Barn owl rescued from school building in Rudrapur

RUDRAPUR

: An adult

barn owl

(Tyto Alba), a scheduled animal under the

Wildlife Protection Act

, was rescued from the building of a school in Bhagwanpur village on Kashipur Road on Friday morning. The protected bird was handed to the forest department staff later.


Pushkar Raj Jain, the owner of Jain Global school, said the

owl

was spotted in the staff room. “It was trying to fly but could not make it out of the room because of poor eyesight during daylight,” he said.

The forest officials said that these birds are mostly nocturnal and generally nest in unused burrows, tree cavities or terraces.

The forest department released the owl in the jungle, said forest ranger Harish Ram Arya.

Pran Chaddha, a

wildlife

enthusiast, said that finding a barn owl in a populated area was a cause of concern. “It shows the species is losing its habitat. It is generally found in forest areas. The Shiwalik ranges of Himalaya once had a good population of barn owls.”