Photo: Kids For Tigers/Sanctuary Asia. Each school was asked to send a team of four students, and six teams were sent to each of three selected birding locations- Gorewada, Botanical Gardens and Seminary Hills. At each of these locations, a head birder, namely Mr. Anmol Khante, Director of CAC Allrounder, Mr. Rohan Chakravarty, conservationist and cartoonist, and Ms. Sulabha Chakravarty, Chairperson of KFT, Nagpur, kicked off the event. Each team was asked to take on the challenge of recording all the bird species they could spot in the span of one hour.
The schools that participated in the event were as follows:
1. Gorewada: Jain International,CPS(Amravati Bypass),Tidke Vidyalaya,Dinanath High School, Delhi Public School and Tuli Public School.
2. Seminary Hills: GH Raisoni(CBSE),St.Xaviers (Hingna), Modern School, CPS (W/Nagar),Narayana Vidyalaya and NK Academy.
3. Botanical Gardens: Sandipani (State), Sandipani (CBSE),CPS(Katol Road),Swami Awadeshanand, St.Xaviers(Hewri Nagar)and GH Raisoni (State).
Photo: Kids For Tigers/ Sanctuary Asia. After birding for an hour, all the teams assembled at the Japanese Gardens where the judges checked the bird count tallies submitted by the teams and after interactive discussions and cross-quizzing the participants, announced the winners.
Centre Point School, Wardhaman Nagar, emerged the winner from Seminary Hills with a bird count of 19 species, Centre Point School Amravati Bypass won from Gorewada with a bird count of 15 species, while Sandipani School (State Board) were the winners from the Botanical Gardens with a bird count of 17 species.
The participants spotted species like Yellow-footed Green Pigeon, Greater Coucal, White-breasted Kingfisher, Indian Roller, Coppersmith Barbet, Shikra, Grey Hornbill, Golden Oriole, Common Myna, Jungle Babbler, Baya Weaver, Indian Scops Owl, and many more. However, the Ashy Drongo was chosen as the ‘Bird of the Day' by the judges, and Narayana Vidyalayam, received a special memento for this sighting. The event was greatly appreciated by Mr.Sheshrao Patil, Assistant Principle Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife), who was the Chief Guest on the occasion.
Photo: Kids For Tigers/ Sanctuary Asia. Dr. Gopalrao Thosar, Dr. Sudhanshu Kothe, Dr. Anil Pimplapure, Dr. Tarique Sani, Dr. Swati Kulkarni, Vinit Arora, Mr. MSR Shad, Mr. K. Lanjewar, all expert birders from Nagpur, helped judge the event and guide the participants.
The event concluded with a brief talk by Mr. Patil, followed by a vote of thanks by Ms. Sulabha Chakravarty. This event was made possible by Sanctuary Asia's Kids for Tigers programme, with support of wildlife lover Usha Piramal of Piramal Enterprises.
First published in: Sanctuary Asia.
