The Raiganj Wildlife Sanctuary in West Bengal’s Uttar Dinajpur district, which attracted a record 68,000 birds in 2014, has the most Asian open-billed storks in the country.
As per records available with the Divisional Forest Officer, Raiganj, the bird sanctuary recorded about 46,842 open-billed storks between June and December 2014. “The number has increased by 7,000 over the past two years from about 39,000 in 2012-13 to over 46,000 in 2014-15,” Diparna Kumar Dutta, DFO, Raiganj told The Hindu .
“The wildlife sanctuary at Raiganj is the only place in the country where you can find open-billed stork birds in such a high concentration. It has turned into an important habitat for them and steps should be taken to preserve it,” Gopinathan Maheswaran, scientist at the Zoological Survey of India and officer-in-charge of the institute’s bird section told
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The open-billed stork is a local migrant, he said, pointing out that the birds visit rice fields during the day and also feed on molluscs.
Delhi-based ecologist T.K. Roy also pointed out that the Raiganj sanctuary is one of the 466 IBA (important birds and biodiversity sites) recognised by Birdlife International. Mr. Roy, who visited the sanctuary in August for a survey as a member of Indian Bird Conservation Network, said the the increase in number of Asian open-billed storks at the sanctuary might be due to the sanctuary proving to be a safe habitat.
He pointed out that other areas like the Danapur Military Cantonment in Bihar, Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary in Andhra Pradesh and Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary in Karnataka swere also important habitats for this species, but their number was not as high as it is in Raiganj.
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Forest officials in charge of the Raiganj Wildlife Sanctuary said there were about 49 different kinds of birds found in the sanctuary.