Safety Nets To Arrest Bird Freefall

Every monsoon, hundreds of Asian Openbill storks build small colonies atop sal trees in Arrearjhar in Dhubri district of Assam, India, and by the time the season draws to a close, dozens perish from falls or are struck by lightning during storms.
Environmentalists have long racked their brains for a plan that would help reduce the death toll, but without success. So, when some 50-odd openbill stork chicks were found dead after a heavy downpour on October 7, 2007, forest officials decided to do what immediately struck them as a possible solution. They decided to place safety nets under every sal tree so that the birds do not fall and die.
Openbill storks are listed under Schedule IV of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. They are commonly sighted in various parts of Assam but the current death rate is a cause for worry. Every year, the birds build at least 300 nests in Arrearjhar, of which very few manage to survive the monsoon. For now, the nets look like the only saviours.
A project was submitted to the Rapid Action Programme of the Wildlife Trust of India, which has agreed to provide the nets, the forest official said. He added that the project was urgent because some chicks have already emerged and the remaining will come out in the next few weeks. The official said that death from a fall is natural; but the rain and storm this year have resulted in an alarmingly high mortality rate.
The nets, however, are only a partial and temporary solution. "Even if some chicks survived the fall, there is little expertise available to hand-rear the birds. Every attempt by villagers to hand-rear the chicks has failed so far," a forest official said.