A first of its kind bird festival was held in the Betla range of Palamau Tiger Reserve on Monday where the presence of 169 species of birds was recorded. During the festival, school children wrote essays on the birds and drew colour painting depicting birds in the air and sitting close to the Kamaldah jheel.

The participants watched the birds using binocular sets given by the tiger reserve officials. The bird festival, which lasted for around four hours, saw more participation from the younger generation than the elderly people.

The bird festival was held at such a time when scare of bird flu is raging around the country.

The festival was like a pressure release function as Palamau Tiger Reserve had plunged into sorrow following deaths of the two elephants Kaal Bhairav and another aged female elephant in a span of less than 10 days and there was a palpable anger against the tiger reserve officials over such deaths of the elephants here.

South division deputy director of the Palamau Tiger Reserve Mukesh Kumar said, “We understand our bird festival is a first of its kind in the state of Jharkhand. It will go a long way to help conserve birds also.”

Mukesh Kumar said, ‘The bird festival, held on Sunday near our watchtower at the Kamaldah jheel in the Betla range was the brainchild of our field director of PTR and chief wildlife conservator Y K Das.”

“We chose the venue of the bird festival at the Kamaldah jheel because this lake plays a big host to many migratory birds like bar-headed goose, lesser whistling duck, common pochard, godwall and black headed ilbis, etc.” he added.

The aim and purpose of holding the bird festival was to connect common people to the birds. “It was to generate awareness about the importance of birds in life,” he stated.

“There was the august presence of the birdman of Jharkhand Panna Lal Mahto of the Ramgarh district in this bird festival here in Betla regaling the audience with voices of as many as 40 species of the birds,” informed Kumar.

The field director of PTR and chief conservator of the forest Y K Das urged the youth of the villages to shun using the slingshots to bring the birds down on the ground.

Last year an advisory was issued by Y K Das to keep a tab on youths with slingshots roaming dangerously for hunting birds. There are around 192 villages in and around the Palamau Tiger Reserve and villagers are pretty fond of killing birds for their food.

Mukesh Kumar said he was delighted to spot the Malabar pied hornbill in the Bareysarn range of the Palamau Tiger Reserve recently.

A noted environmentalist D S Srivastava said, “This tiger reserve has a good variety of owls like barn owls, horned owls, jingle outlet owls, etc. which face jeopardy during Diwali when people try to capture them for a good harvest of wealth.” He also said that one migratory bird named brain fever, which gives incessant calls during its visit hereis easier to kill as youths find it easy to locate it for her nonstop call.