Poaching of migratory birds continues unabated in the Chilika Lake despite warning by wildlife officials against killing of winged guests in Asia’s largest blue lagoon.
Stringent anti-poaching law is in force in the lake, home to lakhs of winged guests, and whoever is found to be violating it would be sternly dealt with, official sources said.
Meanwhile, in the latest incident that took place yesterday, wildlife officials arrested two poachers in the lake and seized 16 bird carcasses from them.
The accused persons were identified as Prakash Dalia and Sarbeswar Nayak of Bhusandapur, wildlife officials said.
The officials arrested them while collecting the dead birds near Subhadrapur inside the lake under Tangi wildlife range, said divisional forest officer, Chilika wildlife division, B P Acharya.
The dead birds seized from them included Large Whistling Teal (9), Shoveller (5) and Pintail (2) which were killed through illegal trapping, said Chief of Wildlife Range, Tangi, S Ch Behera.
It was the third such incident since the migratory birds started to descend on the vast lake from the second week of October.
Two poachers were arrested on November 11 and 27 respectively inside the lake and at least 11 dead birds were seized from them, Behera said.
Since the meat of migratory birds are in high demand among the non-vegetarian people in the nearby towns like Balugaon, Khallikote, Berhampur and Bhubaneswar, the poachers hunt them to meet the demand and earn extra money, wildlife activists said.