kolkata last month santragachi jheel hit headlines when a group of nature lovers started cleaning up water hyacinth from the lake the jheel finally got back to shape to host migratory birds after assistance poured in from all quarters theres another such forsaken plot at baranagar that houses thousands of birds but land sharks are on the prowl to devour the land environment activists and locals have thwarted realtors for more than once but they fear birds could lose this patch of land if the government does not intervene the 20bigha forested land off tobin road at baranagar is home to more than 20000 birds of at least 50 species but except for a few environment activists and ornithologists not many of us know about the existence of the plot however this has facilitated storks egrets and woodpeckers fly about unhindered taking advantage of the serenity of the place that has remained neglected for years according to ornithologist sumit sen the abandoned plot is mainly a nesting site for water birds i visited the spot a few times it is mainly a nesting site for water birds they have proliferated because it is a semiprotected place he said the uninhabited land belongs to bengal immunity a central government undertaking that used to run a factory here to produce some antivenom serum the factory shut down about 15 years ago and since then the area has been lying abandoned the plot is surrounded by a 20feet high boundary wall making it an exclusive abode for the winged creatures locals at baranagar had previously prevented real estate developers from filling up the waterbody inside the boundary and grab the area campaigns have already been held to ward off the menace they are also planning to the meet the chief minister to urge her to help develop the area as a bird sanctuary sovan basu majumder secretary of the local residents association said they are preparing a mass memorandum that will be submitted to the cm there are about 55 families living here and we are all united in this endeavour to set up a bird sanctuary here we are planning to meet the chief minister to request her to take up the matter he said the left font government had tried to set up an aviary here in 2008 a plan was also drawn up but it did not materialize residents complained that promoters have tried to grab the plot every now and then they alerted the state forest department when some trespassers started felling trees and filling up the waterbody later the state forest department submitted a status report about the plot and the large variety of birds it houses it was found the place had already become a natural habitat for over 20000 birds apart from storks egrets and parrots migratory birds have also been spotted during the winter the report had said it also mentioned that the place was a haven of different kinds of snakes and