After the shock over losing two heavyweight elephants one male and the other female in the tiger reserve Palamau in a span of ten days the authorities of the tiger reserve putting up a brave face held a bird festival in Betla on Sunday January 31 said sources.
A maiden venture of the tiger reserve to dedicate a festival to birds, the show was a modest success as children thronged the festival but not their parents, said sources.
Tiger reserve Palamau has on its list one hundred sixty nine species of the birds and nearly a dozen are the migratory birds.
The bird festival a brain child of the field director and chief conservator of the forest of the tiger reserve Palamau Y K Das would not have lost anything had he asked his men to inform about this bird festival to national media people as sources said the national media could learn about it only on Monday.
Deputy director South division Mukesh Kumar said we held the bird festival and it was our maiden show. He said our field director Das did everything for the festival from conception to its holding.
A bird man of Jharkhand Panna Lal Mahto of the Ramgarh district stole the show in this bird festival, said Mukesh Kumar. The bird man knows how to make a copy call of at least forty species of the birds.
Children who took part in the festival penned essays and drew paintings on the topic of the birds.
D S Srivastava, a noted environmentalist although not invited in the bird festival by the authorities said PTR has been a house of gorgeous birds. He said this bird festival will go a long way to make people understand that birds are too good for them also.
He said there are excellent owls here like horned barn and jungle owlets etc. Srivastava said during Diwali risks to the owls get multifold.
Mukesh Kumar said our field director Das is very concerned about the sling shot that youths keep stuffed in their pockets to kill a bird for joy and food.
He said our efforts are on to convince these youths to allow birds to live a life of their own too.