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A new study has claimed that there exists a sharp decline in the bird population in India in the past two decades and also the drop tends to be catastrophic in some cases.

The report that has been released on Monday says that the assessment that has been done of nearly 867 Indian species would make it clear that the birds in India are in over all decline and also catastrophic in some cases, as mentioned in a report that has been released during the continuing United Nations 13th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation of the Migratory Species which has been done in the western state of Gujarat.

It has also added saying that several more species are showing a downward trend than a upward trend.

State of India’s Birds 2020 is the study which is done by putting together a dozen institutions and numerous citizen scientists and is said to be the first comprehensive assessment of the distribution range, trends in abundance and conservation status for most of the species of birds in India.

The data regarding the birds have been collected through the citizenship science app eBird which is a global crowd sourced database which consists of real- time data regarding the distribution and abundance of birds which is said to have received a record of around 10 million entries by approximately 15,500 citizen scientists and also the professional birdwatchers.

It has been said in the report that the assessment that has been done was based on three indices out of which two are the indices of change in abundance which comprises of the long- term trend which is said to be more than 25 years and also the current annual trend which is said to cover the data regarding the past five years and the third is said to be the measure of distribution range size.

The report has raised the concern regarding the extinction of birds as it has been claimed that more than 100 species of birds are exhibiting a decline in the long as well as short terms.

The classification of the species of birds based on the concern that it needs has been made using the three indices that have been mentioned along with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. According to the classification that has been made, it has been noted that around 442 come under low concern, 319 come under moderate concern and 101 into high concern.

Among the 261 species for which the determination regarding the long- term trends can be done, it has been observed that around 52 per cent have shown a decline since the year 2000 with strong declination of about 22 percent.

According to the study, the species that have suffered the highest declines is said to include white-rumped vulture, Richard’s pipit, Indian vulture, large- billed leaf warbler, Pacific golden plover and curlew sandpiper.

The population of the several different species of vultures have been declined and have crashed since the 1990s, as said by the report.

It has also been observed that several bustards and other specialist grassland birds have also experienced declines that can be clearly seen and it has been observed that some species which are popular in the bird trade that include green munia are being at low abundance and are said to be in danger, as mentioned in the report.

The members of the Delhi Bird Foundation and also the bird watchers are urging the government of India to protect the bird habitat of the country and it has been suggested that the government would have to make more number of national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and to take the necessary measures in order to protect the population of the bird habitat in India.

The other species which include house sparrow, Indian peafowl, Asian Koel, rose- ringed parakeet and common tailor bird are observed to either being stable or has increased in the long term.

By Shrithika Kushangi