MYSURU: A few days ago, a painted stork was electrocuted after coming in contact with a power line near Kokkare Bellur Community Reserve in Maddur taluk. Considering the incident seriously, the forest department has decided to take up erecting insulated cables to electric poles to prevent electrocution of migratory birds.
The electrocution happened around 25 days back at Chunchagahalli village on the banks of Shimsha River near Kokkare Bellur. The bird while flying touched the live wire from the electric pole and died. The villagers brought the incident to the notice of the forest department and demanded action to prevent further deaths of the migratory birds. Mysuru Wildlife Division DCF V Karikalan told TNIE that the electrocution incident happened around 25 days ago.
“We immediately wrote a letter to the CESC to install insulated cables to prevent such incidents. The power company had requested us to bear the cost of the work which we have agreed to. It will cost around Rs 3 lakh for installing cables for around 100 metres,” he said.
Karikalan said that the insulated cables will be erected in places where there is bird movement and near trees. “We are doing letter correspondence and will take up the work soon before the arrival of migratory birds to Kokkare Bellur. The CESC authorities had installed insulated cables and we want cables to be installed in remaining places where there is threat for birds,” he said. In 2014, on the request by Mandya tourism department, the CESC authorities had replaced the Aluminum Conductor Steel-Reinforced (ACSR) cable to Aerial Bunched Cable (ABC) to prevent electrocution of migratory birds.
The engineers of the CESC Maddur sub division conducted a survey and installed 2.72 km of ABC cable to HT line to avoid the danger for flying and landing birds near the sanctuary at a cost of Rs 49 lakh.Meanwhile, the number of migratory birds visiting the community reserve has decreased drastically over the years.Head of the Kokkare Bellur Pelican Conservation Group B Linge Gowda told TNIE the spot-billed pelican number has drastically reduced over the years in the reserve. “Usually there used to be around 300 to 400 nests of pelicans in this time, but this year till date there are below 100 nests. In three years we have seen around 200 pelican deaths and this year already seven pelicans have died,”