Within a span of only four days nearly 32 flamingos have died in Kathi area of Ratanpar near Porbandar due to the heavy power supply lines of 66 kilowatt. The birds passing from a nearby distance are pulled towards these power lines and die due to shock.

The company who supplies this electricity from nearby windmill is Suzlon. While the Bird lovers were grieving, the Power supply company said that they only supply 220 kilovolt of electricity. Thousands of flamingos travel to a place called ‘Kathi’ near Ratanpar. Power lines were installed despite of the protest from the locals.

The most shocking part about this incident is that even though numerous flamingos have died, the forest department has not taken any serious action. Sarpanch Bhimbhai Odedara even took this issue to the High court. Sarpanch Bhimbhai said that he notified the forest department that they should not pass the power line from this area as it is a regular route for these flamingos. Which has now resulted in the death of numerous flamingos.

After the deaths of dozens of flamingos in last week, the Range Forest Officer Shiyani from the forest department rushed to the spot with a veterinary doctor. The vet stated that the cases of the deaths were due to electricity shock. It came out that on 30th June 21 flamingos died and other 4 died on the auspicious day of Ashadhi bij. Three injured flamingos are taken to the bird sanctuary for treatment.

During this time R.F.O Shiyani also contacted the officials at Suzlon. But the officials at Suzlon said that they supply the electricity to Ranavaav, they are not responsible for the electricity poles in question. Meanwhile JETCO, the company that installed the electricity poles refused to accept responsibility. Many solutions were brought up by the forest department so that a similar mishap does not happen again. The idea was to keep the wires underground, to install a pipe on the wires and to keep the wires from water bodies. There also can be another option of covering the lines with insulated layer.