A tale of two falcons

Akham Bonbirdhwaja Singh *

Tamenglong, the radio satellite tagged female Amur Falcon :: Pix - IT News

Yes, I am going to talk about the Amur Falcons, the falcons which are our winged visitors for over a decade or so, which have become a feathered friend for all of us, our autumn friends. Another feather in our biodiversity cap, our honoured guests. One of the most beautiful and smallest raptor (Average weight 160 gm) is our Amur Falcon (Falco amurensis).

It is migratory, coming from Eastern Russia and China, its fly path crosses the North Eastern India, then crossing the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean in winter it goes to southern Africa and in homebound migration it crosses the Middle East and Central Asia in its path. Its migratory route is one of the longest, over 22000 km. The raptors are not known for such long migration, so Amur Falcon is very unique in this regards.

The number of this bird in the world is estimated to be ten lakhs. It eats termites, insects, small animals etc. Though it is not a waterfowl, it is fond of wetlands and as such it is found near rivers and lakes. They are also land birds as well as raptors. The number of migration in Manipur and Nagaland suddenly increased in the last one to two decades and they do not stay here for long, it stays in Manipur for a little less than two months (about 40-50 days in October-November). The season of their visit here is late autumn, autumn is known for maturing of most of the insects which are their major food.

It is coming in thousands and lakhs, creating quite a phenomenon in the hilly landscape of the western Manipur for about two months or so. It was quite natural and bounden duty of the Indian Government, wildlife organisations and state Forest department to undertake further studies on this bird in respect of its migratory behaviour and ecological impact. So, when the task of fitting two of the birds with GPS enabled transmitters for scientific study, all the bird lovers of the state and world were happy.

In fact, the remote sensing technology has been used for studies of wildlife for quite some time. Earlier, radio collaring was a popular technique, but with advancement of satellite technology, remote sensing is very much improved. Now it is a powerful tool to unravel a number of mysteries associated with the avian migration and this is an important aspect in conservation efforts of migratory birds.

We can remember the "Jatinga Bird Mystery" which used to happen in Haflong area, not far from Tamenglong, we have to solve all such mysteries for effective protection. For the present exercise, two birds, one male and another female were selected to be fittest among the five chosen, released after fitting with the transmitters, the male was named "Manipur" and female was named "Tamenglong" and much was expected from this venture.

The device is powered by a solar panel the weight of which is only 5 gm. The approximate cost is about INR 1.5 lakhs for the device and the cost of monitoring and data generation is INR1 lakhs. The satellite tagging of two Amur Falcon was informed to the villagers of Tamenglong District on the day of the "4th Amur Falcon Festival" in the first week of November, 2018.

This occasion assumed a great importance as this year the world have started celebrating "World Migratory Bird Day" on the second Saturdays of May and October as a result of new partnership uniting two of world's largest bird education campaigns, "The international Migratory Bird Day" and "World Migratory Bird Day" and thus the year 2018 was an important year in migratory bird conservation. It also unifies the earth's major migratory bird corridors or flyways, the Afro Eurasian, East Asian –Australasian and American Flyways.

After so much of fanfare and festivities with which "Manipur" and "Tamenglong" were released, with so much of hope and expectation associated with it, it came as rude shock when one of the two satellite tagged falcon was found killed on the 8th Nov, 2018 at Kebuching (between Tamenglong and Noney), the carcass of the bird was found, the device was found intact.

The enraged forest Minister announced that no one involved would be spared and the air guns which are used for killing indigenous and migratory birds shall be banned in the localities of Irang river where Amurs were plenty (by the time this article was filed the order have been already issued). One harsh reality is that the hunter knew that the bird he killed was one of the special birds, so he abandoned the kill.

He knew that if he carries the device found on the back of the bird, he would be tracked down, so he was an educated one who knew the device or heard of it, perhaps he came to know of it from the media as there was so much of media hype about the incident of satellite tagging. In fact it was the 4th Amur Falcon Festival this year in the state and people were quite familiar with the conservation efforts of this falcon by the Forest Department.

So, many questions arise on the killing of "Manipur". Actually, when "Manipur" was killed, "Tamenglong" was still around, so it was quite worrying. It is true that this bird is protected under the Schedule IV of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, but issue is not of legality of the act, but of the impact of conservation efforts of this falcon.About half a decade back, three Amur Falcons were satellite tagged and released in Nagaland, nothing of this sort happened, so Nagaland earned a good name.

The conservation efforts of this raptor was started in Nagaland about seven years back, not that its population was becoming critical, but the way it was being killed and sold and quantum of killing was quite alarming. It is said that after coming of Doyang Reservoir about a decade back the number of Amur Falcon increased suddenly.

It was not a customary hunting item as it became abundant only few years back, but in 2011 and 2012, it was estimated that over 1.2 to 1.5 lakhs of Amurs were killed every year in Nagaland. Now, it has been declared that there is no hunting of this bird and the world community has declared Nagaland as "Amur Falcon Capital" of the world.

Poor "Manipur", it wanted to stay just a few days more in Manipur and it met the tragic end. "Tamenglong" was a bit luckier, it could fly up to Somalia (Africa) after flying 5700 km from Manipur and after crossing Arabian Sea. There was information that after leaving Somalia, while in Zambia, the satellite signals have stopped. There have been cases elsewhere for such disruption of signals due certain reasons, but became active again after a few days.

Here in the case of "Tamenglong" the satellite signal stopped on 15.12.2018 and since then, no link has been restored (till the date of writing this article 28.12.2018). The migratory birds know the path of their flight, year after year; it will follow the same route. It is guided by the earth's systems and aided by its hormones.

We have known that the birds can also modify their biological instincts by experience, they divert their paths to other suitable places, the increase in number of Amurs in Nagaland around Dimapur after Doyang Reservoir has come is clear example. The decrease in visiting birds in Loktak and Bharatpur (Rajasthan) are other examples.

When there are rampant killings in one place with drastic reduction in number and when their habitat and feeding grounds are encroached, the birds feel threatened. As most of the long distance migratory birds breed in northern temperate (actually, the breeding place is regarded as home of migratory birds) and come down to hotter south for food during winter, their migratory cycle is important to maintain their population and they are highly gregarious in nature.

As their habits are clearly outlined, hunting them is very easy. Sensing the plight of the migratory waterfowls and importance of wetlands in our ecosystem, the Forest Minister Shyamkumar announced that the recent illegal constructions inside the Loktaklake would all be removed. If we welcome our esteemed guests and treat them well, they will come more in numbers and help us in keeping our ecosystem intact.

We can earn much more by setting up eco system facilities for world tourists than killing these birds. Why can't Manipur become another Amur Falcon Capital? I would join many others to appeal the bird lovers of Tamenglong and rests of Manipur to get better organised and commit in educating the people towards conservation of this feathered friend of ours.

As for "Manipur" and "Tamenglong" I am sure that more of them would be launched in the next Autumn.