Lack of water or pollution? Birds take wing out of Okhla sanctuary

Noida: Normally, at this time of the year, Okhla is alive with a flurry of tweets and calls. The 4sqm-sanctuary, already home to dozens of bird species, hosts another 20-odd types of birds that arrive from the north to nest here in the winter months.
Not this time, it seems. The sanctuary is unexpectedly silent.
Birders say they spotted flocks in late November, but they appear to have moved out of the Okhla sanctuary in search for a better habitat in NCR. One of the key reasons, they believe, was inadequate water at the wetland, swathes of which were lying dry last month. “There are hardly any migratory birds at the sanctuary. I could just spot 5-6 species such as the greylag geese, teal, chiffchaff, black redstart, citrine wagtail and Greenish warbler. In total, I counted around 17 species, including the winter visitors. By now, the sanctuary should have had dozens of migratory birds,” Jaswinder Waraich, a city-based birder, said on Monday.
Another birder said it looked like many of the species may have flown 32km away to the Surajpur wetland, where hundreds of birds have been sighted in the recent weeks.
“From November 26-30, I recorded two small mixed flocks of ducks like the northern shoveler, northern pintail, common pochard, and later a flock of Eurasian coots. I haven’t seen either of them since December. Most birds that come here rely on water for food. If that isn’t there, why will they stay here,” said TK Roy, who is also an ecologist. Greylag geese, bar-headed geese, green-winged teal, Eurasian wigeon, gadwall, ruddy shelduck, greylag geese, northern shovelers are in abundance in Surajpur, added Mukund Kumar, a bird watcher. Not just the last month, the Okhla bird sanctuary – which normally gets replenished with Yamuna waters -- has witnessed at least four dry spells since April this year. The latest was in November, when water from Yamuna to Okhla was cut off briefly because of repair work, officials said on Monday.
“We have always tried to keep things up to the mark at OBS. This year, the sanctuary dried up due to barrage repair work on the Yamuna by the irrigation department. Water levels are almost back to normal, and water ATMs have been started at the sanctuary,” said Pramod Srivastav, district forest officer.
But birders are still concerned. The 4sqm park, designated a bird sanctuary in 1990, lies on the cusp of the Delhi-Noida border. Its proximity to NCR’s urban sprawl and some key road stretches leaves it exposed to pollution and noise. “Okhla is perpetually a disturbed habitat. There is a lot of pollution and pressure on the land. That affects wildlife… it looks like it is dying a slow death,” said Waraich. Dr Rajesh Kalra, another Noida-based bird watcher, agreed.
“I have been visiting the sanctuary for over a decade. For the past few years, it looks like authorities aren’t giving any attention to it,” he said.