The annual Asian Waterfowl Census (AWC) held in six
select wetlands last Saturday in Kollam has revealed matters of concern
and elation for birdwatchers.
While the waterbird
population was a cause for excitement, questions have been raised about
the conservation of the traditional wetland habitats of such birds.
The census was carried out in association with the WWF-India and the Social Forestry Division of the Forest Department.
The
wetlands covered are Kandachira - Sakthikulangara harbour, Pallikkodi
-Neendakara harbour, Thodiyur - Vattakkayal - Vellanathuruthu,
Chittumala - Karali marshes, Polachira, and Kappil beach. The highest
count was from Polachira, near Chathannur, from where around 3,500 birds
were counted. Among them were five types of wild ducks, namely lesser
whistling ducks, pigmy cotton goose, garganey ducks, spot billed ducks,
and northern pintails, the latter three being migratory. The
Neendakara harbour and Pallikkodi wetlands stood second with a count of
around 1,500 birds, of which the majority were little egrets. Migratory
birds such as painted stork, greater sand plover, lesser sand plover,
grey plover, green shank, green sandpiper, brown headed gulls, and
whiskered terns were sighted at Thodiyur - Vattakkayal and on the
Vellanathuruthu beach.
Though Kandachira is a habitat
for a number of black-tailed godwits, this year only one bird was
sighted. But plenty of other migratory birds were observed there. The
count of swimming birds preferring deeper waters such as ducks and
cormorants was high. But the count at the Karali marshes, once a haven
for water birds, was a disappointment. The wetlands, which used to
shelter more than 5,000 purple swamphens, is now home to only few. What
used to be a shallow wetland is now a deep lake due to sand-mining. The
Polachira wetlands seem comparatively less disturbed.
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