Birds put up for sale at the Nal Sarovar sanctuary

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INDIAN EXPRESS FRONT PAGE

Thursday, May 20, 1999

Birds put up for sale at the Nal Sarovar sanctuary

Kumar Shakti Shekhar
NAL SAROVAR, May 19: A pelican for Rs 200. A Greyleg Goose for Rs 150. A flamingo for Rs 50. A Common Pochard for Rs 40. Small Egrets for Rs 10. And a variety of other water-birds for even less.
Welcome to the Nal Sarovar Bird Sanctuary! Here, poachers trap and sell rare birds to villagers for meat. From October to May, the season during which the migratory birds stay here, some 25 birds are daily caught, sold and killed for meat. All this at a sanctuary which is protected by the forest department.
Except for pelicans, the other birds are eaten by the villagers. Pelican meat is roasted to extract the fat, which is believed to cure arthritis.
The poachers belong to villages such as Shahpur, Nani Kathechi, Ranagadh, Darji, and Durgi, which are around the sanctuary. Generally, they sell the birds to other villagers, but they also pass the birds on to some trusted pheriwalas, who sell them in nearby talukas at much higher prices.
This is how the poachers catch the birds, mostly by night. They erect poles fitted with nets in the lake. One pole in the middle is tied to a cord, the other end of which is with a poacher, who sits, some 500 metres away, on one of the 360 islets in the lake. Some men drive resting birds towards the nets. Once some birds enter the net, the man on the islet pulls the cord. The pole falls. The birds are in the net.
This goes on from midnight to early morning. The captive birds, their wings entwined, are first kept in a boat and then packed in large sacks and taken to the villages for sale.
Poachers trap a few birds by day, too. This they do by placing nooses in the marshes. When a bird walks into a noose, the poacher pulls it tight and catches the bird, as it flutters its wings in frustration.
The Express Newsline team met two poachers carrying sacks stained with blood. They said there were four live flamingoes in the sacks. They agreed to part with the birds for Rs 40 each. They also revealed that they had caught 17 flamingoes and already sold 13 to villagers and pheriwalas. Ironically, this happened just a few yards away from the Flamingo Inspection Bungalow set up here by the Forest Department.
Flamingoes are listed under Schedule IV of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Cruelty to these birds is punishable under section 51 of the Act which amounts to three years' imprisonment or a fine of Rs 25,000 or both.
But poaching is rampant in the sanctuary. It has been going on for a long time. Forest department officials make cursory patrols around the lake from December to March, when bird population is at its highest and tourists throng the place. Once the tourist season is over, the officials disappear.
When contacted, G.A. Patel, chief conservator of forests, Gandhinagar, who is in charge of the sanctuary, said migratory birds like flamingoes aren't found at this time of the year. He seemed oblivious of the fact that at least 10,000 Lesser Flamingoes, 2,500 Greater Flamingoes, 5,000 Little Egrets, 1,500 Painted Storks, and 1,200 spoonbills, to name a few, still inhabit the sanctuary.
Patel also said he had never heard of poaching at the sanctuary, even though he had served as district forest officer of the area in the past. On being told about what the Express Newsline team saw, he said, ``I don't deny that a few stray incidents could be taking place once in a while in some remote corner. But we are vigilant too.''
Patel said there was no water in the lake and, therefore, no migratory bird was to be found. But when reminded that there was knee-deep water in the lake, most suited for the birds to inhabit and mate, he said he would inquire into the poaching. He said he wondered how poaching could take place when an assistant conservator of forests, two range forest officers and other foresters are camping at the site.
The fact, however, is that no forest department official has been staying in the forest department bungalow in the sanctuary for the past few months.
Flamingoes migrate from Siberia during winter to Pakistan and India. In India they stay in Kutch and Nal Sarovar. They mate here and fly back home in April-May with their chicks. This could well stop if the poaching continues.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.