Plan takes wings to protect migrant birds in Chennai's Pallikaranai

The ministry has identified sites in only 14 States and for the rest, the exercise is still underway.

CHENNAI: City’s Pallikaranai marsh is among the 11 wetlands in Tamil Nadu chosen under a five-year National Action Plan for Conservation of Migratory Birds and their Habitats along Central Asia Flyway (2018-2023).

Of the wetlands of ornithological importance identified on the basis of existing monitoring information, 29 sites, including 20 major wetlands and nine wetland clusters, have been identified as significant bottleneck sites for migratory waterbirds in India.

In Tamil Nadu, Point Calimere (Nagapattinam), Great Vedaranyam Swamp (Nagapattinam), Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park and Adam’s Bridge (Ramanathapuram & Thoothukudi districts), Karaivetti Bird Sanctuary (Ariyalur), Pallikaranai (Chennai) are the wetlands prioritised for the conservation of migratory waterbirds. The wetland clusters in Kanniyakumari, including Suchindram, Theroor, Vembanoor and Manakudi Estuary figure in the list, besides salt pans of Puthalam and Kovalam. This is highest for any State in the country.

In neighbouring Puducherry, Ousteri lake, Bahour lake and Kaliveli tank have been identified. The ministry has identified sites in only 14 States and for the rest, the exercise is still underway.

Asad R Rehmani, member of Governing Body of Wetlands International South Asia and a former director of Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), told Express that Tamil Nadu plays a strategic role in entire Central Asian Flyway, which encompasses overlapping migration routes over 30 countries for different waterbirds linking their northernmost breeding grounds in Russia (Siberia) to southernmost non-breeding (wintering) grounds in west and south Asia, Maldives and the British Indian Ocean territory.

“Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka are gifted as not much land area is left past them. The birds that come here have no choice but to stay back. So, the wetlands here are crucial and need to be protected,” he said.
Globally, nine migratory flyways have been identified under the Convention on Migratory Species. The Central Asian Flyway is one among the identified flyways. Flyways are areas used by groups of birds during their annual cycle which includes breeding areas, stop-over area and wintering areas.

“After due deliberations and stakeholder consultations, the ministry has developed the national action plan along the central Asian Flyway. The plan is structured in six inter-related components i.e. species conservation, habitat conservation and sustainable management, capacity development, communication and outreach, research and knowledge base development and international cooperation,” said R Gopinath, Joint Director (Wildlife), Environment Ministry.

At least 370 species of migratory birds are reported to visit Indian subcontinent, of which 310 predominantly use wetlands as habitats, the rest being landbirds, inhabit dispersed terrestrial areas.

The long-term data sets show that Central Asian Flyway migratory landbirds are declining rapidly. However, the ministry is proposing to formulate and implement Single Species Action Plan (SSAP) for coordinated conservation measures for select important migratory species to a favourable conservation status within India. Twenty such species have been identified as high priority for developing SSAP.

For instance, the number of Spoon-billed Sandpiper, which breed in Russia and fly to India via Myanmar, Bangladesh, Thailand and Vietnam, declined rapidly. The species used to come to migrate all the way to Point Calimere in Tamil Nadu. But last year, only one bird was sighted and it is believed that hardly 1,000 birds are left globally.