No sarus crane sighted in Ghaziabad in summer census

As per the UP information department data, the census was conducted on June 20-21 and the count revealed presence of 19,918 sarus cranes in total -- a rise of 396 from 2023

Ghaziabad: The latest summer census taken up for sarus crane sightings shows that their count has risen across Uttar Pradesh (UP). However, the bird could not be sighted in Ghaziabad district, the divisional forest department officials said on Friday.

In Ghaziabad, the forest department over the years has reported sighting of a pair of sarus crane in agricultural fields near Rawli-Surana Road in Muradnagar. However, the pair was not sighted during the recently concluded survey. (Sakib Ali/HT Photo)

According to the UP information department statistics, the census was conducted on June 20-21 and the count revealed the presence of 19,918 sarus cranes in total -- a rise of 396 from 2023.

“During the latest census, there was no sighting of sarus cranes in Ghaziabad. The latest sarus census took place in June. There were sightings during winter in January. But there is no sighting in summer (in June). These cranes have less sighting in western UP region as compared to other regions like in the belt of Mainpuri, Etawah, Unnao etc.,” said Isha Tiwari, divisional forest officer (DFO).

Officials said that the birds’ count of Ghaziabad in previous years was not readily available.

Sarus crane, the tallest flying bird in the world, was declared the official state bird of UP in July, 2014. In UP, its count has shown a consistent upward trend over the years, and increasing from 17,329 in 2021 to 19,188 in 2022 and 19,522 in 2023 to 19,918 in 2024, the figures state.

In Ghaziabad, the forest department over the years has reported sighting of a pair of sarus crane in agricultural fields near Rawli-Surana Road in Muradnagar. However, the pair was not sighted during the recently concluded survey, officials said.

According to official figures, the highest number of sightings was recorded in Etawah forest division with 3,289 cranes. There were 2,945 sightings in Mainpuri and 1,212 in Shahjahanpur, among others.

The figures also reveal that the number of sarus cranes include 171 in Gautam Budh Nagar; 51 in Meerut; 44 in Bulandshahr; and two in Hapur. Overall, the number of sarus cranes stood between 100 to 500 in 27 forest divisions while the number was less than 100 in 31 forest divisions across the state.

Environmentalists said that sarus cranes are known to live in association with humans and prefer well-watered plains, marshlands, ponds and wetlands which suit them for foraging, roosting and nesting.

“In Ghaziabad, the population the sarus crane has not increased. There is hardly any sighting. It is due to rapid development and depleting condition of water bodies. The bio-diversity has been largely affected due to rampant felling of trees for projects, rise in temperature, and all this has also affected the wildlife,” said Akash Vashishtha, a city-based environmentalist and an environment lawyer.

DFO Tiwari said that Ghaziabad district has a presence of small sized wetlands.“We have about 58 of wetlands listed in Ghaziabad but they are not big sized,” she added.

According to the National Wetland Inventory and assessment of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change figures, the Ghaziabad district has 348.49-hectare area belonging to 58 different wetlands.

Ten of these are manmade and waterlogged while 44 of these are man made tanks/ponds. Three others are in the form of a natural lake while only one is riverine wetland.