Hi everybody!
Let me tell you what
happened today.
I like photography and so I go out on bird walks with my dad.
This fine morning, he woke up early at 6 o’clock. He woke me up too and called
me to get ready. Wiping my eyes, I stared at the wall clock. “It’s only 6! Can’t
I sleep a little longer?” I moaned. “No. Don’t you want to go out with me? Birding
is for early birds. Now get up,” He said. I got ready and went off to the
lakeside with him.
It was cool and a light breeze blew. The sun had hardly come
out and it was cloudy too. There were trees all around and the greenery soothed
my eyes. I gave dad some tea from the flask that we had brought. We decided to walk along the lakeside and
scan it for birds. I spotted some small birds and asked dad which ones they
were. He said that the ones sitting on the rocks were river terns. I clicked a
few photos of them and then we moved on.
River tern
Walking by the side, rather crouching because we didn’t want
the birds to see us, dad pointed out to a long stick that was put in the
ground. There was another stick of nearly the same length standing with the
help of rocks some four or five meters apart. I thought this was odd. We
decided to go near and check it out. The
both of us walked till there slowly and when we reached there we saw a very
strange thing. The sticks that were standing some meters apart were joined by a
long and thin rope which was white and dirty. Hanging from that rope were
various ropes of different lengths ending with a noose that would remind
anybody of the gallows. I was perplexed at first, but understood what it was
when dad explained it to me.
Shore birds and waders
such as plovers, stilts and shanks come to feed upon them and they are usually
found at such places. They come feeding, and when they come too near their long
stick-like legs get stuck in the noose. Even so, their leg can be taken out,
but when the bird tries to pull its leg, the noose tightens itself and become
small. So the harder the bird pulls, the tighter it becomes, and the more
difficult it gets for the bird to free itself.
“So it is a bird trap?” I ask.
“Yes,” My father replies.
“But one thing that I don’t quite get, is that why someone
would like to catch such a harmless and innocent bird,” I say.
“It is very simple my dear. Villagers from nearby villages
come to these forests and disturb the wildlife with their activities. The graze
their cows, collect firewood and timber, clear natural vegetation and disturb
wildlife. The trap that you just saw set up here is for someone’s meal. After
the bird is caught, whoever has set up this trap will come and take it away. He
will cook it up and eat it. Not only are these birds, but francolins and
partridges also targeted for their meat.” He took a brief pause and continued. “Let’s
take this death trap out before anybody sees us and any bird is caught.”
We pulled the sticks, gathered all the ropes, put them in
the car and went back home after some photography.
What I want to really say is that we humans must not disturb
and kill wildlife for our greedy needs. Many times when I go on such walks I admire
nature’s beauty and all that it has given us. But then when I find a plastic
manja in a tree or a plastic bottle lying around I think that we are using our
Earth’s resources but are not giving back. It really makes me think, do we
deserve everything we have?
~ Chinmayee Bhattacharjee
