Why do birds matter to us-a perspective from Kashmir valley, India in light of declaration of 2018 as the year of birds?

 The year 2018 has been declared as the Year of Birds with the aim of celebrating and protecting them. Birds are mysterious, cheerful and a marvellous creation with some unique and peculiar features. They are ecologically crucial in maintaining the balance of many ecosystems by sustaining various food chains and energy cycles. With their colourful bright plumage they enrich the natural scenic beauty of earth. Their migration, foraging, singing, breeding and nesting behaviour is quite astonishing. Birds make a variety of calls, sounds and songs with a language as complex as any spoken words that have many meanings, purposes and uses. Birds are the indicators of climatic conditions, natural calamities and bio-indicators of potential human impact and environmental degradation. Birds are facing continuous natural and anthropogenic threats due to multiple problems in the environment. The unregulated and unsustainable tourism and poaching threatens the habitat of so many game birds. Climate change, chemical use, loss of food source, overharvesting are the other impacts on bird loss. Awareness about stopping of habitat destruction, indiscriminate poaching birds, and regulated bird watching is the need of the time. We need to use more resources and put more sincere efforts for their management and conservation in view of the changing environment. Climate change has already altered the biological life on this planet, it would be interesting to know how climate change threatens bird’s life and survival. That will enable us in true sense to fulfil the objectives of the year of birds.