Telangana: Plastic waste, leftovers at Umamaheshwaram temple premises endanger birds

Forest Department officials to meet temple authorities to make the premises plastic-free as devotees dump plastic waste and leftover food

Sangareddy: The Forest Department is preparing to make the premises of the Umamaheshwaram temple plastic-free since the area is a hotspot for bird watching in Telangana.

With people visiting the area dumping a huge amount of plastic waste and leftover food, wildlife photographers and bird watchers have recorded birds foraging in plastic waste and feeding on leftover food.

Seasoned bird watcher Sriram Reddy observed that the presence of discarded food alters their feeding behaviour, potentially impacting their diet and overall health. Moreover, plastic waste poses a serious threat, as birds may accidentally ingest small plastic fragments or become entangled in discarded material.

After noticing the birds feeding on discarded food multiple times, they took up the issue with Forest Department officials, following which the DFO Nagarkurnool decided to hold a meeting with the temple authorities on Tuesday to chalk out a plan to free the temple premises from plastic.

Bird watchers have so far recorded 262 bird species at Umamaheshwaram, located amid the Nallamala forest. A good number of them were rare migrant birds.

The centuries-old ancient temple located at Rangapur in Vangoor mandal in Nagarkurnool district, used to get only a few devotees from nearby places until a few years ago, but started attracting thousands of devotees from various places since the government took up development and also installed lights in 2020.

Some of the rare sightings here include thick-billed green pigeon, red spurfowl, green imperial pigeon, black eagle, black baza, Rufous-bellied eagle, Besra, and Green-crowned warbler. It is also home to nine owl species including the spot-bellied eagle owl.