“In my ten years of experience as a wildlife veterinarian, birds have probably been the most frequent rescues that are admitted to our centre” recounts Dr. Samshul Ali as he points at a flock of  Alexandrine parakeets that were foraging high up on a ficus tree. Eyes beaming with a sense of pride, he tries to draw my attention to the stainless-steel leg rings that the birds adorned and reflecting the shine of the afternoon sun. Not long ago, these birds were admitted as orphaned chicks – shivering, without any feathers but with the resolve to survive. It was a case of nest fall.

Parakeet chicks at CWRC | Photograph by Rajib Bordoloi

Baby birds falling off their nests is quite common in the areas around the Brahmaputra Basin of Kaziranga. In most cases, they just perish. But Dr. Samshul and his team at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) have been creating wide community mobilisations across the landscape. Be it an orphaned rhino that has been swept by the floods or a slow loris that got electrocuted, they are eventually brought to CWRC for care and treatment. In the 21 years of the establishment’s existence, it has attended to more than 8000 rescue cases. Orphaned baby birds constitute 31.6% of the admissions.

The fight to survive

“These five chicks were hailstorm survivors”, explains Dr. Samshul as he starts sharing his experience of the case. “They must have been less than a couple of weeks old when they arrived at the centre. It was unbelievable that they survived the fall and the hail! Consequently, we had our hopes high”, he adds. On finding the birds near the Bura Chapori Wildlife Sanctuary, the locals handed them over to the forest department. There was no option in trying to reunite the chicks with the parents as the whole tree had come down due to the storm. They were immediately brought to the centre and screened for Newcastle Disease (NCD). Thankfully, the results came out as negative.

CWRC, which is run jointly by the Assam Forest Department, is always prepared for such rescues. The chicks were started on a diet of mixed pulses and cereals, beaten to a fine powder, dissolved in water and administered through a dropper, five times a day. Tarun Gogoi, one of our veteran animal keepers at the centre had taken charge. “The chicks were so young that we weren’t even able to tell what kind of parakeets they were”, exclaims Tarun. They were measured every day for change in weight. At CWRC, every animal or bird admitted is attached to a dedicated animal keeper to facilitate minimal exposure to humans, aiding faster rewilding after release. For 25 days, the birds were put on this regimen with regular monitoring for their health and growth.

“The first signs of success showed up in the form of little green feathers that started covering the bare skin. By this time, the chicks have grown enough to be introduced to a more solid diet consisting of banana and cowpea beans. This is also when we shifted them to a bigger enclosure that imitated a more natural environment”, adds Dr. Samshul.

Parakeet chicks with growing flight feathers | Photograph by Dr. Samshul Ali

Opening the gates and the first flight

An important step in the rehabilitation of rescued birds is to wean them off human care in a simulated environment. Branches and twigs had been introduced in the enclosure so that the birds learn how to climb and perch. Soon, the little hops between branches turned to small flights. Provisioning, in the form of vegetables and grains, was hidden across the enclosure for the birds to find and forage. “The month of July is when the wild jackfruits ripen up. This brings in flocks of wild parakeets in and around our campus. Opening the gates of our enclosure was timed accordingly. It got easier for the hand-raised birds to become a part of these wild flocks”, exclaims Dr. Samshul. The birds got strong enough and it was time to let them out. “When you hand raise any orphan, you feel responsible for its safety. It was a mixed feeling when the birds took off one by one. I was however happy that we were able to give a second chance to these chicks”, recounts Tarun as he joins us in admiring how beautifully the birds have grown! The birds had returned to their enclosure, in search of food, for the first three-four days, before taking off again. Since then, they have been reported from across the three-kilometre area, adjoining the campus. The leg rings are how the team identifies and records the sightings.

Parakeets as companion birds

Alexandrine parakeets are popular companion birds across India. Young chicks, such as the ones that came to CWRC, are poached from the wild, to be sold in the pet markets across the country. Only about 25% survive and those that do, are destined to spend the rest of their lives in cages. Most of them never know flight.

Parakeet hand raised at CWRC after release | Photograph by Dr. Samshul Ali

A bird trapped in a  cage and imitating human voices is probably the most disappointing thing you can come across. However, it is quite common in Indian households. Despite being listed in Schedule I of India’s Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, the trade in endemic parakeet species is huge. The Alexandrine parakeet is also poached and illegally bred in captivity to supply the foreign pet markets. “I hope for a future when we would be happier to see birds up on trees rather than cramped in cages and begging for food”, he ends.

Today marks exactly five months of the parakeet chicks being admitted to the centre. It’s certainly a moment of victory. To date, more than 2500 birds have been handled at CWRC and about 49% were successfully sent back to the wild. Supported by the HCL Foundation and The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), CWRC completed 21 years of its service to nature on the 28^th of August, 2023. As we return to take a tour of the rest of the campus, I believe there are so many other stories that will give us hope.

by Madhumay Mallik