About 6,000 native and migratory birds have died at the Arunima Eco Park in Narail after two days of continuous storms and rain. A small number died on Monday, but most of the birds in the park's trees were killed in Tuesday night's storm and hail.

The 'Krishi Porjoton Kendro Arunima Eco Park', an agri-tourism centre, is in Panipara village under Naragati police station in Kalia upazila, beside the Madhumati river. Thousands of birds roost in the park's trees, but a single night's storm left the park almost empty of birds.

Irfan Ahmed, owner of the agri-tourism centre, said that as in the rest of the country, gusty winds and heavy rain began in Narail on 25 February. Heavy rain with hail fell on the nights of the 25th and 26th, and thousands of migratory birds staying in the park were killed. Native and migratory birds together, the number of dead birds is about 6,000. Workers at the park are gathering the dead birds, which will later be buried in the ground.

Khabir Uddin Ahmed, chairman of the Arunima Eco Park in Kalia upazila, said that since 2004 the park has rung with the calls of many species of birds for eight months every year, including the winter season. This year, too, the park had been alive with native and migratory birds since the start of the season. The area was known to everyone as the 'village of birds' a decade before it was declared a bird conservation area.

He said birds from different areas settle on the branches of the trees every afternoon, and more arrive as the night deepens. The whole area is filled with birdsong all night. But two days of stormy weather and hail killed about 6,000 birds, with most dying in last night's rain. "This loss is irreparable," he said.

The chairman added that homes for several thousand native and foreign birds of many species have grown up across about 60 acres. Egrets, ducks, cormorants, mynas, parakeets, magpie robins, hill mynas, kingfishers, doves, shamas, cuckoos, tailorbirds, sparrows and many other native and foreign species rule the place, and thousands of birds breed here every day, with chicks hatching from eggs. The country's only agri-tourism centre of its kind has become a bird sanctuary. But one night's rain left the park almost empty of birds, and it will take a long time to make up for the loss, he said.

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