``It was a good area to visit for bird-watchers. But there were no checklists available to know the number of birds or the types that visited the area all these days. But after visiting the site we decided to take up research in this area and observe the visiting birds,'' said G Padate of the M S University's Department of Zoology. Padate, who has taken the area for her research project, recently prepared a checklist on the number of birds that come here.

``We witnessed the place going bad to worse, with even unknown people dumping garbage here,'' said A R Pandya, a resident of the area. He added that since the residents did not know names of the birds, they could not keep any records of their movements. He added that even lay eyes could make out that the birds were different and they swarmed the place between October and December.

As fall gave way to winter every year, a visit to the area could guarantee birds like Tree Pipit, Grey Wagtail, Yellowheaded wagtail, Yellow wagtail and the Blackheaded Ssp. ``I think such birds are already a rare sight. If such species have been sighted visiting the area then the civic body should have ensured protection,'' said C J Jose, member-secretary of the Gujarat Ecology Commission.

Jose said the residents should have been made aware to take care of the site.Padate and S Sapna of the department sighted birds like the Little Grebe and Little Cormorant breeding in the area as late as September, 1995. Other species like Little Erget and White Ibis were also breeding in the pond. ``But with more garbage with every passing day, even resident birds like Night Heron, Openbilled Stock or the commonly seen Blackwinged Kite cannot be spotted here,'' Padate said. ``We approached the civic authorities to some precautionary step in terms of barricading the area to protect the birds. But our approach seems to have little effect on the civic authorities,'' said Padate.