A bird sanctuary that houses winged animals, Indian as well as exotic, and built by a Shahjahanpur-based bird lover is drawing a huge crowd. Pankaj Batham says when he was young, he saw his grandmother had a special bond with birds, rearing them and sometimes even “talking” to them.

“After her death, I took her passion and set up a farm for 28 foreign breeds of birds and hundreds of different varieties of birds of the country," he told PTI. Batham said some of the foreign breeds of birds at the farmhouse, spread over four acres, include Lady Amaranta (Malaysia), Ringnet (Poland), Yokohama (Vietnam), Silkie (US) and Whitecap (Holland). Besides, there is Kadaknath breed of cock and Masakali variety of pigeon.

From time to time, the birds are given vitamins and antibiotics to keep them healthy, he said. "Every time before I have my meals, I take a round of the farm to check whether any bird is unwell. Two staff members are deputed for food and water to the birds," he said. Batham said he procures foreign-breed birds online.

These birds come to Kerala from foreign countries and then reach Lucknow by train. From there they are brought to the farm, he said, adding a foreign-breed bird costs around Rs 25,000. Masakali pigeon, seen in Bollywood movie “Maine Pyar Kiya”, enthralls the visitors to the farm when it meanders and spreads its feathers to shape like an umbrella.

An Australian parrot is also there in the farm. Batham said every day around 9 am hundreds of birds arrive at the farm and he feeds them too.?Professor of Zoology in Swami Sukhdevanand College Dr Ramesh Chandra told PTI that foreign breed birds have different behaviour and they adapt themselves to the new environment easily.

Principal of a private college Shail Saxena said, “Around 100 students from our college had gone to the farm to see the foreign breed birds. The information they got about the birds was encouraging.” Dheeraj Rastogi, whose organisation Prithvi works on welfare of animals and birds, said till 1993, Siberian birds used to make a halt in the Bahadurpur area of Shahjahanpur. However, with rapid urbanisation and drying of ponds and lakes, the arrival of such birds has stopped, he added.