Rescued wild birds from Mumbai and Thane will now have space at Karnala bird sanctuary as a rehab centre

Repair work of the defunct cage in process

Interaction with the contractor and his workers

Breathing nature 

Welding work going on 

The pillars of the cage 

The roof is almost done 

Cage with roof work complete

Waiting for the grills 

Touch up to the wall , with addition to the new nets 

The cage will be ready soon

Rescued wild birds from Mumbai and Thane will now have space at Karnala bird sanctuary as a rehab centre

Author: Pawan Sharma @ RAWW (Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare)

Photo Credits: Sagar Pandhi, Utsav Maru, Meet Ashar, Meet Shah

It has been years that several NGOs, animal welfare groups and individuals other than the concerned government departments  who are working for the protection and conservation of city wildlife in and around Mumbai and Thane.

Thane SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) is one of such leading organizations which is working for stray as well as wildlife from more than a decade. The organization has a animal hospital which helps in treating many wild animals and birds rescued from the different corners of the city.

RAWW (Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare) is a young wildlife rescuing organization which has been working with the forest department for wild animals and their habitat. The organization has been a part of many wildlife rescues with the forest department and have successfully rescued animals like leopards, monkeys, deer's, birds like eagles, peacocks, kites, owls  and reptiles like crocodiles, snakes, turtles/tortoises and so on other than in raising concerns for the habitat of the wild which is in great threat.

It has been observed since years that Mumbai and Thane has always run short of space for the rescued wildlife as the SGNP (Sanjay Gandhi National Park) and the infrastructure within it has been unable to take care of the total numbers of wildlife in need. However last month the forest department came up with a good news that a rescue/rehab centre for city wildlife will soon be coming up. But then again the process has just started and may take a long time to actually come up, and the rising numbers of distressed/ injured wildlife are increasing year by year with the increasing environmental complications. So what till the rescue centre comes up in reality ?.  Animal hospital run by TSPCA too falls short of space as it is the only hospital at Thane and takes the load of animals from both Mumbai and Thane.

In a joint initiative with the forest department Thane SPCA and RAWW have decided to introduce a rehabilitation centre at Karnala bird sanctuary. The centre will act as a shelter to the recovering birds which are rescued by TSPCA and RAWW from Mumbai and Thane.

Till date all the rescued birds are treated at TSPCA and later released back to wild which is a time taking  and a tough task, but as soon as the Karnala centre is ready only critical birds will be kept at the hospital and others which are recovering and do not need treatment will be sent to Karnala.

Karnala is away from the city's noise, pollution and can act as a good rehab centre where the birds will recover with more and better speed.  This will then enable more space for critical cases at TSPCA and lead to better wildlife management.

The project is co- sponsored by Thane SPCA and the technical design of the enclosure is been advised by RAWW. There are three defunct cages at Karnala out of which one is under repair the other two will be later taken under consideration. A large  cage which measures 30 feet in length and 15 feet in height is currently been reconstructed. The cage will be divided in two parts one (which occupies 60 percent of space ) will be for kites and the other (40 percent of space) for aquatic birds like egrets and herons. The space for aquatic birds has water holding capacity in which we will be adding water plants, fishes and turtles which may add to the beauty as well as feature in better recovery of birds as they will be feeding on live fishes independently by hunting on their own making the recovering process more natural.

The construction work is in progress and is expected to be complete before the full fledged monsoon strikes. Both the organizations will be helping in the management of the cage once it is ready and in use. Birds from TSPCA will be shifted to Karnala once the cage is ready to be used.

This initiative will attract the visitors and also add to their available knowledge as there will be information boards on the cages with information about the wildkinds kept in captivity.

There are many such areas under the forest department which can be converted into permanent/temporary  rescue/rehab centre depending on the need and consideration of necessary factors leading towards solutions to some of the many problems.

With inputs from Shakuntala Majumdar (President) & Debashish Majumdar (Vice Ppresident) - Thane SPCA .