6th Buxa Bird Festival starts in Alipurduar dist.

Alipurduar : The 6th edition of ‘Buxa Bird Festival’ was flagged off on Friday at Buxa National Park in the Alipurduar district of West Bengal. More than 40 birdwatchers from pan India have participated in the festival.

Owing to Covid the festival had not been held for two years. The festival will continue till January 9.

The main camp has been set up in the premises of Rajabhatkhawa museum. Bird watching will be conducted from morning to noon for the next 3days. 5 different routes have been selected for bird watching.

In the last bird festival 236 different birds had been sighted at Buxa in just two and a half days.

These included the rare Wreathed Hornbill, Sultan Tit, Black Eagle, Greater Spotted Eagle and the Greater Hornbill. 5 new types of birds are recorded that were not seen before at Buxa.

Experts opine that the environment has been rejuvenated in the last two years owing to lockdowns resulting in less traffic thus increasing chances of more sightings of local and migratory birds.

Apurba Sen, Field Director of Buxa Tiger Reserve stated :“Buxa Tiger Reserve is unique. From here more than 400 types of birds can be sighted. We hope that our Buxa checklist will be more enriched after three days of bird observation.”

The festival includes 8 separate technical sessions. There discussions on conservation. “We need more such festivals to promote bird tourism in North Bengal,” stated Animesh Basu, eminent Naturalist and Environmentalist.

Elephant expert Parbati Barua; Savadhipati Alipurduar Zilla Parishad Shila Das Sarkar; vice-chairman of North Bengal Development Department Mridul Goswami along with other forest department top brass were present at the inauguration ceremony.