Lifeline for rare avian species

Thiruvananthapuram,  
The Hindu, June 23, 2015

The Forest Department is joining hands with environmentalists and nature lovers to offer a lifeline for the snakebird, a rare avian species facing threat from habitat destruction.

Forest Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan on Monday pledged the support of the government for efforts to save the bird from extinction.

He was inaugurating a function organised by the Snakebird Foundation and the Kerala Union of Working Journalists to declare June 22 as Snake Bird Day. The Minister highlighted the need to protect wetlands that are part of the bird’s habitat.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests and Head of the Forest Force B.S. Corrie delivered the keynote address. KUWJ district secretary Suresh Vellimangalam and Snakebird Foundation chairman C. Rahim also spoke.

A near-threatened species, the snakebird figures in the Red Data book of rare and endangered species. The Snakebird Foundation estimates that Kerala is home to about 1,000 birds of the species, with the highest number found in Alappuzha district.

The bird nests have been spotted at Nooranad, Kattanam, and Kuttanad in Alappuzha, Kumarakom in Kottayam, Thekkady in Idukki, the Museum compound in Thiruvananthapuram, and a few in the northern districts.

A survey conducted by the International Waterfowl and Wetland Research Bureau in 1993 reported that there were only 1,526 snakebirds in the whole of Asia, out of which 1,196 were in India and 64 in Kerala. But a subsequent study by volunteers of the Snakebird Foundation found 200 nests in different parts of Kerala. The bird watchers spotted 150 nests on trees in a private property at Aathikattukulangara in Mavelikara taluk.