Bristy, 8, and Mohibullah, 11, went to Shahbagh yesterday with their mother to take part in the anti-poaching movement of people of all ages. They carried placards of unknown birds they painted themselves.

Bristy and Mohibullah are not the only child participants.

Anisha and Tanzida were among other schoolchildren, urging hunters not to kill the migratory birds. They coined different slogans -- "do not net birds, let them live", "stop killing guest birds" and "stop trading in wildlife".

"Killing birds is a harm for the environment," said Palash, a student of class V.

Eighty-year-old Ahmed Chowdhury, a retired schoolteacher, recalled that he was into hunting birds in his late teens. But newspaper articles awakened him to the impact bird hunting has on ecology.

Bandhu, a welfare organisation, organised the anti-poaching programme, featuring a seminar later in the day.

Inam-ul-Haq, a prominent birder, read out the keynote paper at the seminar at Novera Auditorium in Shahbagh.

The number of migratory bird species in Bangladesh came down to 50 from 300 in space of 20 years, Haq said.

"If we don't become aware from now on and take steps, birds will be rare creatures for the generations to come," he told the seminar.

"Wild birds cannot live in cages. So trying to keep migratory birds as pets is pointless," said Haq who presented a slideshow on wild birds.

Film Director Subhas Dutta chaired the session in which Ragib Uddin Ahmed, environment scientist, focussed on the human-bird relations in ecology.

Anisur Rahman, secretary of Bandhu, rounded off the seminar with a thanksgiving address.