Bhubaneswar, March 11: In an attempt to keep the birds away from the flight approach funnel, the forest department has started pruning and felling trees in and around the Biju Patnaik airport.

While 128 trees inside the airport area will be felled in phases, 457 trees around the boundary will be pruned. The activity will ensure that birds posing threat to aircraft don't get a chance either to rest or build nests here.

Divisional forest officer of the city forest division P.K. Mishra, said: "We have given permission to fell trees inside the airport and prune those outside the boundary so that birds do not get a chance to settle there."

The action was initiated based on a report submitted by a team of wildlife and nature experts, who found 49 different bird species in the airport zone and nine specific species near the runway. The team submitted the report, "competition in air", to the airport director in the second week of February.

Herpetologist and honourary wildlife warden of Khurda district Subhendu Mallick, a member of the expert team, said: "The city airport is surrounded by a series of slums, which also is a source of food for the birds, especially kites and shikra. Other birds, which love to stay near water bodies, tend to stay atop the canopy. Once the tree cover is removed, they will be forced to move away from the flight path."

Mallick, however, said many residents of the Gandamunda and nearby areas opposed the tree pruning activities.

Airport director Sharad Kumar said: "It was found that in 2009 and 2010, many bird-hit cases happened when the planes were taking off. This indicated that the problem happened inside the airport area and the runway. However, after 2010, most bird-hit incidents occurred when the planes were landing or nearing the approach path of the runway. This means the area along the boundary was a habitat for winged creatures."

Following a meeting, which was chaired by chief secretary G.C. Pati on February 10, the civic authorities took stock of the situation and asked the forest department to execute the felling and pruning of trees.

Earlier, action was also taken to remove non-vegetarian shops from the vicinity of the airport and also mark those near the Sundarpada market.

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation is also taking up a project to set up smart shops for meat, chicken and fish sellers at Unit IV market and Ghatikia so that the leftovers could be scientifically processed. The project will be partially supported by Ministry of micro small and medium enterprises.