It was that magical hour of dawn. Naidupeta town was enveloped in a thick cover of mist. After sipping tea at a roadside tea-stall, we negotiated an auto-rickshaw to Doravari Satram village. After a 20- minute pleasant drive along the Vijayawada-Chennai National Highway, we took a left turn, crossed a railway track and moved along a dusty road, flanked on both sides by lush greenery.

We were heading towards Nelapattu Bird Sanctuary, one of the little known but largest pelican habitats in Southeast Asia. Little birds chirped around, in bushes and trees. Occasionally one or two villagers passed by on the bicycle.

On the way, we met Muniswamy, a union leader of Indian railways, an old resident of Doravari Satram village.

“The villagers of Doravari Satram have a fondness for these winged creatures,” he said. The sanctuary is also a breeding ground for rare and endangered species like grey pelicans, little cormorants, open bill storks, spoon bills, night herons and white ibises.

Boo hoo!

Until 1960s, the birds used to make year end visits to Kolleru, a village north of Nelapattu. There, they used to breed and make their colonies on the Palmyra trees. It all went well till the locals developed a taste for the pelicans’ flesh. The last flock of pelicans left Kolleru in April 1970, never to return.

Six years later, the birds again visited the region, but this time, they chose the tanks of Nelapattu. The Andhra Pradesh Government immediately accorded the status of a sanctuary to the water body in 1976, and thence it has been enjoying regular visits by the birds. The sanctuary mainly consists of a small fresh water irrigation tank with Barringtonia trees spread in the water, which can withstand inundation for longer periods in the tank bed.

The sanctuary is located just adjacent to the villages of Nelapattu with its hamlets of Mylangam and Mutchalagunta, whose villagers always treat the birds with celestial respect. “Many years ago, hunters used to sneak into the sanctuary in nights for shooting the birds,” Muni Swamy continued. “As soon as the birds smelled the presence of hunters, their flocks would descend on the trees in the town. On seeing this, the villagers would run to the water-body and catch hold of the hunters.”

As the early rays of sun, lighted up the park, we could see many ibises and cormorants taking a flight towards the park, up above over heads!  Sometimes a single bird would fly; sometimes many birds could be seen flying in a V formation.

We were the first visitors to the park that was all peaceful, calm and tranquil. A pair of fly catchers flew around in the trees. To our left, there was a deer park. The reserve forest area has mammals like jackals, and spotted deer and reptiles like snakes, tortoises and monitor lizards.

A guided path took us to an earthen ramp, shaded by trees with their branches clasping each other, providing a pleasant walk. We had birds sanctuary on the left side and vibrant lush green fields to our right.

Nelapattu is famous as a pelicanry but Night herons, shovellers, pintails, pond herons and many other aquatic birds share the water body with equal ease and cooperation among themselves.

As soon as we entered the shaded ramp, a flock of cranes violently flapped its wings and took a flight, close to us. It had settled on a tree quite peacefully for a long time and on hearing our footsteps, it sensed danger and flew away! 

Winter home

The first showers of rain had brought life to the park. The Barringtonia trees, looking like floating islands of green in the placid waters, bristled with breeding colonies of birds. Thousands of grey pelicans had migrated to the sanctuary and had set up colonies on these trees, making it their winter home. The air was filled with the quiver of clapping wings and the rattle of their large pointed bills. All the birds were chirping loudly in unison as if this was their whole time job!

We were here at a time that was best for watching the birds; the birds were busy fetching food and water for the younger ones. Seated on a bench, we lost ourselves amidst this magic of nature for a long time.

Watch towers are provided here and there along side the ramp. We climbed one such tower and had wonderful views of the bird colonies all around us.

After spending a long time inside the sanctuary, we returned to the Environmental Education Centre, which provides information on the resident and migratory birds of Nelapattu. Original nests of weaver bird, coot, pelican and cormorants are carefully preserved in the museum. Models of white ibis and grey heron look like real birds and we felt as if these will break open the enclosure and fly away in the open air!  Skeletons of pelican, skin and antlers of chital (deer), feed of open billed stork, and carcass of Indian Roller (Blue Jay, the state bird of Andhra Pradesh), are also preserved in glass enclosures. There is also an exhibit showing the winter life cycle of pelicans.

For us, a visit to Nelapattu Sanctuary was a dream come true as this was the first time we had seen huge colonies of the birds from such a close distance. Unfortunately we could not sight even a single flamingo inside the bird park. We will return to this park again, next year to try our luck. Hopefully, we may sight a pink flamingo then!

FACT FILE

*How to get there

Naidupeta town is located on Vijayawada-Chennai national highway. From Naidupeta (highway junction), a tempo will take Rs 5 to drop you at Doravari Satram. A kilometre-long walk will take you to the park.

Chennai is the nearest airport to Nelapattu. From Chennai, the sanctuary can be reached in about two hours by rail. A direct train leaves Central railway station at 5.30 a.m. for Nellore.

A polite request to the train driver and he obliges with an unscheduled stop at Doravari Satram, right on the sanctuary’s doorstep. On the return journey, tourists can take a bus up to Sullurpet, a 20-minute drive away. From here, one can reach Chennai by rail or road.

Best season to visit: October to March.