Conservation drive pays off, Sarus crane count nearly doubles in Kheda wetland in 7 years

Kheda and parts of the Anand district, which are close to the wetland, account for about 74 per cent of the state’s indigenous Sarus Crane population. The Sarus crane has been categorised as “vulnerable” under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.

It is the only resident crane species found in India living in association with farmers that use wetlands and agriculture fields. The study conducted between 1997 and 2000 by GEER Foundation showed that the Sarus population in Gujarat was 1,700 with Kheda having the highest population of 737 cranes, followed by Ahmedabad. However, the drop in their numbers in the 2000s led conservationists to rally along with local villagers to protect the cranes from extinction.

Girish Parmar, a farmer from the Bhalada village in Matar taluka, says he never imagined he would champion the cause of the endangered birds that he considered a “nuisance”. Today, as one of the 88 volunteers of the Rural Sarus Protection Group (RSPG), the 42-year-old is proud of what the community has achieved.

Parmar, who has a farm and grows paddy in the monsoon—the season when the sarus nests, said creating awareness was an uphill task. “At first, we all saw the birds as a nuisance. They would enter paddy fields and damage the crops in order to build their nests on the ground by pulling out the paddy. Naturally, farmers used to chase them away and remove their nests… Children would unknowingly play with the eggs, too. As conservationists and the forest department started educating the villagers, we gradually came on board but it took a few years to have many people agree to allow the birds to nest undisturbed in fields,” he said.

Over the years, farmers from about 35 villages near the Pariej wetland have learnt to co-exist with the birds and even allow their fields to be undisturbed for close to two months during the Sarus’ breeding season between June and September. The period coincides with the paddy farming.

“The forest department offers ex gratia for crop damage due to the Sarus breeding but we have realised that the damage is not so much. Usually, the birds select some part of the field to build a mound-like nest on the ground. They lay their eggs and nest for about 30 days. When the offspring is old enough to fly, they leave,” Parmar explained.

Meanwhile, the Kheda district forest department joined hands with United Phosphorus Limited (UPL) to run the Sarus Conservation Project from 2015. The programme includes 36 project villages in Anand and Kheda districts near Pariej and 88 voluntary RSPGs who have together sensitised nearly 5,000 farmers in the wetland area.

According to Kheda Assistant Conservator of Forests, Dilipsinh Dabhi, the result of the project is the first successful community partnership model for conservation of an endangered species. “We conducted the census last year and were elated to have achieved 98 per cent rise in the count since 2015… Once the farmers understood that the birds do not damage their fields but are only looking for space to nest, they have become sensitive and allowed the birds to remain undisturbed. In fact, although the forest department has also assured the farmers of compensation due to damage, none of the farmers has claimed any compensation so far,” Dabhi said.

“Through regular field intervention, we also formed a local group called RSPG. This has been instrumental in protecting, saving, successful fledging over the years since 2015… The idea is to work for biodiversity and not just one species,” said Rishi Pathania of UPL.