“Number of birds reduces to 1 lakh from 6 lakh in thirty years”

“Number of birds reduces to 1 lakh from 6 lakh in thirty years”

Dhaka, May 14 - Bird researchers and experts said that the number of birds in the country has decreased so much in the last 30 years that the number of birds in Bangladesh is decreasing alarmingly among South Asia.

Inam Al Haque has been leading bird surveys and research in Bangladesh for more than two centuries. Showing some statistics of bird count, he informed, "It is clear how birds have decreased in 30 years. Thirty years ago where we got 600,000 birds in one haor area. At the same time this year, I counted only 100,000 birds there”.

He said, such situation is not seen in just in a haor or a specific area. There are also many water bodies in the country where once a large number of birds were seen, but now only 40-50 birds are found there.

According to researchers and birdwatchers, the largest bird decline in the world is in Asia. Within Asia, birds are declining in Southeast Asia. And this rate is highest in Bangladesh.

Apart from water birds, no other bird census, survey or statistics have been done in Bangladesh. However, citing several facts and reasons, the researchers said that  along with aquatic birds, the number of birds in the urban and rural forest areas is decreasing in the country.

Researchers said that birds are decreasing day by day due to continuous development, destruction of bird habitats and use of chemicals in agriculture.

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) official and birdwatcher Sarwar Alam Dipu said, "Analyzing the statistics of the last 22 years, it has been found that 59 percent of birds have decreased in Tangua Haor alone."

Number of birds in the country

The last bird survey by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) was in 2015. In the survey that time, the organization found the existence of 650 species of birds in Bangladesh.

Professor Firoz Zaman of Zoology Department of Dhaka University has been researching birds for a long time. He said, "We were also involved in the survey at that time and found the existence of 650 species of birds. But we think there are currently 700 species of birds in the country”.

According to the researchers, out of these 700 species of birds, 220-230 species are migratory birds. The rest are native birds.

Birdwatcher Inam Al Haque said that although the number of bird species in Bangladesh is so low, this number is much higher in the world. There are currently 11,000 species of birds in the world.

Researchers said that there are 477 species of birds in Bangladesh. Among these, 301 species of birds are 'resident' birds of Bangladesh. The remaining 176 species are 'migratory' birds.

According to IUCN, among these birds, 19 species of birds have been lost forever within 100 years. Birds include red-faced grebe, stork, gray partridge, common pheasant, common duck, rosy duck, great hornbill or ‘madantak’, ‘dhalapet bog’, white-spotted gagan red, king vulture, spotted-breasted partridge, red-headed partridge, tree sparrow and green peafowl.

Number of waterfowl 

There are 200 species of aquatic birds in Bangladesh.Bird researchers and experts say that these water birds live in several reservoirs and specific areas of the country. They said that the water birds are decreasing as we can see from the statistics. The decline of other species of birds can be analyzed and understood through searching various reasons.

Bird expert Inam Al Haque said, “When we counted birds in ‘Pashua Bill’ in 1993-94, 4 lakh birds were found in this bill. In the last visit there, we got only 40 birds.

He said, "This situation is so horrible in some places of Bangladesh. But the people there do not know how the birds are disappearing or decreasing".

Haque also mentioned about the huge number of birds in last 20 years in Tanguar Haor”. 

He said, “In 2002-03, I counted 5 lakh birds in the protected area of Tanguar Haor. And in 2024, I counted only 60 thousand birds there. In these surveys of aquatic birds, expert teams have also seen that birds have declined by up to 75 percent in just a span of 2-3 years.

Inam Al Haque said informed “We have the statistics of every place for the last 30 years. From there we can say that the number of waterfowl are going down fast  in 30 years. This picture is very scary”.

In the same way, the number of birds in different bill (canal) including coastal districts of Bhola, Patuakhali, and ‘Shanir Haor’ is decreasing day by day.

Professor Feroz Zaman of Zoology Department of Dhaka University said, "The number of birds that could be seen in Dhaka or all over the country even 10 years ago is not seen anymore. Although the species is not extinct, the number of birds is greatly reduced”.

Reason for the decrease of birds

When the bird researchers and experts are researching and analyzing the statistics about the birds of Bangladesh, they have also seen that the number of birds has decreased in the last few years not only in Bangladesh but also in the whole world. And this number has been decreasing for the past 50 years.

While analyzing the reasons for this, they identified several factors. However, researchers and experts have different opinions about this.

Bird expert Inam Al Haque identified two reasons behind the bird's decline. According to him, development in the region has reduced fallow land, reservoirs and forests. On the other hand, due to the use of chemicals in agriculture, birds are decreasing day by day.

"The more development there is, the more pressure there will be on people's land. It is natural that the habitat of birds will decrease if the land is taken away. Moreover, we are using chemicals to grow more crops but killing birds too”, he pointed out. 

IUCN officials informed, “The depth of wetlands in Bangladesh is decreasing, the fishing trend of water bodies has increased; Due to these reasons the birds are decreasing day by day” 

In addition to waterfowl, analysts blame several factors for the decline of forest and urban birds. They said that the number of birds is also decreasing due to the reduction of trees and forests.

Professor Zaman of Dhaka University said, “Trees are decreasing in our country. Many birds used to nest in big trees which are no longer there. That is why the number of birds is decreasing”.

Urban bird pigeons

Bird expert Inam Al Haque has stressed the need for creating mass awareness to stop hunting and protecting habitat of urban birds including pigeons. 

Referring to urban birds like pigeons, Inam Al Haque said, “the pigeons used to move freely in the locality and they were not afraid of people. Because of this, many people used to hunt pigeons with air guns and so the number of pigeons has decreased dramatically in the past few years." 

Common people protested about it. Later came the ban on the use of airguns by the government, he added. 

The bird expert said that the number of pigeons gradually increased due to the government ban on hunting this urban bird.-BBC Bangla