Bhubaneswar, April 11: A group of wildlife enthusiasts from the city has come together to save birds by providing them water. 

With mercury soaring, the group under the banner, Wildies, is encouraging people to keep pots filled with water on terraces or open spaces for thirsty birds. They recently set up kiosks at Raahgiri to spread awareness on the issue. 

They are also promoting it on various social networking sites. 

“Birds struggle to find natural water resources and many die of heatstroke as well. So, we are requesting people to keep clean bowls of drinking water in their balconies or their backyards for the thirsty birds in the neighbourhood,” said Subhendu Bhattacharjee, secretary of the club. 

There are around 15 members in the group with most of them being in their late forties. “All of us have been doing birdwatching in our leisure time for the past 25 years. But, we never got to do anything concrete. Therefore, we thought it is high time to turn our passion into a serious affair,” said 45-year-old Subhendu, who is a mechanical engineer. 

The group has also joined hands with forest officials of the Barbara reserve that is touted as the home to a number of bird species. They will work with them to prevent forest fire that is a frequent during summer. 

“We will start the awareness campaign next week. We will train the local communities in controlling and preventing forest fire. They will be involved in removing combustible materials around their houses,” said Umakant Biswal, another member of the group. Biswal, 48, is a pharmacist by profession. The members want to spread their initiatives across the state. “We want to conduct awareness camps in various districts on how to take care of animals during summer. We want to bring together wildlife enthusiasts from across the state under one roof,” said Biswal. 

The group recently conducted a workshop on birdwatching and ecology at the Regional Science Centre. Ornithologist U.N. Dev attended the workshop and spoke about the need to arrange birdwatching sessions for identification and documentation. 

The group is planning to start a research on a type of bird called skimmer. “We are getting in touch with prominent bird enthusiasts to work on this endangered bird,” said Kumud Rath, another member.