The Hindu : Greater Flamingos become victims of poaching

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 08, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Greater Flamingos become victims of poaching

By Our Staff Reporter

KANNUR, MARCH 7. Wetland areas in the district are the places frequented by local poachers for shooting down birds that form part of the flocks of migratory birds coming here in search of areas with shallow waters. The latest victims of these poachers are three of the four migratory Greater Flamingos that reached the mangrove-rich Madakkara here from the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat.

Of the four long-legged, long-necked rosy white stork-like birds with heavy pink bills sighted at Madakkara as winter season migratory birds, only an immature one is surviving, according to K.M. Khaleel, who along with another birdwatcher identified the Greater Flamingos (Flamingo Phoenicopterus reseus Pallas) that flew down to the area two months ago. The rest were reportedly shot down by poachers.

Dr. Khaleel said that the Greater Flamingos were identified from their long outstretched legs and neck as well as the black-bordered scarlet wings in flight. "They had been flying and feeding in the shallow waters with their long, slender necks bent down between their legs for two months undisturbed. The one that survived the poachers' shooting spree appeared to be an immature bird," Dr. Khaleel said. A normal Greater Flamingo would be 125 cm high, he said. There was now hardly any sound of loud goose-like honk and constant babbling of the Greater Flamingos while feeding in company in the wetland of Madakkara, he said.

C. Sashikumar, an ornithologist here, said that hundreds of migratory birds reached the wetland areas of Kattampally, Pazhayangadi and Madakkara every year. "The number of migratory birds reaching here has been on the decline due to habitat loss and fragmentation of land," said Mr. Sashikumar, who has been visiting the Kattampally wetland area frequently since 1981 as part of a birdwatching initiative.

He said the Greater Flamingos were sighted in Kattampally, Bharathapuzha estuary and Kadalundi estuary in the early 1990s. They reached here as occasional stragglers, he said.

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