Bhubaneswar: Altogether 1,400 trees around the Biju Patnaik Airport would be pruned to destroy the nests of birds and prevent mid-air collision between birds and planes. The massive exercise will be jointly taken up by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and Odisha Forest Development Corporation (OFDC) within a week.
The decision was taken after the November 11 mishap, in which a Bhubaneswar-bound flight was forced to make an emergency landing at IGI airport in New Delhi following a bird hit. The Biju Patnaik Airport has also witnessed a spurt in bird hit incidents in living memory. Eight such mishaps were recorded in the last two years, triggering panic among the fliers.
"We will start pruning the branches of trees where the birds have made their nest. BMC would bear the expenses," BMC commissioner Sanjib Kumar Mishra said. "The forest department has given us a rough estimate of Rs 60,000 for the branch cutting," Mishra said.
17/11/12 Debabrata Mohapatra/Times of India
