The Hindu Business Line : They descend in droves, some inert or sauntering aimlessly

Writing in 1956 on Vedanthangal, naturalist M. Krishnan was surprised at the absence of painted storks (Mycteria leucocephala) and other storks, while noting nesting of hundreds of open billed storks in the Barringtonia trees.

On our visit, painted storks were all over Vedanthangal lake and the skies above and one spotted the first painted stork preening on a half-submerged tree, about 15 ft. off the stone walkway. We — Ramki, his wife Aswathi, his two kids and this writer — spent a couple of hours on the shores of the lake scanning the trees and the waters.

For over 30 minutes a single painted stork sat quietly on the top branch of a dried-up tree while at another place, two painted storks were caressing each other with their long, heavy and yellow bills (some sort of beaking). One saw a few painted storks flying across the waters with twigs in their beaks though one could not locate their nests.

Good winter rains have filled up the Vedanthangal lake, which the Important Bird Areas in India (IBA) of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) describes as “perhaps the oldest bird sanctuary in India, protected since 1798 by locals.”

On a Sunday morning, Ramki was good enough to drive us some 80 km south of Chennai on the Grand Southern Trunk Road (NH 45) before landing at Vedanthangal, though he would have preferred an early morning (5 a.m.) trip to avoid the crowds. Still, it did not diminish the outing as one saw a night heron on the water’s edge and quite a number of darters. “Twenty years ago, there were no darters,” said Ramki who has been a regular visitor; with forest officials, he has made a boat trip for a close-up look at the birds.

For about 15 minutes, a darter swam by overhanging branches and came towards us some 15 ft. away, before swimming away (Ramki captured the moment on his digital). In Tamil, painted stork is called Chenga narai and one stood amused watching a couple of them looking up at the sky with beaks open. Some daintily walked into the waters to feed, while we munched on vegetable and cheese sandwiches generously prepared by Aswathi.

For Dr Salim Ali, the bird “spends the day standing ‘hunched up’ and inert or sauntering about sedately on grassy marshland in quest of fish, frogs and snakes. Also wades into shallow water moving forward with a neck craned down, bill immersed and partly open swaying from side to side with a scythe-like action.”

It is “resident and locally migratory” and is the “only white stork having a delicate rose-pink about the shoulders and on wing.”

Like at Pulicat, one did not see raptors at the 80 ha, Vedanthangal watery expanse, which receives some water from the great Madurantakam tank, a short distance away. Egrets (cattle and small) and cormorants provided company in the large heronries on trees. In the late1970s, the islands in Vedanthangal were replanted with Barringtonia acutangula to replenish the dead and dying trees. The total number of bird species seen at Vedanthangal is about 115, says the IBA.

Vedan in Tamil means hunter or fowler and thangal is an old Tamil word that has two relevant meanings – “tank” and “the act of protecting or guarding” writes Krishnan. “Vedanthangal having been a bird sanctuary for so long, it seems reasonable to presume it was named so because its birds were protected against fowlers,” asserts Krishnan.

The sanctuary, officially established in 1925, has a dated history from late 1700. Late in the 18th century, L. Place, Collector of Chingelpet (1796-98), appears to have given an original “cowle” to the local inhabitants, who asked for official recognition of their age-old prescriptive right to protect the birds against all-comers. This document stated that no birds might be shot or snared in the Vedanthangal tank area.

On January 8, 1858, George G. Tod, Chief Assistant Magistrate of the district, renewed the sanction at the request of the villagers who had lost the original given them by Place. More than three-quarters of a century later, this order carefully preserved by the villagers was produced before A.H.A. Todd, Collector of Chingelpet, and on February 10, 1936, a fresh order was issued which says, “Vedanthangal tank is a birds’ sanctuary and has been kept as such by the villagers for over a century. Notice in English and in Tamil in bold characters should be painted on wooden boards and set up at each end of the tank bund. The form of notice to be put up is enclosed. The expenses should be met from office contingencies.”

Krishnan adds, “I saw no wooden boards carrying prominent notice when I first visited Vedanthangal in June 1954, nor during four subsequent visits made late last year and early this year. But I saw the lake area dry and birdless, and later water-filled and teeming with nesting birds, and was able to collect sufficient observation material for this note.”

We did not see any boards nor is there any restriction on use of plastic. It is quite possible for the villagers to post a few old or young hands at the gates to stop entry of plastic goods; also there is a need to stop the burning of litter inside the tank area as the acrid smoke is of no help to birds or humans.

And is there some way to get the public to watch the birds in quiet? Yet, it has to be said the place is well maintained with the farmlands on the other side of bund (which also helps as a walkway) acting as a feeding spot for the avians.

With the afternoon sun turning harsh, we made our way back into Chennai with a thank you for the villagers. Walking the lake is a pleasure and the travel through dust and noise into Chennai, a singular, civilisational pain.

P. Devarajan

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They descend in droves, some inert or sauntering aimlessly