Surat: The Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) will carry out ‘bird hazard mitigation’ study to identify critical birds at the Surat airport and provide measures to thwart future incidents of bird hits.
A meeting in this regard was held with the senior officials of the Aiport Authority of India (AAI) and other stakeholders where the SACON officials on Wednesday.
SACON is an autonomous organisation established as a public-NGO partnership between Ministry of Environment and Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).
According to the AAI, about 14 bird hit incidents were reported in 2019-20 compared to seven bird-hits in 2018-19. About 275 bird-hit incidents were reported at 60 airports in the country during 2019-20 compared to 234 reported during 2018-19.
Surat airport director Aman Saini said, “SACON will be carrying out bird hazard mitigation study at Surat. Today, the opening meeting was held and a sensitization session was conducted by Dr P Pramod of SACON, where they described how the study will be carried out.”
Saini added, “Surat airport is surrounded by the shrimp farms and that it is a vulnerable spot for bird hit incidents. The bird hazard mitigation study will go a long way in providing measures to mitigate the bird issue.”
Interestingly, there was a case where carcasses of two jackals were recovered from the runway in 2018-19. The jackals may have died after being hit by an aircraft during the take-off or landing at the runway.
In the one year, about three jackals have already been caged from the operational area of the airport.