Recently, the office of Wildlife SOS in Delhi received a tip from an anonymous caller that poachers were attempting to smuggle some birds of prey amidst luggage in a bus in the town of Meerut, about 3 hours away.
The registration number and description of the bus were recorded and WSOS coordinated with local officials and the bus was stopped en route to Delhi. The initial search did not turn up anything. But when the police took a closer look at the luggage on the roof of the bus, they found a small cage carrying 2 falcons. The temperature was over 46 degrees Celsius (115 Farenheit) and the birds were stuffed into a pile of smelly bedding. They were terrified, exhausted and dehydrated.
In the commotion of the rescue, the perpetrator was able to disappear into the crowd and remains at large. WSOS hopes that the rescue will be a deterrent for future smugglers. According to Kartick Satyanarayan – co founder of Wildlife SOS, “The two juvenile birds, Shikra hawks, are now under our care at Wildlife SOS and will be under rehabilitation where they will learn to fend for themselves. We hope to release them in their natural habitat when they are fit to be released.”
