The BMC’s demolition squad razes unauthorised shops near Biju Patnaik Airport in Bhubaneswar. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, June 28: Birds of prey near the airport will be hard pressed to find the eating joints they frequent near the airport from tomorrow. And pilots will breathe easier.

The municipal corporation demolished nearly 60 unauthorised shops selling meat, chicken and fish products on the Stewart School-Delta Square route here today. The action follows an incident of a bird hitting an airplane near the city airport two days ago.

Passengers of the 70-seater New Delhi-bound flight from Port Blair via Bhubaneswar had a narrow escape as the bird hit the flight at a height of 1,300 feet, just seven km from the city, and had no impact on the aircraft.

Municipal commissioner Sanjib Kumar Mishra said the demolition was part of a cleanliness drive around the airport so that the dumping of non-vegetarian food materials would not attract birds, especially kites, which apparently causes incidents of birds hitting aircraft.

In the past, meat shops in the vicinity of the airport had been closed down by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and police in Bhimpur, Palaspalli, Pokhariput, Bhimatangi and Gandamunda.

Airport officials said five cases of birds colliding with aircraft have been reported since January this year. However, airport director Sharad Kumar said that this time, the aeroplane was at a much greater height and far from the airport limits as well as the approach way (flight path).

Stating that unplanned urbanisation and slum development could be a cause for birds hunting for food randomly, Kumar said: “We are not saying that the civic authorities are not doing their job well. The situation has resulted from lack of awareness among people, who dump food and other items at places near the airport.”

An agency in Dumduma supplying meat to Nandankanan zoo and dumping animal bones in the area had also invited flak from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) officials in the past. But the city administration has not conducting regular checks and demolition to curb dumping of non-vegetarian wastes near the airport.

A senior civic official said it was not the corporation’s responsibility alone to trim overgrown trees around the airport. He said an appropriate agency should be engaged for this. “We discovered that the airport, unlike hotels and eateries, is not registered with the corporation’s express cleaning service for cleaning up the waste being generated daily. That might be attracting birds near the runway,” he said.

AAI rules say that meat shops should not exist within a 10-km radius of the runway. However, if the rule were to be implemented, there would not be any shop selling meat or fish within Bhubaneswar.

Members of the All Odisha Roadside Vendors’ Association have slammed both the corporation and the AAI for demolishing shops on the Stewart School-Delta Square road.

“The civic administration is violating fundamental rights of people to earn their livelihood. If they do not provide alternate locations for rehabilitation of people whose shops were demolished, we will gherao both the corporation and city airport offices a week later,” said president of the association Pratap Sahu.