The Hindu Business Line : Will the call of Jerdon's be lost?

"There are certain moments in every nature lover's life, which he never forgets. The first sighting of his study animal in the wild or looking at his favourite tree in bloom."

JERDON'S or Double-banded Courser (Rhinoptilus bitroquatus) is a nocturnal, cursorial bird, resident of Andhra Pradesh. It is not found anywhere else in the world. The bird is critically endangered falling in the IUCN Red List; it is listed under Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972 and is a priority species under the National Wildlife Action Plan (2002-2016) of the Government.

The Birdlife International admits to having little information on the distribution, ecology, population size and habitat requirements of the bird. In the Ninth revised version (1972) of The Book of Indian Birds, Dr. Salim Ali writes: "Indigenous to peninsular India though its nearest relations are African. Only known from the Godavari valley in Andhra - Nellore, Cuddapah, Sironcha, Bhadrachalam and Anantpur neighbourhoods. First discovered in 1848; last authentic record in 1900 since when, in spite of careful search, it has not been found again in the same localities or elsewhere." Bharat Bhushan rediscovered the bird in 1986 near Reddipalli village, Cuddapah disctrict of Andhra Pradesh.

In the January-March 2005 issue of Hornbill from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), Panchapakesan Jeganathan, senior research fellow, BNHS, puts down his search for the bird: "There are certain moments in every nature lover's life, which he never forgets. It could be anything — the first sighting of his study animal in the wild, or watching some rare migrant in his favourite bird watching site, or looking at his favourite tree in bloom. These moments remain vivid in one's memory for long, before they are shared with others. Let me share one such moment with you that I was passionate about, the moment when I first saw the Jerdon's Courser while it called."

In 2000, the BNHS linked up with the Universities of Reading and Cambridge, and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds to initiate a research project on the bird funded by the Darwin Initiative and supported by the Andhra Pradesh Forest department. The broad-gauge tie-up helped Jeganathan to hear and recognise the call of the Jerdon's Courser — kwik-koo ... .. kwik-koo ... ... kwik-koo --- for the first time.

Yet, it was in May 17, 2002, at Cuddapah that he saw the bird vocalising. "It was about 6 p.m. and the sun was just above the Lankamalai hill ranges. ... We had walked towards our regular listening point and suddenly we heard the very familiar call, but we kept walking. ... After a short while, we saw the Jerdon's Courser fly to our right. It flew away with gentle wing beats, showing the white rump, and the white patches at the tip of the primaries. Fortunately for us, it landed where there were no big bushes, about 20 metres away from us. It looked around and slowly walked a few short paces. We immediately lay down on the forest floor since there was nothing between the bird and us except stone and grasses. Oh! That beautiful orange throat patch! It was a treat to watch this enigmatic bird in sunlight. ... We waited patiently and after three minutes we played the tape (the pre-recorded Jerdon's Courser call) again for 15 seconds. ... Finally, after five we played the tape again for 15 seconds and then it finally happened. It started calling! Right in front of us and this lasted for about half a minute. At last I really was seeing the Jerdon's Courser while it was calling, that too in ample sunlight. So this is how the call of the Jerdon's Courser was recorded and identified nearly 15 years after its rediscovery," a delighted Jeganathan explains.

In 1987, the 464-sq. km. Sri Lankamaleswara Wildlife Sanctuary (SLWS), situated between the Nallamalais and Sechachalam hill ranges in the central part of the Eastern Ghats, was set up to protect the home of this bird. Then came the 1,031-sq. km. Sri Penusula Narasimha Wildlife Sanctuary in October 1997, spread across the districts of Cuddapah and Nellore and adjacent to SLWS, after the bird was spotted in the area by Bharat Bhushan in 1995. And now the Telugu-Ganga Canal project could delimit the two sanctuaries and make life difficult for Jerdon's Courser.

The Survey Report (available on the BNHS Web site) admits to an immediate threat to the population of Jerdon's Courser. The canal will irrigate lands in the Sagileru river valley. In October 2005, machinery was located near the SLWS and work was stopped by the Forest department. On January 16, 2006, digging has again commenced, a fact confirmed by a worried Jeganathan over phone. He is trying to capture the movement of lorries and excavators in the area as any disturbance will mean the end for the bird.

"Work presently is outside the sanctuary, about 10 metres away, but will impact the area. Also, the bird is unaware of the fact that it cannot move out of the sanctuary," Jeganathan told this writer. Canal digging has lead to building of roads providing public access into the forests to axe trees like the Red sanders (pterocaprus santalinus), a valuable timber tree.

The Survey Report winds up saying: "We conclude that the only known population of Jerdon's Courser in the world will have its already precarious conservation status made much worse by the construction of the canal around the Sri Lankamaleswara Wildlife Sanctuary." One is not sure whether the Jerdon's Courser will make it against economic development, western style.

P. Devarajan

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