New Delhi, May 31 (IANS) Nobel is thirsty and tired. The little dove is covered with ice cubes and being administered glucose at a hospital in Chandni Chowk where as many as 70 other rescued birds like Nobel have been admitted for sunstroke.

‘She’s suffering from heat exhaustion,’ said a doctor at the Charity Bird Hospital, Chandni Chowk, after examining the white bundle of feathers. All the birds being treated are housed in separate cages.

According to veterinary doctors, over 300 birds are treated every day in Delhi for sunstroke. March and April this year were the hottest in India in 100 years, and in May temperatures have regularly shot past 45 degrees Celsius in the capital.

Delhi has an amazing bird variety, but their numbers are dwindling considerably owing to increasing pollution and urbanisation. Heatstroke is another factor that claims many lives.

Y.D. Gaur, a veterinary doctor at the Charity Bird Hospital, said: ‘Summer is the worst time for birds as hundreds of them are grounded or fall prey to persistent heat waves.’

‘Over 70 birds are treated every day for sunstroke in our hospital and it takes more than three days for a bird to fully recover from the stroke.’

The 80-year-old hospital, which is run by a charitable trust, houses 6,000 winged patients. It has different wards or coops for birds, a research laboratory and intensive care units.

According to Gaur, birds are a neglected community in India as they don’t have separate vaccines.

‘While animals have exclusive medicines here, birds, barring hen and cocks, have no vaccines. In Western countries, they have separate vaccines for birds – pigeons in particular. As a result, their population is high there,’ Gaur told IANS.

‘Vultures, doves and sparrows are facing extinction,’ he said. The consumption of contaminated food sprayed with insecticides proves fatal for several species of birds here.

Delhi also has a charity birds hospital run by the Shri Vijayanand Sureshwar Jain Sewa trust in Shahdara and Prembhavan in Karol Bagh.Wildlife SOS, an NGO, and the Sonadi charitable trust in Najafgarh also treats sick birds.

A caretaker in Karol Bagh who provides water to pigeons said: ‘These ‘kabootars’ are one variety that is often struck by seasonal maladies such as dehydration in summer and pneumonia in winter. They can also suffer from cancer, paralysis, diarrhoea and blindness.’

Geeta Seshamani, founder of Friendicoes, SECA (Society for Eradication of Cruelty to Animals), told IANS: ‘The population of birds is declining drastically in the national capital as the original green belt is missing and the ground water is contaminated. The indigenous native trees are important for any bird community. Many cut down the trees and the exotic plants do not sustain in the long run.’

Common household birds like sparrows and crows can’t be spotted easily in Delhi any more and soon doves and kites could join the list, opine ornithologists and wildlife experts.

‘We rescue 800 kites a year. They are either dehydrated or poisoned with toxins and pesticides. The number of these scavenging birds, which clean the city, is declining slowly,’ Seshamani added.

Abhishek, who monitors the helpline of Wildlife SOS, a voluntary organisation, told IANS: ‘The number of rescued birds goes up in summer. As the blistering sun reduces their visibility, these birds just droop down.

‘Most of them are kites and pigeons. While rising heat take a toll on kites, pigeons succumb to viral diseases and paralysis,’ he added.

Lack of nesting sites in modern concrete buildings, disappearing kitchen gardens, increased use of pesticides in farmlands and the non-availability of food sources are the main reasons for the decline in several bird species in the city, say experts.

(Prathiba Raju can be contacted at prathiba.r@ians.in)