PANAJI
The fifth edition of Bird Festival of Goa is set to be hosted on December 16 and 17 across six protected areas in the State including Dr Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary, Chorao.
The festival is celebrated annually by Goa’s Forest Department in a bid to create awareness among public, school and college students about the importance of conserving birds and their habitats and to promote rich avian diversity of Goa.
As a part of pre-festival activities, several early morning bird walks have been conducted at all major wildlife sanctuaries and wetlands since November in the run up to the main event.
This year, the main venue of the festival will be International Centre, Goa at Panaji. So far, the tentative schedule includes several interesting events such as bird trails at areas rich in avian diversity such as Chorao, Carambolim lake, Navelim wetlands, Raia-Curtorim wetlands, Succour plateau, Divar island and Agassaim wetland.
Additionally, the delegates will also get to interact with five expert speakers on various topics concerning birding and ornithology over the course of the two days.
The expert speakers include Assistant Conservator of Forest and zoo manager (wildlife and eco tourism, North Goa) Paresh Porob, birding enthusiast Atul Jain, director of Nature Works Kedar Bhide, scientist at Nature Conservation Foundation Rohit Naniwadekar, founder vice president of Goa Bird Conservation Network Pranoy Baidya
The details about the festival and its schedule can also be found on birdfestival.goa.gov.in while the expert lectures can be accessed on the festival’s official Youtube channel, “Bird Festival Goa”.
Updates about the festival will also be available on its Instagram, Twitter and Facebook handles.
The Forest Department informed that the event registration has now been closed since it has reached full capacity.
The first Bird Festival was held at Bondla Wildlife Sanctuary in 2016 while the most recent edition was hosted at Mollem.
