Rayees Shah/ Shah Basit
Ishfaq Lone, a member of the group received a phone call from a boy naming Abid, he told him that he has rescued a bird lying unconscious nearby his shop at Mammer area of Kangan in Ganderbal district and sent him some photographs of the bird.
After that Ishfaq informed other members of the group Wajid Lone and Mir Jaffer and they all went to the spot and found it was Subadult of a water bird known as Common Moorhen.
While Speaking to he Kashmitiyat, he said the team/rescuers said that this isn’t natural habitat of the bird. The bird couldn’t survive there for long so they have to release it at some wetland and as It is a water wader means it lives in water and breeds in water and its food is also in water.
They said it was so strange that the bird was found at a place which is not its natural habitat.
They added after searching nearby, they didn’t find any other bird of this specie there. So, on the directions of Irfan Jeelnai, founder of Birds of Kashmir, they decided to take it to its habitat which is a wetland or some lake where it would be easy for the bird to survive because it is its habitat and finding food will be easier for the bird.
“The main reason we took the bird to manasbal was that it was a sub adult means not fully grown so it could had been the meal of a dog or some other animal if it was not taken there”, they added.
After a brief discussion, they decided to take it to Mansbal lake but it is cold weather these days here in Kashmir as it is the month of October and the team members were on scooters so it was impossible for them to go and return back in the late evening.
“We called a friend Kamran Tahir who had left his home for some work but stepped back and within no time got ready to take us to Manasbal in his car.”
“We left at about 6:16pm from Kangan for Manasbal and released the bird there at around 6:56pm and returned back with a smile on our faces,” one of the members told The Kashmiriyat.