Nalsarovar drying up reads like bad news? Vadla, a wetland 28 km away from Nalsarovar in Surendranagar has gained what was Nalsarovar has lost.
The Vadla wetland is now host to several species of birds, although regulars believe, even when Nalsarovar had good water levels, the latter still attracted migratory birds in good numbers.
It should be noted that this year Nalsarovar, a naturally created wetland spread over 120 km has dried up completely leaving it bereft of all birds. This has also affected the livelihood of fishermen in the area. Every winter the wetland used to attract on an average of over 1.85 lakh birds. This is the second instance of the wetland drying up after 1997. The last time it had completely gone dry was in 2002.
Suresh Devipujak, a local said that Nalsarovar drying up sure is a bad news, but one cant deny that more birds and tourists are now flocking to Vadla. "Here people can go on foot to watch the birds. Recently they also released water from the Narmada dam attracting some species of birds," said Devipujak. He added that, this rise in tourists and birds however does not translate into additional income for locals. "Unlike Nal, you don't need boatmen to ferry you close to the birds so the rise in tourism is not of much use to the locals as of now," said Devipujak.
Uday Vora, a forest official from Nalsarovar said that when migratory birds don't find a conducive place in one wetland they may go looking for others. There are some birds that show site fidelity which is why they return to the same wetland again.
"Nalsarovar too will have birds and when they find that the wetland is not conducive they may go for other nearby places like Vadla," said Vora. He, however, lays to rest the whole brouhaha over the wetland drying up. "Earlier during a comprehensive Environment Impact Assessment study for Nalsarovar carried out had recommended that drying up is a natural process and it was necessary to maintaining the ecological character of the natural wetland," Vora added.
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 "Nalsarovar Bird Sanctuary")
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