Sanctuary thirsts for a new dawn

Famous wetland under severe pressure at Pt Calimere

Come February 2, another World Wetla­nds Day may pass off as a symbolic ritual. But for one of the world’s largest wetla­nds here spread across an area of 385 sq km, whose most visible part is the Point Calimere Wild Life and Bird Sanctuary, it is not business as usual.

From the land’s end in erstwhile composite Thanjavur district-- Kodiyakarai literally is the farthest land-shore point linking the Bay of Bengal with the Palk Strait in present-day Nagapattinam district-- this habitat begins. Known for being one of the largest congregation of water-birds in India, it now thirsts for a new dawn.

Notified as a Ramsar Site – a designated wetland of international importance under the global Ramsar Convention which was signed in the Iranian city by that name on February 2, 1971-- the peak birds population flocking Pt Calimere during the North-East monsoon season (October to mid-January), usually exceeds lakhs. But today, these are golden numbers of the past.

The morning sun dazzles in the wavy backwaters and the salt pans to the west of the wildlife sanctuary are simply breath-taking, as they extend to Vedaranyam and beyond. The famous birds sanctuary at Pt Calimere is a seamless mix of all these diverse eco-zones.

Scanty rainfall – except at the fag-end of this year’s monsoon season when one intense spell pounded nearby Vedaranyam-- has turned the once vast sheet of water into discontinuous, smaller ponds, separated by semi-parched lands. It is the natural phenomenon of rain water mixing with the sea water that spills over into salt pans during high tides, which makes Pt Calimere a distinct ecosystem.

Even as bird arrivals have visibly dropped in recent years, particularly after the 2004 Asian tsunami, “this season we had an exceptionally high number of birds,” avers S Ramasubramaniyam, Chief Wildlife Warden of Nagapattinam district. But what made Pt Calimere look desolate in early January to tourists is that “they (birds) all stayed for a very short period, due to lack of follow-up rains,” chipped in Dr S Bala­chandran, a diligent naturalist and Deputy Director in-charge of the Bombay Natural History Society’s (BNHS) Field Station at Kodiyakarai.

This sanctuary is particularly famous for attracting near-threatened species of winged visitors – flamingos, white ibis, Asian dowitcher, spoon bill, darter and painted stork from such far-away places such as Eastern Siberia, Northern Russia, Central Asia and parts of Europe.

“There were nearly 15,000 flamingos that came this year, but what was astounding was a very large congregation of some two or three species of shore birds – known as waders which normally wade through the shallow waters of the wetland-- said
Dr Balachandran. On one particular day, over one lakh waders were spotted, besides ducks in stretches where the water is less than 10 cm deep.

This raised the question whether the “bio-geography” of the Pt Calimere wetlands was changing in some significant way, even if slowly and subtly.

Naturalists are not amused by this query. “It is cyclical and migratory birds move to newer water bodies,” is their stock reply, dismissing perceptions of increased saline water intrusion into the wetlands after the tsunami. “Sea water moving in and out due to high and low tides is not an issue,” assures the wildlife warden.

Nonetheless, opinions are sharply divided even amid naturalists. “For two years after the tsunami, the birds did not come, but now it is getting norma­lised,” another keen bird-watcher told Deccan Herald.

Yet, what has made a key difference in the post-tsunami years is that the birds are not easily sighted at the beginning of the wetlands as earlier. “You have to walk two to three km in desolate wetlands to see the birds now and to study their behaviour and habitat,” he rued, throwing light on the increasing environmental pressures straining the already fragile Pt Calimere coastal stretch right up to Muthupet.

The commoners’ current narrative is starkly different. “If Pt Calimere is more a transit point for rare birds these days, one important reason is that the fish stock and other natural wealth of this wetlands is depleting fast,” said K Maniyan, a local fisherman of nearby Kodiyakadu-- also known for rich medicinal herbs-- who now ekes out a living as a daily-wage construction worker.

“From the day they (Central Government) started dredging on this side of the Palk straits under the Sethusamudram Ship Channel project, the fishes influx from the sea into the wetlands has all but disappeared; before the project began, tonnes of fish used to come over to this side with the sea water,” said Maniyan.

The associated plant and animal life the wetlands were home to is also now a thing of the past,” said Sundaram,  another villager on the edges of the sanctuary. “So, why will birds stay here, more so when the monsoon also fails,” they posed.

With fish-catches drastically down, the fisher-folks often find themselves unwittingly crossing the International Maritime Boundary line in search of fishes, only to be at the deadly receiving end of “bullets from the Sri Lankan Navy,” added Maniyan, on the fallouts of the now-put-on-hold Sethusamudram project.

The comparative slide in the “density of birds” at Pt Calimere, is partly a reflection of the ecological health of the wetlands taking a beating, observed experts. But the reasons for it are more complex. “Though the tsunami’s direct effect was on a small area, it brought lot of silt into the wetlands,” Dr Balachandran said. “The terrain became hard, but birds need a soft base,” he further explained.

Adding to its environmental woes is that a good part of it “is already occupied by the salt industry,” he said. The increasing human population on the edges, hyper-saline conditions around the villages and consequent temperature rise, have resulted in “one of the best wetlands in India facing lot of pressure,” summed up the naturalist. Yet, an eco-sensitive tourism package to improve infrastructure facilities for the tourists is on the anvil, hoping it will bring back the flamingos too!