FLAMINGOS
- ENVIRONMENT
News:
Pink flamboyance
What's
in the news?
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Every winter, thousands of greater and
lesser flamingos fly into Mumbai, forming a sea of pink against a backdrop of
skyscrapers, bridges and oil refineries along the 26-km-long Thane Creek, the
DPS lake in Nerul and Sewri.
Key
takeaways:
●
These migratory birds generally fly from Kutch in Gujarat and the Sambhar Lake in
Rajasthan to Mumbai during winter around mid-November, but due to prolonged
rain and other climate factors, their arrivals can be delayed.
●
Last year, the Bombay Natural History
Society (BNHS) conducted a survey in which approximately 1,33,000 flamingos
were observed across the Thane Creek
Flamingo Sanctuary, Sewri, Nhava and adjacent zones.
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Flamingos feed on the algae that dwell in
the mudflats at Navi Mumbai, Airoli and Thane Creek, and it is the carotenoid pigment in algae that gives
flamingos their pretty pink colour.
Flamingos:
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The Greater Flamingo birds are the most
widely found species among the Flamingo.
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These are long-legged and long-necked
birds which are the filter feeders
and get their characteristic pink colour from their diet of brine shrimps and
algae available in the coastal wetlands.
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Flamingoes are the indicators of a healthy coastal environment.
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The species inhabits shallow eutrophic water bodies such as saline lagoons,
saltpans and large saline or alkaline lakes.
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The species nests in large dense colonies on mudflats or islands of large water bodies.
Species
of Flamingo:
In India there are two
species of flamingos such as
1.
Greater Flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus):
●
They are widespread in India, and they
migrate to South India during winter
and spend their time in large reservoirs and mud flats.
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IUCN status: Least concern.
2. Lesser Flamingo (Phoeniconaias minor):
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They mainly breed at the Rann of Kutch/North-western India.
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IUCN status: Near threatened.
●
Appendix II of the Bonn Convention (CMS).
●
Appendix II of the CITES Convention.
Both these species of
Flamingos are resident species and breeds in the Little Rann of Kachchh in
Gujarat.
Go
back to basics:
Thane
Creek Flamingo Sanctuary:
●
The Maharashtra
Government has declared the area along the western bank of Thane Creek as the
“Thane Creek Flamingo Sanctuary” since 2015.
●
It is Maharashtra’s
second marine sanctuary after the Malvan sanctuary and is recognised as a Ramsar site.
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It is recognized as an “Important Bird Area” by the Bombay
Natural History Society.