Bikaner organises 1st of its kind Desert Bird Fest of vultures

In a first of its kind initiative, forest department today organised a Desert Bird Festival where large number of domestic and foreign tourists saw more than 80 rare species of vultures here.
The department aims to conserve vulnerable species of vultures and disseminate information about them.
"We have reserved 5,600 hectares of land for conservation of vultures where tourists thronged in large numbers," Bikaner Divisional Forest Officer Ram Niwas Kumawat told PTI.
"We decided to organise the festival in January as large number of tourists reach Bikaner to watch famous Camel Festival," the officer said.
More than 5,000 migratory birds reach Johadbeed forest area from other countries. Other animals have also been accommodated well in the forest, Kumawat said.

Bikaner district collector Ved Prakash said that forest department has made ample efforts to conserve vultures and Desert Bird Festival is one such attempt where domestic and international tourists can see these birds.
He said that the efforts are on to develop the area for wildlife tourism.