While environment and animal activists are increasingly concerned over the rapidly declining population of birds, authorities in Pakistan are deploying nearly two dozen professional shooters to shoo away birds as they pose a threat to aircraft activity around Lahore airport. 

Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority has decided to deploy a dozen shooters round the clock at the Lahore airport’s runaway as birds pose a challenge to aircraft security. 

The move came after a bird collided mid-air with an aeroplane of Pakistan International Airlines on Sunday, forcing it to make an emergency landing. 

In the first six months of this year, around three dozen incidents —eleven at Lahore’s Allama Iqbal Airport—of birds colliding with aircraft and risking their safety were recorded, an official told The Express Tribune. 

Although measures like using firecrackers, pressure horns and chemical usage to kill were in place, it has had little effect.

The influx of birds around runaways poses severe risks of accidents.

According to the new plan devised by the aviation authority, 12 shooters will be deployed at runaways during the day and ten at night. Two airside duty managers and an airside manager would be on the field to monitor and eliminate bird activity before the start of the day to make flight operations safer, reported The Express Tribune. 

Open dumping of garbage in residential areas near the airport also attracts birds. Officials have requested people to throw garbage only in designated bins. 

(SAM)