Stuck in fishing nets, stork dies

Greater Noida: A painted stork died of injuries it suffered from a tangle of nets put up by fishermen in a pond in a Greater Noida village on Monday.
Since the painted stork is a near-threatened species, the forest department will conduct a postpartum on the bird. Officials said that legal action would be taken against the fishermen responsible if the bird was found to have died because of the manjha.
Villagers in Mahamvad said a group of fishermen had put up a wall of nets in the middle of the pond to prevent birds from feeding on the fish. They said the bird was severely injured when one of them spotted it in the afternoon. By the time a veterinary doctor could reach the village, it had died.
“It was around 2pm that we found the bird stuck in the fishing nets. Some fishermen of our village had put up these nets to keep birds away. We had asked them repeatedly to remove the nets because a number of birds have fallen prey to these. But they never listen to us,” said Rajeev Vikal, who spotted the bird first.
Spread across 6.6 acres, the pond has several rows of nets in the middle. “So far, 12-14 small birds have been killed because of the manjha here. Fish farming started in the pond about three years ago. But it was only 6 months ago that they put up the nets,” Vikal added.
What makes it difficult for the villagers to reduce the bird fatalities is lack of any veterinary centre nearby. “In most cases, the birds are so critically injured that they do not survive the journey to the rescue centre,” another villager said.
Painted storks are nothing new to the villagers of Mahamvad. Every year during winter, these birds are spotted around the waterbodies not only in the village but also in the Dhanauri wetland nearby. This year, around 100 birds have been spotted in Dhanauri.
“The postpartum report will come by Tuesday,” said Pramod Kumar, the district forest officer.