A glimpse hunting migratory birds and other fauna living around Singanallur Tank came to light when volunteers of Centre for Urban Biodiversity Conservation and Education (CUBE) on Tuesday traced squirrels caught using traps from the lake bund.
The Singanallur Tank had already been declared an Urban Bio-Diversity Conservation Zone by the Corporation, in view of its flora and fauna population.
Coimbatore Corporation has embarked on a survey of the flora at Singanallur Tank as part of a conservation effort.
The findings will be documented at the New Delhi-based National Repository designated by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and National Bio-diversity authority, Chennai. The civic body will carry out the phyto-diversity survey in association with the Centre for Urban Bio-Diversity Conservation and Education (CUBE) and the Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding (IFGTB).
Volunteers of CUBE, who had gone to the lake for birding, noticed nets laid on the bed of the tank. A few persons, who were standing near the traps, immediately left the spot leaving snares and eight squirrels caught using them.
“There were eight squirrels caught using traps in carry bag. The men left the spot with a bag seeing us. We strongly suspect that the bag they carried could have had some animals or birds caught using the traps,” said a volunteer to The Hindu .
The volunteer added that they were informed of men who trap birds, civet cat, mongoose, and wild hare from the lake bund.
When contacted, District Forest Officer N. Satheesh said that an investigation was being conducted into the incident and a team of Forest Department was after the persons involved.
