Plastic Pollution: Stork With Plastic Ring Around Beak Rescued by Officials, Under Observation
The black-necked stork is "near-threatened" and is native to parts of India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.
Wildlife lovers rescued a stork which was spotted at Najafgarh jheel with a plastic ring around its beak. The bird was spotted outside Delhi on June 7. It wasn't able to eat or drink anything as it could not open its beak. Rescuers were worried if they would be able to rescue the stork. Reportedly, earlier efforts to save the bird on Wednesday was in vain. The team then got a bamboo trap from Bihar for the rescue operation.
The Indian Express quoted photographer and birder Manoj Nair as saying, "It's a rare case of survival…the bird has been rescued and it’s in a healthy shape. Over the last six days, rescue team of birders and forest department observed that it was wetting its beak and maybe that’s why it survived." Members and representatives of NGOs and officials together rescued the bird. It is now kept under observation.
The theme for World Environment Day 2018 was 'beat plastic pollution'. The National Geographic's June 2018 cover also showed the alarming effects of plastic. Plastic in our seas and oceans have made the existence of marine animals difficult. Plastic even ends up in the human system due to the same.
Watch the rescue video here:
Kumar also cleared that drones cannot be used to locate the bird as it can prove dangerous as it can still fly. It seems that the plastic ring slipped onto the stork's beak while it was trying to drink water. Reportedly, the stork was first photographed with the plastic ring by Manoj Nair.
Gupta said that the black-necked stork is "near-threatened" and is native to parts of India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. While the bird was first seen in Basai wetland, it was later spotted in another wetland nearby. The Basai wetland grabbed headlines recently after there were plans by the government to start a factory for recycling construction waste.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 13, 2018 05:21 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).