Government Co-ordination for Handling of Problems Related to Birds

Mr Yee Jenn Jong asked the Minister for the Environment and Water Resources (a) why the issue of crows come under the purview of the National Environment Agency (NEA) while nuisance with pigeons is handled by the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) and complaints about mynahs are handled by neither agency; and (b) whether there is a plan for a single agency to handle problems related to birds.

Dr Vivian Balakrishnan: The management of bird nuisance requires action from several different agencies. These measures include trees management, food waste management and occasional culling of birds as a last resort. For example, (i) NParks and the Town Councils maintain and prune trees regularly in areas where there are large numbers of nests; (ii) NEA ensures increased cleaning frequency at hot spots to remove litter which may act as food source for the birds and bird droppings; (iii) NEA ensures that operators of food outlets at hotspot areas observe good housekeeping practices, and requires refuse points to be properly secured with nettings and other anti-bird devices; (iv) both AVA and NEA take enforcement action against people who feed birds as this can result in littered premises; and (v) occasionally NEA and Town Councils cull crows and pigeons as a last resort.

In the past, the allocation of responsibility amongst agencies was based primarily on the nature of the intervention required, rather than the specific species of bird involved. This inadvertently led to a situation where there was some ambiguity over mynahs in particular. MND and MEWR have decided that, henceforth, AVA will coordinate the work of all the agencies involved whenever problems caused by birds arise.

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