On the wings of death

At the Gharana Wetland Reserve scared birds take flight at midnight. The reserve is situated along the no man's land on R.S. Pura Interna...

At the Gharana Wetland Reserve scared birds take flight at midnight. The reserve is situated along the no man’s land on R.S. Pura International border, 28 kilometres from Jammu Airport. That puts the migratory birds which arrive there in mid-November within range of Pakistani fire. Lakhs of migratory birds have been coming to the reserve over the centuries, but during the last decade there has been a considerable decrease in their number. And this year only between 40,0000 to 50,0000 birds have been noticed.

The small village that the reserve is named after, Gharana, is so close to the border that Pakistanis can be seen working at their fields. And the Army watch-towers are just a few hundred metres from the inspection hut of the State Wildlife Department. The inspection hut is witness to the severity of the firing: its plastered cement walls are pockmarked with inch-deep bullet marks.

According to Tahir Shal, Divisional Forest Officer and Wildlife Warden, Jammu-Kathua, the glasses on the window panes ofthe hut have to be replaced almost every month. The staff sitting inside the hut or on the lawn facing the border have to lie on the ground or run for safety once shelling starts.No wonder then that many of the migratory birds — teal, coot, pintail, mallards, gadwall and snipes — have flown off to other safer wetland reserves scattered in various parts of Jammu and Kashmir.

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The birds start arriving in flocks from several parts of Russia, China, Afghanistan and other colder places in mid-November to stay in various wetland reserves, including Gharana, up to the middle of March or at the most the first week of April.

Gharana, which covers about one square kilometre (though earlier it may have been much larger) plays host to a number of water birds. It is part of close to 96 square kilometres of wetland reserves scattered in different part of the state. But the Gharana reserve, including many others in the surrounding area, attracts more birds than others.

They are drawn to the area by its water sources:Army ditches fed through a kucha nullah and rain water from the surrounding catchment areas. The wetland is also surrounded by a large expanse of marshes, most of which is infested with weeds and used by the locals for agriculture. The weeds offer a hiding place for the birds when the firing starts.

Wildlife Warden Tahir says the firing has also affected the Forest Department’s plan to clear the wetland of the weeds so that more space could be given to the migratory birds. “We have very less working hours for we never know when the firing will start and force the staff to stop work,” he says.

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Though the foresters can do nothing about the firing except stay away from it, they have met with success in stopping poaching. Soon after taking over the wetland to look after the migratory birds, the Forest Department started talking to the local villagers to make them aware of the threat the poachers posed to these birds. Now, says Tahir, the people themselves protect these birds.

Sani Ram, the lamberdar ofGharana village, said that earlier hundreds and thousands of migratory birds, weighing not less than two kilograms were killed by the villagers. But, during the last two years not even a single bird has been killed by any poacher. But, as far as border firing is concerned the villagers too are helpless.

As are the birds. They have begun returning to their native places and just over 15,000 visitors are left at the reserve.