Sheekha Bureau
Port Blair, Feb 28: Once upon a time Neil and Havelock Islands used to have thousands of Green Pigeons but now-a-days sighting of green pigeon is a rare case.
Thanks to uncontrolled hunting of green pigeons the number of these birds has drastically reduced in these two Islands.
Similarly in places like Birdline and Brichgunj also there is an increase in number of hunting trips of locals in jungles with air rifles.
Very recently there are some efforts to seize air rifles by Mobile Squad of forest department but the damage has already been done.
Not only green pigeons others birds are in danger too.
There is an urgent need to ban Air Rifles in Andaman, especially there should be ban on import of Air Rifles by shopkeepers. In Port Blair there are several shops selling Air Rifles and bullets which must be stopped immediately to save our Birds.
A Police official, who does not want their names to be quoted said that Air Guns are not considered dangerous and hence it was not even ever thought to ban air guns but now as these guns are used to kill birds in very large scale, sometimes even endemic birds are killed, the Administration must think of imposing total ban on import of Air Guns in Andaman.
