On horns of nilgai dilemma, IGI gets relocation help

New Delhi: Even as construction of the new integrated terminal at IGI airport races against a Commonwealth Games deadline, activity of a different kind is taking place in the once-wooded area. Members of the Nath community, a hunter-gatherer tribe from neighbouring states, are at work, relocating nilgais (blue bulls) from the Terminal 3 area.
Some 65 blue bulls have already been moved to Asola sanctuary, and the exercise is in its last legs. Only a handful of these antelopes remain.
Living in the airport for the past more than four months, the community members are experts at trapping animals; they work with soft nets and leafy bait to trap the animals, which get jumpy at the slightest perceived risk.
“We chanced upon the nilgais in July when we started clearing the area for building Terminal 3,” says Arun Arora from Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), the joint venture company modernising the airport. “The wildlife department suggested the animals should be translocated, and we started with the help of Wildlife SOS.
01/12/07 Neha Sinha/Delhi Newsline

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Categories: Airports Dec 2007, Safety Dec 2007