Youth held for trying to sell 3 black kite chicks

The Thane forest department, along with members of Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare (RAWW), an animal rescue organisation, caught a 25-year-old man red-handed for selling three black kite chicks, barely 10-day-old, at Dadar on Saturday midnight.

The accused, Deepak Nishad, a resident of Tardeo, was remanded in three-day forest custody by a magistrate on Monday. The forest department also recovered three Alexandrine parakeets from his house, which too were meant for sale.

“Pawan Sharma, Honarary Wildlife Warden of Thane, who received a tip-off about Nishad, alerted us last week that a person was looking to sell three chicks of kites, which is a Schedule I bird. Based on that and under instructions of Dr Jitendra Ramgaonkar, Deputy Conservator of Forest (DCF), we decided to lay a trap. Nishad agreed to sell the three chicks for Rs 15,000 and called us to Dadar,” shared Range Forest officer Santosh Kank. He added that Nishad seemed quite cunning as he made them wait well past Saturday midnight but as soon as he met the decoy and was to hand over the chicks, the team waiting nearby nabbed him.

Forest officials said Nishad claimed to be the ‘middle man’ as he buys birds from traders and then sells it to prospective buyers and even used social media. “He confessed to selling two parakeets last month and told us that this was an easy way of earning quick buck as he wanted to buy a four-wheeler,” said Kank, adding that they were further interrogating him to find out how the chicks were procured.

Sharma, who is the President of RAWW, said, “This case might be the tip of the iceberg. Investigation must be done on how these chicks were procured. Also, the entire network needs to be exposed.”