Rare species of owls return to Delhi after 70 yrs

New Delhi: For centuries, Delhi remained the natural home for rare species of owls. But as pollution levels increased over the past decade, they began to abandon their habitat here and migrated to other more hospitable regions.

Now with the forest department running a campaign to create favourable conditions for their homecoming, rare species of owls have started to return to the National Capital Region.

A team of Bombay Natural History Society, a pan-India wildlife research organisation, is preparing a report on the return of the rare species of owls to Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary, located near Tughlaqabad on Delhi's southern edge.

Delhi was one the very few cities in India where 10 rare species of owls used to have their habitat, BNHS team's chief Suhel Madan told PTI-Bhasha. Of these, the return of the brown hawk, the oriental scops and the pallid scops to the wildlife sanctuary after almost 70 years is exciting for bird watchers.

Madan said pallid scops were among the first to be sighted in the region in 2016. Then the brown hawk was sighted in December 2017 and the oriental scops in February this year.

After Delhi government's initiative, Madan said, BNHS began to study in detail the wildlife and vegetation inside the 7,000-acre Asola sanctuary in 2005 to bring the mysterious and enigmatic world of owls before everyone.

The campaign to ensure the return of owls to Delhi began after the dusky-eagle owl was first sighted in the sanctuary in 2014.

Under the campaign, the forest department and other organisations attempted to develop conditions favourable for the return of the largely nocturnal birds. The campaign bore results in 2015, when the rare Indian eagle-owl was sighted.

Since then, authorities have registered the presence of all 10 species that were previously found in Delhi-NCR.