Thane: Even as summer has just begun, the rising mercury levels has already taken a toll on the wildlife in the city. Many doctors have received complaints of animals and birds suffering from dehydration over the past week. While the number of dogs and cats have not been badly affected yet, birds have been hit the most.“It’s just the beginning of summer and we have already received a number of calls about birds that have fainted. Last week, eight baby and four adults Kites were admitted to our hospital after they suffered from heat-related issues,” said Shakuntala Majumdar, president of Thane SPCA animal hospital and emergency centre. Speaking about the reason for the rising dehydration cases, city-based Wildlife Welfare Association member Rohit Mohite, said, “Birds are always affected first in summer as they directly come under the glare of the sun while travelling from one place to another. Earlier, there was plenty of greenery to protect them and plenty of water bodies as well, but now that’s not the case anymore.”“While birds are affected first, stray animals too face the same issues and usually look for shade under vehicles and water in pits and drains when they feel thirsty to avoid dehydration, fatigue and heat strokes this season,” Mohite addedWith these number cases of dehydrated animals and birds on the rise , NGOs have already begun chalking out steps like placing concrete water bowls for strays and birds to help the animals brave the heat.“We recently re-started our water bowl project where we build cement bowls with a five litre water capacity and place it every few meters so that birds and strays in the neighbourhood can have some water to drink. We have kept volunteers in charge of each bowl to ensure that the water is changed or refilled every two days to avoid stagnation. While we have installed 300 such bowls over the past few years, we will be adding another 100 more this summer,” said Nilesh Bhanage, founder of Dombivali-based animal NGO PAWS.

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