- Novanita Sharma
The arrival of winter in Assam is always accompanied by the flurry of winged visitors who throng our forests, and wetlands with their vibrant colours and sounds, making the winter months an annual festival for bird lovers in different parts of Assam every year. This natural phenomenon is an integral part of Assam’s ecology, the winter migrating birds’ folk in large numbers all over Asam, they mostly concentrate in the thriving forests and wetlands of Assam. The wildlife sanctuaries and national parks in Assam adorn this winter arrivals from November to April every year. These winter visitors consist of a very large number of water bird’s species; hence the wetlands of Assam experience an unusual surge in its avian diversity during the winter months. Though many birds are known to migrate from far off continents of the world to India and Assam during summers as well, the phenomenon of avian migration is commonly connected with the annual winter migrations of birds from the colder Northern parts of the planet to the warmer shores of India and other countries in Asia and Africa. The mystery of avian migration has perplexed human minds for ages, many scientific work, theories, and postulates have been put forward through years of research and studies to satisfy the human quest in unravelling this riddle but we are yet to find concrete answers regarding the astonishing aspects of global avian migrations across continents, oceans, and mountain ranges. The communities and countries which come in close contact with the vibrant presence of this annual migrations of birds show distinct socio-cultural reflections in them. This is found in the folklore, architecture, cultural festivities, literature, and religion amongst different groups of people. The socio-cultural framework of Assam also mirrors the influence of this phenomena. We cannot forget the traditional hunting of water fowl and water birds by our ancestors in the villages, wetlands, and forests during the winter months and the open selling of wild birds, including many migratory species during those days across the villages and towns of Assam. Hunting of wild birds was a cultural aspect of Assam, even after the enactment of the Wildlife Protection Act of India in 1972. The abundance of water fowl and water birds in the wetlands, ponds, rivers, and forests of Assam during the winter months used to coincide with lavish festivities, picnics, and hunting parties that endorsed the killing and consumption of wild birds in the society. This tradition was partly influenced by the colonial rulers who introduced the trend of organized game hunting for water fowl and other wild birds in Indian forests as sport. Earlier the native Indians were mostly into subsistence hunting, where wild animals and wild birds were hunted for food. This trend of wild birds hunting continued unabated in Assam till 1982 when Nature’s Beckon stepped in with extensive awareness drive among the people of Assam, making them aware for the first time about the legal prohibition on killing and selling of wild birds under the Wildlife Protection Act of India 1972. Nature’s Beckon’s continuous work led to a gradual fall in the killing of wild birds in Assam, programs like ‘Nature’s Beckon’s All Assam Wild Birds Preservation Campaign’ which is going on since 1992 further strengthened the wild conservation initiatives in Assam with focus on protection of wild birds’ habitats as a vital step towards conservation of wild birds in Assam. Consequently, we can see an interesting shift in the collective social behavior among the people of Assam who has chosen to walk away from the traditional winter wild birds hunting for more peaceful options like bird watching, bird photography, tourism based on birding to immerse in the seasonal extravaganza of birds’ diversity in the landscape of Assam. The youths of Assam are showing increasing interest in pursuing careers as wildlife photographers, nature guides, bird watching guides, and many have come up as constant vigils against illegal killing, capturing, and other crimes against wild birds across the grassroots of Assam. The local news channels, news portals, and social media are quite frequently traversed by reports of community actions against such wildlife crimes on wild birds from different parts of the state, many a times the concerned authorities like the state forest department and Police lag far behind in their actions because they fail to match the motivation of the mass to protect the wild birds in their locality. Assam shows a unique social transformation in this regard, this cultural shift from wild birds hunting to peaceful co-existence along with a pro-active social structure for protection and conservation of wild birds and their habitats is a befitting example of people driven wild birds’ conservation for rest of India. Nature’s Beckon has advocated the importance of a holistic, all – species wild birds conservation model to achieve the true goals of wild bird’s conservation in India, which largely depends on habitats preservation for all wild birds without discriminating between the different species of wild birds in India. The people of Assam have breathed life to this wild bird’s conservation ideology with their participation with Nature’s Beckon in the past 40 years to bring these socio-cultural changes in Assam. The recently launched ‘Maharishi Valmiki Birds Conservation Pakhya Celebration’ in Assam adds a completely new turn to the wild bird’s conservation philosophy of Nature’s Beckon. This campaign is to connect the young generations and the people of India with the Indian thought of wild birds’ conservation which ran through our cultural and religious heritage since ancient times. This ‘pakhya’ running for the first 15 days of November connected everyone with Maharishi Valmiki’s pioneering contribution to birds’ conservation. Maharishi Valmiki was the first person in the entire world who raised voice against killing of birds, his first shloka was the first sermon which forbid the killing of birds during their mating period. This was the first narrative on birds’ conservation, which is known to all Indians as the first shloka of Maharishi Valmiki and the precursor of Ramayana, the epic tale of Lord Rama which was written for the first time by Maharishi Valmiki. Nature’s Beckon launched a new mind movement for wild birds’ conservation in India with this ‘pakhya’, the civil society of Assam led by Nature’s Beckon declared 14th November to be celebrated as the ‘National Maharishi Valmiki Birds Conservation Day’ amidst the maiden celebration of India’s first ‘Maharishi Valmiki Birds Conservation Pakhya 2024’ amongst the people of Assam. This celebration marked by various activities focusing on creating awareness for conservation of wild birds and their habitats among hundreds of students, teachers, educationists, social workers, activists, and common people of Assam from Dhubri to Sadiya. Several schools, colleges, socio-cultural organizations, and other educational institutions from different districts of Assam participated in this wave of change. Coincidently, the Maharishi Valmiki Birds Conservation Pakhya marks the beginning of the seasonal migration of the winter visitors to Assam and other parts of India, hence, a national celebration of the ‘National Maharishi Valmiki Birds Conservation Day’ can lead a new awakening for wild birds’ conservation across India during a time when the entire country experiences a seasonal spurt in avian diversity. It is to be noted that Nature’s Beckon’s wild birds’ conservation programs like the ‘All Assam Wild Birds Preservation Campaign’, the ‘Pobitara Wild Birds Conservation Festival’, and the latest addition ‘Maharishi Valmiki Birds Conservation Pakhya’ directs everyone to work for the conservation of all species of wild birds found in India; with equal importance to all species irrespective of their classifications as resident species, migratory species, conservation priority species, and so on. The Maharishi Valmiki Birds Conservation Pakhya gives an opportunity to the country to celebrate the immense biodiversity of India that is evidently seen in the staggering diversity of wild birds across the wide range of bio-geography found in India. This ‘pakhya’ has set the resurgence of India’s nature conservation philosophy, which remained silently ingrained in the ancient doctrines of religion, science, and philosophy of Bharat for ages. We set the best functional models of this philosophy of nature conservation in our cultural, religious, and scientific practices as been taught to us thousands of years ago by the ancient scientists, philosophers, and thinkers of India. The whole world borrowed this ancient science and philosophy of India to craft the modern concepts of nature conservation without recognizing the contributions of our great ancestors. And the failure of India’s modern education system to connect our children with these roots of Indian knowledge system have led generations of bright Indian minds to tread the path of nature conservation without realizing the rich contributions of India to the global nature conservation movement of humankind. The ‘Maharishi Valmiki Birds Conservation Pakhya’ calls for a new awakening amongst all Indians to realign our perceptions about this global movement with empowered knowledge that the concept of nature conservation is essentially an Indian philosophy, and the nature conservation movement is a movement of Indian thoughts and consciousness.