Gandhinagar: The satellite tagging of four common cranes earlier this year by Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the Gujarat Forest Department has revealed that these cranes are currently in their breeding ground of Siberia.

The common crane tracking is done by the WII team to study how they use the arid landscape of western India during the winters. It will also help to identify the migration routes and stopover sites used by these cranes. Apart from this, it will also reveal the different breeding sites of these cranes that migrate to India during the winter.

The four common cranes named Bhal, Nal, Sanand, and Gani, were fitted with solar powered GPS-GSM leg-mount transmitters, which record a GPS location at intervals of every 10 minutes and the recorded data is received every 24 hours through the GSM network.

The data collected through these satellite-tags has revealed that the four common cranes followed the same path for their spring migration as followed by Vadla, a common crane which was similarly tagged in 2020.

The birds passed through Kutch, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and are currently in their breeding sites in Siberia.

The four cranes started their journey on March 29 from Thol and Nal Sarovar and their first stopover was at the Kutch-Pakistan border. During their journey, they crossed the Rann of Kutch, Kharan desert of Pakistan, Dasht-e-Margo desert in Afghanistan and Karakum desert in Turkmenistan.

According to the official of the WII, the four cranes flew almost 5,100 kms to reach their new breeding grounds in 18-26 days. They travel 350 kms every day for 7-9 hours while roosting at oases and wetlands during the night. However, their behavior diverged from Vadla’s in the sense they even halted for 5 days, with one of them even halting for 8 days, at a place.

These longer stopovers were made at Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and at the border of Kazakhstan and Russia.

Every year about 4 lakh common and demoiselle cranes migrate to Gujarat for reasons of safety apart from availability of food, water and shelter. These birds feed on rhizomes that are found aplenty over here. DeshGujarat