According to a study conducted by a team of researchers, Assam’s state bird, the white winged wood duck, locally known as Deo Hanh or divine bird, could be pushed to extinction due to climate change impact and other worsening anthropogenic pressures in the Indian Eastern Himalayan (IEH) region.
The IEH region, particularly Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and Manipur, is home to more than half (450) of the world’s 800 white winged wood ducks, which were designated as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 1994. The bird is found in India and a few other countries that share a border with the Northeast. In 2003, it was designated as the state bird of Assam.
According to a study on the effects of climate change on Assam’s state bird, 436.61 square kilometres of highly potential habitat would be lost by 2070.
“Tropical forests support the population of the white winged wood duck. It is projected that climate change will have a significant impact on tropical forest ecosystems around the globe. Under the influence of global climate change, a major portion of the natural habitat of the WWWD is likely to be lost by 2050 and 2070,” according to the research
The study was published recently in the Journal of Nature Conservation. Jyotish Ranjan Deka and Syed Ainul Hussain of the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, joined the research team, as did Animesh Hazarika of Assam University, Silchar, and Abhijit Boruah, Jyoti Prasad Das, and Rubul Tanti of Aaranyak, an Assamese biodiversity conservation group.
According to the study, the area with the highest probability of occurrence of the bird species has an annual average temperature range of 22 degrees Celsius 30 degrees Celsius and an annual precipitation range of 1,000-1,200 mm. However, except in Meghalaya, the potential distribution would likely decrease due to climate change.
Annual temperature range changes, precipitation in the wettest month (June to September), and precipitation decrease in the warmest quarter (October to December) will be the key bioclimatic variables to lead to a substantial loss of high potential habitats, said the report.
It stated that the potential of areas near the Bhutan-Assam border for supporting the white winged wood duck would increase because this species requires an average annual precipitation of 1,000-1,200 mm.
According to the study, anthropogenic threats such as habitat loss, forest fragmentation, habitat degradation, water pollution, and the drying up of water bodies as a result of climate change have reduced the population of bird species in their natural habitats. Hunting and egg collection for food have posed a further threat to their survival. A decline in the population of white winged wood ducks has been observed in the tropical forests of Assam, primarily due to the destruction of forest habitats and the clearing of forests near water bodies, it said.
Another study, conducted between 2018 and 2020 by the Wildlife Trust of India, found that the white winged wood duck was facing extinction due to widespread loss of forest habitat and hunting across its distribution range.