Image Source: TRIBUNE

As the coronavirus and avian influenza (bird flu) scare continue, the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is doing round-the-clock monitoring of wetlands, hosting thousands of migratory birds during winter months.

Sources said the animal husbandry department and the wildlife department had constituted special teams to track the bird's flock of various species. They said observers had been deployed and regular blood samples were being collected by field teams that were being sent to testing in laboratories outside the Union Territory (UT).

Thousands of species from Central Asia, China, Siberia and other Arctic regions spend their winter in wetlands in J&K, especially at Gharana in Jammu and Hokersar and Anchar in Kashmir. There are also other small wetlands and marshes where the birds make their homes for a few months.