No plans to cull migratory birds so far: Admn

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 17

As the UT Administration has prepared surveillance plan in wake of a bird sample being tested positive for H5N1 virus by a Bhopal lab, it will not carry out any culling exercise for migratory birds at the Sukhna Lake.

MC Commissioner-cum-officiating Deputy commissioner Vivek Partap Singh said as of now, there was no assessment regarding any out break of bird flu in Chandigarh. Therefore, the Administration will not start any culling exercise of migratory birds. Moreover, teams of the Central Government, who will reach the city tomorrow, will take a final call on the culling issue, he said.

A senior UT official said in winters, the migratory birds begin flocking to Chandigarh’s Sukhna Lake and water bodies in the Sukhna Wildlife Sanctuary. The regular winged guests to the city are ruddy shelducks, white-eyed pochards, common pochards, ferruginous pochards, tufted ducks, greylag goose among others have arrived in the city. So far, about seven to nine species of migratory birds have reached here, an official said.

According to recent census, a total of 585 birds of resident and migratory species were sighted in the Sukhna Lake.