The Hindu Business Line : `India must have a bird-monitoring project in place'

As countries cull birds and disturbing reports from across the world speak of people testing positive and even dying of the bird-flu virus, there is a real cause for worry.

Mumbai , Jan. 17

"THEY are victims of the disease, as also a carrier," says Dr Asad Rahmani, of migratory birds that have unwittingly become villains in the global bird-flu story.

Dr Rahmani heads the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), the nature conservation and research organisation recently sounded out by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to monitor the wild bird population and co-ordinate bird-flu surveillance in India.

As countries cull birds and disturbing reports from across the world speak of people testing positive and even dying of the bird-flu virus, he admits, there is a real cause for worry.

In fact, on the eve of a donor conference at Beijing on the subject, the World Bank has said, up to $1.5 billion is needed over the next three years to fight bird-flu and prepare for a pandemic, an agency report said.

"India should have a long-term integrated ringing and bird-monitoring project," Dr Rahmani underlines, given that veterinary doctors, health officials and animal husbandry representatives need to work in tandem to get a comprehensive database. A database that would be useful at critical times like this, he points out.

The present surveillance that BNHS has embarked upon is a two-year project across wetlands in Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, he said.

The funds would come from MoEF, he said, unwilling to divulge details. The monitoring process involves, among other things, bird-ringing — where an aluminium ring with an identification number is put on birds. The migratory route the bird traces can be studied, if the same bird is located at a later date in another region, he says, illustrating how ringing works. Every country has one nodal agency for ringing and BNHS does the job in India.

But, he points out, the surveillance project is being jointly undertaken with agencies or individuals in the local regions. Surveillance includes trapping birds with minimal damage to the bird, ringing them and letting them off as quickly as possible with as little inconvenience caused to the bird, he says. This requires trained trappers, vets on location where ringing is done and permission from state authorities.

Besides monitoring wild birds flying into India from Russia, China, South East Asia etc, Dr Rahmani points out the need to regulate poultry and duck businesses in the country. The back-alley poultry markets in South Mumbai, for instance, still stack up cages crammed with chicken, he admits.

In the North East, West Bengal and Kerala, ducks are taken to wetlands to forage. They could come in contact with wild birds or their droppings here and if the wild bird carries a disease, the ducks get infected. Subsequently, people coming in contact with these ducks face a risk, he says. The illegal bird-trade also should be curtailed, he adds.

But for now, the BNHS office housed in `Hornbill House' on Dr Salim Ali Chowk has a fresh concern. Reports of dead birds found in the Western regions of the country.