madurai bursting crackers especially the noisy ones near wildlife sanctuaries and near the forests have raised concerns among the wildlife conservationists as there are incidents of bursting crackers close to preserved wildlife habitatsthis time people in koonthankulam and kalaimaan nagar in tirunelveli district too burst crackers these two pockets were among the very few places across the state that never lit fireworks in the previous years as the villagers were concerned that it might affect the birds and animals that share the space with humanslighting fireworks for diwali is something new to koothankulam where koothankulam bird sanctuary is located s palpandi 64 who is fondly known as bird man for taking care of the sanctuary and have indepth knowledge of birds expressed shock over crackers lit in the villagefireworks are being lit in small quantities in our village from last year as the number of birds that came here reduced drastically since two years owing to the drop in rains he said mind your business old man crackers are important to birds are the common answers he got from villagers of koonthankulam and nearby areas who light crackers for diwalibirds like ducks dont mind fireworks and dont move away but a majority of birds comprising ibis and spoonbills that are more in number flee even for mild cracker noise it takes about half an hour for them to start returning he said some birds take hours to return and even days to returnthankfully most villagers of koonthankulam predominantly use only sparklers and crackers with less noise there are villages in 2km radius that burst heavy fireworks which badly disturb the birds in the sanctuary fireworks will permanently disturb this beautiful habitat which is a home to 313 species of birds he lamentedkalaimaan nagar near kadayanallur close to the western ghats is another pocket where villagers have never lit fireworks till 2017 conservationist r sheik ushain of kadayanallur said that this year tribal habitants of the pocket burst fireworks for the first time they have started to work in the plains as farmhands and are getting used to the culture and celebrations in the plains due to such fireworks deer has gone deeper into the forest he saidhe expressed concern over the diminishing concern for wildlife sheik also pointed out at the mischief in bursting of crackers in odd hours just to show their protest to the supreme courts restriction earlier people burst crackers till 11 pm or at the most till midnight strangely this time there were fireworks through the night he said and added that this has affected pets as well as stray dogs cats pigeons and birdsconservationists said that the forest department is conducting awareness programmes among the villagers close to the forest asking them not to burst crackers as the noise and smoke will affect the wildlife they made an appeal to people of such areas to avoid noise polluting fireworks