Cuttack, Sept. 28: Three long-tailed parrots and four mynahs were rescued at Pipili in Puri district, thanks to the initiative of People for Animals (PFA), an animal welfare organisation, on Saturday.

Based on a tip-off from people in the neighbourhood, a PFA team on its way back after relief work for animals in Nimapara area nabbed two people selling the birds.

According to Jiban Das, the secretary of PFA in Orissa, the birds were put on sale in violation of the Wildlife Protection Act.

“The three parrots and four mynahs, all small and unable to fly properly, were in a state of high stress. They are now at the PFA animal shelter and clinic in Bhubaneswar for treatment. All of them will be released when they fly properly,” Das said, adding that reports of “regular illegal trading of parakeets at Pipili”, most of them caught from the Daspalla jungle, have reached them.

Earlier, “under instructions from Maneka Gandhi”, the organisation in Orissa had started emergency relief work for animals in four flood-affected districts.

According to official sources an estimated 2.93 lakh cattle and livestock population have been affected by the current floods in coastal Orissa.

Sources in the state animal husbandry and veterinary directorate here said steps had been initiated to provide 600MT of cattle feed in the flood affected areas. In the first phase, 320MT of cattle feed has been dispatched.