Consolidated checklist of birds in the Pallikaranai Wetlands, Chennai, India

P.P. Nikhil Raj ¹, J. Ranjini ², R. Dhanya³, J. Subramanian ⁴, P.A. Azeez⁵ & S. Bhupathy ⁶

^1,2,3,5,6 Environment Impact Assessment Division,Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), Anaikatty (PO), Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641108, India

⁴ Pondicherry Central University, Kalapet, Puducherry 605014, India

Email: ¹ ppnraj@gmail.com,² jranjini@gmail.com, ³ dhanyajr@gmail.com, ⁵ azeezpa@gmail.com,⁶ bhupathy.s@gmail.com

Date of publication (online): 26 July 2010

Date of publication (print): 26 July 2010

ISSN 0974-7907 (online) | 0974-7893 (print)

Editor: Rajah Jayapal

Manuscript details:

Ms # o2220

Received 22 May 2009

Final revised received 16 June 2010

Finally accepted 29 June 2010

Citation: Raj, P.P.N., J. Ranjini, R. Dhanya, J. Subramanian, P.A. Azeez& S. Bhupathy (2010). Consolidated checklist of birds in the Pallikaranai Wetlands, Chennai, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 2(8): 1114-1118.

Copyright: © P.P. Nikhil Raj, J. Ranjini, R. Dhanya, J. Subramanian, P.A. Azeez& S. Bhupathy 2010. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. JoTT allows unrestricted use of this article in any medium for non-profit purposes, reproduction and distribution by providing adequate credit to the authors and the source of publication.

Acknowledgements: We thank individually all the contributors of information for this checklist, SACON for the institutional support. We are grateful to the valuable help provided by our field assistants Mr. Raja and Mr. Marimuthuduring the field work. We are also thankful to the reviewers for their valuable and reasonable comments which made further improvement of the manuscript. The paper is a tribute to Dr. Ravisankaran (Late). The authors are thankful to Dr. Sundaramurthy, CPR Foundation, Chennai.

For figure & table – click here

Pallikaranai wetlands falls between 12⁰59’N & 80⁰14’E (Fig. 1), located about 20km south of the Chennai metropolitan area and falls in the Kancheepuram District of Tamil Nadu. The wetland runs along the old Mahabalipuram road parallel to the Buckingham Canal throughout its length in the south west of Chennai. The wetland is an extensive low lying area, covered by a mosaic of aquatic grass species, scrub, marsh, and water logged depressions. It has a catchment of 235km² that includes the urban sprawls of Velachery, Pallikaranaiand Navalur. The wetland drains through Okkium Maduvu in Thoraipakkam to the Buckingham Canal, which discharges into the KovalamEstuary (Care Earth 2002). The area receives 1300mm of annual rainfall (www.wikipedia.com). The most rainfall occurs during the northeast monsoon (September - November) and partially from the southwest monsoon (June - August). Temperatures vary seasonally; in summer the maximum ranging from 35⁰ to 42⁰ C and in winter from 25⁰ to 34⁰ C (Patnaik & Srihari 2004).

A study conducted by Care Earth in 2002, supported by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) found that the area has reduced to about 600ha from an earlier extend of 4000-5000 ha (Care Earth 2002; Joint Committee Report 2003; The Hindu 2006). Further it has reduced to 420ha (Care Earth 2005). A fall of about 30% in the wetland area within a span of three years is indeed alarming. The Chennai metropolis waste dump yard occupies a part of these wetlands, and it has effectively choked over 250 acres of prime marsh lands. In spite of the legalized and illicit encroachments, fast developing real estate ventures and various other developments including information technology parks on the banks of the marsh lands has aggravated the wetland depletion (Azeez et al. 2007a).

