Bird watchers, environmentalists and locals are confident that rainwater pools at the Karikili twin-lake bed will attract migratory birds in sufficient numbers during the forthcoming season.
Breeding season
Normally, breeding season commences in mid-October and extends up to January-February of the following year when Pintails, Stilts, Sandpipers and other migratory birds along with Cormorants, Egrets, Grey and Night Herons, Darters, Grey Pelicans and other birds would swarm the lake.
However, in the last two seasons, the lake was not able to retain the water collected during the northeast monsoon as the water collected percolated into the earth. The lake remained parched for more than six months from March, said Ramakrishnan, a resident of Karikili.
As the southwest monsoon showers brought some rainwater and got stored in the deep water holes dug up by the Forest Department in the recent past, the subsurface of the lake bed is expected to remain wet during the coming northeast monsoon. Hence, there was a fair chance of the lake retaining adequate water to attract the birds, he added.
The Forest department sources also expressed hope that if the coming northeast monsoon brought some more showers to this region, more migratory birds would arrive than the previous seasons.
