Guest birds vanish from Khulna's Dumuria as poachers prowl and wetlands are filled in

At the start of winter every year, guest birds used to arrive in flocks at the vast wetlands of Bil Dakati, Madhugram, Magurkhali, Shovna, Sahos and Kharnia unions in Khulna's Dumuria upazila, filling the area's beels, enclosures and marshes with life.

For the past several years, however, those guest birds have not been seen. A lack of safe shelter and food, indiscriminate bird killing, unplanned fish enclosures and the destruction of biodiversity are to blame, according to local residents and bird lovers in Dumuria.

Locals say parts of Bil Dakati, Gutudia, Raghunathpur, Bhandarpara and Rangpur unions were known as sanctuaries for the guest birds. At least fifty species — including various ducks, pochards, pintails, cormorants, waterhens and jacanas — used to come there, flying in from faraway Siberia and other cold countries in search of food.

On-the-spot reports say a group of unscrupulous bird traders and poachers hunted the guest birds indiscriminately, using traps and poisoned bait, and that the birds were secretly sold at gatherings in different places.

Although it is legally prohibited, a lack of public awareness and weak monitoring have made it impossible to fully stop the illegal hunting and sale of guest birds, locals said. The few birds occasionally seen in a beel leave for elsewhere under pressure from poachers.

Mojibur Rahman, a farmer living by Bil Dakati, said the beels used to ring with the guest birds' calls day and night in winter, but for the past several years the birds have not come. Nearly all the natural wetlands have been filled in or turned into commercial fish enclosures, he said, and increased human movement and noise have made the birds' once-safe grounds unsafe.

Mohan Mondal, a resident of the Magurkhali area, said large numbers of guest birds used to come to the beels and riverside wetlands there, staying in the beels by day and sheltering in village gardens and trees at dusk — a sight no longer seen. Not only guest birds but native species such as herons and doves are also declining, as poachers kill them too, he said.

Shafikul Islam, a bird lover and cultural worker from the upazila town, said guest birds once came to almost every beel in Dumuria and the beels were the birds' sanctuary, but the changed nature of the wetlands and the loss of trees mean the birds are no longer seen.

Dumuria Upazila Nirbahi Officer Sabita Sarkar said she has heard that large numbers of guest birds once came to the upazila's beels and that their numbers have fallen for various environmental reasons. If anyone illegally hunts birds or harms wild birds, legal action will be taken through a mobile court as soon as it comes to notice, she said.

The upazila administration and the Forest Department said hunting any bird, guest or native, is a punishable offence under the law and that the administration remains active in protecting wildlife, while adding that local representatives and the public must also become more aware and step forward to keep wild birds safe.