Statesman News Service
SILIGURI, Aug12: The six-kilometre stretch between Lava and Algara in Kalimpong sub-division in the Darjeeling Hills is one of the world’s prominent bird watching zones.
Thanks to the availability of different species of birds throughout the year, birdwatchers from across the country and abroad make a beeline for Lava and Algara. However, the hunting of birds with the help of catapult has taken its toll on the population of birds in the locality. A large number of birds fall prey to the “leisure time” activities of the Hill people.
“The people of the Hills, especially students and youths, kill the birds using catapult. For them, this is nothing more than a fun, as they neither eat birds nor use the carcass for any other purpose,” said one of the members of a Siliguri-based NGO. Though bird hunting is nothing new in the Hills, it has increased manifolds in the recent times. The environmentalists fear that the “Mecca” of birdwatchers might run short of birds if the situation remains like this.
To save the rare birds, social activists have launched a drive to discourage use of catapult in the Hills. A Siliguri-based NGO is planning an innovative way to convince them of giving up the traditional’ practice of hunting fowls with the help catapult.
“We are organising meetings involving students and teachers in the area and telling them that they should give up bird hunting. At the same time, we are gifting T-shirts, caps and toothbrushes to the students in a bid to persuade them to surrender their catapults,” one of the members of the NGO, said.
He claimed that the Hills would be made a catapult-free zone within two years.