More than 130,000 flamingoes visited Thane creek this yr: Dept
Navi Mumbai:the Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary Range Forest Department has said that more than 130,000 flamingoes have visited the creek this year, the highest number in the last five years.
The department’s statement was based on a report submitted to them by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), a pan-india wildlife research organisation.
Gujarat is the breeding ground for the flamingoes and since 1994, these birds started visiting Thane creek before going further to south. “There are Lesser Flamingoes as well as Greater Flamingoes found here. The Lesser Flamingo comes from Gujarat while the origin of the Greater Flamingo is still being studied. In the initial years, the birds found only numbered 7-8,000. Eventually, it started increasing due to the availability of food and protection from humans. Their main food is blue and green algae and microscopic insects that are available here,” Rahul Khot, deputy director, head of migratory bird’s studies, BNHS, said.
In 2018-19, 120,000 flamingoes had visited the creek while it was 96,400 in 2019-20. “Due to Covid, we were unable to conduct counting in Marchapril 2020 and 2021 due to which the numbers in those years are low,” Khot said.
BNHS conducts research on the biodiversity in the creek, tags the birds and reports details to the mangrove cell, which is a part of the forest department.
“Around seven to eight teams are deployed to take the count of the birds. The teams are given different areas of the creek and the counting is done at the same time so that there is no overlapping. The counting is repeated on another day as well by a completely different team, to understand if there was any over counting or under counting. There should not be much difference in both the counts. So, every month we do the counting twice,” said Mrugank Prabhu, scientist, migratory birds, BNHS.
In 2020-21, 100,002 flamingoes were sighted while in 2021-22, 133,000 have been sighted. The peak season for sighting flamingoes is in February-march while the survey is carried out from September to May.
On an average every year during the season from November to May, the sanctuary earns an income of around ₹50 lakh. “Close to 7,000 people visited the sanctuary this year while more than 8,000 visited the information centre. We have permission to run boating only from November to May. We currently have two boats while one electric boat has been proposed,” Range Forest Officer NG Kokare, Flamingo Sanctuary of Thane creek, said.
Currently there are two to three rides per day depending on the high tide timings. The forest department has also proposed a floating jetty 200m away from the current jetty which will be joined together after which the rides will increase up to four or five, said Kokare.