2 poachers arrested, 13 bird carcasses seized in Chilika

Wildlife personnel arrested two poachers from Chilika area and seized 13 dead birds, belonging to four different species, from their possession, officials said Saturday.

The accused, identified as Akhaya Das and Gouranga Behera, both residents of Gopinathpur in Puri district, were arrested on Friday night, when they were hunting waterfowls inside the Chilika lake.

The anti-poaching squads arrested the duo during patrolling, the Range Officer of Tangi Wildlife Range, Subhas Chandra Behera, said.

The wildlife personnel seized carcasses of eight Gadwalls, three Little Grebe, a Common teal and a Eurasian wing, Behera said.

The poachers confessed that they used to kill birds for supplying the bird meat to nearby hostels, a wildlife personnel said.

The meat of aquatic birds are reportedly high on demand in the towns such as Bhubaneswar, Balugaon and Berhampur, official sources said.

They said 19 anti-poaching camps are working in Chilika lake area.

Patrolling has been intensified in the lake area to prevent the bird poaching, they said.

An estimated 8 lakh migratory birds have migrated to the lake this year, they added.

The birds, mostly from Northern Eurasia, Caspian region, Siberia, Kazakh, Lake Baikal and remote areas of Russia visit Chilika every winter.