User:Marcus334/Karaivetti Bird Sanctuary

The Karaivetti Bird Sanctuary, is a 4.537 km2 protected area located at Karaivetti village in Ariyalur District of Tamil Nadu,South India and established on April 5, 1999. It is one of the largest freshwater lakes in southern Tamil Nadu. least 188 species of birds have been recorded in the sanctuary. International name is Karaivetti Wildlife Sanctuary, Important bird area code no. IN268, criteria: A1, A4i, A4iii.

Geography
The sanctuary is a large irrigation tank located in the northern alluvial plains of the Kaveri River. It is fed during the northeast monsoons by the Pullambadi canal, an aqueduct from the Kaveri via the Venganur reservoir and dam.It is one of three interconnected reservoirs. It is one of the largest freshwater lakes in southern Tamil Nadu. An important aspect of this sanctuary is the presence of water till the month of May as most nearby water bodies dry up by the month of March. It remains dry from June till August. Rainfall ranges from 800 mm -2000 mm. It is often referred to together with another nearby tank and called Vettakudi-Karaivetti Bird Sanctuary.

Flora
Aquatic vegetation includes: ganthian spp., sedge sp., bullrush and hydrilla. Shoreline trees include wattle, neem, Indian beech sp., and casuarina sp.. These trees provide habitats necessary for breeding waterbirds. The Social Forestry Department has planted Cassia trees along the northern and western shores of the reservoir.

Fauna
Up to 50,000 migratory water birds birds have been recorded visiting the sanctuary during the peak season in January. Birds start arriving in November and stay till May. Important birds here are long migrants including the high flying bar-headed goose, white stork, woolly-necked stork, rosy pelican, spoonbill, openbill stork, and  grey heron, night heron, Pond heron,purple heron, egrets and glossy ibis.

The diving birds little cormorant, kingfisher, and indian cormorant and sixteen species of ducks, includingspot-billed duck, common pochard, tufted pochard and northern shoveler, plusCoots and twenty three species of waders, including whiskered tern, gull-billed tern, and little tern,sandpipers, little ringed plover and kentish plover, have been recorded in the sanctuary.

In addition, there are several Near threatened species found here including: oriental darter, black-bellied tern, black-headed Ibis, painted stork and spot-billed pelican. In January, 2003, 375 Spot-billed Pelican were sighted by the Asian Waterfowl Census.

Nearly 100 species of land birds have been recorded in the sanctuary including the rosy pastor and theraptors peregrine falcon, osprey, marsh harrier and tawny eagle. There were 59 species listed in the 1999-2000 BNHS/Asian waterfowl count, Tamil Nadu statewide count.

The sanctuary is notable as a breeding area of waterbirds. During the March 2002 water bird census, 250 nests were counted with the grey pelican, spoonbill pelican, ibis, openbill stork and little cormorant found to be breeding. In addition, darter, little egret, grey heron, night heron, painted stork, oriental black-headed ibis and eurasian spoonbill breed here. Karaivetti is one of at least 58 activeheronries in Tamil Nadu.

Possible photos
Photos at Karaivetti by Sean Fitzgerald include: Ashy-crowned Sparrow Lark, Ashy Woodswallow, Asian Openbill, Asian Paradise Flycatcher, Barn Owl, Black-winged Stilt, Black Drongo, Blue-tailed Bee-eater,Brahminy Kite, Cattle Egret, Common Sandpiper, Chestnut-headed Bee-eater, Chestnut-shouldered Pretonia, Common Kingfisher, Crested Serpent Eagle,Eurasian Golden Oriole, Greater Flameback, VU+Greater Spotted Eagle, Common Hoopoe, Indian Courser,Indian Pond Heron, Intermediate Egret, Jungle Myna, Little Egret, Long-tailed Shrike, Malabar Grey Hornbill, Malabar Whistling Thrush, Oriental Skylark, NTPainted_stork Pied Bushchat,  Pied Kingfisher, Pied Cuckoo, ++Pintail Snipe,  NTPainted Stork, Paddyfield Pipit, Red Collared Dove, +Red-rumped Swallow,   Rose-ringed Parakeet, +Rosy Starling, Rufous-tailed Lark, Rufous-winged Bushlark, Shikra, Spotted Owlet, Spot-billed Duck, Vernal Hanging Parrot, +Western Marsh Harrier,White-throated Kingfisher, +Yellow Wagtail, +Zitting Cisticola, ,

Baillon's Crake, Bay-backed Shrike, NTBlack-headed ibis, ++Blue-faced malkoha, +Booted eagle,Brahminy starling, Citrine Wagtail, Glossy Ibis, Greater flamingo, Greater painted snipe, Green Bee-eater, NTGrey-headed Fish Eagle, ++Grey-headed Lapwing, Greylag goose, House Sparrow,Indian peafowl, Indian Roller, Little Cormorant, Malabar Parakeet, Osprey, Purple Swamphen,Red-wattled Lapwing, ++Singing Bushlark, Streaked Weaver, White-browed wagtail, Yellow-wattled Lapwing, Overview of Karaivetti lake,Other lake,  of Karaivetti Dam, Karaivetti Observation tower, Karaivetti sign, Karaivetti Village.

Conservation
Karaivetti Bird Sanctuary is administered by The Principal Chief Conservator of Forests through the Tamil Nadu Forest Department, Wildlife Warden, 110 Public Office Road, Nagapattinam - 611 001. It is state-owned and under the control of the Public Works Department, Agriculture Department, and Fisheries Department. The lake supplies water for irrigation and domestic use. Fishing is carried out on lease basis. There is grazing by domestic livestock. There are privately owned paddy fields surrounding the reservoir.

In 2007-2008, a scheme for the development of Karaivetti Bird Sanctuary was sanctioned by the Government of India, Ministry of Environment and Forests and implementation begun. This project includes: conducting water bird census, micro planning and formation of Eco-Development committees in 2 Villages, alternate income generation activities through micro credit in 1 Village, promotion of eco-tourism through publicity and awareness, arranging 4 eco-camps, documentation of sanctuary wildlife, engaging anti-poaching watchers, awareness creation in 2 Villages and maintenance of visitors facilities. Dalmia Cement Co. has constructed an observation tower at Karaivetti Bird Sanctuary. Bird Identification and surveys are done regularly by the Karaivetti Bird Monitoring Project of the Bishop Heber College, Au Sable Institute of Environment Studies. Their updated list of birds at Karaivetti has 188 species including a few threatened birds. Bird banding is also organized there with the help of the Bombay Natural History Society.

External sources

 * part 1-Karaivetti species sightings Daily reports of 6 week bird survey at Karaivetti by Sean Fitzgerald 1/31/2008 to 2/03/2008
 * part 2-Karaivetti species sightings Daily reports of 6 week bird survey at Karaivetti by Sean Fitzgerald, 2/04/2008 to 3/03/2008
 * 44 photos Birds of Tamil Nadu - India by Sean Fitzgerald. Source:Ecology of the Indian Tropics2/24/2007
 * 4 Karaivetti bird photos

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