Case of birds in tanks in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry State

Speaker : Alexandre Cebeillac (Master 1 student in Geography, University Paris 7, France)

Organiser : Department of Ecology, French Institute of Pondicherry.

Abstract

Tamil Nadu and Puducherry state contain 34 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) as defined by BNHS ; 14 of them are freshwater man-made reservoirs, so it's possible to balance human activities and bird quantity and diversity. The study will focus on 4 tanks, 2 in Puducherry state – Bahoor and Ousteri, and 2 in Tamil Nadu – Vedanthangal and Karikili. Ousteri and Bahoor are the largest tanks (8 and 6 km² maximum) in Puducherry state, considered as IBA due to the number of bird that aggregate here, sometimes representing more than 1% of the biogeographic population. Based on 15 years data of bird count done in January, the study will try to find some link between number of birds and species and climatic condition, the management of the tank, and the perception of local inhabitants. The water tank use changed in time, so did the distribution of the birds, except for few species. Even if those tank shelter sometimes some endangered species, their main role is to provide the habitat of large number of common water birds, up to 35 different species.

Vedanthangal and Karikili are small tanks (less than 0.6 km² each), but they shelter endangered species and often more than 30 000 birds during nesting season. The myth says that the local population protects the birds because their droppings fertilize the water and increase the harvest. Vedanthangal was enhanced by forest department to shelter specific endangered species. The same project is on the way in Karikili, with social consequences. We focus in this project on the ecological services, tourism potential of those tanks, based on interview of concerned people. The first results from the fieldwork completed from February-May 2010 will be presented.