Mandarin duck sighted in Manipur wetlands

Recalling that a similar duck was once caught in Manipur’s Chandel district in 1997, Shamungou, a retired science teacher said the bird was kept in captivity but it didn’t live long

Mandarin Duck, a colourful migratory duck from east Asia was spotted at a wetland on the outskirts of Manipur’s state capital Imphal by a group of wildlife photographers.

Mandarin duck, a rare migratory duck spotted in Manipur. (Oken Sanasam)

“One of our senior members spotted the waterbird (Aix galericulata) first at Lamphelpat wetland and later we joined to take the pictures,” Oken Sanasam, a wildlife photographer who was part of the team, said on Monday.

“The photograph of the lone waterbird was first taken by another team member Jogamani Sharma on February 11”, Sanasam said.

According to experts, this waterbird doesn’t usually visit India and is native to east Asia.

Environmentalist Dr Kh Shamungou expressed his happiness over the rare sighting.

“It is good to see such waterbirds which rarely visits the state”, he said.

Recalling that a similar duck was once caught in Manipur’s Chandel district in 1997, Shamungou, a retired science teacher said the bird was kept in captivity at Manipur Zoological Garden but it didn’t live long.

According to a 2014 paper by researchers Raju Kasambe and RK Birjit in Manipur, “There are handful of records, mostly historical, of this species from northeastern India. C Gimson and Capt WL Neal had shot two males and two females of Mandarin Ducks in a stream in Mayangkhang valley, Manipur.”

“Manipur valley is hardly visited by birdwatchers and hence, it is likely that the duck is more frequent than it has been reported till now (thrice in Manipur, five times in north-eastern India). However, we feel the need to document this straggler record of the species as reports are still scarce,” the paper said.