A common mynah that had flown into a web of kite strings and electricity wires around 40 feet above the road in Dum Dum Park was rescued on Sunday in an operation that stretched more than eight hours.
A team of representatives of the fire and forest departments, an NGO and CESC rescued the bird.
The trapped common mynah’s cries first alerted Govinda Kumar Saha, 60, who had stepped out on the balcony of his third-floor apartment around 7 in the morning. Saha spotted the bird hanging with its head down through the canopy of tall trees in front of his house.
Officials later said the bird was hanging from kite strings, which were entwined with power cables.
“I was getting ready for my morning walk. But I abandoned the plan and started looking for the numbers of centres involved in bird rescues in the city,” Saha said.
“I found the numbers of the Wildlife Transit and Rescue Centre, which is run by the forest department, and the Bonyo India Foundation, an NGO. I called both numbers and sought their help in rescuing the bird.”
A team from the forest department’s rescue centre in Salt Lake’s Baisakhi and volunteers of Bonyo India Foundation reached the spot around 9.30am.
Both teams realised that they could not reach the bird. The NGO team was carrying a rescue stick, but Trishit Roy, a volunteer of the NGO, said it could only reach up to 30 feet.
“Despite repeated attempts, we could not reach the bird,” said Roy.
The team members and Saha then decided to call the fire department, which sent a fire engine to the spot.
The firemen were carrying a ladder but since there were live wires, they sought help from CESC. Officials of the power utility were briefed about the situation and they brought in ladders.
After the CESC team switched off power supply, Hrishit Singha, a volunteer with the NGO who studies in Class IX, went up the ladder and climbed a few branches of a gulmohar tree before bringing down the injured bird around 5pm.
“The bird’s talons got entangled with Chinese manja, which is used to fly kites. We had to cut through each nylon thread carefully,” said Tanmoy Sarkar, who also volunteers with Bonyo India Foundation.
The bird was later handed to the forest department that took it to the Wildlife Transit and Rescue Centre in Salt Lake.