Detective Branch police in Bogura have rescued 103 caged wild parakeets from a passenger bus. The birds were released into the sky in front of the district police superintendent's office on the afternoon of Thursday, 10 September, in the presence of forest department officials.

Acting on a tip-off that a large number of parakeets were being carried for trafficking, police raided the bus at around 11pm on Wednesday, 9 September, in the Thanthania area of the town. Led by Rabiul Islam, senior assistant superintendent of police for Shibganj circle, the DB searched the Naogaon-to-Dhaka bus 'Al Baraka Travels' and found 103 parakeets packed into ten plastic cages inside the side box. The person carrying the birds fled before police arrived.

Dulal Kumar Saha, Sadar range officer of the Bogura wildlife management and nature conservation division, said the rescued birds were male and female of the 'meth tia' and 'red-headed parakeet' species. These are wild birds of the hill areas of Bangladesh and India that come down in search of food, especially to maize and chilli fields, where an unscrupulous ring traps them for illegal sale and trafficking.

Bogura police superintendent Mirza Sayem Mahmud said catching or trading wild parakeets is entirely prohibited under the Wildlife Conservation Act; the bus driver and supervisor have been questioned and a phone number used by the trafficker has been recovered. A regular case will be filed against the syndicate once the forest department lodges a written complaint, he confirmed.

Flocks of parakeets landing on the north's maize and chilli fields cost farmers grain, but trapping the birds is illegal; closing the route from the field to a cage to a Dhaka market means showing growers lawful ways to protect their crops.

Source: banglanews24