Point Calimere Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary

Two years ago, when I visited Chennai, I had planned to visit Point Calimere. Somehow the plan did not work. And since then I was longing to see this place. Fortunately this year I was so close enough to this place that I had no reason to miss visiting the sanctuary. Although the main objective of our trip was to visit the Cholan Dynasty temples, (how many temples can you see anyway?) I was able to squeeze in a day to visit Point Calimere. 

Painted stork at the Ramsar Site - Point Calimere

Point Calimere, also called Cape Calimere, is a low headland on the Coromandel Coast, in the Nagapattinam district of the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is the apex of the Cauvery River delta, and marks a nearly right-angle turn in the coastline. A historic landmark here was the Chola lighthouse, destroyed in the tsunami of 2004. 

The forests of Point Calimere, also known the Vedaranyam forests, are one of the last remnants of the dry evergreen forests that were once typical of the East Deccan dry evergreen forests eco-region. The Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary, with an area of 24.17 km², was created on June 13, 1967. Point Calimere Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary is located where the Bay of Bengal meets the Palk Strait. The sanctuary was created in 1967 for the conservation of Blackbuck as its population was dwindling due to poaching and lack of legal protection. The sanctuary includes the cape and its three natural habitat types: dry evergreen forests, mangrove forests, and wetlands. Point Calimere homes the endangered endemic Indian Blackbuck and is one of the few known wintering locations of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper.It also holds large wintering populations of Greater Flamingos in India. The area is dotted with salt pans and these hold large crustacean populations that support the wintering bird life. (Source: Wikipedia)

One day visit to this place is not enough to see the variety of avi-fauna and the migrant population. However, we were lucky enough to get some brilliant sightings. Some of them are posted as under:

(click on the images for the enlarged view)

Greater Egret

Group of Egrets and White Ibis

Bar-headed Geese

Little Egret

Greater Egret and Painted Storks 

Eurasian Collared Dove

Shrike against the Sun

Blue-tailed Bee Eater

Sandpiper

Little Ringed Plover

Endangered Blackbuck (Male) in its lush green habitat

Spotted Doves in a row

Egret Flight

Little Tern about to capture its hunt

Seagull

Tern Flight

Fisherman and the Storks

Painted Stork Flight

Brahminy Kite

Curlew

Seagull

Group of Godwits

Silhoutte of a Heron

Wild boars lit by sunset at the sanctuary

Sunset time

For more pictures visit my Flickr set here

(C) Srikanth Parthasarathy

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