19^th January, 2021, Namdapha TR

Several months of combing difficult terrain across Arunachal Pradesh bore fruit when Wildlife Trust of India’s biologist Aftab Ahmed sighted three White-winged Wood ducks (Asarcornis scutulata) in Namdapha Tiger Reserve last week. A project initiated by WTI in 2018 involved volunteer birders to help sight this elusive species, until the pandemic-induced lockdown paid put to all plans. Our indefatigable team continued the quest until these three individuals were sighted, a good 13 years after the last record in December 2008 by Umesh Srinivasan (Srinivasan et al. 2010)¹.

The sighting location is a mountain lake (at 1700m asl) in a temperate forest on the eastern side of Namdapha TR. There are three lake complexes in the area. Aftab had sighted three white winged ducks in one of the lakes along with a mixed group of other ducks (Gadwall, Mallard, Ferruginous Duck, Little Grebe etc.). He had to camp in the area for two days to document these sightings. The lake system is most ideal for the duck as the area is completely isolated and provides all suitable habitat requirements of the duck.

Lauding the find, Mr. Millo Tasser, the Deputy Conservator of Forests, said, “The white winged duck is an endangered species and the responsibility of its protection falls on all of us. While the Arunachal Pradesh Forest Department has already started working on securing its habitat, we are also in talks with the centre on means to gather more funds and attention for the species.”

Saving an endangered bird

The White Winged Duck was once widespread across the north eastern states of India and adjoining South Asian countries. However, the duck’s population have severely declined over the years and is now categorised as Endangered under IUCN’s Red List of Species. The reasons have been many, including habitat destruction, duckling poaching, excessive hunting, wetland draining etc. As a habitat-specific species that requires slow-flowing wetlands in dense forests for thriving, the presence of the White-winged Wood Duck acts as a key bio-indicator of the health of a forest and consequently the quality of biological diversity it holds.

WTI is currently conducting an extensive survey to map out the bird’s presence in landscapes beyond the Pakke and Namdapha Tiger Reserves in Arunachal Pradesh. The survey report will help ascertain the future strategies that need to be adopted to protect the current population in Northeast India and subsequently help it get delisted from being an endangered bird.

According to Aftab, “being a highly elusive bird, it is a very difficult task to discover the scattered populations of this White winged duck, especially in remote mountain terrains of Arunachal Pradesh. However, the presence of the duck in Namdapha, brings hope that such smaller population may still exists in various such remote forested lakes and streams. Further surveys will help us discover these areas which will need stricter protection for saving the last remaining White-wing Wood Ducks in wild.”

You can read more about the WTI’s White Winged Duck Recovery Project here.

Reference:

1. Srinivasan, U., Dalvi, S., Naniwadekar, R., Anand, M. O. and Datta, A. (2010). The birds of Namdapha National Park and surrounding areas: recent significant records and a checklist of the species. Forktail, 26: 92-116.