Roni Antony & Sarthak Kanjilall
Port Blair, Nov 24: To protect the indigenous birds of these islands that are falling prey to the Bird Hunters, the Forest Department, on request by the State Board of Wildlife unit, is in process to form regulations to ban Airguns of regular bird hunters.
Talking to Andaman Sheekha, Mr Naveen Kumar (IFS), DCF (Wildlife), South Andaman said that the birds who are flying all the way from Little Andaman and North and Middle Andaman to the South Andaman region to have blackberries, that fruits in the gap of 02-03 years, are getting shot by the Bird Hunters, especially by those who are young and do bird hunting for fun.
“Entertainment and amusement can be done in many other ways but not by causing damage and loss to some others life, even Birds do have the right to live and hence, one should respect the nature,” Mr Naveen Kumar said.
He said that in the year 2016-17 the Forest Department requested islanders to surrender their Air Guns voluntarily and a public representative Mr Sanjay Meshack was the first one to do so. Mr Naveen added that 8-9 people came forward during the time and with the help of Avians Club also they seized Air Guns of around 30 people in the area who were regular continuous users.
Mr Naveen finally said that Bird Hunting is again on the rise and hence, he appealed the general public to come forward to save the birds.
He also said that anybody can report on 245229, their control room, which serves 24/7 to give input on Bird Hunting.
