These villagers gave up crackers for winged visitors

October 23, 2014 08:49 pm | Updated May 23, 2016 04:07 pm IST - Erode

Officials said hundreds of local and other country birds, including the Australian Pelican,  visit the sanctuary from October, lay eggs, hatch them and leave in December.

Officials said hundreds of local and other country birds, including the Australian Pelican, visit the sanctuary from October, lay eggs, hatch them and leave in December.

Continuing with its tradition, five villages near the Vellode Birds Sanctuary, 15 km from Erode, did not burst crackers during Diwali fearing it might scare away the winged visitors.

This is the 15th successive year that residents of Mettupalayam, Thatchenkattuvazhi, Pungambady, Meenakshipuram and Semmandampalayam villages celebrated Diwali without bursting crackers.

Officials said hundreds of local and other country birds visit the sanctuary from October, lay eggs, hatch them and leave in December. This year Australian Pelicans and other local birds had arrived.

Villagers said they decided not to burst crackers during the festival as it would scare the birds away. They allowed their children and others to use sparklers.

More than 5,000 people in the five villages celebrated a ‘silent’ Diwali without bursting crackers, they said.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.