A fire broke out on a patch of grassland near the Owl More in New Town on Thursday afternoon. Many winged residents of the grassland and winter migrants lost their nests and food, birdwatchers said.

The cloud of dense white smoke could be spotted from more than 2km away.

Fires breaking out in grasslands and vacant plots in New Town is nothing new. Almost winter, multiple fires are reported across New Town.

The stretch of grassland that caught fire on Thursday is around 600m from the Owl More. It is not far from the spot where two weeks ago a Siberian Ruby Throat, native to the Taigas of the Ural mountains, Siberia and Mongolia was spotted.

The grassland where the fire broke out has dense bushes and tall grass interspersed with trees, water bodies and marshy patches, an ideal location for birds to nest.

The grasslands and marshlands in the township and the adjoining Rajarhat are home to a wide variety of birds and an annual winter destination for many migratory birds.

On Thursday afternoon, the smoke from the grassland alerted residents and birders in the area. Someone among them alerted the police who in turn, alerted the fire and emergency services.

Souvik Roychoudhury, who lives in a New Town and had clicked the Siberian Ruby Throat, said he saw the smoke and decided to find its source with a few other birders.

“When we reached the spot, a blanket of smoke surrounded the area. We saw a large tract of dry grassland had caught fire. A single fire tender doused the fire in 30 minutes,” Roychoudhury said.

Roychoudhury and several other birders said they feared the fire had caused a huge loss of habitat at a time when many migratory birds roost and nest here.

Arjan Basu Roy, the founder and secretary of Nature Mates — an NGO that works for wildlife conservation, said even though adult birds can fly away in case of a fire, the young ones cannot.

The Telegraph reported last week that the New Town authorities had formed a cell to use drones and conduct aerial surveillance over grasslands and empty plots to stop people from lighting fires.

A senior official of the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) said they have a team that monitors such fires.

“We will conduct an awareness drive and place signage asking people not to set fire to grasslands,” said the official.