The Indian Birding Fair at Mansagar Lake is around the corner. It is a two day event to be held in Jaipur which is centred towards preserving Mansagar lake. This day will mark 20 years of the birding fair at Mansagar.

As the D-day is nearing, Tim Appleton, the man who first invented the word ‘birdfair’ made a presentation at the Forestry Training Institute on Tuesday.

The Success Story

Harsh Vardhan, the real man behind this initiative to conserve Mansagar and make it a birding site, informed that it was Appleton who he took major inspiration from. He also thanked all volunteers who supported him in his endeavour.

In his presentation, Appleton, who for over 40 years served as manager of the Rutland water reserve near Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England, demonstrating the success ladder which this initiative has reached. He was happy to inform how the fair is now renowned as a huge conservation event.

Also, funds which emerged from this endeavour has been deployed into conservation efforts across the world, through Birdlife International, a global partnership of conservation organizations.

The Rutland fair was first held in 1989. Since then, there was no looking back. It has now emerged as a major event. “This is now an industry,” Appleton explained, saying that the fair is now visited by companies seeking to attract wildlife tourists, people selling or needing birding equipment like binoculars or cameras, or just looking for interesting lectures and discussions. Over 20,000 visitors from across the world arrived at the fair last August, Appleton said.

Notable scheme of things currently running

Appleton said people from all walks of life gather to pay tribute to the wildlife conservation. He also informed that those people in the slide showing one slide, he commented that those in the photograph came from Israel, Palestine and Jordan. Even when nations do not get on comfortably with each other, people are drawn together by a common interest in wildlife, he said.

Appleton also highlighted the need to save forests across the world. He added that the destruction of a particular forest in Madagascar might engender extinction of multitude species found nowhere else, he said.

Fund Management

He said that 12,725 sites have been identified across the world as IBAs – Important Bird Areas. Funds gathered at the fair have so far been channeled into conservation efforts in Malta, Cuba, Peru, Spain, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Australia and several other countries. Over four million UK pounds have so far been contributed to the conservation effort globally through the annual Rutland fair.