Point Calimere Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary

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Point Calimere Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary

  • Country: 
    India
  • Site number: 
    1210
  • Area: 
    38,500 ha
  • Designation date: 
    19-08-2002
  • Coordinates: 
    10°18'N 79°38'E
Materials presented on this website, particularly maps and territorial information, are as-is and as-available based on available data and do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Overview

Point Calimere Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary. 19/08/02. Tamil Nadu. 38,500 ha. 10°19'N 079°38'E. Wildlife Sanctuary. A coastal area consisting of shallow waters, shores, and long sand bars, intertidal flats and intertidal forests, chiefly mangrove, and seasonal, often-saline lagoons, as well as human-made salt exploitation sites. Some 257 species of birds have been recorded, 119 of them waterbirds, including the vulnerable species Spoonbill Sandpiper (Euryhorhynchus pygmaeus) and Grey Pelican (Pelecanus philippensis) and some 30,000 Greater and Lesser Flamingos. The site serves as the breeding ground or nursery for many commercially important species of fish, as well as for prawns and crabs. Some 35,000 fishermen and agriculturalists support their families around the borders of the sanctuary. Illegal collection of firewood and forest produce such as fruits (gathered by lopping off tree branches), the spread of Prosopis chilensis (Chilean mesquite), increasingly brackish groundwater caused by expansion of the historical salt works, and decreasing inflow of freshwater are all seen as potential causes for concern. Visitors come to the site both for recreation and for pilgrimage, as it is associated with Lord Rama. Ramsar site no. 1210. Most recent RIS information: 2002.

Administrative region: 
Tamil Nadu

  • National legal designation: 
    • wildlife and bird sanctuary
  • Last publication date: 
    19-08-2002

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