These European visitors come to roost in Gujarat

‘‘Good rains this year might have meant less grass for black bucks, but it has been a boon for the visiting guests,’’ says Shivbhadra Jadeja, an undergraduate student in zoology, who doubles as a guide at the park. ‘‘There are lots of reptiles and insects for the harriers to have a party.’’

Some 160 km south of Ahmedabad, this park in Bhavnagar district may have been conceived as home to the great Indian antelope or black buck but it’s now famous as the largest roosting site for harriers, which migrate thousands of kilometres from Europe to spend the winter here.

Ornithologists of the Bombay Natural History Society say the birds may have been coming here for some hundred years now. But it’s only in recent years that they have been doing so in large numbers. Now, upto 3,000 harriers have been seen in Velavadar in a day. Next to this is only the 1,838 recording by ornithologist Barbier Montawt in a marsh in western France.

‘‘Velavadar is the largest roosting ground in the world for harriers,’’ says Asad R. Rahmani of BNHS. ‘‘Rollapadu, in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh, comes closest with about 2,000-2,500.’’

Harriers belong to the family Accipitridae. Sub-divisional forest officer L.N. Jadeja, in charge of the park, says the four species seen there are the hen, pallid, marsh, and Montague’s harrier. He says the numbers peak in December, and by April, all but a 100-odd harriers will have flown back to their homelands in Europe, across Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey and the Caucasus.

As harriers look for open grasslands to roost, their concentration at Velavadar shows it is one of the finest left in western India. Bharat Pathak, the conservator for the Junagadh forest circle, feels this is the outcome of the forest department’s conservation efforts. ‘‘The protected environs of the national park provide visitors an excellent environment. And the fields of cotton in the Bhal region provide them adequate food,’’ he says.

Other guests include painted storks, rosy pastors, and demoiselle cranes — make Velavadar an annual destination for bird watchers.

‘‘It’s generally not known to be a gregarious bird. It hunts singly and hence it’s all the more interesting to see them roost in such large numbers,’’ says H.S. Singh, conservator of forests (Vadodara).