Five agencies join hands to combat bird terror

The bird menace at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport has drawn attention of five important agencies - Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), Airports Authority of India (AAI), police department, cantonment officials and forest department.

In a meeting at the airport, chaired by SK Nanda, principle secretary, environment and forest department, on Monday, it was decided that all the agencies should work together so that the plan to tackle the bird-hit menace does not remain on paper.

“The meeting began with summarising the details of action taken. The work done by the AMC was appreciated in the meeting. Nanda suggested that all the agencies work in tandem to deal with the problem effectively,” said a source.

Recently, the AMC had held a meeting of residents of areas around the airport to seek their cooperation in not throwing the garbage in open. Residents had agreed to co-operate and stick to garbage dumping using the AMC’s solid waste disposal system. The AMC had also sealed two butcher shops near the airport.

“To keep the airport vicinity free of garbage, the AMC also offered to manage garbage dump from the cantonment. We have urged them to put garbage in dump yard nearby, so that the AMC can remove them on day-to-day basis,” the sources said.

There is a problem of illegal shops near the airport selling meat and so it was decided to remove such shops with the help of police. As per norms, running a slaughter house and disposing filth in a radius of 15 km of airport is not allowed.