Operation under way to help stork with jammed beak

A massive operation is currently underway in Basai wetland in Haryana to rescue a black-necked stork, which has got its beak jammed by a plastic ring around it.

The bird has been without food and water for days as it cannot open its beak to eat because of the ring around it. The bird stares at death if the plastic ring is not removed soon manually by rescuers.

“We are now contemplating the use of drones to keep a steady watch on the movement of the big bird in the wild,” Vinod Kumar, additional principal chief conservator of forest, told DH on Monday.

“Once the drones capture the image of the starving bird, the flying machine will follow it wherever it goes.”

The challenge, however, is to ensure that the bird does not fly away while we try to get near it, Kumar said.

Expert trappers from the Bombay Natural History Society along with Haryana forest and wildlife wing are trying relentlessly to capture the stork with utmost caution.

The World Wildlife Fund on Monday offered to pitch in to rescue the bird, official sources said.

The big bird may have accidentally got the plastic ring around its beak while hunting for food. As it dipped into the ground, a plastic ring from the heaps of plastics dumps around the wetland may have got stuck into its beak. Rescuers say, the bird was seen frantically trying to remove the ring, but the more it tried, the more the ring gets tightened. The area falls on the margins of south-west Delhi.

Forest officials were informed about the struggling bird by one of the bird watchers. Officials say they are waiting for the bird to settle down so that they can rescue it.