By Our Staff Reporter
Kotdwar, 3 Feb: The Kotdwar Bird Festival organised by the District Administration, Pauri Garhwal, was inaugurated by Assembly Speaker Ritu Khanduri Bhushan at Sneh Pakhro Duggada, here, today. It may be recalled that Ritu Bhushan is the MLA from Kotdwar.
The Kotdwar Bird Festival was started in 2018, but after that this event had not been organised in right earnest. However, with the special efforts of Speaker Ritu Khanduri Bhushan, the Kotdwar Bird Festival is back to its full glory this year. Every year, lakhs of migratory birds arrive in Kotdwar. The Forest Department organises this bird festival to conserve migratory birds and promote eco-tourism and bird watching.
Various stalls of Pahari products were set up at the festival, which were viewed by the Speaker. Birdwatching activities will also be arranged for bird lovers during the Festival. A photo exhibition on different species of birds found in the mountains was also held as part of the festival in which, apart from nature lovers, students and local people also participated.
According to the Arch Count Foundation, which has been engaged in bird counting in the state for the last 10 years, about 50 percent of the species of birds found in India can be found in Uttarakhand.
Speaker Bhushan, present as the Chief Guest at the programme, said that birdwatching tourism has the potential to become a good source of employment in the Kotdwar region. She said that Kotdwar’s identity would be established on the national-international map through this bird festival. Kotdwar was blessed with abundant natural beauty and a large number of rare species of birds lived in an around Kotdwar, in addition to a large number of migratory birds from other regions of the world which arrive every year in Kotdwar. She said that such events would increase tourism and employment in Kotdwar. Along with this, more information and awareness of people on birds would also increase.
The Speaker said that more than 600 species of birds are present in the state of Uttarakhand and, out of them, Kotdwar and its surrounding forests are home to around 450 rare species of birds. Bhushan praised the district administration for successfully organising the Festival.
This three-day Kotdwar Bird Festival will continue till 5 February. During this festival, bird watching activities will be organised for bird lovers, as well as bird films will be shown to school students.
District Magistrate Ashish Kumar Chauhan, SDM, Kotdwar, Pramod Kumar, DFO Dinkar Tiwari, BJP District President Virendra Rawat, Pankaj Bhatia, Janaki Panwar, Hari Pundir, Poonam Khantwal, Ajay Pant, Dr Vijay Maithani, Manish Bhatt, Daljit, Mohan and Tannu Mital were present on the occasion.
