Police recover 716 birds of 17 species from Kanpur mkt

Kanpur: A day after police arrested two poachers and detained two minors for hunting Siberian birds in the riverbed of the Ganga in Maharajpur area of Kanpur district, a joint team of forest department and police raided the Bakarganj poultry market and arrested 11 people involved in the sale and purchase of the banned birds. A total of 716 birds of 17 species were recovered. Five dead birds were also found during the raid on Monday, said police.Assistant commissioner of police, Babupurwa, Amarnath Yadav said that during the operation in Bakarganj market, the team seized 24 green-winged teals, 50 budgerigars, 13 lesser whistling ducks, 83 yellow-footed green pigeons (hariyal), four bar-headed geese, 13 golden pheasants (surkhab), 59 mallards, 51 chestnut-breasted munia, 21 sandpipers, one Eurasian coot, 180 quails and 120 pheasants. Many of these birds feature in the list of concern of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).The arrested have been booked under Wildlife Protection Act 1972 and IPC section 428 (animal killing or cruelty).The ACP further said that one cannot trade any bird because it comes under animal cruelty. “All eleven arrested persons were produced in the court of chief metropolitan magistrate III and sent to jail on Monday,” he said.“Of these 17 species of birds, the bar-headed geese are the rare quality birds that fly at altitudes of 5,000-6,000 metres above sea level and even up to 7,290 metres,” said Dr Rajiv Chauhan, former conservation officer, Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, and general secretary, Society for Conservation of Nature.Chauhan, who worked for wildlife conservation for the past two decades, said, “This bird has a very fascinating feature. Two months before the winter sets in India, they fly from cold countries and reach the wetlands here covering a distance of more than 5,000 kilometres. These winged guests need a lot of care and its conservation should be a top priority,” he said.He added that black pheasant and golden pheasants (surkhab) are also rare category birds.On Sunday, the accused, identified as Vinod (28) and Rampal (45), were arrested booked under the Wildlife Protection Act and sent to jail, while two minors, who were also taken into custody, were produced before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB). According to the police, the accused had been involved in the business of catching and selling Siberian birds for the last 10-12 years.Their arrests had triggered a crackdown on the sale and purchase of migratory birds in the local markets.