The jackal, which was rescued from airport premises, at Nandankanan on Tuesday. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, July 1: Stray animals continue to pose a threat to flights landing and taking off from Biju Patnaik airport here. The airport authorities caught a jackal near the runway on Saturday.

The airport authorities, in consultation with experts from Nandankanan Zoo, had placed six traps in 2012 to catch stray dogs and wild animals such as jackals, foxes and wildcats. A wild cat was caught in one of the traps in January this year.

Assistant director of Nandankanan Zoo Kamal Lochan Purohit said: “We have received the male jackal from the airport authorities. It will be released into the wild after initial treatment. We have asked the airports authorities to change the positions of the dog/jackal traps as the animals also change their roaming path frequently.”

“We are aware of the issue. We have taken up the safety issue seriously as three bird-hit cases have been reported in the last week of May. The civic authorities were apprised of the urgent need for cleanliness and animal birth control programme to contain the population of the dogs around the airport,’’ said airport director Sharad Kumar.

Co-ordinator of the animal birth control programme and city health officer Chandrika Prasad Das said: “We have begun a survey near the airport. We will shortly launch a birth control drive for dogs.”

Deputy secretary of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation Subhranshu Sekhar Mishra said: “The civic body and the airport officials have agreed on a formula to keep an eye on cleanliness around the city airport on a daily basis. We have also started cleanliness drives in the slums and markets selling meat and fish around the airport.”

On the specific complaint made by airport officials on dumping of the animal waste near the drainage channel under NH-5 flyover in Baramunda, the city health officer said: “We are keeping a tab on the people who are illegally dumping animal waste there. They will be penalised if caught in the act.’’

Environment expert Bijay Mishra said: “There is a reference to mobile courts in the Odisha Municipal Corporation Act, 2003, which the civic body’s sanitation officials can invoke to punish the violators of sanitation rules, especially around the airport.”