THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : A newspaper advertisement on Friday caught the attention of many, especially pet lovers. It announced the missing of “Pappu”, a one-year-old male Congo African gray parrot from the house of Vishnu Mohan, a Thiruvananthapuram resident. That was the name he had given his pet.
“The parrot came out of the house when we opened the door and flew to a street light where it encountered crows. Scared, the bird flew away,” Vishnu says.
The bird was reared mostly in a cage and is unfamiliar with the world outside the home, he says. “It would repeat whatever we said,” he remembers fondly.
Fruits and A-19 powder were its food. The advertisement on the parrot promised a reward for those who passed information on Pappu.
“Till now, there is no response,” Vishnu says.
The gray parrot is a beautiful bird, predominantly gray in colour and with slight wedges along its feathers on its head and body. The feathers along the tail bear a striking red. Though the most traded one across the world, the practice is internationally banned. Between 1994 and 2003, more than 3,59,000 gray parrots were traded in the international market.
Approximately 21% of the wild population of the birds are being harvested every year, says a report by the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) of Wild Fauna and Flora, an international agreement between governments to protect wild animals and plants. These beautiful birds are also hunted for their meat and for their body parts that are used in traditional medicines.
Petting rules
Petting exotic animals and birds needs government certification. Many youngsters are interested in keeping pets. But there are legal procedures and certification required to keep pets at home if they are endangered. Also, the international trade of a number of species is banned in India. Even the legality of such matters doesn’t appear to stop youngsters from keeping their favourite pet.
In June 2012, the African gray parrot was re-categorised as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species on the basis that “the extent of the annual harvest for international trade, in combination with the rate of ongoing habitat loss, means it is now suspected to be undergoing rapid declines over three generations”, says the data with CITES.