Rare birds signify Kattampally’s importance

 
The recent sightings of rare and threatened species of birds in the Kattampally wetland area here have strengthened the concern of environmental activists about potentially large-scale reclamation this entire ecologically sensitive area is going to face in the near future. As many as seven globally threatened species of birds have been sighted at Kattampally including the three recent recordings such as Bristled Grassbird, Eurasian Wigeon and Grey-necked Bunting. An abode of migratory birds including the two vulnerable species of birds of prey, Greater Spotted Eagle and Indian Spotted Eagle, Kattampally, according to birdwatchers and ornithologists, is the only place in the State where these birds are regularly found. The area, identified as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by the Indian Bird Conservation Network (IBCN) and Birdlife International, is also place where four species considered globally near-threatened by the IBCN are seen, they said.
In a recent memorandum to Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan, the environmental activists said that Kattampally also acts as a staging ground for more than one per cent of the global population of Garganey Teals. This is considered as an important criterion for a wetland to have the status of international importance. Kattampally is also the only place in the West Coast where the rare Oriental Pratincoles are known to be breeding, according to them.Once a large swamp on the floodplains of the Valapattanam river with reed beds and mangrove vegetation, Kattampally has been facing ecological problems after the commissioning of the Kattampally Irrigation Project in 1966 which has wrought havoc on the traditional paddy cultivation in saline water. The mangroves in the area have almost disappeared, while reed beds and aquatic vegetation such as water lilies are still present as is considerable stretch of waterlogged area.
"Out of the 75 sites censused in North Kerala, Kattampally is the most important in species diversity as well as in the number of birds, as more than 18,000 birds have been seen in this wetland area," said C. Sashikumar, ornithologist involved in the census.Kattampally is also the feeding ground of the vast number of waterbirds nesting at the various heronries in Kannur district, he says.Major threats the area is facing include filling up of marshland and paddy fields for construction activities, construction of bridges and approach roads without proper facilities for drainage, garbage dumping and poaching, according Mr. Sashikumar.

The midwinter waterbird census 2008 carried out at Kattampally found 33,349 birds belonging to 62 species. This, according to Mr. Sashikumar, is probably the highest number of birds counted in this wetland. In 2006, 18,622 birds belonging to 51 species and in 2007, 8,538 birds of 50 species were recorded here, he said adding that after Vembanad and Kole, this wetland holds the maximum number of birds in the State.
The Wetlands International, he says, has estimated the population of almost all waterbird species analysing the results of the Waterbird Census being carried out since 1987. From the estimated population, one per cent of the bio-geographic population of each waterbird species has been estimated. "This threshold number is considered as important and any wetland holding this number of any species of waterbird is considered as an IBA and it fulfils Criterion 6 of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, under which a site qualifies as a Ramsar site with high priority for conservation," he says adding that two species found at Kattampally qualify this criteria: Garganey and Brown-headed Gull.

The Hindu, March 31