Steep decline in Bangalore’s bird species sounds a warning

By Mattia Michielan

BANGALORE (Feb. 1)—Bangalore’s trees are being replaced by cell phone masts, its greenery is being covered by concrete, and the Garden City reportedly has lost 50 percent of its birds in the last three years.

Satellite images reveal that in the last three years, Bangalore has lost more than one-third of its greenery. Work on the Namma Metro and other development has caused around 50,000 trees to be felled since 2008, according to a report by Environment Support Group, a Bangalore-based nongovernmental organization.

“What took 30 years earlier has been achieved in three years by this government,” said Dr. M.B. Krishna, an environmentalist and ornithologist, referring to the number of trees that have been cut down.

“I remember that 10 years ago, when I start going to school, I woke up to the sound of birdsong,” said Anup Subramanian, 24, a resident of Shantinagar. “I wonder where the birds have disappeared to.”

Krishna said 340 species of birds have been recorded inhabiting the city of Bangalore and its surrounding area—more than half the number of species in peninsular India—and in winter many migratory birds come from the north. In the wetlands and numerous trees of the Garden City, the birds found a perfect habitat.

But the number of many species of birds has dwindled to 2 percent of what it was three decades ago, Krishna said.

“In about 30 years, we have reduced bird life by 50 percent,” he said.

“That's the price you pay for development,” said Vinay Kumar, director of the World Wide Fund for Nature’s Karnataka office. “You want IT on the one hand, and all the wildlife to be there on the other.”

Telephone towers blamed

Researchers say the increase in electromagnetic pollution is the main cause of the decline in the bird population.
“When birds are exposed to weak electromagnetic fields, they become disoriented and begin to fly in all directions, which explains migratory birds’ navigational abilities being undermined,” said Prof. Girish Kumar of IIT Bombay’s Electrical Engineering Department. “A large number of birds like pigeons, sparrows, swans are getting lost due to interference from the new mobile phone masts.”

Kumar explained that the disappearance of birds including kestrels, white stork, rock doves, pigeons and magpies has been observed near base stations for mobile telecommunications. It has been observed that the birds have a tendency to stay longer in the lower parts of the trees or on the ground, and that they suffer locomotion and breeding problems, he said.

Sparrows and humans have shared the same roofs for centuries, and because of the sensitivity to the environment that characterizes this bird, it is the preferred indicator of urban ecosystems. Prof. Kumar said that “a stable house sparrow population indicates a healthy ecosystem for human beings in terms of air and water quality, vegetation and other parameters of habitat quality, whereas a declining population of the bird provides a warning that the urban ecosystem is experiencing some environmental changes unsuitable for human health in the immediate future.”

Research conducted by V .P. Sandlas, director general of the New Delhi-based Amity Institute of Space Science & Technlogy indicates that electromagnetic radiation afflicts not only birds, but also plants and mammals, including humans. Continued exposure to electromagnetic radiation can cause headache, migraine, cataracts, eye irritation, loss of appetite, fatigue, lack of concentration, memory loss, anxiety and depression, sleep disruption and insomnia. Depending on the duration of the exposure and the intensity of the radiation, humans can suffer serious biological effects such as brain tumors, eye tumors, Parkinson’s disease and leukemia, according to the research.

Noise pollution causes birds to sing at night

“Nothing has being proved from microwave towers,” Krishna said. “There’s this speculation that it could have an effect, but since it is not really obvious it may not have as big a role as other factors. What we know for sure is that habitat change can bring about a loss. In fact if you look at all the bird species of the world, 60 percent of the birds are threatened because of habitat loss.”

Most trees in Bangalore grew along roadsides and not in gardens, Krishna said.
“The bulk of the large trees were in public places—public spaces that now are disappearing,” he said.

Work to widen Bangalore’s streets is thus removing a key habitat for birds.

Another key habitat being eroded is wetlands, Krishna said. While these occupy only 5 percent of Bangalore’s land, they support around 40 percent of the bird species recorded in the city. In recent years, development has caused the number of lakes in the city to fall from 51 to 17 and from 147 to 93 in the suburban area.

“Even crows are declining in Bangalore—everything is declining,” Krishna said. The only species that is increasing in Bangalore is the pigeons, which can perch and nest on the projections of multistory buildings, he said.

As well as habitat erosion and electromagnetic pollution there are others important factors that contribute to the decline in the bird population: air, water and noise pollution.

“Do you know how the birds respond to the incredible amount of noise pollution?” Krishna said. “They started singing during the night.”

Bangalore’s unsustainable development is also afflicting the suburban area known as the rural-urban fringe. When a city starts growing, its boundaries became a target for speculation, farmers stop growing crops, landowners do not take care of their land or trees, and weeds grow wild because the only interest is in the value of the land. Usually an area of twice the radius of the city is affected by this socioeconomic change, which results in habitat loss.

“This is an ecological disaster,” Krishna said.

He said that of all animals, birds burn up food fastest because they require energy not only to fly, but to get airborne.

“Per unit of body weight, because of their increased food intake, birds also receive the highest dosages of chemicals in the environment,” Krishna pointed out.

In the past, miners took canaries with them to work in mines because the birds perished if odorless, toxic gases were present, giving the miners time to escape. What imminent danger is the loss of hundreds of bird species in our city warning us of?