As every year, flocks of migratory birds have started arriving with the start of winter, filling Chalan Beel in Sirajganj and the surrounding areas with birdsong. Taking advantage, amateur and professional bird hunters have begun killing the birds with guns, poison bait, nets and various kinds of traps.

Local people allege that although voluntary organisations are working to stop the killing, bird hunting cannot be stopped because of a lack of monitoring by the authorities concerned.

Mokaddes Islam, a farmer from Baruhans in Tarash upazila, said that when crop fields are watered, birds such as white egrets, mynas, sparrows, waterhens and chega become busy eating the insects that come up from the soil. At that time some bird hunters inject poisonous pesticide into insects and release them. The birds die after eating these insects, and they are then picked up and slaughtered with blades and knives kept at hand.

In various areas, large nets are also being set up on tall bamboo poles facing the sky. When the birds are chased, they get caught in the nets as they try to fly away. The hunters then catch the birds and stuff them into sacks, and later sell or slaughter them.

Zulhas Kayem, a member of the Chalan Beel Environment Development and Nature Conservation Forum, told Jagonews: "We are constantly working to prevent bird killing, but this hunting cannot be stopped because the local administration has taken no strong initiative."

A voluntary organisation called the 'Chalan Beel Biodiversity Protection Committee' works regularly to stop bird hunting in Ullapara and Tarash in Sirajganj and Singra and Gurudaspur in Natore, the areas around Chalan Beel.

Its general secretary Saiful Islam said: "We have been working to stop bird hunting in the Chalan Beel area since 2020. We mainly warn hunters and release birds, but the hunters are not very afraid of that. If the administration paid a little attention to this, nobody would be able to hunt birds freely any more."

Swadhin Jibon is another voluntary organisation working to protect biodiversity in the Chalan Beel area. Its executive director Abdur Razzak Nasim told Jagonews that they have rescued and released nearly 2,000 hunted birds over several years.

Mamun Biswas, chairman of another voluntary organisation in the area, The Birds Safety House, told Jagonews that some voluntary organisations are working to protect birds in Chalan Beel and release hunted birds, but a lack of public awareness at the grassroots and a lack of coordination between government and non-government bodies make it impossible to stop bird hunting in the beel permanently.

Professor Dr Nazrul Islam of the zoology department at Rajshahi University told Jagonews that killing birds is a punishable offence under the wildlife law. Native birds come to Chalan Beel in autumn, after the winter or monsoon season, for food and safety. These birds maintain the balance of the environment, add to its beauty and protect it by eating harmful insects, he said.

Tarash upazila nirbahi officer Mostafizur Rahman told Jagonews that bird hunting is a crime, and if they receive news of anyone hunting birds they will certainly go to the spot and take legal action.

Ahmed Niamur Rahman, divisional forest officer of the Rajshahi wildlife management and nature conservation division, told Jagonews that the Forest Department has a shortage of staff, so it cannot work properly. However, when it receives information about bird hunting it conducts drives to try to stop it, he said.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.