When Rajshahi Medical College Hospital authorities felled a tree on Saturday afternoon, it still housed a couple of nests for Asian open-bill storks.
The tree felling was part of an RMCH project, which has plans to chop down around 50 trees to clear space for constructing a garage and a drain to solve waterlogging in the area.
But the development work comes at the cost of avian lives, as nearly a hundred of the Asian open-bill storks and their offspring died in the aftermath.
Nests from neighbouring trees also started getting damaged by the wind. Photo: Star
On Saturday afternoon, some 30 storks and their chicks died after falling off the felled tree, witnesses and hospital officials said.
Later, labourers and locals picked up around 30 more storks and took them home, while some 20 storks were slaughtered on the spot. More than 20 others were seen lying dead around the tree, locals said.
Ornithologists -- zoologists who specialise in birds -- said this indiscriminate felling of trees is severely damaging for the bird species of the area, especially during the ongoing breeding season.
In addition, bird nests on neighbouring trees also become vulnerable to the wind, experts and bird lovers said.
They added that the hospital authorities had cut down trees last year, and were moving to do it yet again this year.
"Felling trees when birds are raising eggs and chicks in their nests is cruel and illegal," said Prof Aminuzzaman Md Saleh Reza of Rajshahi University's Zoology department.
"Rather than destroying lives this way, the authorities could have taken measured steps in co-ordination with experts and environmentalists," he said.
He said bird species including Asian open-bill stork, cormorants, black crown night heron, and crows have been nesting on RMCH's trees for many years.
Storks breed between June and November, while herons and cormorants breed between March and October, he explained.
Visiting the spot on Sunday morning, this correspondent saw an Asian open-bill stork chick fall from a neighbouring tree after its nest collapsed due to strong winds.
It was then taken away by a labourer working on the drain construction project.
This correspondent also witnessed storks, herons, and cormorants flying from tree to tree, trying to build new nests, as the tree felling continued.
Meanwhile, RMCH director Brig Gen Shamim Yazdani acknowledged and apologised for the incident.
"We're extremely sorry and ashamed of what happened. We will not let this happen again," the director told The Daily Star.
But he said the works were not carried out according to plan. "We only had plans to cut down a part of the tree's root, but some labourers just chopped the whole thing down."
Asked why they are continuing to cut down more trees, Brig Gen Shamim said they're only cutting down the trees that do not house any birds, following local forest officials' instructions.
Prof Aminuzzaman said the authorities need to remember that storks do not establish their colonies according to human convenience, they settle down wherever they find food and security.
"We are not saying development activities should be stopped, we just want them to be carried out in a sustainable way, on the months when the breeding season is over," he said.
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This article appeared in
The Daily Star.
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