Birds are reliable and widely used indicators for conservation planning and monitoring.
Himalayan Forests happens to be a global biodiversity hotspot with not one but innumerable endemic species. The recent study, however signals a gigantic decline in the number of forest birds in the Himalayan forests, and mind you it’s the land use that is to be blamed.
Scientists from the Centre for Ecology, Development and Research, Dehra Dun and Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, studied the effects of land-use change on forest bird species and guilds (any group of species that exploit the same resources, or that exploit different resources in related ways in areas in the western Himalayas).
A systematic survey in six land use types for more than two years now has shown disturbing results, to say the least. The study shows “moderate to drastic species loss in all modified land-use types in comparison to natural oak forest”
Birds have been widely considered as an important tool in biodiversity conservation planning and monitoring and for identifying conservation actions. Birds and their diversity provide strong bio-indication signals , and stand as soldiers for the health of an ecosystem and status of biodiversity overall.
The birds that belonged to the Himalayan region have been replaced with the open country species, so the loss of forest birds in this zone is worrying.
Recent studies in the Eastern Himalayas too show similar disturbing trends.
Srinivasan and David Wilcove from the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University have studied the survival of birds in forests of Arunachal Pradesh in the Eastern Himalayas.
Their report has not had any conducive results too for the conclusion indicates towards forest birds moving upwards to find cooler place to survive due to warm temperatures but ending up in an even more disturbed habitat in the form of agricultural land and logged forests.
The study in Arunachal is the first demonstration of how “two of the most disruptive” influences due to human activity – climate change and land use – interact to threaten the survival of biodiversity in natural populations.
Major constraints to long-term conservation in the region include habitat loss and fragmentation, hunting and trapping, unsustainable extraction of natural resources, invasive alien weeds, unregulated tourism, and global climate change.
The bird loss is part of an overall loss of biodiversity in the tropical mountains due to land-use changes and global warming. For the past fifteen years, scientists have been warning of massive forest loss in the Himalayas.
Having said that the government solely needs to emphasize on nature-based solutions for climate change mitigation and for restoring the population of the Himalayan birds.