Navlakha still green enough for birds

Indore:

Navlakha

area of the city, which was once known for having more than nine lakh trees, has emerged to be the favorite habitat for birds in the city owing to the large number of trees in the area.

In a recent bird count conducted at 6 educational institutions in the district, more than 60 species of birds were spotted at Daly College campus alone.

“While we spotted 60 species on the day of counting, the total number of species spotted so far in the campus is 86,” said Kanakbala Singh, a teacher of Daly College.

Bird experts said other nearby areas in Navlakha also have similar population of birds. “Around 60 species have been spotted in the zoo nearby (other than zoo birds). The police training academy also has large number of birds,” said Ajay Gadikar, MP state coordinator of bird count India campus bird survey.

The bird count exercise was conducted by Bird Count India in hundreds of educational campuses across the country. Four educational institutions from Indore and two from Mhow participated in the event.

“In all other campuses, on an average 25 species were spotted,” Gadikar said.

Experts said that the availability of a large number of old trees and fruit trees were the reason that birds chose this place.

“There are many trees in the area like banyan, peepul, gular, neem, jamun and mango. Another major reason for their presence is availability of water. Sometimes birds like black kites come to our cricket ground when we spray water there,” Kanakbala said.

Bird experts said that many other places in the city that remain untouched by humans might also have large bird populations.

“While bird watching at wetlands and forest areas around Indore has increased this year, many bird enthusiasts are not recording the observations that they came across,” Gadikar said.