Vedanthangal Water Birds Sanctuary

About Vedanthangal Water Birds Sanctuary

One of the most spectacular breeding grounds in India. Cormorants, herons, storks, pelicans, grebes and many others.The Vedanthangal Bird Sanctuary has been protected by the local people for well over 250 years. The sanctuary gets its name from a nearby village and is only 75 Km from Chennai. The bird life (resident & visitors) includes Cormorants, Darters, Herons, Egrets, Open billed Stork, Spoonbill and White Ibis, Little Grebe, Indian Moorhen, Black Winged Stilts, a few migratory ducks and occasionally Grey Pelicans. November to February is the ideal season to visit the sanctuary.

Vedanthangal is a home not only to migratory birds but also to many ornithologists who camp here for weeks observing the birds at close quarters. With a powerful pair of binoculars, you can spot a Cormorant or a Snake Bird dive under the water to gobble up a nervous fish which is its staple diet. Soon after the hunt, the Cormorant must come up to the shore to dry its feathers as nature has not endowed it with oil-glands to water-proof the feathers.

The Spot-Billed Grey Pelican, on the contrary, moves in groups lashing the water with powerful wing strokes driving the fish to a shallow corner for the ultimate assault. The Spoon Bill, however, prefers to devour frogs and insects in the muddy water with its bills half open.

The winged visitors regulated by biological clocks land at Vedanthangal after the monsoon with amazing clock-work precision and get into the breeding act quietly. The population of the migratory birds swells to around 40,000 by the middle of January.

» When to visit : The best season to visit is from November to January.

» How to get there : Chennai is the nearest airport and one can motor down a distance of a hundred kilometers, most of it on the well-maintained National Highway 45. The nearest railhead is Chinglepet (26 km).