Alert villagers get pigeons freed from cages in Abohar Open Sanctuary

Raj Sadosh

Abohar, July 14

The team of Wildlife Protection Department, upon inputs provided by nature lovers, today acted against those keeping pigeons and other birds’ captive in their homes in the villages of Open Wildlife Sanctuary area here and freed the caged birds.

Abohar’s Open Wildlife Sanctuary is a private reserve that is spread over thirteen villages in an area of about 186.5 square km and is regarded to be the biggest Blackbuck Deer open wildlife sanctuary in Asia. It was first notified as a wildlife sanctuary in 1975 and again re-notified in the year 2000.

Block Officer of the department at Abohar, Kulwant Singh and his team raided Bishanpura village and saw that some youths there had imprisoned white pigeons by keeping them in cages and huts in their homes. The creatures were freed by the team and released into open sky. The team also took possession of all the equipment used to keep the pigeons’ hostage.

Kulwant Singh said that no bird or wild animal can be kept captive in their homes in this Open Wildlife Sanctuary area. He was informed by some people of the village that some youths were keeping white pigeons’ hostage and torturing the birds. Acting on this, the team acted and rescued about a dozen pigeons. He said that these birds also have the right to freedom, hence they cannot be kept hostage. Departmental action will be taken against those who do such things, he warned.