The stage is set for the annual three-day flamingo festival at different locations in SRSP Nellore district from Friday.
Thanks to bountiful rains, migratory birds including flamingos have arrived in large numbers at the picturesque Pulicat lake.
Environment Minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy will formally inaugurate the festival and release educational posters on the flora and fauna at the lake, the country’s largest brackish water ecosystem after Chilka Lake in neighbouring Odisha.
The district administration has lined up a series of cultural programmes and has appointed special officers to ensure amenities for visitors at Sullurpeta, Atakanithippa, Nelapattu and BV Palem. Centres for Environment Education are being opened to create awareness on the need for protecting the biodiversity, said Sullurpeta Divisional Forest Officer (Wildlife) M. Hima Sailaja while overseeing the arrangements for the festival. “Snake shows will be held at Nelapattu and Atakanithippa for the benefit of the youth,” she said.
However, those looking forward to a boat ride at B.V.Palem as in the past will be disappointed as the risky ride on fishing vessels will not be permitted this time in the wake of the boat tragedy in East Godavari district.
The arrival of a variety of aquatic and terrestrial birds including Painted storks, Large and Little egrets, Grey pelicans, Grey herons and water birds like Northern pintails, Black-winged stilts, Northern shovellers, Common teal, seagulls, terns, sandpipers, and common coots began in September and peaked towards the end of December. Black tailed Godvit and Kentish [lover have also arrived at the lake this time.
Binoculars have been arranged for viewing of the birds in action also in Nelapattu, a safe haven for Grey pelicans, Open-billed storks, Little cormorants, Spoon bills, White ibises, and Night herons. Educative films on flora and fauna will also be screened as part of the festival, Ms. Sailaja added.
Egrets, Terns, Ducks, and Waders have also made it to the lake in good strength this time. Invertebrates like prawns, plankton, coelenterates, annelids molluscs and echinoderms thrive as also monitor lizards, calotes, cobra, Russell’s viper, and krait, and schools of fish like Sable fish, Sargin fish, white, black and silver pomfret.
