With the sun’s heat accelerating the rate of evaporation, the water level has fallen sharply in our Puttenahalli Lake and there are no more than four or five pools of water left. We have been consoling ourselves with the thought that this is still far, far better than this time last year when we had literally a few buckets of water in the entire lake. Fish had died in scores then and the lake bed was hard and with cracks and crevices. Encouraged by the monsoon filling the lake somewhat, in September we’d released 3000 fingerlings and the birds returned once again.
The fish has grown in these six months attracting new species of birds such as the Great Egret, Asian Openbill Stork, Painted Stork, Darter, Garganey Ducks among many others.
Garganeys, Dec 2013
Painted Stork and Grey Heron, April 2014
Deepa Mohan’s Youtube videoon the Asian Openbill Stork
Unfortunately though, the fish also attracts poachers to the lake. Every time the trespassers come close, the birds fly away.
Poachers, 3-May-2014
Fishing, 4-May-2014
With a sack of fish, 4-May-2014
The sheer brutality of these men and boys is appalling to say the least. Armed with sticks, they beat the fish in the shallow water. In the deeper water others use fishing nets or even cloth to catch the fish. When ticked off by our gardeners, they threaten to break the arms and legs of our men. We trustees have taken to chasing the men away and collecting the sticks and nets they leave behind in the hope that they may not return. We are wrong and they do return to fish, day and night. Only a few birds are now left at the lake.
Trespassers, poachers
Teaching the young to flout the law
The birds return when the men leave
We are guarding the lake and the fish as best as we can while we wait for the monsoon to begin, fill the lake and bring the birds back. We fervently hope the rain will also keep the poachers away.
Agriculture around the Yamuna is strictly prohibited due to river pollution concerns, but where does that leave the farmers?
The river Yamuna enters Delhi from a village called Palla and travels for about 48 km. There is a part of the river, approximately 22 km long, between Wazirabad and Okhla, which is severely polluted, but for the remaining 26 km of its course, the river is still fairly clean. The surroundings serve as a habitat for a large number of trees, flowers, farms, birds, and people who have been living here for as long as they can remember. They are the urban farmers of Delhi-NCR, and they provide grains and vegetables for people living in the city. Although farming…
Voluntary organisations have urged the government to settle the claims of local communities, without reducing Pulicat Sanctuary's borders.
A collective of 34 civil society organisations and more than 200 individuals from Tamil Nadu and across the country have written to the Thiruvallur District Collector, Additional Chief Secretary of Environment, Climate Change and Forests, Chief Wildlife Warden, and the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Cell to protect the Pulicat Bird Sanctuary for ecological and social reasons and settle the rights of people without reducing the sanctuary's boundary. The voluntary groups have urged the government to initiate the settlement of claims of local communities residing in the 13 revenue villages within the Pulicat Birds Sanctuary boundary limits. Excerpts from the letter:…
