Forest department offers updates on Amur Falcons

Dimapur, May 16 (EMN): The establishment of the Chief Wildlife Warden of Dimapur updates the public of Nagaland about the status of Amur Falcons that were tagged with tracking devices. Taking into account solidarity shown by the people of the state for protection of Amur falcons in 2013, the world community recognised Nagaland as the ‘Falcon capital of world.’ Three satellite tagged Amur Falcons were released in November, 2013 by the Nagaland Forest department in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun and Hungarian Scientists. The warden’s establishment issued a press release on Tuesday listing out various developments concerning the conservation efforts. The satellites tagged Amur Falcons namely Naga, Pangti and Wokha were tracked for a record duration of 1117, 880 and 146 days respectively. And together the three falcons provided 18869 data locations (Naga – 8482, Pangti – 8507, Wokha, 1880). For the first time, the return migration of the Amur Falcons between their breeding areas in Northern China to their wintering grounds in Southern Africa has been mapped. Naga made a record three return migration to Nagaland since its release in November, 2013. The tracking data also revealed two major stop-over sites apart from Nagaland; one in Somalia in Africa and the other Northern Vietnam-China border. The Amur Falcon satellite tracking data also revealed other roosting sites within the Nagaland State, where local communities started to protect the falcons. Two such notable sites are the Yaongyimchen village in Longleng district and Hakhizhe village in Dimapur district. Five satellite tagged Amur Falcons, namely Longleng / Phom, Enium, Hakhizhe and Intanki were released from Yongyimchen roosting site (Longleng District) on 29/10/2016, Pangti Roosting site (Wokha district) on 02.11/2016, Intanki National Park roosting site (Peren District) on 04/11/2016, Hakhizhe roosting site (Dimapur District) on 10/11/2016 respectively by the Nagaland Forest Department in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun and Hungarian Scientist under the Project Titled “Understanding the Amur Falcon (Falco amurensis), their stop over sites in Nagaland and their migratory routes for better Conservation Planning” implemented by the Wildlife Institute of India and sponsored by the Ministry of Environment Forests & Climate Change, Government of India, New Delhi. The status of movement of these birds is as follows: Longleng It remained at the roosting site in Nagaland for a long period and departed on its migration on 24/11/2016, arrived in Somolia on 29/11/2016, South Africa on 23/12/2016 and then to Kruger National Park, South Africa. The bird is on its return migration to its breeding grounds in Northern China or Mongolia. After spending four months in its wintering grounds in Southern Africa, Longleng embarked on its Arabian Sea crossing on the night of 30.04.2017 from Somalia. Making a four day nonstop flight across the Arabian Sea covering approximately 3000 km it flew past the Gujarat – Diu coastline. Instead of making landfall in Gujarat the falcon continued to head south and made landfall south of Mumbai. Interestingly, the falcon has continued to fly south and was last located 75 km east of Bangalore. This is for the first time that an Amur falcon was tracked flying to Southern India on its return migration since satellite tracking of the falcons was taken up in November 2013. Usually at this time of year the Amur falcons were tracked on their return from Africa flying across the Gangetic plain and to Northeast India and beyond. The reasons why Longleng has travelled to Southern India is still not known. Satellite tracking of the falcons has helped unearth these movement patterns that was not known till date Phom It remained at its roosting site in Nagaland till 10/11/2016 and then moved into Assam and then Tripura before starting the non stop five day migration on 16/11/2016. It reached Somalia on 24/11/2016 and had remained since then at unknown roosting site North of Mogadishu. It had been in Ethopia since its lost location was received. The bird is likely to depart from there on its return migration in the next few days. Eninum It commenced it migration to Africa on 18/11/2016, reached at the shores of Somalia in the early morning of 24/11/2016 after a non stop flight from Nagaland. Eninum arrived at a previously unknown roosting site on 27/11/2016 in the Eastern Ethopia close to Somalia border. The bird is likely to depart from there on its return migration in the next few days. Intanki Post release Intanki flew into Assam and then flew West to Garo Hills in Western Meghalaya and it remained there till 24/11/2016. From there, Intanki entered into Bangladesh and took a landward route to cut across India stopping at several locations en route. The last location was received on 04/12/2016 when the falcon was crossing the Arabian Sea. Thereafter, no location was received suggesting loss or failure of transmitter. Hakhizhe After release of the bird on the 10th November, 2016, it flew to the Tamenglong District of neighbouring Manipur State; where Amur Falcons are reported to roost in large numbers. Then it returned to Nagaland on 17/11/2016 to Pangti roosting site and on 25/11/2016 it started migration and reached Somalia on 03/12/2016, and South Africa on 14/12/2016 where it remained for a long time. It is expected to depart from there on its return migration in the next few days. “The satellite tracking of the Amur falcons from Nagaland has been a hugely successful initiative and has helped create conservation awareness across the State, and also made major headlines across the country and beyond. World over conservation organizations, scientists and wildlife enthusiasts are applauding the efforts being taken by local people of Nagaland to protect the Amur Falcons,” the press release from the Dimapur wildlife establishment stated. “This project is a collaborative initiative of the Wildlife Institute of India and Nagaland State Forest Department along with Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, CMS Raptors MoU, and scientists from BirdLife Hungary and Hungarian Museum of Natural History.”