Forest officials mount vigil 24/7

NAGAPATTINAM: The Nagapattinam district Forest department has warned animal poachers and hunters that anyone indulging in illegal hunting of birds or animals will be severely punished under the Indian Wild Life Protection Act 1972.

 

Highly placed departmental sources told DC that during the rainy season that has just commenced, thousands of birds under the ‘coots category’ like egrets, stork, heron, darters, and other migratory birds like flamingo, painted-stork, sandpipers seagulls etc will coming calling to the wet lands at Point calimere near here and to other water bodies like irrigation tanks during September-March every year. 

 

Stating that some illegal poachers were hunting such birds for meat and commercial purposes by placing nets, traps and using other means, the sources said during last year, the department had booked 33 cases of wild life offences across the district.

 

To curtail such illegal bird hunting, the department has been organising awareness camps across the district including interior villages, besides pasting posters and distributing pamphlets to the people who congregate in large numbers like, bus-stand, railway stations, ration shops, auto rickshaw stands etc and making announcements using tom-tom, the sources said.

 

Special vigilance committees have been formed and the vigil by such panels will be on a round-the-clock basis, sources said. 

 

If anybody notices illegal hunting of birds, they could pass on the message to the cell phone numbers, 94436 4119 and 89409 98988, the sources added.