A deepening conservation crisis is unfolding across Assam’s forested wetlands, where the white-winged wood duck, the State bird and among the world’s rarest waterfowl, appears to be inching towards extinction. Preliminary findings from an ongoing Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) survey indicate that no more than 300 individuals may survive across the Northeast, reinforcing long-held fears of a population collapse.
The WTI assessment spans key habitats in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh and seeks to fill critical gaps in existing data. The project aims to develop and execute a long-term recovery plan in collaboration with government agencies, local communities and subject specialists. But early estimates suggest the species has declined dramatically in recent years.
Conservationist Anwaruddin Choudhury, who initiated comprehensive studies on the duck, noted a particularly sharp fall within Assam. “Their numbers have noticeably declined in recent years. It is unlikely that there are more than 200 such ducks in Assam now,” he said, pointing to figures consistent with his earlier research.
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His published estimates recorded a drop from roughly 350 birds in 1990 to fewer than 200 by 2021. The surviving population is concentrated largely in the Upper Dihing (west block) Reserve Forest in Tinsukia district, while Nameri is the only known habitat to have shown a modest increase. Many other areas that once supported the species, including parts of the Barak valley, have recorded no recent sightings.
Historically, the white-winged wood duck ranged widely across eastern South Asia, Southeast Asia and parts of the western Indonesian archipelago. Today, it has disappeared from much of this terrain. Fragmented groups remain only in Sumatra, Cambodia, northern Myanmar and western Thailand, but global numbers have declined by more than 80 per cent over three generations.
The reasons are complex and compounding: destruction and degradation of forest-wetland ecosystems, pollution, human disturbance, outright deforestation, hunting and egg collection. Each has contributed to the species’ rapid decline. BirdLife International, in its 2024 assessment under the IUCN Red List, categorised the bird as ‘critically endangered’.
Assam designated the white-winged wood duck as its State bird in 2003 in a bid to bolster conservation efforts. With the latest figures offering a stark warning, the urgency to protect the species — and the fragile habitats it depends on — has never been greater.
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