Bhubaneswar: The reputed Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), a pan-India wildlife research organisation, will open a regional centre on the campus of the Chilika Development Authority (CDA) at Barkul on the banks of the Chilika lake in Khurda district Monday.
The regional centre will operate out of the Wetland Research and Training Centre of CDA at Chandraput.
Deepak Apte, Director of BNHS along with his colleagues and senior forest officials of the Odisha government will be present during the opening function.
The BNHS started working at Chilika since 1967 and 18,000 birds of 79 species have been ringed by it so far, many of them recovered in their breeding grounds later on.
The organisation has been associated with the local CDA and the forest department for the past one-and-a-half decades mainly for bird census and in ringing the migratory birds to establish the flyways. However, the permanent regional centre will take up the activities on a continuous basis to help the planners in better management of the lake ecology and its winter guests, the CDA said in a release Sunday.
With the new centre of BNHS coming up, some of the tasks entrusted upon them include documenting the species-wise population, bird ringing, colour flagging and neck collar studies. They will also involve themselves in imparting training to CDA officials on their expertise matters besides other planned works relating to birds and wildlife.
