Transco stops power supply to three districts for 10 minutes to rescue a pigeon

Sangareddy: Power supply to most parts of three districts was stopped for 10 minutes on Monday to rescue a pigeon that was hanging precariously from a high tension electric line at KPHB in Hyderabad.

The unique rescue operation saw TS Transco officials, following a request from the Animal Warriors Conservation Society, switching off the power supply to most parts of Rangareddy, Medchal-Malkajgiri and Hyderabad, so that the Society could rescue the pigeon without the rescuers suffering an electric shock.

According to the Ameenpur-based Society’s founder Pradeep Nair, they had got a call from some animal lovers at 2 pm on Monday after which a team rushed to the spot. Since it was a 133-KV electricity line, Nair said it would put the rescuers at risk.

AWCS Santoshi member said they then contacted the office of Transco chairman and managing director D Prabhakar Rao. After discussions and consultations



among top officials, the power supply was stopped for 10 minutes to most parts of the three regions.

The AWCS had hired a boom lift paying Rs.6,000 an hour and rescued the bird, which was released immediately into its habitat since it was healthy. Santoshi said the pigeon had entangled its leg in a discarded thread.

When it sat on the electricity line, the thread got stuck to the wire when the pigeon tried to fly off. Though the actual rescue process was done in 10 minutes, the entire process took nearly six hours, she said, pointing out that resources including the boom lift had to be mobilised.

Once they managed to get through to the top brass of Transco, things moved faster and then, the actual rescue operation was done.

AWCS members Sanjeev Dasa, Sanjeev Verma, Romina, Ganesh and Niranjan were also part of the operation.