The Gujarat Government has decided to promote its various bird watching sites as international tourist destinations.

Keeping this objective in mind, the State is hosting the Global Bird Watchers’ Conference later this week. Disclosing the detailed programme of the bird watchers’ meet near here, State Tourism Minister Jay Narayan Vyas said that global surveys have shown that bird watchers are very high-end spenders and travellers.

The State’s many wetlands being host to as many as 520 species of birds, Gujarat would be an ideal destination for bird watchers from all over the globe, Vyas added. The 2nd Global Bird Watchers’ Conference, being held here from Jan 19-22, would give the delegates an opportunity to explore Gujarat as bird watching spot. Of the nearly 10,000 different bird species in the planet, as many as 1,241 have been recorded in the Indian sub-continent.