The Hindu Business Line : The lake and its winged visitors facing development threat

Pulicat Lake Sanctuary, Nellore district, Andhra Pradesh Hotel Savera has been a lucky base for this writer, serving up some fine moments. One likes the place as the Marina Beach and the Gandhi statue offer a short walking opportunity and one has spent many mornings at the beach musing over the loud green-blue waves. It did not fail when on an early Saturday morning (at 6 a.m. to be exact) we started out for the Pulicat Lake Sanctuary, some 100 km from Chennai.

The morning was cool and the streets empty as we struck the Grand Northern Trunk Road (NH5) and turned into the Sriharikota Road at Sullurpet. Ramki, a long-time wildlifer, Balaji, a photographer turned naturalist, and this writer formed the group with Balaji at the wheel of his Fiat Palio. The waters had receded and one could see a white-rose line of greater flamingos (Phoenicopterus roseus) marking the horizon. A month ago, Ramki and Balaji were lucky to hire a fisherman’s boat to be near the flamingos.

We parked our car on the Sriharikota Road and walked a few minutes through semi-dry slush to meet up a fisherman’s family in the hope of hiring a boat. That did not happen as the water levels had fallen too sharply for boats to ply. In the marsh lands, one spotted a ring dove, a red shank and other water birds, which one could not identify.

Going by the details given in Important Bird Areas (IBA) in India of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), Pulicat Lake Sanctuary (spread over 60,000 ha) is an “extensive brackish to saline lagoon with associated marshes and a massive freshwater to brackish swamp to the north. There are two connections with the sea; in general, sea water enters the lagoon through the channel at the northern end of Sriharikota Island, and flows back into the Bay of Bengal through the channel at the southern end.”

The Lake is one of the two major wintering grounds in southeast India for shorebirds but apparently end-January formed the tail-end of the season as there were not many birds on view. A forest department board advises vehicles not to use horns and not exceed 30 kmph; but buses with the Government of India tag rushed the thin empty road at speeds far exceeding 30 kmph and liberally honked when there was nothing to overtake.

We drove back to Sullurpet town where Balaji took us to a thatched hut shop for idlis and bondas. The owner recognised Balaji and served a chutney which singed the mouth, and one ate the idlis and bondas straight. While approaching Nelapattu Bird sanctuary (forming a part of Pulicat), one noted open-billed storks (Anastomus oscitans) wheeling the skies. A narrow open gap between the arching mandibles gives the stork its name. “The precise significance and function of the curiously shaped bill is obscure and calls for special investigation. It may have to do with opening the thick shells of the large Ampullaria snails found on marshes, the soft body and viscera of which form a large proportion of its food in due season,” writes Dr Salim Ali.

The road which leads to the sanctuary is fenced on both sides with one bearing the birds and the other opening into standing rice crops. There is a buzz in the waters as one saw an armada of six pintails moving swiftly in a single row and turning back.

Acaica Nilotica trees dot the fence and in the islands one did spot open billed storks, white ibis, darters, egrets, cormorants and spot-billed or grey pelicans (Pelecanus philippensis) on treetops and on the ground. “The bird population looks thin,” remarked Balaji and Ramki. The spot-billed pelicans made splashy landings in the brackish waters, swam and dipped their bills with the lower mandible bearing wobbly, elastic, pink bags.

One saw an adult feeding its chick while another skimmed the waters with its beak before taking off with a drum-beat of its wings. Most of the bird varieties were roosting.

The IBA places the spot-billed in the “vulnerable” category while one did not spot any raptors. We were the first few visitors at the site and as the hours went by the crowds started coming. Plastic waste lay scattered at Sullurpet and Nelapattu and the forest department could think of banning its use.

The IBA says, “More than 100,000 people live in 52 villages around the borders and islands of Pulicat Lake. The southernmost end of the lagoon is near the metropolis of Chennai, which burdens it with additional “developmental problems.” Due to these and other factors, Pulicat Lake faces a number of threats. Illegal prawn aquaculture and depletion of fish resources following overfishing has led to misunderstandings between the fishermen of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The stretch of the Lake in Tamil Nadu faces greater threats than those in Andhra Pradesh, says the BNHS.

The 630-MW North Chennai Thermal Power Station (NCTPS), the Ennore Satellite port and the proposed petrochemical park are threats to the ecosystem.

Says the BNHS: “The NCTPS draws 44 lakh litres of fresh water from the Ennore Creek, lets out hot coolant water into the Buckingham Canal and discharges toxic fly ash, in the form of slurry, into the lagoon. This has resulted in an increase in temperatures of 5 degrees C at the outlets…. Again, the site of the Ennore Satellite Port falls in Category I (No Development Zone) of the Coastal Regulatory Zone classification.”

But then development has to go on with little accommodation or concern offered for Nature; Nature does not even form a member of the extended society. We spent four hours that Saturday at the Lake and had a filling lunch before driving back to Chennai.

P. Devarajan

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The lake and its winged visitors facing development threat