Senior officials of the Tamil Nadu Forest Department and the district administration on Tuesday inspected the Kaliveli wetlands, a brackish water lake near Marakkanam in the district, in the wake of reports of bird flu across the country.
The team, comprising of District Collector A. Annadurai, District Forest Office Abhishek Tomar and Superintendent of Police S. Radhakrishnan inspected different areas in Kaliveli spread over 670 sq.km.
“We visited the potential sites to check whether there was any abnormal behaviour or suspected deaths of birds. Most of the areas are flooded. So far, we have not seen any symptom of bird flu in the wetlands”, DFO Abhishek Tomar told TheHindu.
“The Department has also sensitised the local residents to immediately alert the Forest Department if they came across any dead bird or bird with abnormal behaviour. The Department will patrol the wetlands jointly with personnel from the Department of Animal Husbandry”, Mr. Tomar said.
Forest department sources said that four teams will begin patrolling the wetland from Wednesday.
The list of potential sites across the district are being prepared and teams will be deputed to conduct inspection drives as a precautionary measure.
