20-year-old Sohail Sayed and other bird-scarers play a crucial role in ensuing flier safety at the city airport
Fliers to and from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) owe much to this 20-year-old. Meet Sohail Chand Sayed. He is among the 18 bird scarers (plus one supervisor) who ensure that your flights are safe from bird hits.
Avians are fond of airports as the green airfield promises easy availability of insects, and they are also attracted by water and the thermal heat of the runway, especially during rains.
Sayed, a class XII (commerce) student of Thakur college in Kandivli loves to chase the birds around. He and others work in shifts and keep their allotted territory of approximately 300 metres clear of birds. Each of them are given about 200 packets of crackers and sound guns.
“I want to complete my studies and later go abroad to work, but, right now, I am enjoying this work. Getting to work inside the airfield, close to zooming planes and chasing away birds, is really exciting,” says Sayed, who also owns a mobile repairing shop near his home in western suburbs. Sohail earns around Rs 7,500 per month and helps his family and funds his own studies with that income.
Hailing from a lower-middle class family, he joined as a bird scarer, at the insistence of his father who works at an in-flight meal supplying company.
He has been on the job for over a year now. And he has some interesting insights about birds. For example, around 33 species of birds visits the city airport, he says.
“Kites are the most difficult to handle as they don't move easily. They love the thermal heat of the runway, generated by the friction of plane tyres and runway during landing or departure of a plane,” he says.
Pigeons, too, are a big nuisance. “Pigeons crowd during the afternoon and they keep shifting from one place to other even when we try to scare them away,” he says.
Crows, in comparison, are easier to handle, Sayed adds. “They just fly from the surrounding slums and go to the terminal building and return.”
But then there's no place for complacency here. Birds can be fun anywhere, not at airports. So, next time you take a plane journey, spare a thought for Sayed and his ilk.
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