Wind farms threaten birds: Study

The latest threat to the ecology and already waning bird species and population in the Indian sub-continent comes from the wind farms that are fast dotting and spreading like rashes in the hinterland, according to a study by the country’s oldest conservation and research organisation, Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).

The research paper published last week in the prestigious magazine ‘Buceros’ brought out by Environmental Information System (ENVIS), the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF), has rung the alarm bells for the first time warning of the haphazard installations of the wind farms.

The report, quoting various researches carried out in European nations and the US, states that while collision of the birds with the windmills is already taking massive toll on the avian population. 

It stated: “European conservationists generally consider the habitat loss associated with windmill development to be a greater threat to bird populations than collision fatalities.”“There is evidence that construction of windmills renders habitat unsuitable for birds as it has been found that grassland bird densities were higher on grasslands without wind turbines, than on areas with wind turbines,” the report added. Various research projects have come to a consensus that wind farms and associated structures are disturbed and thus displacing bird population. 

BNHS in its report stated that the large-scale execution of wind farms or windmills without any studies “only add to the harmful effects of other habitat altering activities like mining or dam construction or installing transmission lines or huge rotor blades without checking the migratory routes of the birds.”