Manipur to celebrate Amur Falcon Festival on Monday

With an objective to spread awareness about protection and conservation of Amur falcon, the world’s longest flying migratory bird, the Manipur forest authority is gearing up for the seventh edition of the Amur Falcon Festival in Tamenglong district headquarters, 150 km west of Imphal on Monday, officials said.

The day-long festival is generally celebrated in the first or second week of November to strengthen human-nature relationship and acknowledge the importance of this small raptor in the lives of people in the region . It was organised in 2015.

Forest, environment and climate change minister, Thongam Biswajit Singh, water resources minister, Awangbow Newmai and principal chief conservator of forest & head of forest force, Dr AK Joshi will attend the festival.

“The festival is not just a place to celebrate but also a place where people from different backgrounds come together and share their ideas,” said divisional forest officer (DFO), Amandeep of Tamenglong district. “I’m sure during the festival we will get a lot of new ideas for protection and conservation of the Amur falcon.”

He said that the idea is not only to promote and encourage all stakeholders in protecting the species but also to make the present generation feel compassionate about the amur falcon and the wildlife. “We are also compiling local best practices and creating traditional knowledge banks to be utilised for betterment of Amur falcon initiatives,” the DFO added.

After the arrival of the Amur falcon in Tamenglong in the second week of October, the state forest department has taken up regular checking and awareness programmes besides organising joint patrolling in the district.

Deputy commissioners (DCs) of Tamenglong and Senapati districts have separately issued orders to monitor and control hunting of wildlife in their respective districts during the sojourn of Amur falcon which are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act 1972 and included under Scheduled IV.

The Amur falcon (Falco amurensis) is the world’s longest travelling small raptors of the falcon family. Amur falcons migrate to their wintering grounds in South Africa, usually arriving in large numbers during October in Nagaland and Manipur besides other places in the northeast India undertaking a yearly journey of about 20,000 km. They leave the region in November after having enough food for their non-stop flight to Africa where they spend their winters.

The radio-tagging programme of Amur falcons started in Manipur in 2018 as part of an initiative to conserve wildlife and also to study the route of these long-distance migratory birds and the environmental patterns along the route as India is a signatory to an international agreement on conservation of migratory birds of prey.