It is a great to watch a pack of waterbirds amidst the giant concrete structures of Elcot-SEZ in Sholinganallur. The recent downpour brought enough water flow into the two vacant sites, which serve as a water-park for migratory birds that flock to the area to cool off from the sweltering heat elsewhere.
S. Sasidharan, an employee of an IT firm inside the sprawling complex, says that sparrows, cuckoos and egrets too come to the place to feed. The vacant site has been allocated to an IT firm, and once they start construction, these birds will be gone, he laments.
“There are about 30 different species of birds that visit this area, which is a concourse to the Pallikaranai marshland, the only freshwater swamp in the city,” says birdwatcher K.V.R.K. Thirunaranan, who frequents this place.
“The wetland at Perumbakkam is a peaceful feeding place for birds at the Pallikaranai marsh,” says Mr. Thirunaranan. He is happy that those birds can be seen on the Elcot campus also.
Spot-billed Pelicans and Little Cormorants are among the birds one can see during morning hours.
Ideally located inside a compound, with security guards on work, there is little chance for sewage pollution and since the water level has increased, more fish have begun to breed here.
According to naturalists, every month, on an average, at least 40,000 birds flock to the wetland that is just a few hundred metres in front of the SEZ.
Experts say that rainwater flows to the Pallikaranai marsh through the Perumbakkam wetland before going to Okkiyam Maduvu at Thoraipakkam on OMR. Spread over 70 hectares (about 175 acres), the Perumbakkam wetland is the last point where rainwater run-off and surplus water from seven major tanks, in areas around Sithalapakkam, Perumbakkam, Ottiyambakkam, Medavakkam and nearby pockets, stagnate during the monsoon before gently overflowing and meandering into the Pallikaranai marshland.
Clearing the inlet channels — which take excess rainwater from these wetlands to Pallikaranai — before the onset of northeast monsoon (between October and November) would attract more birds to these wetlands, experts say.
