BENGALURU: The much awaited three-day long bird festival, popularly known as Hakki Habba, kick-started on Tuesday at the Biligiri Rangaswamy Temple (BRT) Tiger Reserve.
The festival's aim is not just to showcase the birds but to also create a new 'check list' of additional birds in the region. This helps to find birds that are endemic to BRT.
Such an exercise, of creating the check list, was done back in 2011 when the bird festival was proposed to be held in Bengaluru. Over 270 bird species were recorded that year.
The objective now is to check the list, revise it and make additions in this 7th Bird Festival edition.
"BRT is a critical and sensitive forest patch of Karnataka. It is the place where the eastern and western Ghats meet. So bio-diversity is unique and very rich and this needs to be showcased to people," said BRT Tiger Reserve director Dr Santoshkumar G.
The department also wants to promote BRT as an ideal space for birding and not just for tiger tourism. The vegetation is rich and different and the schedule has also been prepared in such a way that more time is spent on the field, birding, rather than for lectures. The mascot also chosen defines BRT-Rufous Bellied Eagle, he added.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the registration has been limited to 50 people. The birding routes have been identified properly.
Routes originating out of K.Gudi- towards BR Hills, Road to Mosalekere and beyond, Road towards Navodaya School, Kanheri Colony – safari route – two routes; Road towards Belatha- Routes originating out of BR Hills- Road towards K.Gudi, Road from Purani Gate to Purani Podu, Road towards Yelandur, Mulkibetta, Doddasampige to Chikkasampige, Chikkasampige to Doddasampige and Krishnankatte; Routes originating out of Boodipadaga- Road towards Raagikalmadu and Road towards the main road.
"Unlike other forest patches, this is young and has a lot of potential. It has different types of forests like moist deciduous, ever green, semi ever green, scrub and so on. Each region has specific types of birds and is a good space to learn and find many migratory species which are not found in other patches. As the vegetation is thick, sightings of carnivores and herbivores is rare, but is ideal for birds to roost and breed," the forest officials added.
Previous bird festivals: March 27-29, 2015 - Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary January 8-9, 2016 - Kali Tiger Reserve January 5-7, 2017 -Daroji Sloth Bear Reserve, Ballari February 9-11, 2018 - Pilikula Nisarga Dhama, Mangaluru February 8-10, 2019 - Bidar January 17-19, 2020 - Nandi Hills, Chikkaballapur |