Wetlands across Kerala are witnessing bird poaching on an unprecedented scale posing threat to many endangered fowls including migratory birds, according to bird lovers and environmentalists.
Conservationists complain that though cases of bird hunting had been reported from many places the Wildlife Department often failed to crackdown on bird shooters.
Birds nested in the marshy fields of central districts like Thrissur, Alappuzha, Kottayam and Ernakulam are facing grave threats from individual as well as organized poachers.
Around 44 trance-continental species including Eurasian Sparrow Hawk, Pied and Western Marsh Harriers, Masked Booby,White etc have been identified in these locations.
According to F B Sreekumar, president of Kottayam Nature Society, four painted storks, an endangered species, were recently hunted down in Aalappuzha district. Such cases had been reported from places like Vechoor, Kallara and Perumthuruthu in central Kerala also.
The number of people possessing fire arms is said to be one of the reasons for increasing cases of bird poaching.
"Many of them use these guns for bird shooting. In Alappuzha district, famous for wetlands 540 people have licensed guns and 178 of them are long-barreled ones. Those who have air-guns also very high," official sources said.
According to forest department sources, bird-poaching is as serious a crime as hunting elephants or leopards under the Wildlife Act, which can lead to seven years imprisonment.
While bird poaching largely went unnoticed the cases of animal hunting are reported more prominently, say environmentalists.