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Flamingoes extend stay in Rajasthan

JAIPUR: The Flamingoes on their way to the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat have seemingly stayed back for a while in the neighbouring Dungarpur district in south-west Rajasthan this season. As never before the Wagad region’s skyline above the lakes and water bodies is getting blazed in brilliant crimson and scarlet as the birds take flight in the evenings on a regular basis these days.

Greater Flamingoes (Phoenicopterus ruber) flying by the area to the Great Rann of Kutch marshes normally have their touch down in Dungarpur during May to July. This year too the arrivals started as early as in May with the lakes near Falog and Sabla reporting more than a dozen birds. However, unlike in the past they are there in the middle of August too, and also in large numbers.

Bird watcher Virendra Singh Bedsa counted 52 Flamingoes this week at Bankoda village’s Gamela Lake. The birds were sighted at Gopsagar Lake, in the backwaters of the Som-Kamla-Amba dam near Aspur tehsil and at Gentour Lake near Sabala.

“Their popular resting grounds also have been near Bodigama dam, the Masani Lake in Sagwara region, at Falog Lake, Gopasar and the Edward Samand dam. They are in the company of Painted Storks, Openbilled storks, Spoonbills and large number of Egrets this season,” says Mr. Bedsa, talking to this correspondent on phone from Dungapur.

“Flamingoes normally pass by this region towards the end of the summer and the beginning of the monsoon season. However this time an unprecedented number has stayed back in August,” notes O.C. Chandel, Deputy Conservator Forests, at Dungarpur. One reason he could attribute to their presence was the late rains in the area.

“This region gets early rains compared to rest of Rajasthan. Normally in July itself the lakes and other water bodies get filled and start overflowing which makes the stay of birds difficult,” Mr. Chandel observes.

Though Rajasthan too has marshes visited by Flamingoes including the Ramsar wetland, Sambhar near Jaipur, the birds have not been reported breeding anywhere else in the area other than at Greater Rann. North West India also receives a sizeable number of Lesser Flamingoes (Phoenicopterus minor) as well in its marshes.

“It is difficult to differentiate both. One has to check the colour of the beak. In the case of Greater Flamingoes it is white, rosy and black, in that order from the body side while in Lesser Flamingoes the entire beak is black,” observes V.D. Sharma, retired Chief Wildlife Warden of Rajasthan.

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