Fish farm nets kill purple heron at Basai wetland

GURUGRAM: A purple heron, a wading bird that nests around wetlands, died in the Basai marshes earlier this week allegedly after getting entangled in nets put up by illegal fish farming units — the incident coming to light about two weeks after a black-necked stork was spotted with its beak stuck in a plastic ring in the area.
The bird, reportedly an adult one with a height of five feet, was found dead on Monday morning, a couple of days after some senior forest officials visited the spot (last Friday) and promised steps to protect the wetland that is home to numerous species of indigenous birds.

Dr. Indranil Halder, a birder from Noida, who had first spotted the bird, said, “It was so shocking to see such a big, magnificent bird entangled in fishers’ nets. Illegal fishing has become a major threat to birds in Basai. Though I spotted only one bird, I am sure many birds fall prey to these nets but they are removed immediately to hush up the incidents.”

A TOI team visited the Basai wetland on Friday and found illegal fish farming going on unabated in over 50% of the area submerged in water. Fishing units’ nets were found in the entire area even as farmers were seen removing reeds and nests apparently made by weaver birds. “We are removing the reeds to make more space for fish farming. And we had to remove the nests (of weaver birds) to put up nets in the area,” said a fish farmer requesting anonymity.

Birders alleged that these nets had become a death trap for birds, like particularly egrets, grey-headed swamphens, storks, cormorants and herons, which are commonly seen in the wetland. “Not only fish farmers are destroying the reeds used by birds for nesting, they put up sharp nets in the wetland, leading to death of birds,” said Pankaj Gupta from Delhi Bird Foundation.

To make the things worse, the birders claimed to have spotted farming of African catfish, which is banned in Basai as it can destroy the natural ecology of the area by eating small fish that are prey for the birds. But farmers rear African catfish for economic reasons as it grows faster than other species and has a good demand.

“African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) is an alien species in India and is posing serious threats to not only the native species of fresh water fish but also to other aquatic fauna of the ecosystem. ,” said Surya Prakash, a doctorate in Zoology and a member of Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), Indian Bird Conservation Network (IBCN) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Gupta had sent a picture of a big African catfish from Basai to Prakash.

When asked, district fisheries officer Dharmendra Singh said, “We visited the area as soon as we got the information from TOI. We found out that the land belongs to some private parties. I have already directed my staff to cut all the fishing nets as these are illegal. We will take a strict action against the offenders.”