Help save the birds

I remember the first letter I wrote to the GDN some years ago when I was just out of school.

I had picked up my brother from school and on our way home, we found a pigeon run over by a car at the signal near the Sacred Heart Church.

The sight of the dead bird near an area that is home to scores of them upset me so much, I marched home horrified and in rage.

The next couple of hours found me busy poring over the telephone directory to look up animal rights organisations and writing a very angry letter to the paper.

I never sent it in, as I thought the editor would have a good laugh reading my call for bird rights and special feeding grounds and because my parents were alarmed that I had turned so militant.

Much of my earlier enthusiasm for the birds - I used to steadfastly collect fallen pigeon feathers and attach them to cards and letters - disappeared when I moved to Mumbai.

For the first few months, my roommates and I battled crows that attacked our food, buried eggs laid by pigeons in our buckets and kept vigil guarding our room from all winged creatures.

Things took a turn for the worse when I returned to city last month and was woken up at 3am everyday by an eerie bloodcurdling noise.

The 'beast' it transpired was a flock of beautiful green parrots, making a racket while they relished mangoes that ripened outside my window.

It soon grew to a point that I was teetering on the verge of hating birds forever, when a news story about a lesser crested tern, which died on a Mumbai beach earlier this year, grabbed my attention.

The bird which carried the tag of the British Trust for Ornithology was reportedly ringed on the Fasht Al Jarrim Islands, north of mainland Bahrain.

The ring was later sent to the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and my curiosity led me to do some research on the society and this reawakened my interest in birds.

The society, among its numerous conservation efforts to protect the wildlife of India, runs 'Adopt a Rare Bird', a joint initiative of BirdLife International and the UK-based Royal Society for Protection of Birds.

From the catalogue of 12 rare birds, which include two critically endangered species, you may adopt a bird for just Rs300 (BD2.3).

Proceeds of the adoption go towards protection of the birds and you receive a framed photograph of the bird you've adopted, which makes a very nice gift.

Last week, I adopted a forest owlet (Athene blewitti), of which only 250 are estimated to be remaining in India.

BNHS central marketing head Divyesh Parikh told me that there is a growing interest among people to protect birdlife, as more than 5,000 adoptions took place last year, raising Rs150,000 (BD1,198.6).

'Adopt a Rare Bird' programme details can be found on the BNHS website www.bnhs.org and the World Wildlife Fund also runs similar initiatives.

I realised only recently that my earlier annoyance with birds was baseless as we have effectively usurped their habitats, leaving them no home and more vulnerable to extinction.

It is only right that we start giving something back.

¥ Ms Gnana is a former Bahrain resident now studying in Mumbai

Copyright 2010 Al Hilal Publishing and Marketing Group

'Help save the birds', Gulf Daily News, July 9, 2010, Jennifer Gnana