BY Prof. Sampath Seneviratne
Not just the fancy city folks running around with usual jungle outfits and expensive long lenses or binoculars, the average joe at Mannar too, stops for the show at Periakalapuwa. During Saturday morning last weekend, there were 18 or so SUVs and about the same number of motorbikes parked along the road where hundreds or so onlookers calmly enjoyed the flamingos. Even the Anuradhapura-Mannar public bus stopped for a few minutes at the site so that the passengers could enjoy this rare wonder.
To witness it and to get that “click” of it, Mannar is filled with birders and photographers from across the country.
Hotels full, hoteliers thrilled
Not just at the high-end Palmyrah House, at the medium-scale hotels like John’s Hotel Agape, to the old-school birders’ hideout of Laurance’s Four Tees Guest Inn, the phone rings every so often to inquire for reservations. All the hotels are booked for the long weekend, and hoteliers are thrilled. After a very long time, Mannar is full. The island is thrilled by a special arrival. There are over 5,000 greater flamingos at Vankalea and Veddithalathivu Nature 
Reserves in Mannar. The pink flush is mesmerising, and the dancing, hopping, neck pulling and head bobbing of these elegant birds is a complex ballet – the finest of nature’s elegance – a spectacle.
It’s not just about birds; it’s about local economy and creating livelihoods Together with these flamingos are another half a million small waterbirds, namely sandpipers, plovers, knots, terns and large gulls. Mannar is one of the most important overwintering sites in the Central Asian Migratory Bird Flyway. These birds are ecologically very important to the planet’s environment and wellbeing. Even more so, they are critical for Mannar’s economy. The flamingos in particular, are a great money maker for hotels, guides, eateries and for those who sell roadside produce in this arid wilderness. Both Mannar and Pesalai towns see fruit juice parlours only when the flamingos emerge. The plush Colombo crowd is a livelihood generator for many.
Flamingos afar
Flamingos come to Mannar from the salt marshes of the Rann of Kutch at Gujarat and Maharashtra states of Western India. To reach Mannar they fly about 2000 kilometres. They will stay at least for another few months, till March in Mannar. That’s only if they don’t get disturbed.
What is right in Mannar is wrong in Bundala
Mannar and the northern coast is not the only place that these birds frequented in the past. Bundala National Park and Maha Lewaya at Hambantota used to get a flock of about 2000 flamingos annually till the mid-1990’s. In the mid-1990’s, as part of an irrigation development project, the excess freshwater of Lunugamwehera and other inland lakes were diverted to the Malala, Bundala and Kalametiya lagoons. The main food item – the tiny crustaceans that these flamingos filter off from their unique hokey-blade-like beaks live only in the brackish water. The flooding of Hambantota lagoons with the diverted freshwater killed the crustaceans, which saw the end of the flamingos in the South. Not just flamingos, the shortsighted diversion of freshwater killed the then thriving lobster and shrimp fishery of Hambantota. Without flamingos and thriving shellfish fishery, these southern wetlands had been poor since then.
The salt lagoons in Mannar on the other hand are unaltered and the tiny crustaceans are thriving there, nourishing the hungry flamingos, and giving them the pink colour in their silky feathers.
What is right in Bundala is wrong in Mannar
The Bundala National Park and southern wetlands are mostly protected by a stringent legal framework administered through the Department of Wildlife Conservation. However, the northern wetlands are less protected and the threats to these birds are numerous. The threat of the snares of poachers of Mannar are always a danger for migratory ducks, gulls and Francolins (partridge-like birds found in Mannar and elsewhere in the North). There were instances where flamingos were hunted for the pot and the danger is never fully gone. Every year this author removes numerous nooses aimed at wildfowl, gamebirds and even for larger wildlife such as spotted deer and wild boar in Mannar.
