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Birds!!!
October 6: If feeding pigeons is your hobby, then the place to go is London’s Trafalgar Square. With about 40,000 pigeon tummies to fill, you can be sure that demand will never outstrip supply. Trafalgar Square’s pigeons are a major tourist attraction. Thousands of pigeons can be found in the square at any given time, which has a fountain and the monument of famous English general Lord Nelson at the centre. Some tourists and residents visit the square only to feed the birds....
The Nest
Common Birds Written by Salim Ali and Laeeq Futehally Published by National Book Trust, New Delhi Think of birds and you think of Dr. Salim Ali, India’s most famous ornithologist. He is the scientist who succeeded in communicating his passion for studying bird life in India to the ordinary Indian. Generations of Indians have grown up on his wonderfully warm and crisp writings on birds and have squealed in delight on being able to distinguish a red turtle dove from a spotted dove....
The Lake and the Birds
Where: Himachal Pradesh, India March 8, 2001: The picturesque Pong Dam lake region in the mountainous state of Himachal Pradesh, is losing its lustre. A great deal of its charm has lain in the fact that it is north India’s largest refuge for migrating birds escaping harsh winters abroad. But not for long, if recent trends are any indication. A low water level in the lake this year has forced the migratory birds to fly away one month in advance, says a report in The Indian Express....
Killing them Surely
Where: Surat, Gujarat, India November 4, 2000: When a member of the Parsi community dies, according to their religion, the body is not buried or consigned to flames. It is placed in the “Tower of Silence” for the scavenger birds or vultures to feed on them so that even in death the body is of use. In Surat, Gujarat, till a few years ago, the body would be eaten up in no time in the Tower of Silence or the Dhokma as it is locally called....
Army Comes to the Aid of Birds
October 14: Harike sanctuary, a large wetland in India’s Punjab district, has just undergone a massive clean-up operation. The sprucing-up of a large part of the sanctuary has been done to welcome a special group of tourists who had stopped coming to the sanctuary because it had stopped being hospitable. These tourists used to come all the way from Siberia, China, Central Asia and Ladakh to escape the harsh winter months. They were migratory birds like the cotton teal and common pochard, says a report in ‘The Indian Express’....
This Bird Paradise Stinks!
March 19: Are you a bird lover? If you live in Delhi, then the river Yamuna is the place to go to. Yes, that same river that was once Delhi’s pride but has got reduced to a polluted dump with mounds of plastic islands floating on its surface and toxic effluents flowing in from fields. And yet, birds flock to the Yamuna. Perhaps because there is no other river or wetland region in Delhi, which is predominantly a dry city, says a report in The Hindu....
Operation Rescue of Penguins
July 8: Last week, the South African government was engaged in a very important task – transporting 19,000 penguins from their home in Dassen Island near Cape Town, to safe waters. It was an emergency. Operation Rescue of Penguins [Illustration by Kusum Chamoli] The short legged, big bodied birds with pointed beaks did not have the “cute” look that we always see in them. Most of them were covered in slimy oil....
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