This Haiderpur wetland guide has spread his wings

How youngsters from Bijnor are becoming keen birders

New Delhi: Till a little more than a year ago, Ashish Gujjar was just another youth among the many unemployed from a ‘kasba’ Kasampur Khola near the Haiderpur Wetland, 10 kilometres from Bijnor. Now the flocks of migratory birds at the wetland that were once part of his growing years, helps him earn a decent livelihood.

As a bird and nature guide, he guides the bird watchers visiting the wetland. The Haiderpur wetland is home to more than 240 bird species, over 90 of these being migratory birds that visit in winters. The wetland is also a stopover site for migratory birds on the Central Asian Flyway.

Ashish Loya, an Art of Living volunteer from Bijnor is a keen birder. Apart from the courses that he was conducting in Bijnor, he conducted an ‘Art of Living’ course in September 2020 for the youth around the wetland. Although Ashish knew the local names of the birds, some of them, his knowledge was limited. The training helped him and others in identifying more birds and detect individual bird calls, among many other aspects. Gujjar can now identify over 200 birds and was acknowledged for his contribution in creating a checklist of birds at Haiderpur.
“He is seriously into bird watching now. He discovered a nesting site of Blue-tailed bee-eaters, after which the forest department secured it,” Loya said as he was all praise for his first trainee.

When Gujjar worked as a nature guide for the first time for two seasoned birders from Delhi. Together, they made a new addition to the wetland checklist, ‘Oriental Prantincole’. A week after that, Gujjar was with another group of birders from Delhi, and the word of mouth publicity brought a senior birder from Gurugram, to the wetland with his birder friends.