The heavy rains in Bengaluru near Orion Mall in Rajajinagar was utter disaster for the parakeets. The rain dropped hundreds of parakeets on the road on Saturday night.
The grove of trees near Orion Mall are known as the home for thousands of rose winged variety parakeets.
The birds were completely drenched due to the rain that made it difficult for them to fly. To make matters worse nearly 90 of the parakeets got run over by motorists.
Volunteers and animal lovers came rushing to the parakeets rescue and saved around 50 of them.
Keerthan Vignesh, a volunteer at People For Animals initially reported about the birds. Vignesh along with friends rushed to the location to rescue the birds in need.
Keerthan reported the situation, “When we went there, we saw that a big branch had fallen on the road. The parakeets that had fallen along with it were completely soaked and couldn’t fly. We were shocked to see so many dead birds. As soon as we reached, we saw a car run over one of the birds in front of our eyes.”
“The motorists weren’t bothered about the birds. They began arguing with the people who walked on the roads to save the birds. Several kept driving even though they could see that the birds were alive,” he added.
The volunteers reached the place at 9:00 P.M., and they struggled to rescue the birds in the middle of heavy rain and inconsiderate riders and drivers. The rescue mission went on till 1:30 A.M., on Sunday.
The Avian and Repitle Rehabilitation Center (ARRC) in Horamavu were entrusted to care for the birds.
The co founder of ARRC and a veterinary technician, Jayanthi Kallam reported that nearly 20 of the birds were released into their habitat on Sunday Morning.
The 20 birds released were uninjured and were unable to fly to their nests due to the heavy rain.
Jayanthi discussed the incident, “The parakeet is not a nocturnal bird, and it doesn’t fly around after dark. During heavy rains, these birds hunker down to regulate their body temperature. Many birds were paralysed in (sic) fear and confusion after the fall.”
On Tuesday, three more birds were set free and the rest are expected to make a quick recovery.
Jayanthi added, “We have a consulting veterinarian working with us, along with several veterinary technicians that are focused on getting these birds back to full health.”
The ARRC still have 30 injured birds that are recovering and will soon be released back to their habitat.
