Nainital bird festival begins

The three-day Nainital Bird Festival was innaugrated at the Botanical garden here today.

The festival will host a variety of events, including a bird photography exhibition, workshops, drawing competition and quiz on nature, officials said.

A total of 80 photographers, including 35 women, of the Pink Club have put up their work atthe exhibition.

Nainital has been home to a bird conservation sanctuary since 2015 and is an important ornithological site in the state.

Known as the 'Naina Devi Himalayan Bird Conservation Reserve' (NDHBCR), the sanctuary is spread over an area of 112 sq kms -- the biggest among the four sanctuaries in Uttarakhand.The other three being Aasan in Dehradun, Jhilmil in Haridwar and Pawalgarh in Ramnagar.

The area of the NDHBCR is spread over Killbury, Pangot and Vinayak. These places are at a distance of 10 to 25 kms from Nainital town amid deep and conserved forest.

"Located between the Ghats of Kosi River and the heights of Naina Range, the sanctuary is ideal for preserving a diversity of wildlife and is also home to distinctive local as well as migratory birds," says Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) DS Meena.

The Bird Sanctuary is home to 250 different species of birds among which 150 species have been discovered here in the recent past.

Among these species main attraction is Cheer Pheasant, a reserved species belonging to grade 'A' of the endangered birds and is found in the forest reserve of Annapurna in Nepal.

The bird Conservation Sanctuary came into existence on April 29, 2015.

The idea was a brainchild of famous hunter and environmentalist of Kumaon, Jim Corbett. In the pre-independence era, Corbett raised the demand many a time but the idea could not be materialized until now, said Anup Sah, renowned bird photographer.