Over 30 flamingos die after they get hit by an aircraft

Forest department officials are surprised as such an incident hasn’t occurred in the past.

Over 30 flamingos were found dead in Mumbai’s Ghatkopar area after being hit by an oncoming flight on Monday night. This is the first time that bird hit cases involving these many avian have occurred around Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.

“Flamingos crashed into an Emirates flight last night. So far over 30 flamingo bodies have been retrieved. The cause of this incident is being investigated such as flight altitude, deviation from landing funnel path, caused behind the birds flying into the aeroplane, etc.,” said Stalin Dayanand, conservationist and Director of Vanashakti, an NGO.

The incident occurred minutes before 8.40 pm on Monday, as Emirates Dubai – Mumbai (EK 508) flight landed safely. However, the return journey to Dubai has been rescheduled by a day owing to full-scale inspection that the Boeing 777-300ER aircraft required as per the safety mandates.

The Maharashtra forest department has launched an investigation and carcasses as well as samples have been collected from the site where the migratory birds fell after being hit. The Emirates pilot’s statement is also likely to be taken.

Forest department officials are surprised as such an incident hasn’t occurred in the past, according to them, the migratory birds must be flying towards Thane flamingo sanctuary and got hit by the oncoming aircraft.

However, conservationists have a different take, according to Stalin, one theory is the new power lines through the sanctuary area is causing disorientation to the birds, while the second is that efforts are on since last month to disturb them at the wetlands in Navi Mumbai where the flamingos fly down to from Siberia. He alleges that some people must have chased the birds out in the night causing them to fly away and attempt to fly towards Thane Creek and meeting with the accident in the process.

“We had cited the example of Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary which did not have any bird hits in our case arguments before Principal Secretary Urban Development, two weeks ago. This was the case for protection of Panje wetlands. The government kept saying that all water bodies need to be eliminated to make the under-construction Navi Mumbai Airport safe. Two weeks later this accident happened. Coincidence? Let us wait for more details to come out,” explained Stalin.