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Goa offers a home for bird-watchers at Carambolim
by Devraj

    Goa: Spread over an area of more than 70 hectares, located around 12 kilometres from Panjim, Carambolim Lake in Goa is a well-known site for bird watchers. Home to more than 80 species of birds and migratory birds from countries like Russia, Mongolia and China among others, the lake is in a state of neglect now-adays. According to the tour organisers, the lake has been badly affected with salvania weeds, a floating aquatic weed native to Brazil and belonging to the fern family. Moreover, with the trees being cut, the bird watchers find it difficult to watch birds. This lake has been pretty good. We had a lot of ducks in the past till the salvania weed was there, it changed the whole face of the lake. But there were few trees along the border that have been cleared off. If the end of the trees are left, it causes a height and you can get closer to the bird without the bird seeing you. So, even if they are cleaning, there should be somebody who knows about birds, how to clean up and what to do," said Llyod Fernandes, bird watching tour organiser, Goa.

    But despite grievances of people here, the Goa Forest Department says the efforts are on to develop the Carambolim Lake, which is also close to the World Heritage site of Old Goa, It is claimed that after taking up the challenge to conserve the lake, officials have been successful to a great extent. Men have been employed to free the lake from salvania weed. "The lake is very big and water is such that people cannot walk. So, we have put one boat with four people. They go and survey the whole lake. Whenever they see the traces of salvania multiplying, they remove it. There is a continuous exercise throughout the year," said C D Singh, Deputy Conservator of forests, Goa. Meanwhile, foreign tourists frequent this lake to view the birds which flock here from different countries." It's very beautiful. I saw a lot of birds here. And I took nice pictures," said Allen, a foreign tourist. The different species that are found here include Purple swamp hen, lesser whistling ducks, bronze winged jacanas, egrets, herons and cormorants. Carambolim Lake is among the 450 most important bird areas and is listed by famous bird protection agencies like the Royal Society for Bird Protection in England and Bombay Natural History Society.

    Interestingly, the absence of any guide to help tourists in identifying birds always creates problems for Goa Forest Department, there are no guides provided by the department to help the tourists in identifying birds. There are no instruments like binoculars and telescopes for bird watching. Officials say that future plans to develop Carambolim Lake includes a nature education centre and the involvement of local enthusiasts to help the tourists.
-Feb 22, 2006

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