Ahead of Amur falcon roosting season, Manipur launches awareness campaign

Our Correspondent Imphal, Oct. 21 (EMN): Ahead of Amur falcon roosting season (Falco amurensis), a month long awareness campaign for protecting the winged guests-Amur falcon was launched at Khangchiulon village in Manipur’s Tamenglong on Monday. The programme is being organised by the Rainforest Club Tamenglong (RFC), a non-profit organisation formed by a group of volunteers who actively thrive for a better Tamenglong by engaging themselves in various social activities and campaigns relating to conservation of environment and wildlife in the district, under the aegis of Tamenglong Forest Division. Wildlife Institute of India team have been camping in Tamenglong district since the last four days to radio tag five Amur falcons once the birds begin to roost in the western district of Manipur as part of their conservation strategies in collaboration with the locals and forest officials. Resource persons talked about benefit of Amur falcon as bio-pest controller. Amur falcon is not a species of one country, it migrated every year from its breeding ground in China by travelling 22,000 km covering Russia, Mongolia, China, Myanmar, Somalia and other South African countries, they said. The north-eastern states of Nagaland and Manipur become an internationally important stop-over site for at least a million Amur falcons annually. After all India is signatory of Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) pledging to protect all migratory birds. In March 2016, India had signed the CMS Memorandum of Understanding on the Conservation of Migratory Birds of Prey in Africa and Eurasia (Raptors MoU) raising the number of signatories to 56, according to reports. Over fifty species of migratory raptors listed in the Raptors MoU occur in India. During the day’s programme, some of the villagers requested the authority to support their livelihood. They also demanded banning of sale of air guns and its bullets first complete protection falcons from air guns.