Realizing the environmental and ecological significance of the area in an expanding metropolis, the government of Tamil Nadu (Gazette notification GO. Ms. No. 52, dated 9 April 2007), declared a part of the Pallikaranaimarsh (317.00ha) as a reserve forest (under section 4 of the Tamil Nadu Forest Act, 1882) in order to stall further conversion and protect the urban wetland (Azeez et al. 2007b). Subsequently, systematic and serious action plans are underway to conserve and rejuvenate this wetland ecosystem in a sustained manner. As a part of these efforts, we made a checklist of bird species of the Pallikaranai marshlands.

Methods: The study was conducted during February to August 2007 with two intensive surveys carried out for seven and 10 days respectively. The surveys covered the marsh land extending to the adjacent areas that included residential areas and walled campuses. Field survey was done during 0600 to 1000 hr and 1700 to 1900 hr adopting the line-transect method (Burnham et al. 1980; Bibby et al. 1992; Buckland et al. 1993). The opportunistic counts during other times of the day are also included in the checklist. Birds were recorded by direct sighting and calls. We followed the nomenclature and taxonomic sequence of Grimmett et al. (2000). The status of birds was categorized as Breeding Resident (BR), Winter Visitor (WV) and Vagrant (V) based on Grimmett et al. (2000). We also referred to the published and unpublished surveys conducted by different organizations and individuals in the past to complement our checklist (mainly Care Earth 2005, and unpublished work of the fourth author conducted during the year 2000).

Result and Discussion: In total, 101 species of resident and migratory birds were recorded from the Pallikaranai marshlands (Appendix 1). Of the total birds seen, 76 species were breeding residents and 25 winter visitors. 40 species were fully aquatic, while 10 were partly dependent on wetlands. Among these species, the most numerous in our records included Little Grebe (ca.700) and Black-winged Stilt (ca.150). In a study conducted during the year 2000, 836 Black-winged Stilts and 834 Cattle Egrets were recorded (J. Subramanian pers. obs.). The Pallikaranaimarshlands also include two Near Threatened bird species such as Spot-billed Pelican Pelecanus philippensis and Black-headed Ibis Threskiornis melanocephalus. During our surveys we found one Spot-billed Pelican in the wetlands; however, The Hindu released a report on 06 February 2007 with sightings of nearly 200 individuals in the Pallikaranaimarshes. We could observe nearly 70 Black-headed Ibis, another Near Threatened species during the survey. The diversity of avifauna that occur in large numbers here calls for conservation of the Pallikaranaiwetlands and prevention from further degradation so that it sustains as wetland for posterity offering the metropolis many ecological services. Conservation of such urban wetlands is essential to sustain migratory bird populations, as it is probably an abode during their migratory route, serving a vital role in the conservation of these species. Unfortunately, there is no laws till date to protect urban wetlands in particular, and we highlight here the urgent need for a policy to conserve urban wetlands and related ecosystems.

Reference

Azeez P.A., S. Bhupathy, J. Ranjini, R. Dhanya & P.P.N. Raj (2007). Management Plan for the Eco-restoration of PallikaranaiReserve Forest. Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Coimbatore, 62pp.

Bibby, C.J., N.D. Burgess & D.A. Hill (1993). Bird Census Techniques. Academic Press Limited, London, 257pp.

BirdLife International (2001). Threatened Birds of Asia: The Bird Life International Red Data Book. Cambridge, UK, 864pp. http://www.birdlife.org/action/science/species/global_species_programme/whats_new.html, downloaded on 16.11.2009.

Care Earth (2002). Conservation of Urban Wetlands – Pallikaranai Marsh. Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, 31pp.

Grimmet, R., C. Inskipp& T. Inskipp (2000). Pocket Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent. Oxford University Press, New York, 384pp.

Joint Committee Report (2003). Threats to Pallikaranaiwetland and need for its immediate remedial measures. Joint Committee, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India, New Delhi.

Patnaik, D.C. & P. Srihari (2004). Wetlands - A development paradox: The dilemma of South Chennai, India. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=591861 or doi:10.2139/ssrn.591861

The Hindu (2006). The marshland gone waste (report by J Vencatesan). http:// www.thehindu.com/thehindu/pp/2006/07/01/stories/006070100040100.htm.