Last evening at around 8 P.M., I noticed a man in the Green Park Market with what appeared to be a Laggar Falcon (Falco jugger) tied to his hand. I went closer to get a better look at the bird. It definitely seemed to be a Laggar.
I immediately called the Wildlife SOS helpline to report the matter. The person on the phone thought I was reporting a person with Budgerigars. It took me some time to get him to understand that the bird was a falcon and not a budgerigar. Finally, he forwarded the case to the nearest team. The team was already rescuing a bird in Lajpat Nagar. Then a couple of calls to Nik and Ramgopal. Nik called up Wildlife SOS again, which helped in speeding up the matter.
The Wildlife SOS team consisting of 3 people reached in about an hour. Luckily, this man with the falcon was still sitting there.
Upon arriving, the Wildlife SOS team got a glimpse of the bird and the man. They said they needed the police's assistance in confiscating the bird from him. They called up the police and asked them to send a PCR immediately. It took them a while as well to make the lady on the police helpline understand the nature of the case. The lady was under the impression that we wanted to buy the bird from this man. Finally, she understood and sent out a PCR. Meanwhile, 2 members of the Wildlife SOS team went up to this man and acted as strangers showing interest in the falcon. They asked him if they could click photographs of him with the bird. He agreed and also requested them to not share or spread the photos. Upon asking him, they got to know that he has been keeping this bird as a pet for the past 3 months.
After that, the Wildlife SOS team and I stood a little further off waiting for the police to arrive. It had already been half an hour since we reported the matter to the police and still there was no sign of them. We placed multiple calls again urging them to come quickly. A couple of PCR vans passed by, we waved and asked them to stop, but to no avail. Then one member of the Wildlife SOS team went over to the Police Booth in the market in order to call them to help us and I placed another call to the PCR. In the meantime, the man with the bird got up to leave. He was assisted by another man. The got on to their scooty and were about to leave when one member of the Wildlife SOS team went up to them and confronted them about they having a wild bird in their possession which was illegal. He asked them to wait there and that the police was arriving. The man got agitated and lashed out on the rescuer, gave him a couple of blows, pushed him aside and sped off in this scooty.
We were unable to get the entire number of the scooty. It was a red scooty with a DL number 1664.
We asked the people in charge of parking if this man came often. They said he keeps coming to the market 2-3 times a week with the bird.
The police arrived half an hour after the man had fled. After listening to the entire story, they made us write a complaint and said they would keep an eye out for the man. They believed that the scooty number which we had got was incomplete and it would not be possible for them to follow up with only the last 4 digits. We suggested that they could check the CCTV footage from the cameras placed all over the market and get the entire number. They were reluctant to do this for a case like this. Nonetheless, we managed to get a couple of photographs of this man with the bird. I have attached them in this email. What surprised me was that this man was least bothered about being in illegal possession of a wild bird and sat in the busy market for close to 3 hours without anyone raising alarm.
Upon trying to get more information on where this man could have got this bird, I came across this website which has 'Indian Falconry Enthusiasts' who are trying to make falconry legal in India or are looking for loopholes in the Wildlife Protection Act in order to keep falcons in their possession. The thread has 3 pages. The link is below:
http://indiansforguns.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=12298&sid=ebfbdd4188fbc3909e29bc1a8a30b807
I request all the members of Delhibird to keep an eye out for this man or his vehicle. We should also keep an eye out for other people who might be practicing falconry. I shall be going back to the Green Park market for the next few days to see if this man comes again.
- Kavi
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