The state government has asked five municipal bodies around Calcutta airport to improve their cleanliness and garbage management to address the problem of bird hits on aircraft while landing or taking off.

Nandini Chakravarti, Bengal’s home secretary, who chaired the airport environment management committee meeting at the airport on Saturday, asked the North 24-Parganas district administration to monitor cleanliness and garbage disposal in the five municipal bodies.

The directive came after the airport authorities complained about aircraft suffering bird hits and most civic bodies doing nothing to clean garbage dumped around the airport premises.

“Birds tend to cross the runway and the approach path of flights as they get attracted by garbage around the airport,” said an airport official.

The meeting was also attended by airport director Pravat Ranjan Beuria, government officials and representatives from the municipal bodies.

There are two types of bird hits, suspected and confirmed, said airport officials. In the case of suspected ones, the pilot suspects a bird hit the aircraft but evidence, like a dead bird or blood stains, are not found. In case of confirmed hits, evidence is available.

“This year, there have already been 19 confirmed bird hits at Calcutta airport. Last year, the number was 18 between January and December,” said a senior airport official. However, the number of suspected bird hits went down from 91 in 2023 to 60 in 2024 till now, said the official.

An airport official said they have hired a consultant to study the behavioural pattern of birds.

In the last meeting of the environment management committee held in February, it was discussed that waste dumped off Badu Road and Belghoria Expressway are major concerns.

There are also tall trees in the vicinity of the airport, which need to be pruned regularly, and drains that are clogged, said airport officials. There are open drains that need to be covered.

“In the past few months, only Madhyamgram municipality had shown improvement in garbage management,” said an official present at the meeting.

The other four civic bodies in the vicinity of the airport are Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, Dum Dum Municipality, North Dum Dum Municipality and New Barrackpore Municipality.

The chairman of the Madhyamgram Municipality, officials from the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, Dum Dum Municipality and North Dum Dum Municipality were present at the meeting.

“We have regular checks. We ensure that the offal and leftover waste generated from shops are not dumped in the open. Our garbage collection vans visit shops at least twice a day and shopkeepers are instructed not to throw any waste outside but to
keep it in closed containers so they don’t attract birds. The checks are also carried out in temporary markets and
stalls in Madhyamgram.
After the waste is collected, it is then sent to the landfill area near Bally,” said an official of the Madhyamgram Municipality.

An official of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation said they have asked all shops that deal in poultry, fish and meat around the airport, particularly in Chinar Park, Teghoria, Ashwininagar and parts of Rajarhat, to ensure they don’t dump waste in the open.

“We had directed all shopkeepers to ensure they don’t dump waste in the open. Our teams regularly visit markets but a section of shopkeepers are not following instructions... We will now start sending formal letters... if they don’t comply, steps will be taken,” the official said.

At the meeting, the problem of laser beams used by party venues was also discussed, said sources.