Injured barn owl rescued from Sector 52, Gurgaon

Passersby had noticed the owl, which was injured around its claws, on the road near the green belt of New Greenwood CGHS in the sector.

An injured barn owl was rescued by the wildlife department from Sector 52 of Gurgaon on Sunday evening.

The one-year-old owl was taken to Sultanpur National Park for treatment and is currently under observation.

The barn owl is a protected species under Schedule IV of the Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) 1972.

Passersby had noticed the owl, which was injured around its claws, on the road near the green belt of New Greenwood CGHS in the sector.

“We were informed about the owl by residents around 7.30pm and our team, with a doctor, rushed to the spot,” Vinod Kumar, conservator of wildlife (south Haryana), said.

The one-year-old owl was taken to Sultanpur National Park for treatment and is currently under observation, a wildlife officer of the park said. The bird will be released once it recovers.

On October 30, six barn owlets were found at a hotel in Rajiv Chowk. The wildlife department was informed as the female owl was missing for two days and the owlets were surviving without maternal care.

As the owlets are young, they cannot be released into the woods as they need training from an owl to survive and hunt in their natural habitat, officials said. Thus, the wildlife department has decided to send them to the zoo in Bhiwadi of Rajasthan.

Animal rights activists said barn owls are native to this part of the world but they are often illegally traded because they are believed to be associated with superstitious beliefs such as black magic.

“Gurgaon used to have plenty of barn owls around Golf Course Road. However, because of large-scale development, the number of owls dwindled. Conservation of these owls is important for the balance of the ecology,” Amita Singh, a member of Walk for Animals and Habitats (WAH), an NGO, said.