KENDRAPARA: Bird poaching in Bhitarkanika National Park and its nearby areas in Kendrapara district has increased at an alarming rate this winter after the arrival of a large number of migratory birds.
In separate drives, forest officials had recently arrested two poachers and recovered two Brown-headed Gulls from them. But the poaching ringleaders are nowhere to be found.
Bird poaching gangs have become active in Bhitarkanika and its vicinity. Bird meats are regularly sold in many villages, and the trend is on the rise. Young boys from nearby villages kill the migratory birds and sell it to hotels at Kendrapara, Paradip Marsaghai, Kujang and other nearby places. Bird meats are easily available in hotels and dhabas beside National Highway 5(A) from Chandikhole. Some trappers kill birds by spreading poison and traps in the wetland.
Eating poisonous birds invites illness. There are allegations that poachers are doing brisk business with the collusion of some staff, both of Forest department and local administration. The Forest Department, however, says that their drive against bird poaching and hunting continues. Sources say each migratory bird fetches between `100 and `200. Villagers indulge in the crime due to stark poverty and forest officials have so far miserably failed to check poaching, alleged Amarbara Biswal, a social worker of Kendrapara.
Rangani, Alachua, Kanhupur, Magarakandha, Iswarapur, Dangamala, Batighar, Jamboo, Kansarabadadandua and Suniti villages within the park have become hunting ground for poachers, who are setting net traps by spraying poison on crop fields to catch birds. Hunting birds is an offence under the Indian Wildlife Act. It entails imprisonment up to seven years. But most of the bird poachings go unreported and the law enforcement agencies, including police and forest officials, rarely act against such offences.
Around 450 poachers have been arrested in the last two decades on charges of poaching birds, spotted deer and wild boars in the park and its nearby areas. Despite the high incidence of poaching of birds and other animals, the conviction rate of arrested poachers continues to be nil due to the slipshod attitude of forest officials and other agencies to pursue the cases.
The jinx, though, was broken last year with the conviction of two poachers on charges of killing birds in Bhitarkanka, said Hemant Rout, an environmentalist and secretary of Gahiramatha of Marine Turtles and Mangrove Conservation Society (GMTMCS), Kendrapara. Contacted, Bimal Prasan Acharya, divisional forest officer of the park, said, “Forest guards are patrolling the abode of migratory birds regularly. Recently, we arrested two poachers and seized two birds from them. We have also established 16 camps in the park and its nearby areas to protect the birds”.