NASHIK: A winter morning…Venue: Sant Gadge Maharaj Dharamshala … It was as if hundreds of myna birds chirping on the peepal trees seemed to have welcomed the nature lovers who participated in the river festival. This picture was seen on the occasion of an initiative “Birds on the riverbank” organised under the River Festival jointly by the Office of the District Collector, Archaeology Department, and Nashik History Research Board.
President of Nature Club of Nashik and bird lover Prof Anand Bora informed about various birds. Nature researcher Dr. Kshirsagar presided over the programme. Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Bora said that there is a strong link between the river and the birds and due to water pollution in the river, many birds have migrated out of the city.
Causing destruction of the natural habitat of the birds due to concretisation at river basin under the Smart City plan, many bird species including egret and night egret which have been dwelling in the vicinity of Gadge Maharaj Dharamshala seemed to have migrated.
Studies have also shown that the Khandya bird, which is indicative of having clean water, has also migrated from the riverbank, indicating that water pollution is increasing in the river water. The city had a long tradition of going for a riverside bird watch. However, it is now slowly disappearing. The bird habitats are destroyed due to the concretized walls at the river bank. Birds are warm-blooded.
They have a high body temperature during the summer. They need water in the summer. They can face heart stroke in the case of less quantity of water in their stomach, the experts opined. On this occasion, a collection of photographs taken by Prof Bora, a collection of birds on Ravindra Vamanacharya’s stamps, and a collection of bird nests by Sudesh Tambat was on display.
In this morning walk/round, many bird species including Khandya, Dhobi, egret, Myna, kite bird (Ghar), little cormorant (Pan Kavala), Veda Raghu, Pakoli, Kotwal, Tutari, etc, were introduced. On the occasion, many people were angry when they saw the water pollution and discharge of sewage water into the river.
Forester Ashok Kale, Jayant Fulkar, senior bird friend Chandrakant Dusane, Umesh Nagre, President of the Society Yogesh Kasar Patil, snake friend Manish Godbole, Manoj Waghmare, Pawan Malve, Rupali Joshi, Purushottam Awhad, Ashish Bankar, Apoorva Nerkar, Nitesh Pingale, Birar, Pramila Patil, Dattatraya Kothavade, Bhausaheb Rajole, Chetan Rajapurkar, Kishore Wadnere, Mehul Thorat and Kiran Belekar participated among the large number of Nashikites.
Mahesh Shirsat and Dr. Ajay Kapdanis welcomed and introduced the participants, while the vote of thanks was proposed by Dattatrey Kothavade.
