Twenty painted stork chicks nesting in a tree at Veerapuram village of Sri Sathya Sai District died after getting hit by heavy rain and gale on Monday night.
With much difficulty, local wildlife watchman Venugopal Reddy and the villagers have managed to rescue 15 others.
Painted storks are migratory birds and visit Veerapuram and Venkatapuram villages in Chilamathur mandal in the district, on the Karnataka border, to nest on the tamarind and peepal trees there annually.
However, heavy rain and gale struck Veerapuram village at 9 p.m. on Monday, which was followed by a power cut. The rain lasted an hour, and the power was restored only at 10.30 p.m. It was when the villagers found many birds fallen on the ground, under a peepal tree, at the centre of the village.
Sri Sathya Sai District Forest Officer G. P. Anand told The Hindu that the villagers had rescued 15 chicks, of which 10 had managed to fly back to their nests. He said five other birds were sent to a makeshift rescue centre.
An adult stork treated for borken leg
“As soon as the Forest Department came to know about the incident, our doctors and rescuers rushed to the village and rescued the birds. An adult stork was found to have broken its leg and was taken to Hindupur for treatment. It was brought back to Veerapuram on Tuesday,” he added.
Forest Department provided medicines, a deep freezer, a refrigerator and other essentials to the watch and ward deployed on a contract basis at the village. Some tall trees were reportedly cut down in the village four years ago, which reduced the habitat area for the birds.
“The Forest Department will plant some fast-growing trees around the pond in open spaces or banjar (vacant) lands that belong to the government to provide more foliage for the painted storks for nesting.
Similar incident in 2002
A similar incident took place on May 10, 2002, when heavy winds and rain swept through Veerapuram and neighbouring villages. A frantic call from the villagers of Veerapuram to the Save Our Wildlife (SOWL) shelter in Bangalore resulted in the birds getting shifted to shelters in Veerapuram, Puttaparthi and Bengaluru.
As many as 25 birds had died back then. Out of 31 birds shifted to shelters, 13 died, and the remaining were released back at the nesting site. All the birds migrated back to their home place by the third week of August that year.
At Kokrebellur village in the Mandya district of Karnataka, the painted stork nests on Tamarind trees in two villages are considered their largest breeding ground in South India.
