Polluted Storks Inevitable Decline: A Criminal Case Launched

The materials regarding the pollution of storks have been gathered and sent to law enforcement; a criminal case has been initiated. Arthur Beglaryan, the head of the Animal Protection Division at the Environmental and Subsoil Inspection Agency, stated this in an interview with NEWS.am.

He notes that the decline of storks was inevitable, as they had anticipated it: "We have qualified this as an ecological disaster; we knew that they were going to decline. Some of the storks cannot fly, find food, and inevitably face decline."

According to the representative of the inspection agency, it is impossible to wash the storks' feathers: "The process of cleaning the feathers damages the birds, resulting in the same condition."

Responding to the question of whether this issue primarily exists in the community of Hovtashen in the Ararat region, he answered positively.

Luba Balyan, a researcher at the Institute of Zoology of the National Academy of Sciences, mentioned that there has been an alert for two months, but no practical action has been taken by the competent authorities to rectify the situation. She emphasized that similar alerts had occurred in previous years as well, but there was no response: "An operational commission was not formed to adequately organize the efforts to save the storks. The solution to the issue is not just washing them; they needed to be kept somewhere, fed, and cared for until they could be washed, rather than being immediately captured and stressed out. A veterinarian or relevant specialist should examine the storks to understand whether they should be washed or not."

Luba Balyan added that while the Hovtashen community has drawn attention, the problem also exists in other communities: "The storks outside the community are neglected; there is no ongoing monitoring or supervision. The storks that were recorded did not appear as we roamed outside the settlement, which is a very bad signal."

The zoologist is concerned not only about the polluted storks but also about their chicks, as they have not spent the necessary time with mature individuals and have "not learned the lessons of life."

It should be noted that for some time now, the storks residing in the Hovtashen community of the Ararat region have been reported to be polluted and unable to fly. According to preliminary information, the storks were polluted by industrial waste dumped into the Hrazdan River. The Water Committee issued a statement indicating that a real garbage dump was discovered in the open drainage network coming from the Sis community in the Hrazdan River area, at the intersection of Sis-Noramarq-Ranchpar communities, under the bridge: "The accumulation of garbage is further facilitated by a large-sized non-functional pipe, which channels waste from the Nairit factory into the drainage. Moreover, the dominant waste consists of fatty residues from fish farms, which have recently become a scourge for the storks in the area."