Birds, birds....please stay.....don't leave us for doom.....


Birds are leaving us....may be forever! 

Let's say...we are killing them too and more than 50 species of birds are on fast diminishing spree in our country only. Some of them are on the verge of extinction. The sharp decline in the numbers of migratory birds is not only alarming but is very depressing for several reasons than one. First and foremost this disturbs the ecosystem brutally, beyond repair. Secondly, winter is not complete without the arrivals of migratory birds.

Uncontrolled urbanization, advancement in technology, raging pollution, unabated cutting down of trees, roaring population explosion, callousness of mass, collision with electricity, poaching for fun-hunting or for procuring meat, trapping for bird-trade are some of the glaring problems that are driving away birds to near ruination.

Fine, we don't have to think about birds but are we not worried about our own existence? In Bengali , it is said that even a mad person is aware of what is good for him! Then what's wrong with yet-to-be-mad people like us? We are still blind to gravest truths that may spell havoc on our ecological balance! Declining number of Vultures, large-billed leaf warbler, raptors is worrying. Some of them are very native to the Indian Sub-continent! We are not understanding that we need to be very protective about birds! They uplift our spirits. Winged-creatures once inspired men to build aeroplane and have been the source of our joy unlimited. From time immemorial, they have inspired poetry! Now, we have forgotten to raise hue and cry even after learning that an essentially quintessential bio-diversity spot Western Ghats , recently witnessed 78% loss of winged-population. 

Now, recently came to know about 18,000 carcasses of migratory birds had been discovered last year in Sambhar Lake in Rajasthan! O my God, isn't it scary? Where had been the green-revolutionaries? Where had been the chaotic politicians then? Actually, birds won't contribute to their vote-banks, isn't? So their plights don't hold any importance to them! Again, laws are there. But who would implement them with all earnestness? There will be no worth-mentioning punishment, even if someone is found to be involved in crime against birds like bird-trafficking!

Ornithologists have noticed dip in the numbers of avian species like the ferruginous pochard, gadwall, common coot and others for a while. On the other hand, rose-ringed parakeets, house-sparrows, common-tailorbirds, parrots have increased in number. But again there are news red-necked falcon, the Indian cuckoo and the blue-rock thrush have decreased in number. Actually, as long as there is demand for birds as pets or for their body-parts , no conservation will be effective. 

Again, birds are necessity but not meant for mere pleasure. When shall we realize that, after they will all cease to exist?  After all, Man is the most powerful creatures and expected to do justice to lesser ones. If we consider evolutionary pyramid, again Man stands out at the topmost position. He is out on uprooting others because remaining unaware or callous to the distress of other species is very unexpected of man. The creator might have thought otherwise, so is man all so efficient than those of other animals. But man has taken themselves to be deserving all best and giving little or none to their co-existing living-beings . 

We should not forget that being callous to the decreasing number of birds and migratory ones as well, we are killing our own prospects of living healthy life as soon disturbances in ecology will start spelling havoc. Again, Avian population is too innocent to understand their own danger. Man is putting them on peril, still they never forget to sing for them in Spring or in Autumn !

Since when we have become so heartless and so unromantic as to have lost sensibilities? Who will remind us of Spring when Cuckoos are fast disappearing? Again, who will keep our planets clean, if vultures keep facing steady disappearance? 

O God, Save Birds, Save Man.....

Swati Goswami Bose