Date:04/02/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/02/04/stories/2007020413180400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

Community initiative

Staff Reporter

Bangalore: Knowing there are no short-term solutions to keeping birds off the Yelahanka air base, a team from the IAF is networking with communities nearby to educate them.

The villages in the periphery come under the erstwhile Byatarayanapura and Yelahanka CMCs.

The team led by Wing Commander B.R. Augustine, Station Flight Safety Officer, regularly meets elders in the villages every 45 days and teaches ways of disposing garbage without attracting birds.

And to get the message across even more lucidly, it works with children in the areas so that they can educate their parents about the problem.

The help of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board has been enlisted.

The team monitors the closure of roadside eateries and dhabas during the air show.