GBS area sees steady rise in population of Great Slaty Woodpecker

By Abinash Chaudhary Dhangadi, July 10: Ghodaghodi Bird Sanctuary (GBS), in Kailali, has seen an increase in Great Slaty Woodpecker, called Rajlahache in Nepali, one of the world’s rarest birds.

The good news comes at a time when the number of the bird is declining sharply in the world. In 2014, for the first time, a pair of the bird was spotted in the then Ghodaghodi wetland area, now a Bird Sanctuary.

Hirulal Dangaura, an ornithologist at Bird Conservation Nepal (BCN), who has been monitoring the bird in the area, said that the number has now increased to 12, as per the latest census.

"Initially, ornithologist Dayaram Chaudhary and I recorded the bird in the Ghodaghodi wetland area," he said. Only 10 of them have been spotted in a span of almost six years, he claimed.

The bird, which has been put on the sensitive list by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), is sighted in Sitakunda Community Forest, Maghi, Lathahuwa Community Forest, Ghodaghodi Wetland Area, Rampur area of Ghodaghodi Bird Sanctuary, reaching as far as Chure-Bhawar area.

It is said that the birds live in the tallest trees and are more visible in forested areas. Because they usually nest, breed and raise their young ones in the same tree, it is said that these birds are more likely to be preyed upon, Dangaura informed.

The Ghodaghodi Bird Sanctuary is no strange to incidents of poaching. Dil Bahadur Chaudhary of Maghi village in Ghodaghodi Municipality, who has been working as a forest ranger for 14 years, said that the bird is vulnerable to poaching as it reaches everywhere in the area. "The bird appears sporadically in the Nakrod, in Ghodaghadi Lake area," he said. The locals call the bird “Badka Kathkholiya”.

Apart from the sanctuary, the bird is found in the Basanta Protected Area of Kailali and the Karnali River Biological Route, as well as in the Shuklaphanta National Park of Kanchanpur, Mohana Laljhadi Protected Forest, and Brahmadev Biological Route. 

In all these places, a total of eight Great Slaty Woodpeckers have been recorded in 2019. Ornithologist Dangaura himself had recorded eight of the endangered species in those places.

According to him, there are 239 species of Woodpecker in the world. So far, 26 species have been found in Nepal. The total number of Great Slaty Woodpeckers found all around Nepal, including in Parsa, Chitwan, Banke, and Bardiya National Park, is estimated at 190 to 250.

Habitat destruction is the main threat to birds in Nepal.  At present, 86 percent of birds in the country is in critical condition. "Birds' habitats are getting shrunken or destroyed due to human activities," said Dangaura.

He said that many species of birds are facing a crisis due to deforestation, fire, destruction of grasslands, poaching, changing temperature, and climate change.

So far, eight species of the birds have become extinct in Nepal. Similarly, 168 species, including 43 species considered rare in the world, have reached the endangered state.

So far, 360 species of the birds have been recorded in the Ghodaghodi Bird Sanctuary. Of these, 64 species are aquatic while the rest are terrestrial. Similarly, 12 rare species of birds are also found in this region.