Heatwave affects urban wildlife in new delhi causing rise in rescues and dehydration cases
"The past few days saw a heatwave that affected wild animals in the city. Our dedicated team rescued birds, snakes, and mammals, with birds being more gravely affected by the heat," said Kartick Satyanarayan, co-founder and CEO of animal rescue organisation Wildlife SOS. "Some of the species we rescued were barbet, black kite, pigeon, sparrow, myna, Indian grey hornbill, rhesus macaque, spectacled cobra, Indian wolf snake, even a bat.
Black kites were most severely impacted as they tend to fly at higher altitudes in search of prey. This causes many of them to suffer heat stroke and dehydration."
According to Muhammad Saud of animal service Wildlife Rescue, at least 150 birds were brought to the centre at Wazirabad by people who found them on the road gasping for air and clearly thirsty. Most of these were fledglings and nestlings, he said.
The species rescued included crescent serpent eagles, barn owls, pond herons, buzzards, black kites, etc.
"Throughout May, the weather was pleasant, unlike other years, and in June, within a week, everything flipped," said Saud. "In the past week, we tended to at least 150 birds. The cases spiked in the last four days, most being cases dehydration. This is breeding time and such cases occur a lot. People even reported that they saw birds crashing on the ground.
We received around eight eagles and one Honey Buzzard. Among barn owls, most of the cases pertained to young chicks who had fallen off the nest.
We rescue them, raise them and release them in the jungles at Kamla Nehru Ridge or Gandhi Mandu forest."
Forest officials claimed the department was maintaining additional water sources at Asola for wildlife to cope with the extreme temperatures. "We clean the waterholes because during summer water needs to be replaced quickly. Two additional historic ponds were also refurbished. There are over 200 watering holes in Asola," said a forest official.
In April and May, when the city saw sporadic episodes of extreme heat, nilgai were regularly spotted venturing from the Ridge in search of water. This prompted lieutenant governor VK Saxena to order DDA to create watering holes in the Ridge and city forests to provide animal relief.
Several volunteers also reported that street dogs had become victims of the heat, some even succumbing to heatstroke. Several dog feeding points across the city are regularly resupplied with water by the volunteers. Besides, thunderstorms also impact wildlife. A strong storm on May 2 killed 200 birds in northwest Delhi alone.
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