Vanishing prosperity in encroached wilderness
The habitat encroachment is the biggest threat to Mannar. For example, of the 30 or so kulums (or the freshwater pools) where the Mannar donkeys, Mannar horses and countless birds including flamingos satisfy their thirst, only a handful is left. The rest were legally or illegally filed for various projects. The biggest of all, the Korakulum, a major attraction and the only freshwater lake in the island, has also seen illegal squatters encroaching at a relentless pace. The barbed wire fences and makeshift structures with two-to-three-year-old coconut trees brought from elsewhere are planters to claim an extended ownership, stealing a promise to earn millions through tourism for a generation.The rest of Mannar too, sees fencing, deforestation and legal and illegal fencing, which makes Mannar a bird-less, nature-deprived community with nothing much to offer. If this relentless land grab continues, Mannar soon will be a lost wilderness.
Flamingos and other waterbirds face injuries and death by the barbed wire fence in the water bodies, power lines erected across the Vankalai Sanctuary and dumped garbage in the wetlands. This author and a team of naturalists had observed a few injured birds over the past few weeks. A northern shoveler with a broken beak is still out in Mannar, only to starve to death over the next few days, and a northern pintail duck with a broken keel bone. The latter died after several surgeries done at a veterinary hospital in Colombo.
The much-debated windmills stood like an army of giants along the southern shores of the island. On a usual day the tips of those blades reach a speed of 160 kilometres per hour – a blender in the blue sky. Birds seem to be avoiding them – for now.
Getting a decent shot – whatever the cost it takes
Troubles for the pink flush are not over. The marginalised encroacher, the confused planner and the misguided governments had done enough to create a wilderness, a mess – a promised landscape, a hopeless wasteland. To make matters worse, some of the Colombo crowd, the photographer kind, who brings the much-needed lift for the local economy, creates unwanted harassment.
The mad race of getting a full-frame shot could lead the “hard-core” to venture into the nearby dykes and brush where flamingos are feeding. The slightest movement creates mayhem. Thousands of birds take their wings and fly away to places where people can’t reach. An opportunity for many to enjoy the beauty is chased away by greedy few. The worst of the bunch are the drone uses. Even though Mannar is a high security zone, the race to get the best angles sees no barriers. An approaching drone is a terrifying object for flamingos. It’s an aerial attack for them, and they have very little defence for such attacks – a mortal fear kicks in – they fly as fast as they can as farther away from the site. Drones could chase flamingos away from Mannar. The promised economic boost for the roadside food seller, the coronavirus-lockdown battered hotelier and the local crowd who started to see a relief, will fly away with the birds.
Protecting the goose that lays golden eggs
As a monthly visitor to Mannar over the past eight years to conduct scientific research on birds, wetlands and environment, this author strongly urges several key measures to protect Mannar’s green gold and its economic potential.
Demarcate the boundaries of protected areas of Mannar. Place signboards and intensify enforcement to stop poaching and other wildlife crime
Remove all the illegal encroaches from the Karakulam Tank and encourage the paddy farmers to continue and expand paddy cultivation in the Mannar island
Establish wildlife tourism friendly facilities such as bird blinds for photographers, information panels, an information centre for local nature and historic attractions, and a local guiding facility in Mannar
Declare Puthukkudiyiruppu Lagoon and the adjacent forest as a protected area to save resident and migratory forest birds in Mannar
Declare a protected area for Mannar’s asiatic donkey and other large mammals such as spotted deer and wild boar, and unique sand dune forests in the Central or Western parts of the island
With the help of the Sri Lankan Navy and the Department of Wildlife Conservation ensure a tighter protection for wildlife including greater protection for the large aggregation of breeding seabirds in the Rama’s Bridge Islands.
Dr. Sampath Seneviratne is a research scientist in ornithology and evolutionary ecology, and a professor in zoology at the University of Colombo. He is also a committee member of WNPS.
The history of wildlife protection in Sri Lanka is almost synonymous with that of the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society (WNPS) of Sri Lanka. At 128 years old, the WNPS is the third oldest non-governmental organisation of its kind in the world and was responsible for the setting up of the Wilpattu and Yala National Parks in Sri Lanka, and of the formation of the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC).
