Naming of an un-named migratory water bird

Kh Hitler Singh *

Mandarin duck at Karlsruher Zoo :: Pix - Yoky / wikipedia.org

Mandarin duck is a medium size migratory water bird (41-49 cm in length and 65-75 cm in wingspan) coming from East Asian countries (Russia, China, Japan) during the migratory season through the Central Asian-South Asian Flyway. The migratory season generally coincided with the last week of October and lasted up-to last week of February or First week of March of the next year in Manipur.

Male Mandarin duck is brightly coloured with a red bill, large white crescent above the eye; reddish face and "whiskers" while female Mandarin duck are a little dull in coloration. The male resemble female during molting periods when they shed their feathers. There was no Manipuri or meiteilon word or translation for Mandarin duck as the duck was very rare and very few in number in case of Manipur.

Generally the migratory ducks were simply termed as Lam-nganu (wild ducks). For few migratory ducks there are individual spp name in Manipuri e.g.

• Nganu thangong (Bhrahminy Shelduck);
• Thangongmal (Eurasian Wigeon);
• Nganu khara (Shovellor);
• Nganu Perrel (Spot bill duck);
• Nganu iruppi (Pochard);
• Nganu iruppi Kokngangbi (Red crested pochard);
• Nganu Meitunga (Pintail);
• Surit (Common teal);
• Sa-dang (Tufted duck);
• Meikonbi nganu (Mallard);
• Nganu petacot (Cotton teal);
• Nganu Porom (Coot);
• Uthit (Little grebe);
• Kanga (Bar headed goose) etc.

But some lesser noticeable wild duck species were not given meiteilon or Manipuri names. Mandarin duck was one of them.

Recently Wildlife Wing, Forest Department was entrusted the work of bio-diversity study in Loktak Ramsar and associated wetlands under the aegis of Loktak Development Authority. The study conducted has provided a fair knowledge of species composition of both resident and migratory birds of Loktak Lake and its associated wetland.

Feeding & foraging; habitat type required; annual water birds census for two years (2010-11; 2011-12); ringing & migration study with radio transmitters fitted on three brahminy shelducks beside capacity building of wildlife and forest officials; strengthening infrastructure of KLNP especially on mobility of staff.

Shri L. Joykumar Singh IFS Dy. Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Park & Sanctuary Division, Sanjenthong Imphal constituted one core group for bird study team during 2010-11. The team members were
(i) Shri L. Joykumar Singh IFS DCF/Park & Sanctuary Divn.
(ii) Shri N. Sarat Singh RFO/KLNP Range No II
(iii) Shri Kh. Hitler Singh RFO/KLNP Range No I
(iv) Shri L. Birmangol Singh RFO/KLNP Range No II
(v) Dr Khangenbam Samungou Retired Reader/DM College of Science
(vi) Shri K. Jugeshwor Singh. Principal Kumbi College
(vii) Shri R.K. Birjit Singh. HOD/Life Science, Mangolnganbi College

For the bird migration study Dr. S. Balachandran; Deputy Director, Bombay Natural History Society and his six member team were entrusted with field work supported by the above team besides satellite tracking through ARCGIS 9.2 and Google EARTH 5.0 to plot and analyze the telemetry locations.

The core group further mobilized several site support groups of members of NGOs, local Clubs and amateur bird watchers in the identified bird congregation sites. Because of the large support of wildlife activists and several local volunteers; the work of bio-diversity study and annual water birds census could be completed without much hardship.

Sana nganu were not sighted during the field visit in different wetlands of Manipur by the study team. But in one of the birds identification training carried out in the Manipur Zoological Garden by the Wildlife Wing, Forest Department in association with Bombay Natural History Society; we come across one male Sana nganu (Mandarin duck) in the water birds exhibit.

