Residents of Pumlen, a part of Loktak lake in Bishnupur district, Manipur have caught a male nongin (Mrs. Hume’s Pheasant). A local MLA has paid Rs 1000 for the bird and handed it over to the Manipur zoological gardens. The nongin is the state bird of Manipur, and its discovery for the first time in the valley has brought cheers from wildlife officials. The forest department has so far collected 14 nongins by encouraging locals not to kill the birds. Zoo officials have said that two chicks have been bred so far in captivity. Though students in Manipur learn about the bird in books, they never see it physically, barring the zoo. Nongins are amongst the most threatened bird species in the world. There is no exact record of when the bird was last sighted in Manipur, till it was found in the Ukhrul jungles a few years back.
Read more about this near threatened bird in Birdlife.
CI is a non-profit, non-commercial portal that aims to facilitate wildlife and nature conservation by providing reliable information and the tools needed to campaign effectively.
