Why in news?
- It is Bihar’s first community reserve.
About it:
- Gogabil, an ox-bow lake in Bihar’s Katihar district, has been declared as the state’s first ‘Community Reserve’.
- The water body was notified as a 57-hectare Community Reserve and a 30-hectare ‘Conservation Reserve’.
- Gogabeel is formed from the flow of the rivers Mahananda and Kankhar in the north and the Ganga in the south and east.
- Gogabil was initially notified as a ‘Closed Area’ by the state government in the year 1990 for five years.
- After the amendment of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, in 2002, the provision of ‘Closed Area’ was omitted and this site disappeared from the list of the Bihar government’s PAs, having no legal status.
- In 2004, Gogabil, including the neighboring Baghar Beel and Baldia Chaur, were given the status of an IBA (Important Bird Area of India) by the IBCN.
- In 2017, IBCN again declared Gogabeel as an IBA.
- More than 90 bird species have been recorded from this site, of which, about 30 are migratory.
- The threatened species include the Lesser Adjutant Stork (listed as ‘Vulnerable’ by the IUCN) while the Black Necked Stork, White Ibis and White-eyed Pochard are‘Near Threatened’.
