Mission Migratory Birds

Winters in Kolkata were once synonymous with the arrival of the migratory birds, who take the flight to leave their cold climes behind and have been our annual guests for eons. However, due to a number of reasons their numbers have been declining steadily over the years and ornithologists fear that such arrival will ultimately cease if the current trends continue and we fail to reverse the various obstacles that have come up on their flights of fancy.

A Classic case is the Satragachi Jheel in the outskirts of the city which once used to accommodate innumerable birds – Northern Pintail, Lesser Whistling Duck, Garganey among various others – who are today threatened with a loss of habitat due to the waterbody being polluted and runover by weeds.

A group of students of the NSS wing of the Bhawanipur Education Society College (BESC) refused to remain mute spectators even as the mute migratory birds suffered their loss of habitats and decided to take up their cause. They were joined in their crusade by Nature Matters nature Club, an NGO which is led by Arjan Basu Roy and Mudar Patheriya. Prof Dilip Shah, the Dean of Student Affairs of the BESC who brought the alarming matter before the student community, was also the guiding spirit behind the movement not only urging action abut also spelling out the way forward by chalking the route map.

The immediate task before the students is to get about 80 percent of the waterbody de-weeded before the onset of December when the first flock of migratory birds begin arriving. Towards this e workers have been hired from the locality and a detailed work plan has been drawn up. The BESC students will be overseeing the work being carried out, apart from raising monies for the entire operation.

On the first day of the movement, the initiative received a tremendous amount of support from the local population and the media which lauded the effort with wide coverage. The first objective – of raising awareness about the plight of the migratory birds and the need to take up their cause – was met on the first day itself!

“It is projects like these that make all of us proud. Our students have proved again that they not only have their hearts in the right places but also that our hearts beat for the right causes, for those whose plight cannot ordinarily be heard. That they are capable of achieving anything, despite the odds staked against them, need not be elaborated and I will just restrict myself to giving them the Kudos!” said Miraj D Shah, the Vice Chairman of BESC.

The students have started a Crowdfunding project to raise the funds for the project. The first donation into the fund – a sizeable one – was made by Prof Dilip Shah, the Dean himself while students have also chipped in handsomely, with the college and various organisations associated with it having already pledged their support to the noble cause.

(This report has been filed by Nidhi Singh of the Expressions collective of the BESC)