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| April 3, 2000 | ||
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| BAGUIATI, WEST BENGAL Birds of a Feather A Calcutta-based flight purser takes wing while off duty By Labonita Ghosh
Before you reach Subrata Chakraborty's
residence tucked away in the suburb of Baguiati in Calcutta, and before
you walk past the gate with a sign saying "Abode of Birds", loud
squawks greet you. Inside are some 150 exotic species that Birds are an "addiction" Chakraborty traces back to his pre-school days. When he was six years old, he sneaked out of the family kitchen a pair of beautiful white pigeons his grandfather had brought home for his anaemic grandmother's sick diet. When Chakraborty was questioned, he said he had seen the cat eating them. "My grandfather wasn't convinced but he let it pass. He never brought birds to be cooked after that," beams the Birdman, now 55, recalling his earliest triumph. That was the first pair Chakraborty acquired, and they swelled to around 200 by the time he reached his teens. Decades later, his passion is still strong. "The first thing he does when he comes home is rush to his babies," says Chakraborty's son. "He sits and coos to them and sometimes even sleeps in their cages." The babies don't come cheap. The cockatoos, for instance, cost "more than ornaments". Earlier, the family used to grumble about the Rs 10,000 or so he spent on bird feed every month. Now they've learned to just pitch in. Like his feathered friends, Chakraborty too is a rare species. He's an aviculturist or bird breeder, as opposed to ornithologists who study birds. At least six species Chakraborty owns are on the worldwide endangered list, and none are found in India. He has bred these at home, and his benign gene-tampering has created five new types of parrots, unusually coloured ones in white, yellow and blue hues. "There aren't too many people who keep birds to increase their numbers," he says. For one thing, the Indian Wildlife Act, 1972, forbids not only the trapping and killing of Indian birds and animals, but also their being reared privately. Chakraborty admits to several flare-ups with Maneka Gandhi on this issue, but on the whole, she supports his commitment to conservation. Chakraborty's desperation to acquire birds has even led him to theft. When he was 21 and had just joined the Indian Airlines, Chakraborty filched a canary from a consignment meant for the king of Bhutan. Even now, when Chakraborty sees what he calls an abused or neglected bird in some well-to-do home, he picks it up. They swell the ranks of his "celebrities" -- birds once pets of industrialists and politicians, but later abandoned. For Chakraborty, it's the high road to conservation. By the middle of this year, Abode of Birds should have turned into a sort of research centre. Part of it will also become an animal lending library which will give out birds, tortoises, rabbits and guinea pigs to interested children. "We have to catch them young," says Chakraborty. A flight of fancy? This doesn't look like one. |
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There
are two of them and they're the best in the business. They stay up all night
and raise an alarm at the slightest suspicion," says their proud owner.
"They might sleep on one leg, but they can sense the wind move."
Wait a minute. They do what? "Sleep on one leg," he repeats. Now
you are really curious about these wonder sentries. They waddle up
obligingly and look you in your unbelieving eyes. Then they decide you must
be punished for your scepticism with a swift, painful nip to the shins. Two
fierce-looking swans, that's what the unlikely guards are. "Do you know
why they are called rajhans in Bengali?" he asks. "Because kings
used them to guard their treasuries. A pack of them can create the loudest
commotion possible."
Chakraborty, also known as Bengal's Birdman, has painstakingly collected
over 40 years. Five types of cockatoos, eight types of parrots, three
types of pheasants, two types of ducks, doves and finches, three types of
partridges, and a clutch of lorikeets and canaries -- it's a colourful
mish-mash. The birds are either from the grey market in Calcutta's
Hatibagan area or they've been tracked down from various parts of the
country. Mostly, though, Chakraborty -- a flight purser with Indian
Airlines -- brings them back from trips abroad, for which he has a permit
from the state Wildlife Department.