Good news from far off Thar Desert and Rann of Kutchh: Demoiselle Cranes have reached their wintering grounds mid September 2020. They have landed in small groups and within a few weeks will swell to a few thousand almost at each location, to be found standing amidst crop fields or by side of a village water body or by shallow brackish water lagoons, to remain throughout the winter. Then, they shall return to their breeding habitats in Mongolia and Central Asia. Let’s study about their challenges, threats and about ICF which has been at work to save this bird…
By Harsh Vardhan
The demoiselle cranes are a long-living species that pair for life and their characteristic finds a sympathetic resonance with us, the humans. Valmiki, the famous composer of the Ramayan, witnessed the plight of a distraught female crane, whose mate was shot dead by a hunter and he cursed the hunter in verse. That work is traditionally recognised as the very first poetic composition by man, unlike the prior Rig Vedic hymns considered to be of divine origin. The epic Mahabharat speaks of the two armies standing in a ‘koonj’ formation, a reference to the inverted V formation used by the cranes in their long-distance migratory flights. ‘Koonj’, is a word derived from the Sanskrit word ‘kraunch’ which itself is a cognate Indo-European word for ‘crane’.
Threats to the Cranes:
Cranes are facing threats in one or the other form.
Let’s discuss ‘the Khichan experience’ here because a T51 crane tagged in its birthplace Mangolia died in Khichan in November 2019.
It managed to cross the 2,766-kilometre arduous journey to reach Khichan in November the same year, however, on the last day of that year, it fell ill and died on the 9th of January along with 14 other cranes. The post-mortem report indicated pesticide poisoning. It is not ascertainable whether the fatal ingestion happened in the Chuggaghar or, in the surrounding fields.
No testing of grains
Unfortunately, there is still no prior testing of the grains used in the Chuggaghar (where they are hand fed daily) for the presence of pesticides. It is also a fact that tourism around the cranes in Khichan is unregulated. This increasingly popular tourist destination has no laid down norms for appropriate behaviour. Control of pollution in the catchment area of the ponds is lacking, as is also the unchecked green cover depletion. The village panchayat is taking tentative steps to evolve proper guidelines, but the administration needs to step forward to guide and to empower these welcome initiatives.
The sad fate of T51 is a reminder of the threats looming over this glorious example of human-animal peaceful coexistence.
It reminds us that all is not lost in the battle for the conservation of wildlife. Wild birds can flourish in our human-dominated landscapes. The crucial question is, can it last?
They reach India to escape harsh winters of Europe
Mahendra Singh, Director General at the Income tax Department, studied the birds last winter and said: These cranes breed and raise their chicks from April to August along a vast stretch of steppe grasslands from eastern Europe to north-eastern China. Then, to escape the bitterly cold local winter, they migrate to the warmer plains of India. The ones breeding in Central Asia such as those in Kazakhstan come through the Khyber Pass in late August, just after the monsoon. They migrate through the threat of organised traditional hunting of cranes in Afghanistan and north-western Pakistan. The eastern populations, for instance, those from Mongolia, take a more physically challenging route, crossing over the Himalayas of central Nepal. They do so by rising up to 26,000 feet using the intermittent warm thermal air currents. Evading the predatory golden eagles of the Himalayas, they descend into the semi-arid north-west India, close to man-made or natural water bodies.
A crane crusade
All the crane species are bred in captivity at the International Crane Foundation at Baraboo in USA’s Wisconsin State. It is a state-of-art facility called as Crane City. Its co-founder, Dr. George Archibald has developed a global fraternity among experts and others to create appropriate conservation initiatives. He has led conservation research and extension programmes in India, especially at the Keoladeo National Park. Like to seek more on the species and ICF, contact: www.savingcranes.org and join their crane-crusade.