You can also see the visiting black necked cranes of Phobjikha valley, Bhutan.
The black-necked Cranes in Bhutan (Grus nigricollis) are winter visitors during late October to mid February to the Phobjika Valley and Ladakh, India, from the Tibetan Plateau where they breed. They visit the Phobhjikha valley in large numbers, which is a declared protected area for the cranes, and also to other valleys in smaller numbers in central and eastern Bhutan. On arrival in the Phobhjikha (also called the 'Gangtey Valley') they are seen to circle the Gangteng Monastery (also known as Gangten Gonpa) three times as if they are paying obeisance to the gods in the monastery and repeat this act while returning to Tibet іn early spring.
The Jigme Dorji Wongchuk Sanctuary, adjoining the Phobjika Valley across the Black Mountains Range, has within its precincts, the crane wintering area at Bumdeling, which also has been declared a protected area. These cranes known by the binomial name Grus nigricollis and also as Tibetan Crane are categorized as Vulnerable (Vu) in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species maintained by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) under Appendix I and II of CITES. The Black-necked Cranes, the last to be found among the 16 species of cranes, were first identified by Nikolai Przhevalsky of the Imperial Russian Army in 1876 in the Tibetan Plateau.
Apart from China and India, Bhutan has taken special care to protect this species and has established the Phobjikha Conservation Area covering 163 square kilometres (63 sq mi) of the valley under the Royal Society for the Protection of Nature (RSPN) and for the purpose of conservation management. The conservation area was established by Bhutan in the Phobjika Valley in 2003, and RSPN has the mandate to protect not only the Black-necked Cranes but also 13 other vulnerable species. The cranes, which used to be hunted in Bhutan till 1980 are now totally protected, with the Government of Bhutan enacting a law under which any person killing a crane would invite life term jail sentence.
In Bhutan, the Black-necked Cranes have a celebrity status, as witnessed by the Crane Festival held every year on 12 November, soon after their arrival from the Tibetan Plateau, in the courtyards of the Gangten Gonpa in Phobjika Valley. Many tourists also visit the valley to witness this festival.
Source: Wikipedia
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