Rajkot: An offence under the Wildlife Protection Act was registered against a road contractor for disturbing the natural habitat and nesting site of migratory birds slender-billed gulls in the Greater Rann of Kutch near Khavda village of Kutch district on Saturday. Forest department did not reveal the name of the contractor.
The contractor had shifted a few hundred eggs of slender-billed gulls, a schedule IV species under the Wildlife Protection Act, about 800 m away from the road construction site to continue work on the 40km stretch of the 255-km Gaduli-Santalpur road. The permission for this road that passes through the Kutch Desert Wildlife Sanctuary and the Wild Ass sanctuary was granted by the National Wildlife Board in 2014.
Forest officials said that this gull specie does not usually nest in Kutch, but this year nearly 500 eggs have been laid about 2 km ahead of Khadvand area in Khavda village. Interestingly, the nests were built on the layer of soil laid by the contractor about a year ago for road construction. The road site is currently surrounded by rainwater accumulated in the desert during the monsoon.
Assistant conservator of forest Kutch (East) H J Thakkar told TOI: “Primary investigation revealed that the slender-billed gulls have laid nearly 500 eggs out of which the contractor had shifted some of the eggs about 800m away to begin construction work. This constitutes an offence under the Wildlife Protection Act of disturbing natural habitat of protected species.”
“As per the contract condition, the contractor has to ensure that there is no harm to the flora and fauna or the environment during the construction work. We are recording the statements of concerned persons and witnesses and thereafter we will register an offence,” Thakkar added.
He further said that they had received a complaint that 5,000 eggs of the birds were damaged in the same area. “The contractor is required to inform the forest department before starting construction in the forest area even though he has permission. However, there was no evidence to suggest such large-scale damage. Our team found three damaged eggs and about a dozen carcasses of gull chicks which have been sent for postmortem,” the ACF said. It’s believed that wild dogs may have damaged some of the eggs.