The Hindu Business Line : Winging their way in & out every winter

Koonthankulam, Tirunelveli district: A greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus) had possibly gone to rest standing in the shallow waters on one of its pink legs with the other leg and its inwardly curved, pink bill tucked into its body; there were a few others hitting a similar pose in the morning when we visited the Koonthankulam bird sanctuary.

From the barbed fence around the lake, they looked like rishis standing on one leg, immersed in prayer to please their reluctant gods. One counted 50 greater flamingos (perhaps, flying in from the Rann of Kutch) including a few sub-adults purring like stranded vehicles; there were no lesser flamingos (Phoeniconaias minor).

On the lake’s edge (on our side) we spotted a black ibis (Pseudibis papillosa), while a few little cormorants (Phalaacrocorax niger) rested on the submerged trees; one saw a little cormorant drying itself on a bare tree with wings open, a sight which is common in the water bodies in and around Tirunelveli town and Palayamkottai; otherwise, the 129.33-hectare lake, declared a wildlife sanctuary in November 1994, was bare.

Venkatasubramanian Muthukrishnan and I made it to the lake, some 20 km away from Palayamkottai, in a scooter in the morning. The earlier part of the stretch towards Koonthankulam is scrub land with karuva mullu trees (a thorn tree in Tamil) and tall palmyra palms hosting rose-ringed parakeets; freshly transplanted light green paddy fields, nestling in rain waters, forming the second half, talk of a plentiful Pongal for the rice growing community in the area. Some say the rains this year have been good, while others differ as women in knee-high slush work the fields under a hot November sun.

As we drove into the area, a government official in white dhoti and shirt, like a bad omen, told us the birds had not yet started to fly in. While one was scanning the area, came a woman who said in Tamil: “ (Only in the month of Thai, beyond January 14, will the birds come).” We looked around for two hours before driving back to Palayamkottai.

After two days, we made a second trip in the evening and this time round there were more birds to be seen. With the help of bird watcher, Sudalaimuthudevar Palpandi, belonging to the Forest Department, we could identify at least 20 white ibis (Threskiornis aethiopica) sitting on a tree at the far end of the lake, apart from a black-winged stilt (Himantopus himantopus). Palpandi is a great help to anyone visiting the area, having been a bird watcher for more than 20 years. The 49-year-old gentleman in khaki shirt and pant is wiry and is on chatting terms with the birds who make it to the spot four to five months every year. They fill up the sky in V-formations; then occupy every inch of every water body hoping for the human beings to be kind to them.

Mostly, humans shoot them, snapping a simple faith. Yet, the annual migration without passports and visas continues. The awesome event is genetic, a must for birds and birders. After a short walk along the embankment around the Koonthankulam lake, he took us past rice fields to the 35-hectare Kadankulam lake for sighting at least two gaggles of bar-headed geese (Anser indicus); for long, one had wanted to see these birds and finally made it. They waited as the three of us got near and then got edgy when we stopped. The two packs did not want to take any risks and flew away into a late evening.

One said a small prayer for the birds. Seemingly, they move in from Ukraine by about October and depart by mid-March. Dr Salim Ali writes: “In winter throughout northern and N-E India; rare in central India, struggling as far south as Point Calimere, Tamil Nadu. … Call: A musical aang, aang. Produced in varying keys by skein after skein going over, it is one of the unforgettable and exhilarating sounds to the wildfowler.”

Dr Ali said it best as one heard them calling from a distance. “The rains have yet to come strongly and then many species will come to fill up the lakes and the villages nearby,” remarked Palpandi. Koonthankulam is located in Nanguneri taluka of Tirunelveli district between Moolakaraipatti and Kariandi.

Going by the literature on Important Bird Areas of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), the fresh-water lake is fed by winter rains and the Manimuthar river and is famous for the glossy ibis and spot-billed pelican. Palpandi could identify one glossy ibis though one missed the bird.

On the walk back we saw a little-ringed plover (Charadrius dubius) and it was too dark to see anything. Perhaps, the best thing about Koonthankulam is that it is well looked after by the village community. It just could be that the guano-rich water from the lake helps their farms. Yet, they do not allow anyone to kill a bird and have gone as far as banning bursting of crackers in the area during Deepavali, even as the bird population at that time should be thin.

One can spot cattle grazing in the lake area but then that bit of compromise has to be made in exchange for the care taken by the villagers to hold on to Koonthankulam, says Palpandi. He mentioned the case of a few forest guards taking action against stray cattle to earn a drubbing from the villagers.

Palpandi has four children and in bird watching circles he and his wife are well known for their initiatives to act as vets to injured birds. He is happy to celebrate the birds winging in and out every winter and is not prepared to trade it for a posting outside Koonthankulam.

P. Devarajan

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Winging their way in & out every winter