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Site description (2004 baseline):

These chaurs or small freshwater lakes lie scattered in the Gangetic plain in Bihar. These wetlands are inundated by overflow from the River Ganga and its six major tributaries, and rain water. Most of these chaurs are between 100 ha and 200 ha in area, while a few exceed 1,000 ha. They have a maximum depth of 1.5 m during the monsoon, and completely dry out between March and June. As the chaurs dry out, the exposed substrate becomes covered with vegetation. The total area and number of wetlands is unknown. These chaurs are particularly abundant around Khabartal, and cover an area of over 14,000 ha in Darbhanga district. Some of the major chaurs in the Khabartal region are Nagri Jheel, Bikrampur Chaur, Rajakpur Chaur, Chalki Chaur, the Chakka/ Motihari Chaurs, the Malipur/ Brahampur Chaurs, Rajor Chaurs, Dasin/ Turki chaurs, the Korai/ Sajanpur Chaurs, and the Dunhi Chaurs. The chaurs are surrounded by rice fields and other cultivation (Anon. 1993). When inundated, the chaurs support a great abundance of aquatic vegetation. Dominant emergent vegetation includes Cyperus rotundus and Oryza sativa. Free-floating plants include Eichhornia crassipes and Pistia stratiotes, while rooted-floating plants include Ipomea aquatica and Nymphaea sp. (Anon. 1993).

AVIFAUNA: The chaurs are known to be extremely important for waterfowl, particularly wintering ducks, but no census data is available. Altogether, the numerous chaurs support, and are critical to the survival of hundreds of thousands of ducks and other waterfowl in the winter, thus satisfying A4iii criteria. Sometimes the waterfowl number is so huge, that many species would easily fit A4i criteria also. There is an urgent need to gather species specific and site (chaur) specific data from this IBA site. As 4,000,000 ha area, with extremely high density of human population would not be easy to declare as an IBA, it is therefore, necessary to identify important chaurs or cluster of chaurs for intensive protection with the cooperation of villagers. The chaurs are similar to the hoars of Bangladesh (BirdLife International 2001) which also act as an important wintering ground for huge numbers of ducks, egrets, herons, waders and raptors.

OTHER KEY FAUNA: Not much information is available on other key fauna.

MAIN THREATS: Poaching; Agricultural intensification/expansion; Agricultural run-off; Urbanization/ industrialization.

Hunting pressure takes a heavy toll on the waterfowl populations. Trapping of birds is undertaken by the local fishermen on a massive scale to supplement their income (Shahi 1982). Ducks, coot and other waterfowl are trapped at night with fine nylon nets. Most of the smaller chaurs have very little value for agriculture or pisciculture. These chaurs and the biodiversity they support remain largely unstudied (Rai and Munshi 1982). It is essential to document, monitor and conserve these chaurs, and to protect the waterfowl and biodiversity they support.

Key contributors: H. S. A. Yahya and Arvind Mishra.

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Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2025) Important Bird Area factsheet: Chaurs of North Bihar (India). Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/chaurs-of-north-bihar-iba-india on 15/01/2025.