Puttenahalli lake to be bird reserve

Puttenahalli lake to be bird reserve
Wednesday April 25 2007 10:47 IST

BANGALORE: Puttenahalli Lake has been in the news, but for the wrong reasons over the past few years.

While people living on its fringes have been putting up with rainwater seeping into their houses - hundreds have even been displaced - Puttenahalli holds a secret treasure. It is a nesting bowl for a wide variety of birds, and it may soon become the state’s first Bird Conservation Reserve.

A study, by native biodiversity experts, has discovered 49 species of birds breeding here. Steps are being taken to declare the 10-hectare water body as a protected zone.

The lake, may thus emerge as a birdwatcher’s realm of joy. It will have watch towers, trekking paths, guides to identify birds for tourists and other basic facilities, it is officially learnt.

Among the birds found here are Darters, Painted storks, Black-crowned Night Herons, Purple Herons, Pond Herons, Egrets, Asian Open-Bill Storks, Eurasian Spoonbills, Little Grebe, Little Cormorant, Spot-billed Ducks, Purple Moorhen, Common Sandpiper and other water-birds.

Speaking to this website's newspaper, principal chief conservator of forests (wildlife) Avani Kumar Varma said, Puttenahalli lake is a “must protection place”.

Earlier, the lake was under Lake Development Authority (LDA) and was listed for further development for commercial purposes under Public-Private Partnership Model.

“We have written to the state government to withdraw the lake from the LDA list and hand over to us. The government has already given the green signal and the process of declaring it as a conservation reserve is underway,” he added.

According to biodiversity expert Dr Harish R Bhat, Bangalore is left with only 34 healthy tanks, 14 of which are in Bangalore North and these attract many birds. Out of these, Puttenahalli is prominent because more than 7,000 birds can be sighted during the breeding season.

The ‘avifauna’ of this lake also includes some of the endangered and migratory birds from the Northern Himalayas and Siberia.

“Many species which are listed under threatened category from International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) find this lake as their favourite abode during breeding season - the Painted Storks and Darters to name a few. The new tag of conservation reserve will help in preserving the rich bird population in a urban set-up,” he added.

City bird-watcher P Manjunath, said that a Spot-billed Pelican was sighted in the same lake last year. “We have been surveying the water body since many years. Depending upon the breeding season, the birds can be sighted here,” he said.