Do the winged visitors harbour bird flu virus? (editorial)
N. Gopal Raj Concern over the possibility that wild birds might transport the bird flu virus known as H5N1 has led to greater interest in studying bird migration. A flock of flamingoes over the Pulicat Lake in Andhra Pradesh. One day in December last year, Niranjan M., a 29-year-old engineer and avid bird-watcher living in Bangalore, drove some 125 km to a lake near Somnathpur in Karnataka. The lake was awash with a couple of hundred migratory birds, mostly bar-headed geese and, in the warm glow of the evening sun, he took over two dozen photographs.