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Showing the way for Siberian cranes

By Sunny Sebastian

JAIPUR, NOV. 24. There is good news on the Siberian crane front as the pioneers in crane conservation are in India trying to negotiate with the Centre and the State Governments on formulating a revival plan for the restoration of the traditional Siberia-India flyway of this most endangered species.

A team led by George Archibald, the co-founder of the Wisconsin-based International Crane Foundation, is in Rajasthan, holding talks with the authorities of the State Forest Department on the possibilities of re-introducing the Siberian cranes on the route between Keoladeo Ghana National Park in Bharatpur and Siberia.

The Keoladeo Ghana, a 29-sq km wetland which has the status of a World Heritage site, had been the winter abode of the central flock of Siberian cranes till 2001, when the last (?) pair visited the Park. Since then they have not turned up and the experts now tend to believe that the flock which used to visit the Park is now extinct. "Cranes are so important for India so much so that at the international level they are the symbols of Indian conservation,'' Dr. Archibald, who along with the late Ron Sauey, the co-founder of ICF, carried out the re-introduction of the Wild Whooping crane population in the United States in the past, said here today. Dr.Archibald gave a talk on "Cranes, Keoladeo National Park and Water,'' here under the joint auspices of the Rajasthan Forest Department, the Tourism and Wildlife Society of India, Indian Cranes and Wetland Working Group and Jaipur Virasat Foundation Group. Five students who painted cranes in an international art exchange programme were awarded on the occasion.

In his talk Dr. Archibald made a fervent plea to all concerned to take up the revival programme of the Siberian crane flyway and also to ensure the conservation of Ghana as a wetland.

If Siberian cranes are as dead as Dodo for the Ghana the overall situation of the Park, which is facing water scarcity in the absence of any assured source of water, is not too good. As the farmers' lobby and the politicians in the neighbouring Sawai Madhopur district blocked the release of water to Ghana from the Paanchna dam this season there had been very little nesting and breeding of birds.

``George has a new mission in hand and I am happy,'' Samar Singh, scion of the royal family of Dungarpur and former civil servant, said. "It all now depends on the response from the Forest Department here,'' he noted. The Rajasthan's Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, A.P.Kapoor, who discussed the issue with the ICF team has assured all possible support.

The mission in hand for Dr. Archibald involves 13 countries which have signed a convention on conservation and bodies like ICF and Wildbird Society of Japan which has expertise in satellite tracking of birds. When the wild Siberian cranes were first missing from the Keoladeo Park in the early nineties there had been initiatives like satellite tracking and introducing artificially reared birds in the Park.

"Releasing the captive bred Siberian cranes in the Park will not be part of our strategy this time. That did not work out the previous occasion. There can also be problem if we allow migratory species like Siberian cranes to breed in the environments of Ghana,'' Dr. Archibald explained.

The modalities have to be worked out but for the time being it appears that there would be a multi-pronged approach including the use microlight aircraft to accompany the captive bred Siberian cranes from Siberia to Ghana via its traditional route -- Russia, Kazakhastan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. There could be similar aided flights back from Ghana to Siberia.

"We know it can be done. The wild Siberian cranes will come back to Ghana provided the Indian people decide to keep Ghana as their favoured wetland,'' Joseph Branch from ICF noted. If there is a will there is a way -- that is flyway!

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