Black-Necked Crane, the species which is considered to be the endangered species is one of the lures for Bumdeling in Trashiyangtse. Unlike in the past year, this year the bird have touched down on October 30, making an early start capping hopes for locals that there could be more birds arriving.
So far, Phobjikha saw 225 birds already, and only 33 have made it to Bumdeling which includes three juvenile and 30 adults.According to Gonpo Dorji, Bumdeling black-necked crane caretaker, he said that it’s unpredictable the frequency of birds that will be arriving despite the early start. So far, birds have flown in only on seven occasions, and the last group flown was seen on November 17. On November 9 the biggest group of 10 black-necked cranes was seen. In the past years three to four birds were seen coming every day, but this year there has been some peccadillos.
However, officials from Dungzam Park Range (DPR) are quite confident that more birds would come this year. As per the researcher with Ugyen Wangchuk institute of conservation and environment (UWICE), Sherub, said that it would be too early to tell the number of crane arrivals could drop in Bumdeling this year. “We can confirm the decline only if the number of birds do not go up by mid-December,” he said.
There are still some months left for the birds to arrive in Bumdeling. The Bumdeling valley saw the biggest group of 184 cranes in 1998 and only 102 cranes visited last year. The locals of Bumdeling are keeping their finger crossed in a hope of expecting at least 100 birds to come to the valley this year.
Early start for cranes but that doesn’t assure more cranes for Bumdeling this year.