Mass slaughter of migrating Amur Falcons

The stunning Amur Falcon ( (Falco amurensis) is a bird in trouble, these birds breed in Siberia and Northern China and over winter in Somalia, Kenya and South Africa. Their migration is one of the longest undertaken and the sea crossing they make the longest recorded by a raptor, much of it done through the night.

During Spring and Autumn these birds face an unbelievable threat when they migrate through the Doyang Reservoir in Wohka, Nagaland, a remote area of India.This reservoir is an extremely important section of the migration allowing the birds to rest up and feed before continuing their journey, however this site has also attracted hunters who net 12,000 - 15,000 of these birds a day.

Nets are hung around popular roosting sites for the birds and for a 2 week period during peak migration birds are caught daily, the captured birds are kept alive in mosquito nets or cane baskets near the nets so they can be exported alive to the customers and markets. From cane baskets, the birds are transferred to poles for ease of carrying into villages and towns. Birds eventually die in the process and these birds are de-feathered / plucked (like poultry) and smoked for sale. The reason for this is 2-fold, the birds are sold and are a form of income for many local people and many are consumed as part of the local diet.

Please familiarise yourself with this photographic slideshow: http://www.conservationindia.org/wp-content/files_mf/31102102-2315.pdf

And also please watch this horrific video (please note this video shows graphic content that some may find upsetting): http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/11/03/migrating-amur-falcons-massacred-in-india-we-need-to-help-these-people-stop-doing-this/

It is ILLEGAL in India to hunt these birds yet this carries on, India is a signatory to the Convention of Migratory Species and thus have a duty under international law to ensure this killing is halted immediately they are also the President of the Convention on Biological Diversity for the next two years so this activity should be of upmost responsibility to them.

The RSPB's Indian Birdlife Partner is The Bombay Natural History Society and they along with Conservation India are working extremely hard to alter government thinking, tighten law regarding the killing and sale of these birds, providing better enforcement around the key roosting sites and to make more people aware of this issue on a local, national and worldwide scale.

We at the RSPB will do all we can to support our partners in India, next year will be a major step forward in this campaign so please keep this issue at the forefront of your minds and spread the word.

I've merged these two posts together and located it in wildlife protection. Shocking report and devastating to see but also fantastic to hear that once this shocking level of persecution was discovered the conservation bodies (including the RSPB and our Birdlife partners) involved have been able to take decisive action to stop it. Any updates we'll add to this thread.

Speechless......

Stopping this sort of disgusting carnage is one of the reasons I'm a RSPB member.

CJ

Just an update on the situation in regards to the Amur Falcon massacre....

Since it's initial media interest lots of hard work has gone on on the ground in Nagaland but media interest continues, this issue is not being left to lie and will not be ignored. The Bombay Natural History Society and Conservation India have both been working hard beginning with a practical response with Nagaland officials posting police and forest guards to prevent any further killings.

The Indian Minister of Environment and Forests, Mrs Jayanthi Natarajan, has asked for an explanation and action report from the Nagaland government, so there is a flurry of activity in Nagaland. A long term environmental education programme will begin soon to educate those from Nagaland about the threats to these birds and moralities and legalities of killing any wild bird, this will be a long term project with the aim of changing ways of thinking forever.

Please remember that small scale opportunistic killing of Amur Falcon annually was going on for a long time in this remote area, but this large-scale killing only started 5-6 years ago after the development of a reservoir, the reservoir possibly attracted the birds due to the large amount of insect life around it (probably dragonflies), so this is not an issue that has been affecting the birds for many years, it is a relatively new problem that could not continue or it would have devastating affects.

One great story to come out of this has been of a satellite tagged Amur Falcon, a female that was tagged in January 2010 in South Africa. The particular bird has been tracked making this perilous migration many times,  this spring she was tracked for the third time over the Indian Ocean to its breeding grounds some 470 kms west of Peking in China. It left the area during the first half of October to arrive on 4 November at the Doyang reservoir in Eastern India. On the 14th November she left the area to start crossing the Indian Ocean and on 17th November was some 400 kms south of Mumbai (Bombay).

The last fix for 20th November shows that she was  only 240 kms from the coast of Somalia in East Africa.  After almost three years, this falcon must be the world champion as for long-term satellite tracking of a small bird with a 5 g PTT, really wonderful news!

Please take time to sign the petition to oppose this needless slaughter -

www.change.org/.../please-stop-amur-falcon-massacre-in-nagaland-india

Please also consider donating to Birdlife's Just Giving page here - www.justgiving.com/amurfalcon

Signing the petition and donating will both help go towards getting this stopped and the RSPB will continue to help and support our partners out in India in any way they need us.

Thank you, Mods, for the merge and updates.

The success-story of the satellite-tagged Amur Falcon adds food for thought to the tagging debate.

Only just seen this - dreadful! It looks like something is being done at last - adverse publicity always seems to have an effect in political circles! I have signed the petition, thanks for the info.

Absolutely awful. Petition signed.

Signed it - and called on my half a dozen friends in India to do the same

Morning people, Im surprised this has passed so many people on here! If you see whats happening its shocking. Lets get the petition signed.