Coming soon, a ‘Cafeteria’ for oil spill-hit birds at Ennore Creek

Subject : Environment

Section: Pollution

In the news:

Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) and Besant Memorial Animal Dispensary (BMAD) plan to establish feeding stations for birds at Ennore creek. They aim to catch the birds to rehabilitate and care for them.

Details:

The Department of Environment, Climate Change, and Forests, along with WTI, local volunteers, and the Wildlife Warden of Chennai, are working together to assess and rescue affected birds. While many have flown away, some, like pelicans and painted storks, have been severely impacted.
To capture sick birds, the team plans to create feeding stations with nets.
Trapping birds in nets is being considered in Ennore Creek as a conservation measure due to a drastic decline in the bird population caused by contamination from an oil spill.
The oil spill has affected not only the birds but also the fish.

Ennore Creek:

It is a backwater located in Ennore, Chennai along the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal.
It is located in the zone comprising lagoons with salt marshes and backwaters, submerged under water during high tide and forming an arm of the sea with an opening to the Bay of Bengal at the creek.
Once a flourishing mangrove swamp, the creek has been degraded to patches in the fringes mainly due to human activities in the region.
The depth of the creek varies from 1 to 2 m and is shallow near the mouth.
The north–south trending channels of the creek connect it with the Pulicat Lake to the north and to the distributaries of the Kosasthalaiyar River in the south.

Wildlife Trust of India (WTI):

WTI is an Indian nature conservation organisation.
It was formed in November 1998 in New Delhi, India, as a response to the rapidly deteriorating condition of wildlife in India.
WTI is a registered charity in India (under Section 12A of the Income Tax Act, 1961).