Migratory birds make their home in restored wetlands of Delhi biodiversity parks

Efforts to reclaim silted-up wetlands of Yamuna and Kalindi biodiversity parks have started to reap dividends with migratory birds, including 50-100 bar-headed geese, seen for the first time.

Scientist CR Basu, who heads the Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystems (CEMDE), told Asian News International that Delhi had a huge number of water bodies, especially wetlands in the Yamuna floodplains.

Many of these wetlands had been silted up, leading to a drastic decline in migratory birds. The restoration of Yamuna Biodiversity Park wetlands led to thousands of birds from different parts of the world migrating to India.

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has developed seven biodiversity parks in collaboration with CEMDE of the University of Delhi.

Speaking on restoring the degraded wetlands of Kalindi Biodiversity Park, Basu said the first step would be how to turn sewage water into clean water.

He said they had been working on natural solutions to address environmental issues. One solution found useful is developing a wetland system that can treat raw sewage water into clean water within 24 hours.

Basu expects the area to be a paradise for bird lovers when fully restored.

Kalindi Biodiversity Park Scientist Yasir Arafat told Asian News International that the park had become a dumpster. The clean-up drive has already paid dividends with migratory birds such as the bar-headed goose and the grey leg goose being seen.

Yamuna Biodiversity Park Ecologist Dr Ekta Khurana said they created a shoreline vegetation for different migratory birds from Siberia and Central Asia such as the northern shoveler and northern pintail.

She said around 35 migratory bird species stayed at the park for three-four months before returning to their native country, adding that the wetland was serving its purpose.

Dr Khurana said these birds migrate to Yamuna Biodiversity Park because of its functional wetlands.

She added that the wetlands were important, not only to attract migratory birds but also for the ecological services to society. It will mitigate some of the causes of climate change with the wetlands being a huge sinker of several greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide.