The Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) is planning to go ahead with a project to remove birds’ nests in the city.
While Colombo looks cleaner and brighter, the fate of birds especially the familiar black crow may be sealed as the CMC gears up to take down nests on trees along main roads.
The project was mooted following complaints about the sight and foul smell of bird droppings on roads including around Beira Lake in Hunupitiya, the Sunday Times learns.
CMC Commissioner, Badrani Jayawardena said a team from the fire brigade had been sent to the Beira Lake area last Saturday to remove the nests, but the project was called off as there were eggs in the nests.
She said by August the eggs would have hatched and the CMC would re-start the programme then.
“We are still studying the process. We want to remove the nests without causing harm to the birds. We hope to get the assistance of professionals and the public are also welcome to give us any practical solutions to this issue,” she said adding that personnel attached to the Civil Security Force had to clean the foot path around Beira Lake daily because of bird droppings.
In another move, the CMC also hoped to trim the branches of trees as birds make nests in between the branches. The CMC has also sought advice from airport officials as they have implemented a programme to keep away crows.
However, environmentalist Jagath Gunewardena said pulling down nests was not the solution to curb the breeding of crows. "The main reason for the crows to overpopulate is the open dumping of garbage in Colombo. Destroying nests is just a cosmetic solution," he said. |
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