Heavy rain and motorists on Saturday night caused the death of nearly 90 parakeets residing in a grove of trees near Orion Mall in Rajajinagar.
However, some people took the time to stop and help the birds. Volunteers with the BBMP Forest cell and members of People for Animals, an NGO, managed to rescue around 50 parakeets that had fallen from their nests.
Around 5,000 parakeets, mostly the rose ringed variety, live in the trees in the area.
A team of 12 volunteers braved rain and chills to save the birds in an operation that started around 9 p.m. and ended four hours later.
"Many motorists just drove their vehicles on the fallen birds, killing them," said Keerthan Vignesh R.P., a wildlife rehabilitator at People for Animals, adding, “Injured birds cannot fly and drenched birds are unable to produce heat and thus die of cold. We expect the public to be a bit sensitive towards our ecosystem.”
But more would have died, but for the intervention of aviation student Mohammed Kunan, who called up People for Animals when he saw parakeets on the road and people ‘just running over them’. "I stopped my car and started picking up the little birds and left them on the footpath. Motorists started honking and some got into an argument with me. They were least bothered about the birds," he says.
The rescued birds were handed over to the Avian and Reptile Rehabilitation Centre in Horamavu (ARRC). Jayanthi Kallam, co-founder, wildlife rehabilitator and volunteer at ARRC, said the centre received around 50 birds at 1 a.m. Twenty were taken back to their habitat on Sunday morning. The remaining will be released after medication, she added.
BBMP Forest Cell volunteer Rajesh Kumar M. said that it is the duty of each citizen of this country to protect wildlife. "They too are inhabitants of this planet. It is our fundamental duty under Article 51 of the Indian Constitution and also our moral duty to protect our natural environment," he added.
