Ideally, animal rescuers should be able to trust the Forest Department, right? Well, if you answered in the affirmative, then what comes next will surprise you. The officers of Bombay Territorial Range of Thane Forest Department (TFD), who were supposed to take the kites that were rescued from Pradeep D’Souza, an animal lover’s residence, failed to keep their word of safely handing over the kites to the Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park in Katraj near Pune.  Instead, they dumped the injured and unable-to-fly birds inside the core forest area of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, where no one quite knows how anyone would take care of the birds.

The filthy conditions of the place add to the misery of the injured kites

On April 1, mid-day had reported how the wildlife wing of the Thane Forest Department (TFD) had rescued 191 birds and bats, from D’Souza’s house. These included seven full-grown bats, 25 parrots, 25 owls, 125 kites and nine sea birds. The kites that were rescued by the FD were brought to Bombay Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BSCPA). At that time, this newspaper had been informed by Anil Todarmal, Range Forest Officer, TFD that 30 kites had been handed over to Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park and the remaining 95 injured kites, too, would be shifted there soon. But earlier this week, a shocked animal lover spotted those injured kites near Tulsi Lake at Sanjay Gandhi National Park.