Odisha hamlet declares itself ‘Birds Village’

Govindpur village in the Bargarh district of Odisha has declared itself a ‘Birds Village’ and pledged to protect and conserve the migratory birds coming to Hirakud reservoir every year. This is the first instance in Odisha, where villagers have joined hands to keep their villages pollution-free in order to conserve and protect birds and the Hirakud landscape.
“With Govindpur village, two other adjoining villages named Tamdei and Ramkhol have also joined hands with them. All three villages promised and pledged in a recently held meeting that they will protect and conserve the migratory birds coming to Hirakud reservoir every year,” informed Anshu Pragyan Das, Divisional Forest Officer, Hirakud Wildlife Division.
“More than 2 lakh foreign birds migrate from different parts of the world to Hirakud every year during October and halt here for six months (more than 100 varieties of birds),” she said.
As per Das, many tourists from Chhattisgarh (Raigarh, Raipur etc.), Jharkhand and nearby districts like Jharsuguda, Bolangir, Sonepur, Sambalpur and all locals of Bargarh district visit these three villages for a picnic, boating and birding. Many photographers come here to photograph the temples submerged at Hirakud, the wildlife of Debrigarh that comes down to the water in the morning and evening, the beauty of the vast Hirakud Lake and forested hills within the water, and so on.
“All houses in these villages will have wall paintings of the colourful birds like Redcrested Pochard, Moorhen, Skimmer, etc. and they will as guides take tourists for boating and explain to them the interesting features of these birds, from which country they have come, why they have come,” Das added.
“To keep the landscape clean, villagers have taken the responsibility, Hirakud Division will provide all the required help, including the installation of enough dustbins for this purpose.”