129 Species of Birds recorded in a span of 7years over the Mahatma Tekdi

Prachi Bari
129 birds species including black redstart , grey necked bunting , black headed
cuckoo shrike , red necked, Eurasia collared dove falcon, short toed snake
eagle ,bonellis eagle , steppe eagle have made the Mahatma Tekdi in Kothrud
their area.
A study carried out over the Mahatma hill for a span of 7 years has resulted in
recording 129 species of birds. This was carried out by three students from
Pune, Arnav Gandhe (BE Computer , SPPU, Pune , FY M.Sc
Biodiversity ,Garware College , Pune), Adwait Dindore ( FYBA
Photography ,MIT WPU, Pune),Atharva Bapat (SY M.Sc Biotechnology , MIT
WPU, Pune), all avid bird enthusiasts and their research was recently published
in Journal Newsletter for Birdwatchers in January 2022 .
“The study began in 2014 and continued for next 7years till April 2021.
Mahatma Tekdi is an isolated hill in Kothrud area of Pune, being a lesser known
hill in terms of biodiversity, but has a rich habitat with beautiful grasslands,
scrubs ,woodlands and water bodies,” said Arnav Gandhe. “The idea to choose
Mahatma tekdi (also known as Kothrud Hill or Warje hill) because it was a
lesser known hill , still rich in biodiversity and few people knew about it. Thus
revealing its biological importance as a fine urban forest was necessary,” he
added. Most of the initial field work was carried out at early morning 6 to 8 thus
practically 6-7 days a week was carried out for 2 hours.
To look at this Tekdi looks plain and has simple topography, it proved quite
hard to spot its avian diversity as their population and frequency of sighting
kept on changing. Many rare winter migrants species have been recorded by the
students and felt that the birds preferred this tekdi as it was landlocked and
isolated from any other larger hill complex, this Mahatma hill also became an
example of how such a restricted ecosystem can support a fine amount of
biodiversity which still survives here , proving to be an efficient urban forest
within itself.
Atharva Bapat said, “The habitat degradation was our prime concern.
Unfortunately today not all the species are observed that regularly spotted ,
observed over the hill till 2017 and many species distribution patterns have
changed over the hill.”
But in last couple of years, Mahatma Tekdi and its avian diversity is facing a
serious threat. “This is due to high Anthropogenic stresses in form of daily
dumping of debris and garbage and land filling, increased human activity, and
constructions. Thus this study would help in highlighting and revealing lesser
known hill of Pune and its biological importance. This would help to awaken
and reduce the anthropogenic stress over the hill, finally resulting in
conservation of the hill in future, besides the collective efforts would help in
conserving all the hills of Pune with the addition of one more hill to the list,
conserving the last surviving urban forests, the last abode of the city’s rich
wildlife,” Adwait Dindore
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Some species observed- black redstart , grey necked bunting , black headed
cuckoo shrike , red necked, Eurasia collared dove falcon, short toed snake
eagle ,bonellis eagle. , steppe eagle( rare just one record).