Rare striated grassbird spotted in Chaprala forest in Gadchiroli

Gadchiroli, Dec 1 (PTI) The presence of a rare striated grassbird was recorded in the Chaprala Wildlife Sanctuary in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra during a survey, according to the Forest Department.
    The finding is highly significant, as the species is extremely rare in eastern Maharashtra.
    Earlier, the striated grassbird had been reported only once from the Tapi River basin in Jalgaon district along the Maharashtra-Madhya Pradesh border, Sub-DFO Mangesh Balapure said in a release.
    Stating that only one recent record of the species existed from Chandrapur district, the new sighting at Chaprala marks an important range extension for this species within Maharashtra.
    Two striated grassbirds were spotted in the tall grass habitat along the Pranhita River during a bird survey conducted in the Chaprala Wildlife Sanctuary on November 29-30 as part of a citizen science initiative.
    The release stated that E.A. D'Abreau, the then curator of Central Museum Nagpur, had mentioned in 1923 about the straiated grassbird spotting in the then Central Provinces and Berar (now Madhya Pradesh and Vidarbha). The bird was rarely reported in this part since 1923, making this an important finding.
    The survey documented a healthy population of threatened riverine species (as per IUCN), including River Lapwing, Oriental Darter, and Black-headed Ibis, which fall under the “nearly-threatened” category.
    "Several other uncommon and noteworthy species were recorded during the survey, such as orange-breasted green pigeon, pin-striped tit-babbler, forest wagtail, Indian scops owl, and brown hawk owl. Around 140 species have been recorded during the survey", according to the release.
    Chaprala Wildlife Sanctuary covers 134.78 sq. km and falls under the unified control of the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve (TATR). It is bounded by the Pranhita River and the Maharashtra-Telangana border on the west, and by the Wainganga River on the south-west.
    The sanctuary supports a diverse range of flora and fauna, including the Giant Squirrel (Shekru), the State Animal of Maharashtra, along with tiger, leopard, sloth bear, spotted deer, sambar, four-horned antelope, and the Indian Tree-shrew, among other species.
    This was the first-ever citizen science bird survey conducted in Chaprala Sanctuary. More seasonal bird surveys are planned to further document the avifaunal diversity of this relatively unexplored region, with the expectation of discovering many more species.
    A citizen science bird survey involves the public participating in data collection to monitor bird populations for scientific research and conservation.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)