Chennai, Nov 3 ( IANS): Two villages in Tamil Nadu's Sivaganga district, Kollukudpatti and Vettangudipatti, will not see bursting of firecrackers during the Diwali season, as per their practice - for the sake of their feathered visitors.

The villages have been keeping away from bursting crackers at Diwali for the past few decades, so as to avoid disturbing the migratory birds that reach the Vettangudi bird sanctuary in the area.

Talking to IANS, Sugunandan, a panchayat member of Kollukudipatti, said: "Our elders had told us not to burst crackers during Deepavali as the sound would disturb the migratory birds that land here. We are carrying on the tradition which has been in practice here for several decades and there is nothing new in this."

While governments and Pollution Departments are conducting awareness programmes against the use of high decibel crackers, people in remote villages off the Madurai- Tiruppatur highway are shying away on their own from bursting crackers.

Forest range officer Mathivannan told IANS: "The people of these two villages have not been bursting crackers for the past few decades and this has been due to the fact that the feathered guests are special guests and that they are treated as 'God'."

He said that around 15,000 birds belonging to 23 species from Sri Lanka, the Maldives, China, and Myanmar arrive at the bird sanctuary and they stay for four months for nesting, hatching, and fledging.

Several varieties of birds like egrets, heron, open bills stork, Indian white eye, water hen, black-headed ibis are some of the varieties of birds that have arrived at the Vettangudi bird sanctuary this season, Mathivannan said.

Sugunandan said that even children are not interested in bursting the firecrackers in the area so that the feathered guests are not disturbed.