Funds breathe life into bird paradise

Funds breathe life into bird paradise

June 18: Hundreds of bird-lovers who learnt to tell the heron from the cormorant at Son Beel will unanimously swear by one fact — the oxbow lake’s ability to remain breathtakingly beautiful despite all efforts by mankind to sully it.

With 27 exotic birds and 70 species of fish on its permanent residents’ list, the 13-km-long Son Beel is a tourism treasure trove that the administration never bothered to explore.
There is no infrastructure worth mention, even for the most frugal backpacker. No hotels, motels, or even an apology for a road.

And yet hundreds of tourists flock to the lake every winter to watch the seasonal birds build their nests on the trees surrounding the expanse of water.

That there are any trees left in the vicinity of the lake is a wonder. Timber sharks have stripped most of the green cover in the area and if the administration continues with its blind-eye syndrome, soon there won’t be any tree left for the birds to perch on.

Till 60 years ago, the lake was the breeding destination of shoals of hilsa that swam into Karimganj from the rivers in Bangladesh.

The hilsas are now gone, as are various other more commonly found fish, forcing the fishermen living along Son Beel’s bank to look for alternative occupations.According to an estimate made by a fish researcher, the water reservoir now has an annual output of 210 metric tonnes of fish as against 600 metric tonnes recorded in 1905.

After relentless rallying by environmentalists, the Son Beel may finally get a morsel of the government’s attention.

The Union ministry granted Rs 85 lakh three months ago for developing the lake as a tourist spot.

If the project goes as planned, Son Beel may soon figure on the global ornithologists’ must-visit destination list. Source" telegraph india