Bird park in Powai will only benefit poachers, says NGO

The Plants and Animals Welfare Society (PAWS), an NGO,  has written to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation in opposition to the proposed bird park in Powai. The project is at it’s preliminary stage, where they have issued tenders inviting expression of interest from experienced consultants for preparation of the master plan.

Sunish Kunju, founder of PAWS and an honorary animal welfare officer, wrote to the BMC asking them to re-consider their approval of the project, keeping in mind the interest of these birds.

“I fail to understand the logic of buying exotic birds to house at a bird park when the existing zoo is in a bad shape. The BMC has failed to maintain the city’s primary zoo, where we see animals dying almost every year. These projects only benefit poachers, who will go to any extend to procure these species from the wild, and builders who only look at it as a property value”, he said.

The Babasaheb Ambedkar Garden in Powai, which is the space designated for the bird park, had once illegally housed almost 80 deers for about four decades. They were then relocated to Tungareshwar Sanctuary in 2006, owing to the efforts of various environmental NGOs including PAWS and Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).

The Byculla Zoo, which is in the first phase of renovation, is still awaiting the final approval of the Central Zoo on its new enclosure designs. The zoo currently houses 355 birds of 31 different species and claimed to be facing a problem of over-congestion of birds and reptiles. The Bird Park in Powai was proposed for primarily this reason and was supposed to be treated as an extension of the Byculla zoo, housing their excess birds and reptiles.

“Until the Byculla Zoo is restored to its former condition, projects like this bird park should not even be considered”, said Kunju.