The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources appealed to the Office of the Prosecutor General with a request to register criminal proceedings under the ecocide article and start a pre-trial investigation into the mass death of birds in the Odessa region.
About 100 birds w ere found in the Tuzlovsky Limany National Natural Park, poisoned by a substance similar to rodenticide (poison for rodents), reports Ministry of Natural Resources.
The report noted that on November 30, employees of the national park found about 50 white-fronted geese, 40 yellow-footed martins, 8 rooks and 2 gray crows in the floodplain of the Hadzhider River. Several live birds with atypical behavior were also found.
The study was conducted by specialists from the Institute of Zoology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. They recorded a similar morpho-physiological picture as that of massively dead birds in the Askania-Nova Biosphere Reserve in 2021.
The press service of the Ministry of Natural Resources noted that in 2021, in the Askania-Nova biosphere reserve, the cause of mass death of birds was poisoning with the Brodifacoum rodenticide. It is an anticoagulant used by farmers against all types of rodents. It acts even after a single dose and affects the circulatory, central nervous, respiratory, cardiovascular systems, liver, kidneys.
“Such potent drugs are usually used by farmers in water protection zones and coastal protection zones, contrary to the legislative ban. At the same time, the rules for its use are not observed, pouring poisoned grain near the mink,” the report says.
The press service explained that the poison is consumed not only by rodents, but also by birds, hares, and roe deer. In addition, birds of prey, foxes, wolves are poisoned a second time, consuming mouse-like rodents, poisoned hares, partridges and pheasants.
Earlier, EcoPolitic wrote, that environmental inspectors have collected a powerful evidence base in the case of committing ecocide on pollution of the rivers Sluch and Khomora with untreated sewage from a cardboard and paper enterprise.
As EcoPolitic reported earlier, in the Odessa region, employees of the national park "Tuzlovsky Limany" found 300 dead birds on Burnas estuaries and Salty. The reason for the death of birds could be the chemical contamination of the estuary with heavy metals and other toxic substances after the bombing by Russian troops at the beginning of a full-scale invasion.
