Okhla Bird Sanctuary reopens for visitors after two months

Noida: The Okhla Bird Sanctuary and Surajpur reserve forest, which were closed for visitors two months ago due to the second wave of Covid-19, will reopen on Thursday, the forest department said

Noida: The Okhla Bird Sanctuary and Surajpur reserve forest, which were closed for visitors two months ago due to the second wave of Covid-19, will reopen on Thursday, the forest department said.

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The move comes nearly 10 days after the Gautam Budh Nagar administration announced to lift the partial Covid curfew as the district had recorded below 600 active cases on June 7.

The Okhla Bird Sanctuary (OBS) and Surajpur reserve forest were closed on April 17 — second time due to the pandemic since March last year. The OBS and Surajpur forest were earlier closed from March 2020 to September 15, 2020.

“We have decided to open the OBS and Surajpur reserve forest for tourists and birders from Thursday as the number of active cases has continued to drop. The entry will be allowed with masks and we expect the visitors to maintain social distancing,” said PK Srivastava, divisional forest officer (DFO), GB Nagar.

He said that the department’s focus is to enhance facilities at the OBS, including providing cycles and installing a water ATM, while the space for a parking lot is being worked out with the department concerned.

“A water ATM will be made functional by next week. Two new bio-toilets will be constructed and we have also issued tender to repair the bamboo bridge towards the first watch tower. Besides, we are working on procurement of 20 cycles through a state government agency. The cycles are likely to arrive in the sanctuary by the next month. For the parking, we have identified an area near first gate of OBS that is enough to park over 150 vehicles. Talks are on with the department concerned that holds the land,” added Srivastava.

The Okhla sanctuary is home to about 350 species of birds. The sanctuary is spread over an area of 400 hectares, of which about 60% is water body and attracts a number of migratory birds during winters and passage migrants during summers. The migratory birds start arriving in the sanctuary in October, while their strength reaches the peak in December.

According to the Asian Waterbird Census (AWC)-2021 held by Wetlands International South Asia and the GB Nagar forest department in January, as many as 8,068 birds of 73 species -- 27 were local migratory species and 46 migratory species -- were counted.