelduck (Tadorna ferruginea), Common Pochard (Aythya ferina), Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), Coot (Fulica atra), Eurasian Wigeon (Anas Penelope), Gadwall (Anas strepera), Common Teal (Anas crecca), Northern Shoveller (Anas smithii), Egrets (Ardea alba), Herons (Ardea herodias), and Tufted Pochard (Aythya fuligula). These Trans-Himalayan migratory birds take halt in Asan Barrage during the winter.
However, Asan has been identified as an Important Bird Area. It is one of the best sites for large congregations of Ruddy Shelducks and other birds. On February, 2003, more than 2,000 were seen and this has increased to more than 3000 birds in 2014-15.
Asan is not a Wetland of International Importance at present. It, however, qualifies to be a Ramsar site. The criteria because of which it qualifies to be a Ramsar wetland are --
Ramsar Criteria 2
The CR supports 16 Globally threatened species, namely, White-rumped Vulture, Slender billed Vulture, Red-headed Vulture, Egyptian Vulture, Marbled Teal, Baer's Pochard, lesser White-fronted Goose, Pallas's Fish Eagle, Greater Spotted Eagle, Darter, Painted Stork, Black-necked Stork, Black-headed Ibis, Cinereous Vulture, Ferruginous Pochard, Black-bellied Tern.
Ramsar Criteria 6
Wetland regularly supports one per cent of the individuals in a population of one species or subspecies. More than 3500 Ruddy Shelduck’s have been reported from the reservoir in winter season which is much more than the one per cent threshold (500 birds) for this species.
Being a vibrant tourist, birding and recreational spot, Asan has a potential of income generation for the local people. The area is also an active centre for conservation education. A lot of water based recreational facilities developed at the reservoir in the Conservation Reserve attract a large number of tourists from Dehradun and nearby cities.
Being a wetland, it also performs a host of other ecological and environmental functions as well, which though not fully understood yet, are critical for the future well being and existence of the wildlife and to humanity.