Stork with plastic around beak spotted again at Basai
NEWDELHI: The black-necked stork with a plastic bottle cap stuck in it beak, which birders of National Capital Region were searching over the past 72 hours in the wetlands of Basai and Najafgarh area, was finally spotted at Basai on Sunday late afternoon. It, however, couldn’t be captured till late Saturday night.
Teams of birders have been looking for the bird since Friday as it needs to be captured soon and the bottle necked removed else it would die of hunger and dehydration as it can’t open its beak.
“The bird is alive and was spotted at Basai wetlands late on Sunday afternoon. The plastic cap is still stuck in its beak. It was like looking for a needle in the haystack. We had to scan the entire wetlands with binoculars. There were flocks of other birds. Locating the stork was not easy,” said Pankaj Gupta, a birder from the Delhi Bird Foundation, who was coordinating the search operation.
Soon after the discovery on Sunday t he search teams informed the forest department of Haryana and experts of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS). Two experienced bird catchers from the BNHS arrived at the spot to trap it.
“It was decided that the bird would be trapped late in the night. The bird catchers would try to sneak up to the stork at night,” said Gupta.
“We decided not to disturb it before darkness sets in as it could again fly away and we would lose the chance of capturing it. So we decided to wait until dark to launch the rescue operation,” he added.
But the rescue team would have to face certain odds as Saturday’s rain has filled up the wetlands and fields where the bird was spotted. Getting near the bird after dark on foot negotiating the flooded fields would be a tough job.
The black-necked stork is a near-threatened bird as per the International Union for Conser- vation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species.
The bird was first photographed by Manoj Nair, a birder, on Thursday evening. The search operation was started on Friday morning when it was last seen at Basai. It, however, flew away and birders had been searching for it since then.
‘CLEAR PLASTIC WASTE FROM BASAI IN 24 HOURS’
Gurugram Officials of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) conducted a spot check of the site where plastic bottles have been accumulating near the Basai water body on Sunday morning and ordered those responsible for dumping the day 24 hours to clear the area.
Environmentalists are alleging that the plastic is harming birds.
On Thursday, a black-necked stork was spotted with a plastic bottle cap around its beak. Since then, the birders have been trying to catch the bird and free it but have been unable to do so.
The black-necked stork, which has been giving birders of the National Capital Region sleepless nights, was spotted in Najafgarh around 5.30pm on Sunday. Trained bird catchers have been called in from Pinjore to attempt a rescue on Sunday night at 10.30pm.