The Revenue Department in Nagapattinam district is yet to hand over 20,000 acres of wetland in Vedaraynam taluk to the Forest Department. It is an expanse contiguous to the Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary serving as a crucial alternative feeding ground for migrant and non-migrant birds.
According to an official document, the 20,000 acres were handed over to the Wildlife Warden, Nagapattinam, on August 22, 1989, by the District Collector of Thanjavur. However, official sources indicated that the survey of the 20,000 acre that is vital for declaration as reserved forest area has not been completed by the Revenue Department.
Based on the recommendation of the Vijayaraghavan Committee constituted on July 9, 1982, the Government had, on March 23, 1984, ordered handing over 25,544.47 acres of area leased to a private chemical industry to the Forest Department to maintain these areas as exclusive water bird habitats. The handover of the remaining 5544.47 acres was kept pending as the area was under consideration for allotment to salt industries.
The Forest Department has since then been trying hard to keep the 20,000 acre of the unsurveyed salt swamp area free of salt pans and shrimp farms.
When tsunami had struck the eastern coast of Nagapattinam district during 2004, most of the water birds had flown west and were seen feeding at Panchanadikulam and the unsurveyed salt swamp area.
Due to growing disturbance in the feeding grounds of the water birds close to the Point Calimre Wildlife Sanctuary, flamingos and other water birds have gradually shifted to the wetlands for their winter feeding. Citing the biotic pressures on the feeding grounds near Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary, wildlife enthusiasts have been emphasising that the unsurveyed wetlands have to be conserved as crucial alternative feeding grounds.
A research study archived in shodhganga.inflibnet.c.in and the documentation of Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary by BirdLife International (2018) states that the sanctuary declared as Ramsar Site on August 19, 2002, was enlarged in 1988 to include the great Vedaranyam Swamp and the Talaignayar Reserve Forest and the Muthupet Mangrove Forest, covering an area of 38,500 hectares from Point Calimere in the east to Adirampattinam in the West.
Ramsar Site, a term used for describing wetlands of international importance that are crucial for conservation of waterbirds, derives its origin from the city of Ramsar in Iran where the first International Convention on Wetlands was held in 1971 to discuss the decline of global water bird population and to formulate measures for their conservation. There are 1,427 Ramsar sites in the world today of which 19 are in India.
