Sarus Not the Only One. This Kashmiri Woman’s Barn Owl Rescue Is Stealing Hearts

J&K's only woman wildlife rescuer ensured besides recognition of conservation efforts, she's legally covered too.

J&K's only woman wildlife rescuer ensured besides recognition of her conservation efforts, she's legally covered too.

Image: Chetan Bhakuni/The Quint

It’s a rain-sodden evening. Aaliya Mir slowly clicks open the rear door of her car, grasps the large wicker basket firmly with both hands, and starts plodding up the mountainous track in the Zabarwan forests in Srinagar. The access to woods is via a circuitous road cut into a massif, full of Pine and Oak trees that hems in the famous Dal Lake from one side.

She gingerly lifts the flat top of the basket, revealing a demure Barn Owl. The bird squeezes open the bulbous black eyes, spins its head round, and looks at Mir through the crack, almost expectantly, before the lid is closed back.

“We will have to wait for it to get dark before it is released,” said Mir, who is the Programme Head and Education Officer at Wildlife SOS, a Delhi-based non-profit frontline organisation that oversees rescue and rehabilitation efforts of wild animals across India, especially those straying into human habitations.

Mir had rescued the bird on the outskirts of Srinagar city, prompted by a call from the owner of the house where it was found, its wings and legs bruised, unable to fly. “The man had seen it in his backyard and immediately rang us for help,” she said.

Upon impulse, Mir clambered aboard her vehicle and drove furiously, navigating her way through the traffic-clogged Srinagar city, took the bypass route, and arrived at the spot. She grabbed the bird as it flapped its wings in a vain attempt to flee. “We brought the bird into our facility at Dachigam National Park in Srinagar where we have a special medical team that treated it,” she said.

The Rare Animal Rescue Enclosure

The Quint visited the facility last month. Barn Owl wasn’t the only wildlife species recuperating there. In a white cage, a Peregrine Falcon was vainly trying to make a bid for escape. In another large room, a Black Kite blurted out a high-pitched call. There was another Barn Owl, besides the one being released at Zabarwan that too appeared to be waiting for its chance to break free.

All these animals were rescued in their injured state, nourished with medical aid, and were now in line to be released back into the wild, subject to Mir's approval, who will be inspecting each one of them. “Sometimes, I would free them in one large room to check how fit they are to fly,” she said. “Allowing them to glide in a smaller area first helps us assess their path to recovery.”

Only Woman Wildlife Rescuer in the UT

For years, Aaliya Mir has become the face of wildlife rescue operations in Kashmir. Her encounters with snakes, leopards, and porcupines which are increasingly found straying into the residential areas in Kashmir—in the backdrop of climate change and deforestation—have already turned her into a well-known figure.

But there’s another dimension to her swashbuckling career: She is the only woman wildlife rescuer in the region where conservative mores still hold some sway at the societal level. Her job, therefore, is significant in ways more than one. “If you know you are on the right path, then nobody can stop you,” she says. “It is my family that’s the key pillar of my support.”

Recently, the J&K government also conferred upon her the Wildlife Conservation Award, a much-needed recognition.

Wildlife SOS came to Kashmir in 2007, following reports of increasing human-animal confrontation. As newspapers reported more cases of people being mauled by the leopards and Black Bears, the organisation embarked on a large-scale assessment program to decipher the reasons behind the frequent, life-threatening encounters in J&K as well as map out the areas that saw most of these incidents.

To formalise its mandate, the group also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the J&K Wildlife Department, that outlined its remit as well as its responsibilities in the former state.

Mir started as a volunteer with the organisation where her husband used to work as a veterinarian. “It was he who introduced me to the group,” she says. “I was first participating in the training camps and fundraising events.”

Following the operationalising of the agreement with the local authorities, Mir started taking part in the rescue operations. “In the first year alone, we rescued four Asiatic Black bear cubs. That underscored the kind of work that needed to be done,” she says.

As newspapers filled with the reports of her rescue operations, she began receiving more calls: Now, regarding leopards.

“I found that people here don’t have the sensitivity required to deal with the wildlife,” she says. “So we started programs at the community level and schools. We started with the bottom-up approach.”

Around the same time, the organisation also prodded the J&K Wildlife Department into constructing one rescue facility at the South Kashmir resort town of Pahalgam where animals who were being nursed back to health could be temporarily stationed. “It was first such in Kashmir,” she says.

Also recognising the need to have fully trained staff, the group started imparting training in firing tranquiliser guns so that ferocious animals like leopards and bears could first be lulled into a state of languor before they are captured.

“We found that people were unskilled here,” she says. “They would go to rescue sites upon being reported about the presence of a wild animal but would fail to catch it. Their equipment was rudimentary. That’s why we started organising capacity building programs.”

In this way, the Wildlife SOS led by Mir and her team “helped put together wildlife rescue and conservation initiative on a much organised scale.”

The Life-Sized Asiatic Bears

At the Dachigam facility that The Quint toured, there are small dens with iron railings and cages of varying sizes. The office itself abuts a large fenced area that walls off two Asiatic black bears. The life-sized bears, one of which lumbered close to the iron fence and stuck his tongue out through the fence, as if trying to solicit food, are the same cubs that were first rescued in 2007.

The bears are fed as per the diet schedule designed by the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), a national body. They are given bread made from maize, rice flour, millet, and sorghum. The bread is laced with honey.

“In addition to this they are fed dates, seasonal fruits, vegetables, porridge, eggs, and multivitamins as prescribed by the CZA,” Mir says.

Over hundreds of animals have been treated at the two facilities since 2007, including bears, leopards, Himalayan Gorals, Musk deers, Ibex, and birds such as Egyptian Vultures, Griffons, Golden Eagles, falcons, owls as well as reptiles such as turtles. “Turtles aren’t naturally found in Kashmir but people buy them as pets and then abandon them,” she says.

It’s been 16 years that Mir has been fielding calls from various places across Kashmir. The volume of calls varies from season to season. In winters, Mir’s team caters to calls mostly regarding the presence of birds and leopards.

In autumn, when orchards across the Valley start bearing fruits, the calls are about bear sightings. And in the hot summer months, people complain about reptiles, especially snakes.

Recent Focus on Wildlife Protection Laws Reignites Row

Recently, a national controversy over a UP man’s friendship with a Sarus crane and its subsequent seizure by the UP Wildlife authorities reignited debate over the legality of possessing wild animals.

Mir, however, says that her organisation was authorised to cater to the rescue calls, hold the rescued animals in sanctuaries and treat them until they were healthy. She says that her organisation complied with the local as well as the national Wildlife laws.

Aaliya Mir rescuing the Barn Owl

Image: Special Arrangement

Freedom at Last

The Barn Owl which was being rescued last Friday, had been in Mir’s possession for a week. On the day of its release, The Quint accompanied the rescue team into the forests of Zabarwan. On the first attempt, the owl did not fly. “Probably because he thinks it’s too much of a light here,” Mir laughs. 

The team climbs higher, picking their way up the soft earth, soaked with rain and littered with pine cones. As the evening descends, the Barn Owl turns active. He springs to his feet, leaps on the edge of the basket, and twirls his head playfully. Then the bird stops, ducks lower, stretches out his head, and becomes airborne. 

(Shakir Mir is an independent journalist. He has also written for The Wire.in, Article 14, Caravan, Firstpost, The Times of India, and more. He tweets at @shakirmir. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)