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A toast to Indian pheasants
HELPING YOU welcome the New Year this time round are the country's most gorgeous and spectacular birds -- the pheasants. India is home to about one-third of the world pheasants' population and boasts of 51different species of the bird. All except the Congo peafowl are found in Asia.
The calendar brought out by the Central Zoo Authority has a picture of an Indian pheasant on each of its month's cover. "The world's total of over 900 bird species fall under 27 orders and 155 families and all the pheasant belong to the order galliformes and family phasinidae. The galliformes are essentially what have come to be known as `game birds' and apart from pheasants include partridges, quails, grouses, francolins and turkeys as well as the lesser known megapodes," explained Brij Kishor Gupta, scientist at the Central Zoo Authority.
Altogether there are 51 species of pheasants worldwide and it is believed that all pheasants originated in the Himalayas and then radiated into Tibet, China and Myanmar (Burma) and other countries of South and South East Asia as well as Caucasus mountains.
Aimed at spreading awareness about pheasants, the CZA selected the bird to provide information about the need to conserve them. A total of seven Indian States have different pheasant species as their State bird and the pheasant is also the national bird of Nepal. Earlier Jammu and Kashmir had the western tragopan as its State bird. No other single group of bird can claim this high level of State recognition anywhere in the world.
"In a sense, the Indian pheasants deserve to be called the national birds of the country. The pictures that we have are provided by John Corder, who has managed to capture some very rare and shy birds. These should provide interesting information to people, making them aware of the various types of birds co-existing with us. The collection is aimed at helping people understand the lives and habitat of the beautiful birds which have long remained ignored by the community," explained Mr. Gupta.
By Bindu Shajan Perappadan
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Life
Bangalore
Chennai
Coimbatore
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Madurai
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