‘Tokhü Emong Bird Count’ to celebrate bird diversity

Dimapur, Nov. 3 (EMN): The first edition of ‘Tokhü Emong Bird Count’ (TEBC) will be held from November 4 to the 7th where birdwatchers will go out and watch birds from anywhere in Nagaland.

An update informed that the TEBC aims to celebrate the incredible bird diversity and bring attention to the threatened habitats of Nagaland.

This event is a joint collaboration of Bird Count India, the Wokha Forest division and the divisional management unit, Nagaland Forest Management Project (NFMP), Wokha.

The organisations have collectively decided to organise the event during the Tokhü Emong post-harvest festival of the Lotha Nagas to spread awareness about Nagaland’s bird diversity.

 “It’s a very good initiative to identify the different species that are found in the state with involvement of the local communities in the effort. Nagaland is a state with rich bird diversity and it is important to document as well as monitor their populations in order to protect and conserve them,” said Suman WM Sivachar, DFO-cum-DMU Wokha head, Nagaland Forest department

Range forest officer, Lansothung Lotha, said Nagaland is a state with diverse festivals as well as a state with diverse birdlife and that TEBC is the first of initiatives where the community is encouraged to celebrate the festival with birds.

“We expect more such festivals in the future where people connect with nature and also help in documenting the rich avifauna in a landscape that still remains to be explored and documented,” Lotha said.

Senior Fellow, Centre for Ecology, Development and Research, Dr Pia Sethi, said TEBC is an excellent initiative to document Nagaland’s bird diversity and involve the youth and local communities in bird identification and monitoring.

Such initiatives are particularly important for the North East of India whose rich bird diversity is threatened by habitat loss and hunting, Sethi said.

“I do hope that this is the beginning of a movement for bird conservation in the State that will also provide clear trends of changes in bird populations over time,” added Sethi, who works on community conservation in Nagaland.

The basic activity is to watch and count birds on any or all days from November 4 to the 7th from anywhere in Nagaland, for at least 15 minutes, and upload bird lists to the bird recording platform eBird (www.ebird.org/india).

It may be noted that the dates of Tokhü Emong Bird Count fall within BNHS’s Sálim Ali Bird Count – a nationwide event.

Besides documenting birds, there will be birdwalks, online/ in person talks about birds for interested public, other birders, school/ college students, it stated.

“Amur Falcons put Nagaland on the world birding map. However, the communities here can do more than just Amur Falcon conservation. This event is organised to make each one of us feel proud of the birdlife and nature that we have,” said Chenibemo Odyuo, Nagaland Team, Foundation for Ecological Society.

While the event is primarily done in Nagaland, all Nagas living across India and around the world will also join the festivities by birding wherever they are, it stated.