Telangana Issues Advisory Against the Caging of Birds in Response to PETA India Appeal

In response to an appeal from PETA India, the Telangana Forest Department has taken a significant step by directing all field officers to strictly enforce a prohibition on the caging and confinement of aerial birds. The advisory has been issued in alignment with the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 and guidance from the central government body, the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI).

In its appeal, PETA India requested that the state take immediate steps to implement the AWBI’s advisories against the caging of aerial birds issued in 2011, 2013, and 2021. Telangana is the latest to issue directives against this cruel practice. The governments of Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Haryana, and Sikkim have issued similar circulars directing action on and imposing prohibitions on the caging of aerial birds.

This directive aligns with multiple court rulings that emphasise birds’ rights to freedom. In a 2011 judgment, the Gujarat High Court observed that birds have a fundamental right to live freely in the open sky and maintained that they should not be caged. The Hon’ble Delhi High Court echoed this sentiment in 2015, acknowledging the fundamental right of birds to fly, and ruled that caging birds for business or otherwise should not be permitted.

Caged birds suffer immensely. They experience depression, stress, and loneliness. Many become so despondent that they relentlessly scream or pluck out their feathers until they are bleeding and raw.

PETA India invites everyone to support the protection of birds by acknowledging their natural needs and opposing their confinement.