Bird hits: Bombay Natural History Society inspects HAL airport for problems due to kites, bats

Mumbai: At a time when air safety and the issue of bird hits is widely debated in the wake of the Air India crash outside Ahmedabad airport, a team of the Mumbai-headquartered Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) is inspecting the HAL Airport in Bengaluru owned by the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd for the problems it is facing from kites and bats.

The public sector aerospace and defence company, for which the HAL Airport is very crucial, is facing the issue of possible bird hits particularly from kites and bats.

The airport has already faced the problem of bird hazards recently and in the past.

The airfield and the testing facility is used by the Indian armed forces besides non-scheduled general and business aviation as well as the VIP and VVIP movements.

On Friday, BNHS Director Kishor Rithe, a veteran conservationist and naturalist, himself was present at the HAL Airport to lead the inspections along with a senior scientist of BNHS, Dr P Sathiyaselvem, who is also heading a Central Asian Flyway Programme.

“What we have noticed is a matter of concern and needs urgent attention from the local civic authority ,” Rithe told DH on Saturday.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), which runs the civic body of Bengaluru, will have to play a key role in addressing the issue facing HAL airport.

“HAL had outsourced a study to a private consultancy firm who suggested capturing and translocating kites and bats from HAL Airport. The HAL authorities had approached Karnataka Forest Department with the SOP for capturing kites and bats from the surrounding area and translocating at the appropriate sites. KFD has asked the HAL to obtain the scientific and technical SOP from BNHS to capture and translocate the kites and bats. A BNHS team accordingly visited the HAL airport in Bengaluru for inspecting a bird hazard threat and probable causes,” Rithe said.

“The drainage and sewage water around and within this airport is attracting birds, especially the plastic garbage with other food waste and meat shops is attracting kites and crows. We have also seen pigeons in good numbers whose population increase due to mercy feeding by people,” he said.

“We saw kites, crows , pigeons and bats in the airport complex and outside the perimeter,” he added.

According to him, the Bengaluru civic administration is hardly giving any priority addressing them.

The HAL Airport had commenced operation in January 1941, however, the commercial flight operations was shifted to the Kempegowda International Airport from the midnight of 23–24 May 2008.

“The airport is very important for defence operations and test flights. Various effective solutions were explored during the inspection,” Rithe said, adding that to start with the first thing that needs to be addressed is the sewage/garbage problem inside and around the HAL airport . “This is the source of the problem,” he said.

The BNHS has studied 17 airports in India and presently studying a few for bird hazard issues.