Recently, a few captive birds in the Delhi Zoo died after being attacked by an avian flu. The incident triggered panic as the safety of the bird population in the captivity and in the wild is a big question which has the potential of affecting human beings and taking tolls.
The avian flu is an influenza which is highly contagious and a viral disease, characterized by fever, muscular aches and inflammation of the respiratory passages. The intestinal infection also occurs in this case. This disease is not new to tropical country like India and the Indian sub-continent. This disease generally occurs during unset of winter and continues up to the spring. This is a very dangerous epidemic where a large number of birds of the aviaries and in natural condition die within two to three days of sufferings. So far no medicine is invented to get rid of the disease by the Veterinary Science. The livestock owners sustain heavy loss since the boiler farms are established on commercial basis in our country and aboard.
But the disease also causes enormous damage of birds in the ecological systems. The ornithologists of our sub-continent also do not raise voice against such loss in nature. The birds in natural conditions are more resistant to epidemics.
At the onset of winter, different groups of birds from the different parts of the Asian continent and beyond come to our lands especially to Chilika lagoon, Bhitarkanika, Bharatpur wet lands, Hirakud water to pass the severe winter of their own nativities. Once these pockets are, somehow, caught by the any epidemic, hundreds of birds die.
In most cases, man is the carrier of these diseases. The man pollutes the water, air and food chain of nature. Similarly, once a link of the ecological food chain is contaminated by any means and for any reason, the whole process of the ecological system suffers. As per calculation of ornithologist late Salim Ali, there are 8,600 bird species in the globe. If the subspecies or the geographic races are taken into account, the number can go up to 30,000. This is the figure long back but at present scenario the position must be different. As the oppression over nature by the man is going fast, many species of animal birds and plants are vanishing from the earth. The evolutionary mechanism of nature is not going to work because of man’s interferences.
Basing on the nativities of birds, the birds can be grouped differently. The birds, which exclusively stay on ground and form their nests on the floor of the earth, are known as ground birds. These always prefer to stay in the forest floors as well as in the surroundings of human habitations. The example is the Jungle fowl, Black partridge, Grey partridge, Rain Quail, Bush Quail and Peafowl etc. First, these birds are infected after coming in contact with domesticated infected birds of the village communities and spread the epidemic being the carrier of the diseases. When the bird flu starts, unscrupulous traders and farm owners of poultries dispose of the broilers and chickens, which become the main cause of contamination and fast circulation of the diseases. So, the administration as well as the conscious public of the region should take the responsibility to stop the trend. The cooking of meat of infected birds in the hotels, motels and other cooking houses should be banned.
The careless disposal of offal of infected birds not only contaminates the whole situations, but also aggravates the region for quite longer period, where the poor and economically backward people suffer the most. The use of infected birds by the poor urban and rural dwellers cause more aggravations of the situation as these virus can cause inflammation in the intestines of the man and other scavengers of animal kingdom. Awareness and education of the people in the matter can solve the problem.
Secondly, birds which form nests on the trees and spend nights mostly on trees come to the floor of the ground for collection of foods include House crow, King-crow, Black drongo, Black winged kite, Brahminy kite, Common Pariah kite, Coomon Koel, Black and King vultures and Blue rock pigeon etc. These birds always stay mostly around the human habitations and expect protection from man and collect their food from the surroundings. So, they easily get infected by epidemics, like bird flu. Public awareness is the only remedial measure to work against such ecological loss.
The third category of birds is residential as well as migratory species, which are seasonal and live within water bodies, swamp lands, lakes, lagoons and other kinds of wetlands. They prepare nests and breed within the wetland ecosystems. The example is Saras crane, Common crane, Indian Bustards, etc. Among the migratory birds are Flamingos, Spotted Billed or Grey pelican, Open billed stork, Pointed stork, Spoonbill etc. When man pollutes the land, water and air, these birds have to bear the brunt.
There are birds, which prey only on the fish from ocean and rivers including river mouths and stay on the coastal trees and nest for future progeny. When the water bodies are contaminated and infected, these birds fail to survive. Darter, little Cormorant, Grey Heron, Small Egret, Pond Heron etc are of this category. The offal of the diseased birds and their dead bodies, when disposed of in the river systems and water bodies, the whole chain of the region gets affected.
If the food chain of the aquatic eco-system is affected, this affects human health systems in turn. If no preventive measures are taken adequately to prevent bird flu within the bird sanctuaries, the bird resources of the State and the country will be finished in one season. The Government is giving more attention to poultry farms than the sanctuaries and aviaries of nature. The people’s participation in keeping the sanctuaries safe is important. Every day birds are hunted by poachers in Chilika, Dangamal and Bhitarkanika aviaries, besides in other wetlands. The poaching should be stopped and strong actions against the poachers need to be taken.
(The writer is a former senior forest officer and an environmentalist. Tel no 9937460649)