-- Birds seized from Gazipur warehouse

-- Caught and brought from Rajshahi

-- Traders jailed for one year

A magistrate court today sentenced two people to one year imprisonment hours after Wildlife Crime Control Unit of Forest Department rescued 794 birds of different species from their warehouse in Gazipur this morning.

The convicts are Lal Miah and Nazrul hailed from Habiganj district.

A team of Wildlife Crime Control Unit raided a warehouse near Joydebpur intersection around 7:00am and rescued the birds including blossom-headed parakeets, munias, house sparrows and starlings (Shalik), inspector of the unit Ashim Mallick told The Daily Star.

They also detained the two bird traders and found eight dead birds at the warehouse, he said.

Later, the detainees and birds were handed over to Agargaon forest office in Dhaka.

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The traders collected the birds from Rajshahi and kept them at the warehouse for sale, the inspector said.

They used to sell a pair of Parakeet at Tk 2,000, Munia at Tk 500, sparrow at Tk 400 and take Tk 1,000 for each starling, he added.

Later, Sarwoer Alam, an executive magistrate of Rapid Action Battalion, jailed Lal Miah and Nazrul for one year.

Some of the rescued birds have already been freed at Cuszon Hall while the rest will be released at Botanical Garden, Ashim Mallick said.