Kaziranga National Park records over 860 swamp deer, over 40,000 birds

A census in Assam's Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve has found that the national park has at least 868 swamp deer including 173 male, 557 female and 138 yearlings.

However, there was a slight decrease in the deer population in comparison to 907 counted in 2018. "This is mainly due to two high floods in the intervening period of 2019 and 2020," said the park authority.

Territory-wise, 786 under Eastern Assam Division, 62 under Biswanath Wildlife Division and 20 under Nagaon Wildlife Division have been recorded by experienced and trained wildlife experts from outside the forest department.

In the process, 29 enumerators, 112 forest personnel was directly involved in the exercise.

At the same time, counting of wetland birds was also conducted from December 21 to December 27 encompassing the whole Kaziranga Tiger Reserve. Total 66,776 numbers of birds of 126 species were enumerated using the Point Count method.

Out of this, 42,205 numbers of birds were counted in the Kaziranga National Park area while 24,571 numbers of birds were counted in Laokhowa and Burachapori Wildlife Sanctuaries.

Birds were counted in 211 different points in 157 waterbodies involving 35 enumeration teams including volunteers from local educational institutes, NGOs and along with officers and frontline staff of the Forest Department.

Bar-headed Geese has topped the list with 16,552 numbers followed by Northern Pintail with 9,493, Common Teal 5,631 etc. Ferruginous Duck is an important species with 2,236 numbers may be regarded as the highlight of this estimation.

Territory wise, 36,247 birds under Eastern Assam Division, 5958 under Biswanath Wildlife Division and 24, 571 under Nagaon Wildlife Division have been recorded by the Field Director.