Conservation efforts at Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary will get a boost once the process of transferring 20,186 hectares in the Great Vedaranyam Swamp to the Forest Department is completed.
Created in 1967 for conservation of blackbuck in Nagapattinam district, Point Calimere, encompassing 17.26 km of sandy coast, saline swamps and thorny scrub around the backwaters and a resting and migratory route for lakhs of birds, is one of the greatest avian spectacles in the country.
After the land transfer, the Forest Department will notify most of the Great Vedaranyam Swamp and Panchanathikulam Wetlands as reserve forest and, eventually, wildlife sanctuary, senior forest officials said.
“The State Forest Secretary held a meeting with the Revenue Secretary a fortnight ago and the revenue department is very positive,” said a forest official.
In 2002, the Point Calimere coastal area, comprising 38,500 hectares, was declared a Ramsar site (No.1210) and a place of international importance for conservation of wetland.
“It has to be declared as a sanctuary for legal protection,” says S. Balachandran, Assistant Director, Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).
Researching the migratory birds of Point Calimere for 30 years, he says the demand to convert the great swamp covering 38,500 ha into a sanctuary has been long pending and is much needed now as encroachments are creeping in fast.
BNHS set up a study centre for migratory birds in Point Calimere last year.
Recently, Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh, had written to Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi urging him to issue a final notification of 110 sq.km of Muthupet, Kodikadu and Kodikarai reserve forests as an extension to the Point Calimere Sanctuary.
Mr. Ramesh also wanted the Chief Minister to notify 202 sq.km of the Great Vedaranyam Swamp and its neighbouring Panchanathikulam Wetlands as a sanctuary or conservation reserve, as they constituted one of the most important mangrove coastal forests in the country. A few months ago, Chief Secretary K.S. Sripathi, who visited the swamp, had asked officials to expedite the process of extending the sanctuary.
“It can be a classical example of how local action could positively impact conservation globally. The Great Vedaranyam swamp is a crucial link for migratory birds, with some flying from Arctic region to New Zealand and back. At Point Calimere, the migratory birds need to pick up energy to fly back to their breeding grounds,” says Mr. Balachandran stressing the need to declare it as a sanctuary soon.
