The Amateur Bird watchers of Chandigarh and North India, along with Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) and Yuhina Eco-Media (a Mumbai-based organisation specializing in natural history and environment-related activities and events), are organising the Chandigarh Bird Race. This will be the first time the HSBC India BirdRace will be held in this beautiful city.
The India Bird Race is a dawn-to-dusk event where a large gathering of experienced and budding birdwatchers spend an entire day spotting and identifying birds in an effort to record as many species of birds as possible. They also learn the finer points of bird watching from experts. Later, they get together for an interactive experience sharing session followed by dinner.
Commenting on the event, organiser and naturalist Sunjoy Monga, said “the HSBC India BirdRaces have ushered in an eagerly awaited, entirely new dimension to birdwatching with enthusiastic participation everywhere, from experienced expert birdwatchers to beginners, including a sizeable number of children too; it has aroused interest in so many people to look at birds and from then on to other aspects of nature. Equally importantly, the HSBC India BirdRaces are yielding valuable data in the context of avifauna in the urban areas.”
A signature event of the Bank, the HSBC India Bird Races was held for the first time in February 2005 where more than one hundred bird-watching enthusiasts – from absolute beginners to experts- came together in Mumbai to participate in the event. Looking at the initial positive response, it was decided to make the HSBC India Bird Races into an annual event, and this concept has now spread to 14 cities across India, with the addition of three more cities in this season.