With an early summer in the offing, migratory birds are preparing to leave the region earlier than in previous years. This was disclosed by Assistant Conservator of Forests Gunin Saikia here yesterday. Saikia said that the winged visitors, which come from such distant places as Siberia and China, are getting ready to depart from the wetlands adjoining the Brahmaputra, Kokilamukh, Jhanjimukh and Nimati areas. "About 200 geese and other birds are preparing to fly from the Jhanjimukh beels,' Saikia informed. "The Forest Department has estimated that about 30,000 to 35,000 birds have flown in from other parts, but in some years, we had counted more than a lakh,' he further said. The reason for the decline, Saikia said, was due to the decreasing habitat and encroachment of water bodies by humans, which was a deterrent for the birds to alight. To the suggestion that the migratory birds were being poisoned and killed for meat, after an incident yesterday in which a number of crows died after eating the flesh of a dead goat suspected to have been poisoned at Nimatighat area, Saikia said, this was unrelated to poisoning of migratory birds. "The goat might have died after eating pesticide sprayed vegetation and this might have affected the crows in turn but had migratory birds been poisoned in this manner, then their meat would have affected humans as well,' Saikia added. The Forest Department, on the contrary, praised the work of nature organizations and other NGOs for spreading awareness among the rural populace against killing of birds, some of which were rare and endangered. "Instances of killing of migratory birds for flesh and feathers was a very common occurrence till a few years ago, but now we hardly get to hear of any such case,' Saikia added. It is worth mentioning here that there are 12,000 bird species in the world, out of which 900 exist in the region and during winter, around 500 species arrive from outside.