Bhubaneswar, March 11: The spurt in bird-hit cases at Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) has prompted the state forest department to start pruning and axing dense trees near the airport.
As many as 128 trees inside the airport area will be felled completely, while 457 would be pruned to facilitate safe air travel, according to Airports Authority of India (AAI) and forest department sources. AAI registered nine bird hit cases last year.
The pruning and felling of dense trees will be taken up in the operational and peripheral areas such as Gangamunda, Pokhariput, Kargil Road and Delta Square.
Around 19 scheduled flights take off and land at the Bhubaneswar airport every day while 20 non-scheduled chartered aircraft also operate from the airport.
Chief secretary Gokul Chandra Pati, who is also the airport environment management committee (AEMC) chairman, had February 10 asked AAI and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) to ensure pruning of trees and urged them to carry out cleanliness drives to lift meat waste from open meat shops.
Airport director Sharad Kumar said birds near the flight path pose a grave threat to aircraft. “Our reports have shown that between 2009 and 2010 many bird-hit cases were reported during take off, indicating the incidents took place inside the airport’s operational area. After 2010, there were bird-hit cases while landing, which shows the lack of sanitation around the airport,” Kumar said, adding that a team of experts submitted a report ‘Competition in Air’ to him in February.
“Permission has been given to fell trees inside the airport and partially axe a few of them near the boundary wall in the funnel zone,” said a senior forest official.
Sources said the action has been initiated on the heels of the Chief Secretary’s recent diktat to take measures to curtail bird-hit cases. A team of wildlife experts found 49 different bird species in the airport zone and nine specific species near the runway.
Recently, AAI hired some modern equipment like zone gun, laser gun, six shot launcher and reflective tapes to reduce presence of different species of birds such as kites, lapwing birds, Maina and Egrets. The zone gun is an electronic sound making device used to scare away birds.