The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Invaders of the feathery kind

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Wednesday, Dec 23, 2009
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Invaders of the feathery kind

Krishnaprasad

Ornithology Cell of
the IAF finds an environment-friendly way to keep the birds away

— File Photo

Tackling a menace: The Greater Short-toed Lark is usually found near runways, posing a grave risk to aircraft.

Bangalore: Did you know that the Indian Air Force station, Bidar, was under ‘siege’ early this year and was ‘taken over’ by a large number of intruders? Flocks of Greater Short-toed Larks that migrated from the northwest region of India had even threatened flight training operations at the air force station.

The Greater Short-toed Lark, a small bird that usually flies in large and compact flocks, posed a grave threat of bird strikes during flight training operations at the base. Besieged by the small larks, IAF officials called in ornithologists to tackle the situation.

But for the presence of an Ornithology Cell in the IAF, established nearly two years ago, it could have taken a long time to tackle this flighty situation. The ornithologists from the cell, within a couple of months, found out the reason for the birds sudden appearance at Bidar.

It was found that sparse rain in northwest Gujarat turned the larks towards Bidar, which received normal rain during that period, said Sqn. Ldr. S. Srinidhi, Deputy Director of Ornithology Cell, Directorate of Flight Safety, Air Head Quarters New Delhi.

“The cell studied the behaviour of these birds that are attracted to short grass areas around runways. Moreover, the birds follow each other and gather in groups,” Sqn. Ldr. Srinidhi said during his talk on “Bird hazard management in the IAF” in Bangalore recently.

To prevent landing of these birds in large numbers around the runway, the cell has advised the IAF to allow the grass to grow to a higher length at a particular distance from the short grass around the runway and to grow trees beyond the taller grass for preventing the birds from grouping near the runway, he added.

Parakeets

Similarly, the cell found that parakeets were flying across the runway in Jaipur IAF station every day at a particular period. A study showed about a lakh parakeet in Hajira locality of Jaipur were attracted by fruit-bearing palms situated in the villages on either side of the runway. Finally, the cell adopted “canopy engineering” by pruning the fruit-bearing trees without affecting the environment and the selective removal of certain shrubs.

With this, the parakeets have changed their route.

These two case studies by the cell have come in handy for the IAF in managing the bird menace. He said that tracking bird flocks beyond visual range, night-bird studies, identification and study of risk species, are a few projects of the cell that would help manage bird strikes. This commitment reflects in the cell’s logo — “Let the engines roar. Let the birds soar”.

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