Two chicks of the hornbill, a bird at risk of extinction, have been rescued in East Chandana, Gazipur. A young man named Altaf Hossain Rifat, 23, was detained.
He was detained with the birds during a drive on the afternoon of Saturday, 13 May. Rifat is the son of A Rashid of the East Chandana area of Gazipur city.
How the birds were found
Gazipur Metropolitan Police Deputy Commissioner (Crime) Rezwan Ahmed told Jagonews that, on a tip-off that there were hornbills in the house of Harun-or-Rashid in East Chandana, members of the Sadar police station and the wildlife department raided the house on Friday. They recovered two hornbill chicks kept specially inside a carton on a third-floor balcony, and Altaf Hossain was then detained for keeping the birds. Wildlife Crime Control Unit Inspector Nargis Sultana was present at the time.
Md Sanaullah Patwary, director of the Wildlife Crime Control Unit, told Jagonews that the two birds could be one and a half to two months old. In Bangladesh, hornbills nest in tree hollows in the hill forests. Before the chicks mature, the mother feeds and cares for them in the nest, while the male brings food from outside.
Release once they can fly
Inspector Nargis Sultana said that during questioning Rifat said he had bought the two birds through an online page. The birds have been handed over to a representative of the wildlife department and legal action is under way. The rescued birds will be kept in quarantine. They have not yet learned to feed themselves and are used to living in hilly areas. Once they learn to feed and fly on their own, they will be released in a hilly area.
Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.
Comments
(0)