AGARTALA: The High Court of Tripura, in a recent order, passed an interim direction to the chief wildlife warden asking him to submit an elaborate report on the deaths of migratory birds at Sukh Sagar lake in Tripura’s Udaipur.
A division bench of the Tripura High Court, comprising chief justice Indrajeet Mahanty and justice SG Chattopadhyay, also sought to know whether any post-mortem or forensic tests of the bird carcasses were done, and if done what were the findings.
“As an interim direction, we direct the Chief Life Warden (respondent No.4 herein) to submit a report to this Court indicating the circumstances under which the migratory birds appear to the dying in various parts of Tripura and in particular death of migratory birds at Sukh sagar Jala lake, Udaipur and if possible, he is to indicate the possible reasons causing such death of the migratory birds and also to inform the Court as to whether any post-mortem of the migratory birds have been carried out and if so the outcome of such report and if no such post-mortem has been done”, the order copy reads.
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The Court also directed the Wildlife officials to take immediate measures to conduct scientific tests in future.
“…in the event of any future death, immediate post mortem be carried out and scientific evaluation take place to try and ascertain the actual causes of such death. Such report be submitted before this Court within a week from today”, the order added.
Notably, hundreds of dead migratory birds were found at Sukh Sagar lake located at Udaipur under Tripura’s Gomati district recently.
Although photos and videos of the bird carcasses went viral on social media platforms, the Tripura forest department failed to trace a single dead bird in the area.
The mysterious disappearance of bird carcasses not only shocked the forest department but also raised suspicion over a possible involvement of poachers in the whole incident.
One Kaushik Nath, filed a PIL with the High Court of Tripura on the matter, seeking judiciary’s intervention in expediting probe on the incident.