Freedom on I-Day for these lovebirds

16 August 2006

An unclaimed brown cardboard box lying on the luggage rack of a local train on Independence Day looked like potential trouble at first. Commuters were ready to press the panic button. But Nisha Kunju, the college girl who first noticed the box, bravely decided to open it. After all, she heard no ticking bomb, just “cheep-tweet” sounds from inside.

In the box were four air starved lovebirds who were being illegally transported.
Kunju noticed the box at around 9 am in a Thane-bound train from Vikhroli.
When she asked others about the box, no one claimed it. “Somebody was illegally transporting these four lovebirds in a box that didn’t even have proper holes for ventilation”, said animal welfare officer Sunish Subramanian of the Plant & Animals Welfare Society – Mumbai (PAWS-Mumbai), which is now caring for the birds. “This truly is freedom for these birds which are exploited by animal traffickers who sell them at high prices”.

Lovebirds are among the smallest parrots in the world. They weigh around 40gm to 60gm each and their beaks are rather large for their overall size. Many lovebirds are green, although colour mutations can spawn varied hues.

They belong to the genus Agapornis, which is Greek for lovebird. The birds are social and affectionate, and form close bonds with mates, usually lasting for life. Their lifespan is approximately 12 to 15 years.

If you see any bird or animal in distress, call PAWS-Mumbai on : 9833480388, 9820678276 or 25968314.

Bird smugglers run into forest dept trap

2 Feb 2009

MUMBAI: The anti-poaching unit, vigilance wing of forest department and the Mumbai team of PAWS on Saturday night trapped a syndicate which sold falcons and hawks by advertising on a website. The forest department has arrested two youths - Farhan Anwar Khan and Mohammed Siddiqui Sayyed aka Javed - and seized their vehicle, a Santro.

Speaking to TOI, assistant conservator of forests Satish Phale of the anti-poaching unit said, "The duo from Dongri had given an ad for the sae of falcons on the website - oxl.com.''

The sale of such birds is banned under Schedule I, Part III of Wildlife Protection Act 1972. The duo asked for a price of Rs 12,000 for each bird.

Sources said that the forest department had earlier laid two traps for them, but were unsuccessful. This time, they called the wildlife smugglers to Santa Cruz airport and managed to nab them on Saturday night. The forest department and PAWS team had posed as decoy customers.

"They had wrapped the bird like a small baby to avoid suspicion and only the head could be seen,'' said Sunish Subramanian of PAWS. These kind of birds have been recently used by Pakistan to spy over Indian territories.

The two were presented before the holiday magistrate's court in Bandra and given seven days' custody. They have been kept in the police lock-up at Thane.

Phale said that the duo gave misleading answers about the source of the bird. "We are trying to find out how many other birds they have. They claim that they found the bird in a graveyard and later gave some vague answer. Our investigations will found the nature of this racket,'' said Phale.

Sunish Subramanian said, "There is evidence to show that the duo has more birds.''