Berhampur: Two suspected poachers were arrested and the carcasses of seven migrant birds seized from their possession in Odisha’s Khurda district Thursday, wildlife officials said.
The accused, identified as 35-year-old Dushmant Behera and 46-year-old Surendra Behera, were active in Asia’s largest brackish water lake Chilika, Tangi Wildlife Range Officer Choodarani Murmu said.
The duo, accused of poisoning two whistling duck, gadwall, cotton geal each, and one common coot, was arrested in Bhusandpur village, Murmu said.
Poachers are active in Chilika because of the high demand for aquatic birds’ meat in nearby urban areas such as Bhubaneswar, Balugaon and Berhampur, wildlife activists said.
Assistant Conservator of Forest (ACF), Chilika Wildlife Division, Sarat Kumar Mishra said that regular patrolling is being conducted in the lake to prevent poaching incidents.
Twenty temporary anti-poaching camps have been set up in the lake, and those will remain till March-end, he said.
An estimated six lakh winged guests have swooped down on the blue lagoon this winter so far. Most of them have settled in Nalabana, the bird sanctuary inside Chilika.
The avian guests, mostly from central Asia, the Himalayas and Siberia, visit Chilika every winter to escape the biting cold in their native places. Their homeward journey starts before the onset of summer.
PTI
