A cotton teal, better known across Bangladesh as bali hans has laid eggs in artificial nests set up in the jungles around Baikka Beel in Moulvibazaar district.
Bird experts working in the project feel jubilant that a jungle-mynah, also called gu-shalik, is also incubating its eggs in the artificial nests.
The beel is in a hail haor in Sreemangal upazila of the district.
Integrated Protected Area Co-Management set up the experimental artificial nests in the jungles around the beel with the objective of facilitating procreation of rapidly declining number of native aquatic birds, particularly cotton teals also called cotton pygmy goose.
An expert in the IPAC project said that the biodiversity of country's hail haors are threatened due to unbridled shooting of aquatic birds, hunting of animals and poaching of aquatic plants.
He said the haors were once rich in flora and fauna, particularly aquatic birds, plants, animals and fish.
No more. Unabated poaching endangered the flora and fauna of the entire haor belt, he said.
He said hail haors are known internationally as the important abode of birds.
In 2005, IPAC set up 12 artificial nests resembling holes on a tree in jungles at different parts of the Baikka Beel.
Initially, he said, no bird nested in them.
A cotton teal first laid eggs and incubated them in the artificial nests in 2007.
But no cotton teals nested or laid eggs in the nests until April this year, when Baikka Beel Co-Management committee on advice from international bird-expert Paul Thomsom made 21 artistic water-proof artificial nests of different sizes and set them up in hijol and koroch jungles.
In the second week of July, a conservation team led by Moloy Sarkar, IPAC project director for Sylhet zone, during a survey found that bali hans, jungle- mynah and other birds laid eggs and incubated them in 14 artificial nests.
But no bird either nested or laid eggs in the remaining seven artificial nests.
Ador Miah, a member of the Baro Gangina resource management committee said that a shalik incubated its eggs in the artificial nests and took away its young birds.
He said a bali hans laid more than 50 eggs but it was yet to incubate them.
Besides, he said several species of other native birds including machh ranga, as the kingfisher is called and ghash pakhi have started nesting in the artificial nests.
Ador Miah said that the artificial nests have to be protected from bird hunters.
Sarkar said that bali hans and several other native birds were getting extinct.
He said that the experimental artificial nests could possibly increase the native bird population to save them from extinction.
But he said that the Baikka Beel experiment though at a primary stage already showed some success.
Soruce : New Age
