Some interesting notes on the birds of suburban Moirang town

Rajkumari Ashalata & Laishangbam Sanjit *

House Sparrow (Passer domesticus)

Suburban areas have only recently attracted the attention of ecologists. Initially, they were regarded as environments where the impact of human interferences is quite significant. Avifauna structures of this landscape were hardly studied in the Indian subcontinent.

Recent studies in such ecosystems have revealed that in spite of extreme urbanization (urbanization is always regarded as a threat to many natural habitats and species!) they retained a variety of vegetative structures and supported several wildlife species.

Recent studies carried out in the suburban areas of Moirang town, near the Loktak Lake in Manipur, NE India, between October 1999 to December 2002, have revealed some interesting findings regarding the avifauna structure of a typical suburban area.

There was total absence of House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) and House Crow (Corvus splendens) in the studied landscape. So far, there is no reliable record of the occurrence of these two birds in Manipur.

However, the WWF report on the Loktak Lake prepared by H. Tombi Singh and R.K. Shyamananda in 1994 included House sparrow (Passer domesticus) in the checklist of birds of the Loktak Lake (see also website of Delhi Bird Club: Checklist of Birds of the Loktak Lake).

Allan Octavian Hume who is indisputably called the father of Indian Ornithology, in his Stray Feather Volume 11 The Birds of Manipur, Assam, Sylhet and Cachar (1888), the most authoritative account of the birds of Manipur, clearly mentioned the absence of these two suburban birds.

For a better understanding, we have sampled nearly 1,000 Passer birds (we have checked the crown colour which is rufous in colour indicating that the bird is of the species- Passer montanus, dark spot near the ear-coverts also reinstate the claim that the bird is of the montanus species) and we comply with Hume in describing this bird as Passer montanus.

Regarding Corvus splendens, we can say that it is not an inhabitant of Manipur. This species is what local people called Mayang Kwak. The literal meaning of Mayang is anything that is foreign to Manipur, and which comes from the western side of the state.

Corvus splendens is abundantly found in the Cachar district of Assam (Cachar district of Assam is in the western side of the state of Manipur). Interestingly, the kind of crow found in Manipur is the all black one, the Corvus macrorhynchus or Jungle Crow.

Inference: The two bird species Passer domesticus and Corvus splendens are generally inhabitant of the plains, and not of the mountainous or hilly region. Since we have the two bird species Passer montanus and Corvus macrorhynchus which are akin to the hilly region, the existence of plains in Manipur is not recognized biologically or ecologically.

Birds can see only a mountainous or hilly Manipur, and not the hill-and-valley divided Manipur. The small piece of land at the centre of Manipur can not be called as the valley of Manipur, it is rather the basin of the Loktak lake. What if we say that all the inhabitants of Manipur, including the Meiteis are hill people or hill tribes.