With nearly 5,000 more birds making their way to Bhitarkanika National Park for their monsoon sojourn, the wetland and mangrove sites of the park have once again established its place as a congenial habitat for the aves.
A total of 96,437 birds, as against the 91,545 spotted last year, were counted making Bhitarkanika wetland spots their nesting sites during monsoon this year, officials said.
There has been a steady rise in the number of local water-birds who thronged the heronry and wetland spots here for their seasonal sojourn.
"As the monsoon spell was not steady this time, our expectation was lesser number of local migrant birds will visit the site. But, we were proved wrong. Local migrant birds visited in large numbers," said Divisional Forest Officer, Rajnagar Mangrove (wildlife) Forest Division, B P Acharya.
Prominent among the species arriving here for nesting were Grey Heron, Purple Heron, Darter, Cormorant, Large Egret, Intermediary Egret and Little Egret.
The birds' habitat spread across a four-hectare stretch and there was ample food security for the birds as the place was criss-crossed by innumerable water inlets and nullahs free of human interference, forest department officials said.
Noted ornithologist Dr Salim Ali had made a chance discovery of the birds' habitat while on a casual visit to Bhitarkanika in 1981.
