Tura, April 9: The Wildlife department of East and West Garo Hills has expressed its condolences on the death of a blue whistling thrush that had been rescued by the department a few days ago and passed away while under their care.
The thrush passed away at about 12:30 pm on Monday, while efforts were being made to revive it.
In a note issued on Tuesday, DFO of Wildlife, Rupankar Marak, called the incident unfortunate while explaining that a post-mortem examination of the bird showed that it had been gravely injured through the use of a catapult to hunt it down.
“The bird is suspected to have been injured through the use of catapults, which is an illegal and cruel hunting practice. The bird is a resident species and was rescued. Our dedicated wildlife personnel did their utmost to save the bird but to no avail,” said Marak.
The DFO has now urged residents of the Garo Hills region to refrain from inflicting injuries to birds or animals through the use of catapults. The use of catapults to hunt birds, in fact, is extremely common due to the relative ease with which it can be used.
“These inflict terrible injuries on the victims, often leading to slow and agonizing deaths. We urge the community to reject these cruel practices and help us protect our precious birds. We are committed to enforcing wildlife protection laws and bringing those that violate them to justice. We urge anyone with information of such cases to contact us immediately,” added the DFO while paying their last respects to the departed bird.
