[Ngilyang Tam]
The Amur falcon (Falco amurensis) is a small bird of prey from the raptor group and belongs to the falcon family. It breeds in southeastern Siberia and northern China before migrating in large flocks across India and over the Arabian Sea to winter in southern and East Africa.
In India, the bird is protected under the Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972, and is listed in Schedule 4 of the law. In Arunachal Pradesh, three districts in the eastern part of the state – Longding, Tirap and Changlang – that fall in the Patkai Hills range and are contiguous with the northeastern parts of Nagaland, have been identified as potential Amur falcon roosting sites. These districts have never been surveyed for the bird and no conservation awareness programmes have been initiated there.
In Longding district, the arrival of the Amur falcon has become a history. Flocks of over 1,000 falcons have been witnessed over the course of 3-4 years in the district. The falcons arrive in Niausa village,bordering Nagaland, during the months of October to November as part of their annual migration, before flying to South Africa after reposing in the district for 2-3 weeks. Apart from Niausa village, the raptors are also seen in Mintong village in the district.
This year, the falcons arrived a little late, in the first week of November, and stayed for approximately 20 days. Their number also seemed to have decreased comparatively owing to habitat interference.
In India, the Amur Falcon Conservation Project was initiated in November 2013 in Nagaland, with the primary aim to create awareness among the local people about the migratory Amur falcon, so as to stop its hunting in the state. Today, this project is one of the biggest conservation success stories not only in India but in the world.
This project, initiated by the ministry of environment, forests & climate change (MoEFCC), along with the Wildlife Institute of India (WWI) and the Nagaland state forest department was in response to the large-scale unsustainable hunting of the falcons for consumption that was reported in parts of Nagaland during 2012. As part of the 2013 initiative, three Amur falcons were satellite tracked for the first time from India to document their migration. Two of the tagged falcons completing their round-trip migration returned to Nagaland the next year and continued to do the same the following years. This provided detailed information on the falcon’s migratory routes, and created awareness and interest among the local people. The satellite tracking data of the Amur falcons confirmed that during their southbound migration in October-November, Amur falcons congregate in very large numbers and roost communally at select sites in the Northeast India.
With close to a million Amur falcons recorded at roost sites in Nagaland, the state is now declared as the falcon capital of the world. These sites act as crucial staging sites or stopover sites for the Amur falcons where they rest and feed to replenish their energy reserves before leaving for their SouthAfrican wintering grounds.
The 2013 initiative was followed up with another tracking study in 2016 in Nagaland, and subsequently again in 2018 in Manipur. These studies provide information on other unknown falcon stopover sites in the Northeast region. This information is particularly useful, so as to help direct management efforts for the protection of the falcons in the many previously unknown roost sites in the remote hilly tracts across the landscape in Northeast India. Hundreds of thousands of Amur falcons roost in many sites across Nagaland, and also in Manipur. The local people have now started to protect falcons,and in many cases, have set aside parts of their community land as protected forest for falcon conservation.
Given the remoteness and mountainous terrain, many sites across the Northeast region have been identified as potential Amur falcon roost sites and are yet to be surveyed. Information on congregations of Amur falcons in other parts of Northeast India is hardly available, and also information on hunting from other sites is not well known, including the eastern Arunachal landscape.
To understand this, a funding was sought from the MoEF&CC in 2021 by the forest department for the conservation of Amur falcons in Arunachal. The idea of the project is to support conservation efforts and to reduce hunting of the majestic bird; to enhance better understanding of the stopover sites of the species;and to initiate conservation activities in consultation with the local communities for protection of the bird.
Under the initiative, the Kanubari forest division has taken up several activities for the conservation of the Amur falcon. A series of awareness programmes have been conducted by the department on regular basis to educate the local people and others in the region on the importance of biodiversity conservation, including the Amur falcon.
The local communities have been involved in various conservation efforts, discouraging hunting and poaching, and educating the local mass about the presence of the wildlife laws. Also, to boost the conservation efforts, the locals are engaged as daily wage volunteers there by providing job opportunities to them. They are also engaged in keeping vigilance during the advancing season of raptor birds. Also,exposure tours are organised by the department from time to time, and recently, an exposure tour programme on conservation of the Amur falcon was initiated by the Kanubari forest division, where the locals were taken to Pangti village in Wakka district in Nagaland, which was streamed on YouTube (handle name: Wancho Media) for the purpose of generating awareness.
Finally, the key benefits from this conservation of the Amur falcon include enhanced knowledge of the behaviour and ecology of the Amur falcon during its passage of migration through Arunachal, and promotion of the positive conservation activities being initiated by the state government at both district and state levels.
The local communities have immensely benefitted from the conservation effort, as they are engaged in falcon conservation by means of exciting and innovative opportunities to raise awareness of the Amur falcon, including monitoring the amazing migration journey of the bird and the threats it faces. Also, the conservation effort initiated by the department has led to increased survival of Amur falcons during their stopover by reducing the hunting of the species in Arunachal, thereby improving the scope of ecotourism in eastern Arunachal. [The writer is PCCF (L&BD), and CWLW]
