Recently, a pair of birdwatchers saw a black eagle soaring above the forest. The bird has been spotted just once before in Delhi in the past hundred years. The other exciting sighting was that of the red-headed vulture, critically endangered.
The Mangar forest, along with Asola in Delhi, is more or less a continuous stretch of the Aravali forest, fractured by roads and strips of development projects. The two forests also serve as an important corridor for the movement of animals like leopards, Neelgai and civets. The leopard rescued from Chattarpur recently is believed to have ventured into Delhi from the Haryana forests as was another leopard spotted in Asola Wildlife Sanctuary in 2012. "In the past 10 years, we have had reports of eight leopard sightings in Haryana and adjoining parts of Delhi. There might have been more sightings which were not reported," Geeta Seshamani, co-founder, Wildlife SOS, says.
Seshamani says there might be a much larger population of the cat in the forest which we are not even aware of. "People are not aware of the high biodiversity of the area, including presence of leopards, civets, hyenas, jackals, hedgehogs and porcupines, not to mention a large number of reptiles like snakes and monitor lizards," she adds. Reports of Neelgai getting injured or dying as they attempt to cross a busy road between the two green belts is not uncommon either.
Abhijit Sen Menon, a birder, says, unlike Asola, Mangar is a much less disturbed area and hence supports a larger variety of fauna. Close to 60 species of birds have been sighted there on a single day. "Asola was mined and is hence being redeveloped. It is also closer to grazing grounds. Mangar is much less touched by human activity and there are still areas where people don't go. Some of the birds that can be seen there are Egyptian Vulture, Steppe Eagle, Grey Francolin, Green Sandpiper, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Greater Coucal, Long-tailed Shrike, Brooks's Leaf-Warbler and Hume's Warbler," Menon said.
He added that the Brooks's Warbler, a winter migrant to the area, is quite uncommon, reported from only a few sites. Environmentalist Pradip Krishen says that the Mangar forest has an extremely fragile ecosystem as it cannot support too many trees, and once lost, it would be almost impossible to replace the green cover. "Mangar is an undisturbed primary forest. The landscape is rocky and does not allow water to stand. Hence, it can support only very hardy trees of which the dhau is one," he said.
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