Noida, Uttar Pradesh, 11 February 2021:

This January, 865 birds flew back to the wild thanks to the Emergency Relief Network of WTI – IFAW who responded to rescue calls of birds injured during the 2021 kite festival in Rajasthan and Gujarat.

About 60% of the birds under treatment have recovered and have been released, while about 20 birds are still under care at Jaipur and shall be released soon after recovery.

This year, ERN response were in five locations this year namely, Jaipur, Rajasthan (four locations) and Bhavnagar, Rajkot and Porbandar in Gujarat. WTI- IFAW ERN teams worked in tandem with both the state governments during the festival.

In Gujarat, the state government had deployed animal ambulances and hired the services of local veterinarians as part of a ‘Karuna Abhiyan’ (Compassion campaign) during the kite festival and WTI-ERN provided basic support and technical help of our veterinarians and sensitization on the Best Management practices on Avian rescue and rehabilitation with special emphasis on COVID-19 and Avian Influenza related Biosecurity Protocols.

While in Rajasthan, the state government held camps at designated four locations with strict bio-security restrictions in light of the prevailing bird flu reported from parts of Rajasthan. The camps were not accessible to general public and the attending ERN veterinarians had to maintain quarantine protocols for the injured birds which were brought in to the camps for treatment. The rescue work was carried out with the veterinarians wearing full body PPE suits at all times.

“Unlike previous years the number of birds brought in injured was lesser, this could be for two reasons, lesser people flying kites due to strict enforcement by local administration on the banned Chinese manja kite strings and also perhaps due to the avian flu outbreak with lesser number of birds being handled and rescued because of the flu scare. Our teams however got a number of large birds like the Spotted Eagle, buzzards, peafowl, cormorants, owls, flamingos, common cranes and pintails” observed Abhishek Narayanan, Head- Rescue, WTI

While the number of rescue camps were lesser than previous years, both Gujarat and Rajasthan state governments ensured the proactive support of the Forest and the Animal Husbandry Department who gave infrastructure support in setting up the camps.

WTI’s Emergency Response Network (ERN) comprising of a voluntary network of veterinarians has been the first crisis responder since its formation in the year 2004 in post disasters and during kite festival. ERN was the first responder during the Sambar Lake crisis in which a number of migratory species had succumbed to their deaths. Since 2013 under the ERN project, kite flying emergency response is being undertaken with local grassroots organizations and individuals. These are Raksha (Jaipur), Hope and Beyond (Jaipur), Rushi Pathak (Ahmedabad), Mokarsagar Wetland Conservation Committee (MWCC) (Porbandar) and Jivdaya Ghar (Rajkot).

WTI’s ERN has been running with the long term support of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)