From that day; team members were stroked for a vernacular name for the beautiful bird. After a few days Dr. Khangenbam Samungou suggested among the members of water bird study team the name "Sana nganu" for the rare and unnoticed Mandarin duck and all the members were extremely glad with the vernacular name. The credit for coining the name "Sana nganu" for mandarin duck should goes to Dr. Khangenbam Samungou and entire team of Water birds Study constituted by Shri L. Joykumar Singh IFS Dy. Conservator of Forests (Wildlife), Park & Sanctuary Division, Sanjenthong Imphal during 2010-11. We members felt that our Manipuri language is enriched with one vernacular word. Members were not linguistics but we felt that all the linguists of Meiteilon will gladly add it in Manipuri language.

"Sana nganu" and all the other migratory birds are global properties; they do not recognized political boundaries or any kind of political ideologies. They are the live indicators of the ecosystem of a place. They are the unavoidable building blocks in the food chain of this world. They are the future gene bank and food security in the event of massive genetic disorder or epidemic to our domestic poultry.

There were large scale lost of large stretches of marshland and wetlands in Europe because of "reclaimed" or otherwise destroyed, with a resulting decline in numbers of waterfowl during 1960. International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (now IUCN–The World Conservation Union), the International Waterfowl and Wetlands Research Bureau, IWRB (now Wetlands International), and the International Council for Bird Preservation, ICBP (now BirdLife International), took the initiative recognizing the importance of involvement of different countries in conservation of water birds and their wetlands as the important feeding & foraging habitats of water birds convene the first international conference on wetland of internationally importance at Ramsar; a city in Iran in 1971 with 18 participating countries.

The convention highlighted Ramsar sites and two of the important criteria of Ramsar sites are concerned with water birds viz Criterion (5) A wetland should be considered internationally important if it regularly support 20,000 or more water-birds. Criterion (6) A wetland should be considered internationally important if it regularly supports 1% of the individuals in a population of one species or subspecies of water-birds.

Loktak Lake qualified as Ramsar site as it was hosting more than 1 lakh winter migratory birds during 1980. Loktak Lake (Manipur and area 26600 Ha) was designated on 23/03/1990 as Ramsar Site; the first two Ramsar sites from India are Keoladeo National Park (Rajasthan and area 2873 Ha) and Chilika Lake (Orissa and area 116,500 Ha) designated on 01/10/1981. As on today; India has twenty six Ramsar Sites situated in different States. But the Lotak Lake was severely stressed for income generation by phum-thaba fishing and electric power generation which greatly reduce ecosystem qualities during 2000.

Furthermore a lot of hunting of wild ducks took placed with gun and large net traps. The number of migratory birds visiting this wetland reduces to only 14000 to 15000 during 2010-11. Apparently due to the Lake restoration works taken up by LDA and prohibition of phum-thaba fishing technique; the migratory birds' number raised to 23000 to 24000 of which about 25 species are migratory and 26 species are resident water birds and 2 species are near threaten categories and other are least concern in 2011-12. With increase area of clear water and reduced human presence in the lake area; this year the number of water birds visiting Loktak and associated lakes is poise to increase.

But we may not be able to see "Sana nganu" as they are quite intelligent birds and are able to perceive the threat to their life even though their threshold population is quite large (about 65,000 to 66,000) and IUCN had categorized as least concern status. But their population in their native range had been rapidly declining. These migratory birds faced a lot of climatic hardship as well as man-made disasters in their migration from their breeding place to their winter feeding; foraging place and in their journey back home beside their natural predators.

Some of them may be trapped in nets, shot by bullets; fall prey to high speed and cold winds; may die because of pesticides or many other injurious chemical substances in their stopover or in the migrated wetlands. Protection measures in India are yet to be effective as areas are quite large and forest & wildlife personnel are few in spite of stringent Wildlife Protection Act 1972. We required empowering public as envisaged under section 60 (a) of WPA 1972 and inculcating conservation support by wide ranging awareness programme.

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* Kh Hitler Singh wrote this article for The Sangai Express
This article was posted on January 30, 2013.

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