The Goan’s Big Story on bird menace at Dabolim has thrownSouth Goa’s District Administration in a tizzy. In a first of its’ kindinitiative, South Goa Collector N D Agarwal has not only instructed the IndianNavy to hold period aerial sorties to check bird hazard hotspots regularly butalso decided to hold the aerodrome committee meeting fortnightly to review airsafety around Dabolim. Reacting to The Goan’s exhaustive report, Agarwalconfirmed that he made surprise spot visits to a few of these hotspots onMonday. “The local panchayat has stopped dumping garbage in these areas and isfollowing my instructions to not just stop dumping in these areas but monitorclosely too”, informs Agarwal.
The Goan’s own inquiry revealed that Agarwal along with toptaluka officials had visited the sites and personally checked theimplementation of effective garbage management measures. “I have told the Navyto immediately bring to my notice, if they come across any violations” affirmsAgarwal. The flurry of activities has been welcome by Indian Navy establishmentwho see it as a step in evolving a permanent mechanism to contain bird hits atDabolim.
“We are happy with the string of proactive measures that theCollector has initiated and it was encouraging to see him personally inspectthese areas. We look forward to this momentum being sustained and we ensure a100% flight safety record from bird hazards at Dabolim” states Commodore LalitAgarwala, Chief Staff Officer, Indian Navy’s Goa Naval Area. Cmde. Agarwala hadin The Goan’s story outlined the flight safety scares due to bird hazard andhow unregulated garbage was attracting birds. The Indian Navy plans tosensitise even the State Administration about bird hazards at Goa’s loneAirport.
“Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha, Flag OfficerCommanding-in-Chief, Western Naval Command will be visiting Goa on November 2and 3 and he will have the bird hazard concerns of Dabolim Airport as a talkingpoint in his interaction with Chief Minister and Governor of Goa” informs Cmde.Agarwala. The Navy wants to maintain this ante at a higher level.
The Goan’s investigation however reveals that this will beno permanent solution to Dabolim’s garbage menace. “We have found that birdhits are at very low altitude and hence are insuring that there is no garbagepiling in a one kilometer radius of the Airport. It will however be practicallyimpossible to enforce the 10 km no garbage regulation under Aircrafts Act asplaces beyond Verna and even Vasco’s garbage dump will have to be closed”explains Collector Agarwal.
For Goa’s lone Airport, in a season when bird hits increaseand hundreds of foreign tourists on board charters touchdown, this departurefrom the past could not have come at a better time.
