Pack your bags, pull up your socks and get ready for the fifth edition of the two day birds
festival at Dr. Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary, Chorao-Panaji starting today. The two
day festival will involve fun activities including numerous learning
experiences for all ages and abilities.
Ferzeen Shaikh, a volunteer for the festival
said, “I am a nature enthusiast and I love being around birds. People don’t
know much about endangered birds. They are involved in activities like hunting,
which is causing significant damage to the birds around. This festival is an
opportunity for all of us to understand birds better. I remember starting my
journey as a curious person with the least knowledge about birds and over a
period of time my interest grew and I am now here.” She added the forest
department of Goa had set a capacity of only 60 registered people for the
festival. Each institution can only send five students keeping in line with the
protocols in place.
This festival attracts people not only from Goa but also from
other parts of the country. Shuayb Ahmed a resident of Bengaluru said “It was a
pleasure to attend this festival last year. I can say it was one of the best
experiences I ever had. Camping in the middle of the forest and learning about
the sound of owls from my peers was one of the memories which I cherish”.
He said this festival also helped him understand the lives of
animals and their behaviours better.
The festival aims at spreading awareness regarding the
conservation of birds and helping people understand the role birds play in
maintenance of the ecosystem through various fun activities, field trips, bird
walks, seminars and workshops.
Shreesiddhi Vinod Bhomkar, a student from Goa University said,
“We don’t know much about birds and their conservation. There are very few
people who are aware that there are 482 species of birds in Goa, which either
migrate or are vagrant birds. We are not aware of the importance of plateaus in
our areas and how they can be helpful to birds”. Speaking of her experience at
the bird’s festival last year, she said she was focused on the talks which were
conducted. There was a session on the sounds of the birds, where the speaker
mimicked the sound of different birds and explained them; another talk which
caught her attention was the one that highlighted the fact that the lives of
birds were those of humans at large. She started her journey as a photographer,
similar to that of Mudassar Shaikh, who was interested in wildlife photography
but couldn’t pursue it as a career option, due to lack of support and exposure.
He wanted to take science for his higher secondary education but couldn’t
pursue it due to family pressure. Now he has an experience of ten years in the
marketing field along with which he is also continuing his passion. He said, “I
had started my journey as a photographer but soon was introduced to two
specific books namely, Birds of India and Birds of Goa, which caught my
attention and generated curiosity within me. From then I started looking for
birds and made friends with similar interests”. He looks forward to the Birds festival
and desires to have a short term course on Awareness of Birds in Goa and across
the country.
The impact of the festival is quite evident. There are people
who are taking keen interest in joining the festival. John Fernandes intends to
participate in the festival for the first time. He said, “I am a city person
who has not lived close to nature much but I look towards this opportunity to
explore the unexplored”.
One
can only hope such initiatives help increase awareness of birds as well as
nature around and help bring to the fore the basic truth that man and animal
and natures fates are intertwined.
